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Ultimate piece of advice you'd give to someone starting A-levels '17

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Your A-levels are done, you're now officially a little bit older and a little bit wiser :u:

So what's the essential piece of advice you'd give to someone starting their A-levels?

(edited 5 years ago)

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Reply 1
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Read up about Foundation Years. A Levels are pretty much designed to see what subjects you can love even when it gets hard and frustrating, but you may end up finding you hate all of them.

In the same way, not having to study some things anymore will actually make you miss them - or grow an appreciation of them later in life. The sooner you learn about these, the better you can feel knowing no subject is truly "out of your reach", so to speak. Nearly every subject has one now, from English to even Medicine.

So don't feel like you're doomed if you "picked the wrong subjects" - you can still study it at some incredible universities, including most of the Russell Group, by making a case for a Foundation Year.

I can personally attest to it, having gone from getting a C in Maths at GCSE to now studying Medical Engineering at a Russell Group uni.
Reply 3
Original post by SGHD26716
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This cracked me up :rofl:

What advice would you give? That's people going from GCSE to A-level, not people going from paint balling to the army...
Reply 4
Original post by Fox Corner
This cracked me up :rofl:

What advice would you give? That's people going from GCSE to A-level, not people going from paint balling to the army...


Keep on top of work from day 1 basically otherwise you're digging yourself into a hole while pouring cement into the hole you're in.
If you study each subject at least 8-10 hours a week outside of lessons ( not including homework ), you will certainly not do badly.
Don't give up is the main one.
Dunno how many times I've felt like I can just not do something. If I hadn't have spurred on, there's no way I'd have been able to tackle A2.
You can do it! Keep at it, keep working hard, keep up your work ethic or improve it from GCSE.
You go this :dumbells:
Spend equal time on each subject. In your answers use KEY words. Understand underlying concepts. Understand, memorise, repeat. PAST PAPERS. DON'T be put off by low GCSE grades if you got any.
LISTEN TO PEOPLE'S ADVICE PEOPLE!
Organise and plan your work like it's a compulsion. I used to make to-do lists and they helped me a lot.

Oh.. and utilise the SPECIFICATION & PAST PAPERS!!
(edited 6 years ago)
A Levels are exaggerated 'slightly'.

Difficult but why do you think they're called "Advanced Levels"?

My first tip however is:

1. Do not under estimate them

by this I mean if you understand something, don't just leave it till the exam because you think you understand it; you don't. go home, condense your notes, review and perfect your notes, and do further research into the subject area.
Reply 10
Probably goes against the point of this site but I'd say probably consider not going to uni straight away afterwards. If I could do it again I'd get an apprenticeship at 18, work in my trade for five to ten years then go to uni and get a degree in something that will help me in my job. Business if I wanted to set up on my own, or some kind of computer science/electrical engineering to figure out how to automate parts of whichever trade I chose.
Currently finished year 12 so I've still got one year to go. Make sure you're paying attention during lessons. You'll do much better by putting in 100% during every class than by putting 100% into your revision later on. It's much easier to understand a topic by having it explained to you than by reading though a textbook. ((Don't forget to make the most of it too! There's so many brilliant opportunities))
Reply 12
Don't fail.
Be ready for a lot of work lmao
Work little but often. You're supposed to work in free periods. Be organised with your notes from day 1. Make sure you make time to have fun.
Work as hard as you can for two solid years. Makes sure you take breaks, but dont kid yourself into thinking you have one work, after creating a nice timetable or clearing your desk ready for work.
Do not let your bad GCSEs demotivate you, you can still do excellent in A levels if you did bad at GCSEs
Don't.
Keep pushing through. Sometimes it all gets really overwhelming and you feel like quitting, but once that feeling lifts and you decide you do want it it's much more difficult to catch up
1) Hit the ground running! Starting well and having a plan (see #10) will put you in good stead.

2)Be ahead of your lessons (like by a chapter/topic or two) especially for subjects like maths/sciences. May use weekends or private study (if you have any) for this.

3)Do your homework on time (seriously this is like the bare minimum). Start your homework the DAY you get it.

4)For every hour spent in class do at least 1 1/2 hours (90 minutes) outside of class. Also make solid notes whilst you're doing the topics - it just makes life easier later and revision will be more condensing the info you've written up into memorable pieces instead of writing out your textbook.

4) rinse out your teachers! I mean be reasonable of course...but use them whilst you're there. Word of caution: teachers don't like helping lazy students, so do your bit first and then go to them for clarification etc...

5) may want to get the syllabus for your subject and cross off what you do in class as you go.

6) Be punctual and organised, A-level studies are tedious enough, you don't want to be stressed out over these things as well. Keep your notes safe and place them somewhere you'll remember.

7) take coursework seriously (even if it's only a small proportion of your grade)

8) Ask for help! Speak up! Don't be afraid of looking 'stupid'. Unless you haven't done your bit by studying etc...but even then ask for help...

9) join/start a club or society, raise money for charity, volunteer and read widely on whatever interests you.(studies come first, but assuming you do #6 you can maximise your time at sixth form/college).

10) Have a plan. Don't worry if you lapse, get back on track, always revise/rework said plan until results day.

11) make flash cards, posters, mindmaps when studying/revising. Personally, I don't use many colours just green, blue, red and black biro and and a yellow highlighter but whatever works for you...


12) have fun in between :smile:

Good luck
:colondollar:

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