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How much hours of extra studying did you do at A levels?

I wanted to just find out how much extra studying people committed a day, to their A levels during the holidays and school terms. I also wanted to compare it to myself. Some people i know believe there is a direct correlation between doing extra studying (past papers, reading books, re-writing up class notes etc) and success, while others i know do not agree.

I on the other hand wonder am i studying during my holidays in preparation for A2 levels and wasting my time. A few have claimed it is counterproductive and I’ve been doing since the beginning of summer term:s-smilie:

Of course as most here are Cambridge students, success is your middle names so who best to ask? :biggrin:

How much hours of extra studying did you do at A levels? If you did a little extra studying and got top grades, would you advise others not to worry with the it too much? Is summer holidays A2 preparation work useful or pointless?

Thanks

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Reply 1
Truthfully? I did a negative amount of extra work for the whole year (as in, I spent my lesson times playing sudoku or doing the crossword), and then worked from 9:30am until 10pm every day after half term in the summer term.
You still have the whole year to prepare for the exams - don't waste your summer holidays. And to be honest, if you need to do this much work just for A Levels then I don't see how you would be able to cope at degree level.
Reply 2
I don't think I ever did work in the holidays, unless I had a specific piece of coursework to do that was due for straight afterwards. I only really worked during my last year of school, because I had something to aim for then (meeting my offer).
Reply 3
Lewi
Truthfully? I did a negative amount of extra work for the whole year (as in, I spent my lesson times playing sudoku or doing the crossword), and then worked from 9:30am until 10pm every day after half term in the summer term.
You still have the whole year to prepare for the exams - don't waste your summer holidays. And to be honest, if you need to do this much work just for A Levels then I don't see how you would be able to cope at degree level.
I got an AABB, very close to AAAB with little extra studying, but it increased at the end of the year and spilled over into the summer holidays. So i guess i am simply enjoying it and not necessarily doing this much because i need too. Also i just assumed that with a degree at Oxbridge and other high ranking Universities, working a lot comes with the territory :confused:

Maybe it depends on your subjects? i do essay subjects.
Reply 4
:laugh:

Elit: None. At all. Ever.
Bio: First year nothing. I made a pretence of revising at exams time. Second year.. well we had a rubbish new lecturer, and I basically gave up on lectures and went home after each lesson and read the relevent chapter in my resource book and made notes. 2hrs-ish a few times a week? :s-smilie:
Chem: Oh dear :rolleyes: I re-read every chapter and made notes on it right through the course, and revised very heavily for all the exams by doing as many past papers as possible. Don't know how long that was. It seemed like hours and hours..but just as much of that time was spent crosslegged at a computer, alternating between the textbook on my lap and TSR :biggrin: :ninja:

As somebody said..it depends what subjects you take. Some are more conceptual and need less work. Others are very factual and require much memorising.

I basically only ever worked when I didn't feel I'd fully understood, or 'owned' the subject in my mind. Once I'd read it once, or learnt it once and was comfortable with it, I did no more work. So you have to feel it out. For some subjects I needed to do alot before I felt that way, for others I didn't do a thing. With Bio I was very comfortable with the subject, but wanted to feel that I'd visualised all the processes, and gone over the terms and words in my mind, so that I could easily recall them.

Reply 5
Yeah same as Lewi. Nothing A-Level related until the end of April (ie hadn't read 2 of the 3 English texts, etc) then worked like a prisoner of war from that point on. Most of my exams were in June though. Don't bother with the summer, too hard to get motivated. I just read a few books with a view to the interview, no trees uprooted.
Reply 6
Well I kind of worked more or less consistently throughout my A level years (and studied for most of the major tests), so when it got to prelims and A levels I didn't really put in THAT much more effort since I more or less knew the syllabus by that point. I think I probably switched to major exam mode a month before my prelims, and a month before my A levels...

Then again, my school was somewhat sadistic in that we used to have major tests right after school holidays... So I did do a fair bit of studying during holidays! It's not too far different from many Cambridge colleges having Lent collections after the Christmas holidays, though...
Reply 7
Hmmmm, it completely depends on you to be honest. If you find getting A's relatively easy then you could get away with doing less work, if you don't then you'll need to spend time in the holidays doing extra work.

Personally, i had about 3 months to teach myself everything for the A2 exams from scratch and then revise and actually take the exams, so i worked fairly hard.
Christmas of Year 12: A bit of revision for my Psychology January exam (none for my EngLit and General Studies ones)

Summer of Year 12: I had to do the first draft of my Psychology coursework (had done most in the lessons when we went back after AS levels, so barely took any time- a day at most).

Christmas, Year 13: None- went to Tenerife, came back home on the last day of the holidays to find a letter from Cambridge saying I was in. Panicked that I had a Psychology A2 module in a couple of weeks and had not done anything...but went back to school and worked hard.

Easter: Only did homework-type revision that we'd been set e.g. practice essays.

So I didn't really work much in the holidays, apart from when I had homework/coursework set. Even when I had January exams I preferred to cram when I got back to school...I just find holidays so off-putting and end up going out or watching DVDs instead. Saying that, I nearly always did any homework set and worked quite hard during study leave.
Reply 9
I worked constantly throughout AS and A2 making notes and learning stuff at home for biology because one of my teachers was completely useless and the other one was not too good at A2 so huge chunks of the syllabus were not even touched upon in "lessons". By this I mean maybe 2-3 hours about 3-4 times a week.

