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My Year 13 Journey to A*A*A*A*

I've noticed quite a lot of these threads recently so thought I'd make my own for the upcoming academic year :biggrin:

At GCSE I got 8A*'s and 4A's. In year 12 I studied Maths A-level, Physics AS level and Chemistry AS level. My results were:
Maths: A* - 583/600
C1 100ums
C2 100ums
C3 91ums
C4 100ums
S1 99ums
M1 93ums

Physics: A - 187/200
Unit 1 87ums
Unit 2 100ums

Chemistry: A - 162/200
Unit 1 81ums
Unit 2 81 ums

I will be dropping chemistry this year to study Further Maths, Physics and Welsh Baccalaureate. I'm applying to study Physics at university - I plan on applying to Oxford, Imperial, Manchester, Warwick and an undecided 5th choice...

Over the summer I've been focusing on M2 and M3 work in preparation for the Physics Aptitude Test (PAT). I'm yet to start any A2 physics revision yet but I plan on starting within the next week or two.

I hope that this diary will act as motivation for me to study harder than last year. I will probably update it every few days with what I've covered and what I intend on doing next. Feel free to share your own thoughts/ideas/experiences with me - good luck to everyone in this new academic year :biggrin:

EDIT *JUNE 2017*
UCAS application info:

Imperial College London: MSci Physics (4 years) - Offer firmly accepted (A*A*A* in maths, further maths, physics)

Warwick: MPhys (4 Years) - Offer insured (A*AA in maths, further maths, physics any order)

Bath: MPhys (4 Years) - Offer received. Did not firm/insure

Nottingham: MPhys (4 Years) - Offer received. Did not firm/insure

Oxford: MPhys (4 Years) - No offer, unsuccessful
(edited 6 years ago)

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Chemistry needs a little more work but other than keep it up! Good luck!
Reply 2
Original post by mrhedgehog
Chemistry needs a little more work but other than keep it up! Good luck!


Thank you! I'm dropping chemistry for year 13, im just grateful that I managed to get an A grade overall. I was quite lucky with that result since I had predicted myself a C grade after doing both exams.

In all honesty I'm a little more disappointed with 87ums in Unit 1 physics; I revised a lot more for that than both of my chemistry exams combined! Hopefully I wont drop too many more ums this year aha
Original post by 98matt
I've noticed quite a lot of these threads recently so thought I'd make my own for the upcoming academic year :biggrin:

At GCSE I got 8A*'s and 4A's. In year 12 I studied Maths A-level, Physics AS level and Chemistry AS level. My results were:
Maths: A* - 583/600
C1 100ums
C2 100ums
C3 91ums
C4 100ums
S1 99ums
M1 93ums

Physics: A - 187/200
Unit 1 87ums
Unit 2 100ums

Chemistry: A - 162/200
Unit 1 81ums
Unit 2 81 ums

I will be dropping chemistry this year to study Further Maths, Physics and Welsh Baccalaureate. I'm applying to study Physics at university - I plan on applying to Oxford, Imperial, Manchester, Warwick and an undecided 5th choice...

Over the summer I've been focusing on M2 and M3 work in preparation for the Physics Aptitude Test (PAT). I'm yet to start any A2 physics revision yet but I plan on starting within the next week or two.

I hope that this diary will act as motivation for me to study harder than last year. I will probably update it every few days with what I've covered and what I intend on doing next. Feel free to share your own thoughts/ideas/experiences with me - good luck to everyone in this new academic year :biggrin:


Damn, you got a lot of extra work to do but judging from those grades, I'm sure you will manage
Reply 4
Original post by Ze Witcher
Damn, you got a lot of extra work to do but judging from those grades, I'm sure you will manage


I'm already dreading exam season next year...
Reply 5
Original post by 98matt
I've noticed quite a lot of these threads recently so thought I'd make my own for the upcoming academic year :biggrin:

At GCSE I got 8A*'s and 4A's. In year 12 I studied Maths A-level, Physics AS level and Chemistry AS level. My results were:
Maths: A* - 583/600
C1 100ums
C2 100ums
C3 91ums
C4 100ums
S1 99ums
M1 93ums

Physics: A - 187/200
Unit 1 87ums
Unit 2 100ums

Chemistry: A - 162/200
Unit 1 81ums
Unit 2 81 ums

I will be dropping chemistry this year to study Further Maths, Physics and Welsh Baccalaureate. I'm applying to study Physics at university - I plan on applying to Oxford, Imperial, Manchester, Warwick and an undecided 5th choice...

Over the summer I've been focusing on M2 and M3 work in preparation for the Physics Aptitude Test (PAT). I'm yet to start any A2 physics revision yet but I plan on starting within the next week or two.

