New A-levels but no past papers

Hi guys,
I'm starting the new AS Levels in september 2016, I've been through the GCSE exams and the past papers helped me so much.However now that the AS levels are changing all the past papers will be outdated and i'm not sure how i can test my ability. This especially worries me as i found out that most people do well on a'levels due to past paper practice. I want really high grades preferably a*'s and a's. What should i do.... BTW i'm doing Maths, Chemistry and Biology

Reply 1

JW22

Everyone will be in the same position so i would imagine the grade boundaries would be lower than usual to account for this, also if there are new specification books coming out they usually have one or two practice papers in the back

Reply 2

wolfslayer1

Hey I'm in the same position

One thing you could do is learn the content inside out so that all you have to worry about is applying it to different contexts. And, if you know the content inside out you may be able to derive some practice questions of your own (yeah, I mean creating your own past papers and mark scheme). You can go on the website of your exam board and look at the specimen papers for the new A Levels as a kind of template. Buy the new revision guides to help you learn the content - for science subjects you can easily find them on Amazon.

As for Maths, nothing has changed for maths so the past papers are still valid

Hope this has been a tad bit helpful (;

Reply 3

EmiloPeter

Original post by wolfslayer1

Thanks, I'm planning on pretty much doing that, i'm glad to see the maths a level has not changed much, the Maths GCSE 9-1 is apparently so much harder than the older GCSE
Making your own past papers and mark schemes seems to be a really good idea

(edited 7 years ago)

Reply 4

outgoingpopcorn

Maybe you should see if there are any workbooks for your course like the GCP ones, which contain questions. I found them more useful than the past papers for GCSE revision as I could pick and choose which topics I wanted to practise.

Reply 5

TercioOfParma

Original post by EmiloPeter

The past papers will still be useful for most things, just ignore the question off syllabus.

Reply 6

Funnycatvideos

Original post by EmiloPeter

Practice multi-choice for chemistry. It's a *****. Also maths doesn't change this year so you're lucky to miss that. you have a metric arse ton of past papers and resources for that. I suggest you use this for maths: http://www.physicsandmathstutor.com/

Reply 7

drinktheoceans

Students doing AS Levels this year were in a similar predicament so I think I can impart some insight. Do the specimen papers, some subjects have two sets of them and you also have the June 2016 papers to do. Past papers are not entirely useless as exam boards are unlikely to completely change their style of questions and the syllabus content has not changed entirely (they're not reinventing the periodic table for Chemistry or the ultrastructure of a cell in Biology). Go over the content and the specification should be your best friend whilst revising. Good luck with A Levels, they're not getting any easier.

Reply 8

wolfslayer1

Original post by EmiloPeter

No problem (:

& Yeah, my sister's starting the new GCSE math syllabus and it seems a lot more challenging

I say we're lucky because we just missed out on that by a year and we also missed out on the A Level Maths reforms that are being introduced in 2017! Imagine that

Reply 9

goam

Original post by TercioOfParma

The past papers will still be useful for most things, just ignore the question off syllabus.

Yeah the content often doesn't change that much; just print out a few pp and ask your teacher to cross out the questions that don't apply to your current course