In easter of AS I worked solidly all day for about 10 days- mainly chemistry and biology. (Biology for reasons above and chemistry because one of my teachers went on maternity leave so we got this NQT who could not teach at all.)

I revised all day most saturdays and sundays between easter and the exams because I had to learn a further maths module and a physics module myself due to rubbish teachers again.

I did nothing in the summer between AS and A2 and found it was not necessary at all.

In my A2 year I pretty much did the same again, but I didn't have as much motivation in the easter holiday as the year before.

I didn't do any work except homework for maths, and I didn't always do that.

The amount of work you have to depends on your teaching and your subjects really. I had to do a lot of independent work because the teaching was crap and I remember stuff better if I learn more than is required. I also can't learn from reading a book once I have to make notes on EVERYTHING and draw pictures!
Reply 10
i only did homeworks which we had deadlines set for. apart from that nothing. but i always made sure i started revising properly one month before exams.during the summer i didnt do any work. there is just no point. well you might read some extra reading for camb but thats about it.
Erzan
I wanted to just find out how much extra studying people committed a day, to their A levels during the holidays and school terms. I also wanted to compare it to myself. Some people i know believe there is a direct correlation between doing extra studying (past papers, reading books, re-writing up class notes etc) and success, while others i know do not agree.

I on the other hand wonder am i studying during my holidays in preparation for A2 levels and wasting my time. A few have claimed it is counterproductive and I’ve been doing since the beginning of summer term:s-smilie:

Of course as most here are Cambridge students, success is your middle names so who best to ask? :biggrin:

How much hours of extra studying did you do at A levels? If you did a little extra studying and got top grades, would you advise others not to worry with the it too much? Is summer holidays A2 preparation work useful or pointless?

Thanks


I do agree that it feels like you need to do some work over the summer to help you along next year. So far I've just read some of the texts in preparation for the A2 course and that's about it! Oh and I've started to prepare for some coursework we were set after the exams last term, which I did minimal amounts on! Enjoy your summer!
Reply 12
Hehe. Personally, I did a very minimum amount of extra work the entire year, basically homework that I couldn't work out of and obviously revised a little for modular tests, but then I simply crammed the night before each exam. Teachers consistently tell students not to do this, but it's worked for me; I got 6 A at A2.

I think it's mainly just about the way you revise and how easy you can memorise things. Of course the subjects make a big impact too, things like Maths, Chem and Bio are real easy to pass as long as you pay some attention in class and understand the theory. Then you only really need to learn the technical stuff the night before.

On the other hand, I'm sure some of my results could have been higher As than they are, if I'd put more effort in and spent less time out drinking with my friends.
I did very little extra work throughout my A-levels. Most of the time I was attentive in class and finished most of the homework given, but I can proudly say that not once did I re-read any notes I'd written in class, and for all of my exams except STEP I did only a small amount of revision.

However, I did take an additional three mathematics modules after the 6 each for maths and further maths, which I imagine counted favourably for my application.
Throughout the two years I'd say I spent about an average of 2 hours every night on homework, essays and so on - but more over the weekend and extra time for reading and revising. I can only speak from the point of view of doing essay based and language subjects, but if you have an essay to complete it's very difficult to do a topic justice in less than an hour.

Although the amount of time you study for doesn't exactly equate to exam success, I'd say there was a pretty strong correlation between the two. If someone says "I don't revise for exams" and then goes on to score full marks - don't believe them!

You might also find that you're working and spending more time on one subject than another. My Religious Studies and French teachers we're brilliant, so I found the subject information was seeping into my brain during lessons; whereas I had to do a lot more independent work with my History and English Literature A Levels in order to absorb the topics and facts.
Reply 15
I didn't do extra work as such, but I had to teach myself some stuff because I jiggled the time table around to fit in French with Biology, Chemsitry and Maths (wierd combination apparently, language and science :rolleyes: ). In Yr12 I missed half my French and half my Biology, and in Yr 13 I missed half of French and half of Maths, so I had a bit of catching up to do. But other than that, and the revision in Easter and study leave, I didn't read around the subject or anything, I just did the homework set and left it at that!
Reply 16
physics - none. at all.
economics - wel, i read the financial pages every now and again..
maths - i posted in the maths forum of TSR.

i'm really not big on organised study.
Reply 17
The only possible conclusion is that there is no 'correct' way to learn/revise, and that you just have to do whatever it is that makes you learn the material.

That seems so obvious and banal that I wouldn't have thought it needed stating, but if it stops all the back-slapping then I'll say it. (If A levels weren't such a ****ing joke we might be impressed. But they are and we aren't.)
dk
Reply 19
Urgh. I've been actually working all summer, and I really don't recomend this. Especially as I've spent most of the money going out in at night, and killing myself from lack of sleep. We were given a pile of summer homework to do, and I have not touched it. This is slightly worrying me, as I don't want to spend the only remaining week of summer that I will have doing chemistry and maths questions.

Last year though, I was hardly home. I had huge draining after school meetings on Mondays and Thursdays. I was at the nursing home on Fridays. Piano ate up time, but I think I did have to have at least one whole day at weekends to sort out all the schoolwork. My mum always thought that I should have spent more time studying, but it's the quality not quanity that matters. I really can't revise too far ahead as I just end up wasting time. And yes, cramming is good.