Top a level students!!
Hi everyone, i’m starting my a levels soon and i would like to some advice to keep on top of things and tips to get high grades. I’m studying edexcel maths, OCR A biology and aqa chemistry
I take ocr biology and I'm in year 13, I don't do AS as I'm doing linear a levels so I all I did was mocks and I got an A (97%) my advice to you would be to make loads of notes and re write them for revision. Also for me making flashcards helped and watching snap revise videos, make sure you do past papers - with biology especially OCR you may write the right answer but because there's a specific keyword missing, you don't get marks for it. So doing past papers and memorizing markschemes will help 'learn the OCR language' as my teacher used to say! Good luck with your studies!
Original post by z1401
I take ocr biology and I'm in year 13, I don't do AS as I'm doing linear a levels so I all I did was mocks and I got an A (97%) my advice to you would be to make loads of notes and re write them for revision. Also for me making flashcards helped and watching snap revise videos, make sure you do past papers - with biology especially OCR you may write the right answer but because there's a specific keyword missing, you don't get marks for it. So doing past papers and memorizing markschemes will help 'learn the OCR language' as my teacher used to say! Good luck with your studies!
Thanks! Do you think that keeping class notes would be any use, or should i make my own notes from textbooks and keep those?
Learn biology in class by making notes then make your own notes from textbooks to consolidate your learning, or you could get ahead of the class and learn it before the lesson then in class consolidate your learning
Original post by z1401
Learn biology in class by making notes then make your own notes from textbooks to consolidate your learning, or you could get ahead of the class and learn it before the lesson then in class consolidate your learning
I think ideally I would make condensed notes after class and keep them in folders. Thanks for the advice!
For biology I found that my notes in class would have a lot of gaps in them and so afterwards I used the textbook to make sure they were full but also concise, long notes aren't as helpful. From this I made flashcards so I could continually practice facts and any formulas I needed.
For chemistry, I used a similar technique and used chemguide and chemrevise to ensure my notes were concise and then, again, made flashcards. If I didn't understand a topic from class and these notes then I would watch E.Rintoul videos on youtube. I also found diagrams to be great for learning mechanisms and practicals.
For both however the most important revision technique is doing past papers and past questions of all types. Just keep going over them and getting used to what they want you to say and how they word questions. They're also a lot of application these days so past paper practice is more important than ever!
Hope I've helped and anymore questions just ask!
For chemistry, I used a similar technique and used chemguide and chemrevise to ensure my notes were concise and then, again, made flashcards. If I didn't understand a topic from class and these notes then I would watch E.Rintoul videos on youtube. I also found diagrams to be great for learning mechanisms and practicals.
For both however the most important revision technique is doing past papers and past questions of all types. Just keep going over them and getting used to what they want you to say and how they word questions. They're also a lot of application these days so past paper practice is more important than ever!
Hope I've helped and anymore questions just ask!
Just finished year 13- no biology or chemistry, but I did do maths.
The BEST advice for any A level maths student is to go through past papers RELIGIOUSLY. You will become comfortable with the style of questions you're given and this will make it so much easier to gain top marks!
That, and online resources- YouTube videos in particular. I'm not sure if you've ever heard of Jack Brown (as I did OCR MEI maths), but if he has an Edexcel A Level maths playlist like he did for my exam board, I would absolutely recommend watching every single video. He's the most amazing teacher!
Best of luck! X
The BEST advice for any A level maths student is to go through past papers RELIGIOUSLY. You will become comfortable with the style of questions you're given and this will make it so much easier to gain top marks!
That, and online resources- YouTube videos in particular. I'm not sure if you've ever heard of Jack Brown (as I did OCR MEI maths), but if he has an Edexcel A Level maths playlist like he did for my exam board, I would absolutely recommend watching every single video. He's the most amazing teacher!
Best of luck! X
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