I hope that this diary will act as motivation for me to study harder than last year. I will probably update it every few days with what I've covered and what I intend on doing next. Feel free to share your own thoughts/ideas/experiences with me - good luck to everyone in this new academic year :biggrin:


Good luck. :smile: I know a thing or two about A*A*A*A*; also I had experience with the crap that is the Welsh Baccalaureate (dropped it part way through Year 13) and doing Further Maths in full in Year 13, along with Physics (I also had Maths A2 and English Lit). So I'm always here for any help, not that you need it, judging by your AS UMS :tongue:
Reply 6
Original post by 1 8 13 20 42
Good luck. :smile: I know a thing or two about A*A*A*A*; also I had experience with the crap that is the Welsh Baccalaureate (dropped it part way through Year 13) and doing Further Maths in full in Year 13, along with Physics (I also had Maths A2 and English Lit). So I'm always here for any help, not that you need it, judging by your AS UMS :tongue:


Oh wow! Congrats on your results :biggrin: They've made Welsh Bacc even worse now since its a new specification which is (sort of) difficult/time consuming. My school won't let me drop it either so I'm stuck with it for another full year :cries:
Reply 7
Original post by 98matt
Oh wow! Congrats on your results :biggrin: They've made Welsh Bacc even worse now since its a new specification which is (sort of) difficult/time consuming. My school won't let me drop it either so I'm stuck with it for another full year :cries:


Thanks. :smile: I should note that I am perhaps less qualified to speak with regards to Physics, where I had a bad exam and scraped over the line. Yeah I heard they were changing it; I believe it was the year after mine (I sat my A2 in 2015) so I got lucky. My school kept me on it for a while, but I just truanted all the "lessons" and eventually my parents ended up speaking to them lol and they let me drop it. Incidentally one other person did this as well, we were top two of the year; a perfect advertisement for the efficacy of the Bacc. However I did do a full individual investigation; it was a bit of a shame to waste that, I suppose I could have converted it to EPQ or something. :tongue: That aspect can be interesting if you allow it to be I guess..
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Dude, your grades are amazing wtf. Don't worry at all. You've done amazing in Maths and Physics and that's all you need for a Physics degree. You've got an A in Chemistry which is the highest possible at AS so I don't understand why one should stress lol. Just make sure you do good in Further Maths which I know you will :wink:.
Maybe you can tell me a thing or two about C1, C2 and M1, because I'm going to be doing that for year 12.
Reply 11
Original post by 1 8 13 20 42
Thanks. :smile: I should note that I am perhaps less qualified to speak with regards to Physics, where I had a bad exam and scraped over the line. Yeah I heard they were changing it; I believe it was the year after mine (I sat my A2 in 2015) so I got lucky. My school kept me on it for a while, but I just truanted all the "lessons" and eventually my parents ended up speaking to them lol and they let me drop it. Incidentally one other person did this as well, we were top two of the year; a perfect advertisement for the efficacy of the Bacc. However I did do a full individual investigation; it was a bit of a shame to waste that, I suppose I could have converted it to EPQ or something. :tongue: That aspect can be interesting if you allow it to be I guess..


The individual investigation is 50% of the whole qualification now & makes up almost all of the yr13 course. Mine is titled "What are the consequences of time dilation for the future of space travel?"

I haven't properly started it yet but I'll hopefully enjoy more than the other bs we've had to do so far...

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Reply 12
At the start of year 12 how much work were you doing?Do you have any tips? I'm starting AS this year and I'd love to get those grades (im doing bio, chem, maths and english lit) :biggrin:
Are you on WJEC? I'm so sorry you have to go through the new specification if you are. I missed it by one year luckily (going to university next month!) Good luck with this :smile:
Reply 14
Original post by ColossalAtom
Maybe you can tell me a thing or two about C1, C2 and M1, because I'm going to be doing that for year 12.


C1 will probably seem really scary for the first week or so compared with GCSE maths, it certainly did for me! Start revising early - past papers are your best friend for maths revision. Any specific questions when you start working through the modules please dont hesitate to ask :smile:
Reply 15
Original post by Arfaa
At the start of year 12 how much work were you doing?Do you have any tips? I'm starting AS this year and I'd love to get those grades (im doing bio, chem, maths and english lit) :biggrin:


Id definitely recommend keeping up to date with your notes for bio and chem. For physics (I shouldve done this for chem) I made detailed notes after completing each topic which proved really useful to me when I came to revise!
For maths all you can really do is practice. The more maths you do the better you become. As for english lit, from what I've heard there's a lot of funky words you have to learn along with their definitions. Im not the best person to give advice here but if it were me, I'd probably make flashcards with each word and definition on. You can do the same for key characters/themes/places in the texts you'll be studying. Good luck!
Reply 16
Original post by Elastichedgehog
Are you on WJEC? I'm so sorry you have to go through the new specification if you are. I missed it by one year luckily (going to university next month!) Good luck with this :smile:


Yes :frown: WJEC were particularly nasty this year aha - lots of subjects have new specifications, including all the sciences. They swapped a lot of the old A2 content for AS and vice versa which confused everyone. I think biology was one of the worst affected, I believe 50% raw marks was the A grade boundary for AS new spec
Reply 17
Your maths ums brought a tear to my eye
Woo! I'm starting the same sort of thing but for GCSEs! Good luck! :h:
Reply 19
how many hours do you spend studying per day?

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