"University is easier than A Levels!"

Nope didn't take Chemistry. Hated Chemistry with a passion at school. Though, I'm quite relieved I chose to do Maths (I initially wanted to go through the Biology route and get into Bionics research).

Hahaha well, you can do a lot with a maths degree so you can essentially walk into anything you want

Yeah, but I miss learning Biology though and the random interesting facts I've had so many opportunities that are Biology related (such as seeing a live dissection of a corpse, and touching it).

I somehow doubt arts students experience something similar to the OP.

I suppose they have it harder in terms of writing essays / referencing?

They're expected to write better, sure.

But looking at the OP, the step up from A-level to undergraduate seems much more intense for science than for arts.

i think this is going to be highly dependent on the subject course and the specific university.

The difficulty is it is hard to truly say until you have done A levels and gone through the relevant university. I would say in some cases this is definitely the case by Business degree was definitely less work then A levels.

And less difficult as well.

However It would be a joke to say that Maths A levels are easier then a maths degree from OXbridge.

it would also be silly to say this for many other universities to such as Imperial Warwick Bristol UCL Nottingham Southampton Surrey Lough borough Bath etc etc

However go to the bottom of the table and this might actually be the case for maths as well. For example Maths at London Met ask for CCE I do not know about the reformed A level Maths so I can't comment on that but for A level maths in the modular sense you could get a C grade without understanding much C1 and C2 are not that difficult they barely go beyond GCSE etc and then you have applied modules like M1 S1 D1 S2 etc that are also notoriously easy.

In theory you could utterly mess up C3 and C4 and still come out with a C grade by doing well on C1 and C2. Thus its likely that in many cases the students who go to London Met or Salford for maths may not fully grasp A level maths. whilst those that are at Cambridge/Oxford/Imperial/Warwick will in most cases have covered A level further maths.

This puts students a year and a half ahead at the bigger universities straight away. However as I have said before students who score poorly at A level normally do so for a reason. and I am not talking about the difference between AAB and A*A*A that could in large part be due to better circumstances. However CCE vs A*A*A their is likely more going on then just background.

I would be seriously surprised if London Met Maths degree was harder then A level maths maybe possibly in the third year, but I doubt it and Steps is probably harder then London Met final year maths exams.

If not then our educational standards are appalling abysmal. The fact is London Met students are a year and a half/two years behind others. If they really can catch up and get a proper degree it does not prove that London Met have good tutors it proves that a university can take a load of drunks and lazy layabouts who have little academic achievements and put in less work then The A* students at a level and somehow move them at a speed 3/4 times faster through the material comprehensively. I could believe maybe a few of the universities down the tables actually do have brilliant teaching and may be able to work at a much faster pace. I however cannot accept the idea of this been ubiquitous across the entire lower table.

If you think through for any time at all, you have to realize some degrees are less work and are less challenging then A levels. However some degrees are incredibly demanding and involve much greater workload and difficulty. Then we have everything inbetween.

Simple rule pick the right course and university do your research and it should be okay.

Note to everybody else, why do you continue to believe this guy has a degree?

I'm not going to continue this nonsense with you I have tried to be nice and etc but it's just getting repetitive and abusive now. I could respond but it's a bit like my ex in a way yeah she was a ***** but she is kind of stewing in her own bile it just feels wrong to hit her when she's already in agony.

I could get into a slang match with you but to tell you the truth I just feel sorry for you so can't be bothered.

I have to say, having done a mix of unreformed and reformed science AS levels, imo the reformed ones are a lot easier, purely because to get a practical pass you literally just have to do the stuff - whereas for an EMPA, you have to do it well if you want a good grade. It's pretty much impossible to fail the practicals, unless you aren't in school / college for some of them.

For example: physics is my best subject, and I'm now doing a physics degree, but I got 94% in the unreformed AS physics compared to 98% in the reformed AS chemistry - and I am much, much worse at chemistry, and did less revision.

Plus, not all specs had ISAs or EMPAs - my (unreformed) physics A level didn't. Biology has always had pretty low grade boundaries.

I'd say it has gotten easier this year now we have actual boundaries to work from, last year the teachers had to make up the papers.

Personally I'm finding the new practicals harder, as I've had health issues which have resulted in me missing some required practicals.

There were speicimen papers last year too which showed what the actual exam paper would be like - I used them for revision - but I agree the lack of past papers sucked.

At least of you miss practicals you can catch up - if you missed an EMPA, that was that pretty much.

I hope you manage to catch up on the practicals

Oh yes, and this is the grading system at my university:



It's interesting as 70% was a B at A Level, not an A.

I did Chemistry, Biology and Maths at A Level and Forensic Chemistry at uni.
I found the first year of uni quite easy because it was essentially just a re-cap of A Levels in order to get everyone up to speed. You only needed an A Level in Chemistry OR Biology to get onto the course whereas I had both so there was my advantage.

I did Chemistry, Biology and Maths at A Level and Forensic Chemistry at uni.
I found the first year of uni quite easy because it was essentially just a re-cap of A Levels in order to get everyone up to speed. You only needed an A Level in Chemistry OR Biology to get onto the course whereas I had both so there was my advantage.