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AQA Bio, Chem & English Language

Just wondering if there is anyone who studies/studies these A-levels together and could tell me what they're like. Do they work well together? Are they manageable? Do you enjoy them? If you did study them and are at Uni then what are you studying there?

Thanks :smile:
I did bio and chem at A level but I did OCR so I don't know how much difference there is. I'm currently studying medicine so I really enjoyed both of them at A level. I think it is a good choice - I know quite a few people on my course who did a similar combo (bio,chem, eng lit) so I think they should work well. I would say they are manageable but obviously, they will require a lot of work - a few of my friends did english lang and they got set quite a lot of essays to do.
For my spec, the bio exam mark schemes were super specific which makes them pretty difficult to score highly on but the grade boundaries were about 70% for an A*. Chem exams were a lot easier but you also needed almost 90% for an A* so it kind of works out the same.
Bio has more content than chem but chem has slightly harder concepts and still requires a lot of memorisation. Chem also has a fair bit of maths so you might need to put in more work to understand that side of things (I did maths and it helped a little but by no means do you need to have it)
Original post by Emily5243
I did bio and chem at A level but I did OCR so I don't know how much difference there is. I'm currently studying medicine so I really enjoyed both of them at A level. I think it is a good choice - I know quite a few people on my course who did a similar combo (bio,chem, eng lit) so I think they should work well. I would say they are manageable but obviously, they will require a lot of work - a few of my friends did english lang and they got set quite a lot of essays to do.
For my spec, the bio exam mark schemes were super specific which makes them pretty difficult to score highly on but the grade boundaries were about 70% for an A*. Chem exams were a lot easier but you also needed almost 90% for an A* so it kind of works out the same.
Bio has more content than chem but chem has slightly harder concepts and still requires a lot of memorisation. Chem also has a fair bit of maths so you might need to put in more work to understand that side of things (I did maths and it helped a little but by no means do you need to have it)

Thanks for your response! I can confess that I am slightly worried about the content for A-level bio as I didn't manage to finish the spec in school (I did separates) and also know that there were parts of it I hated (but I guess you get that with all subjects). Also, I constantly hear people saying the content is huge but I'm hoping I can manage it if I start making notes at the start of year 12? Also, I have been thinking about the maths content lately and whether or not I'd struggle with it without studying core maths or A-level maths alongside it but a few people have said I'll be fine as the maths will get covered in the chem lessons. I'm mainly taking bio and chem in case I decide to go into pharmacology/toxicology which really interests me. Do you have any tips for A-level Chem and Bio? :smile:
Original post by carxlinefxrbes_
Thanks for your response! I can confess that I am slightly worried about the content for A-level bio as I didn't manage to finish the spec in school (I did separates) and also know that there were parts of it I hated (but I guess you get that with all subjects). Also, I constantly hear people saying the content is huge but I'm hoping I can manage it if I start making notes at the start of year 12? Also, I have been thinking about the maths content lately and whether or not I'd struggle with it without studying core maths or A-level maths alongside it but a few people have said I'll be fine as the maths will get covered in the chem lessons. I'm mainly taking bio and chem in case I decide to go into pharmacology/toxicology which really interests me. Do you have any tips for A-level Chem and Bio? :smile:

Yeah, there were aspects of both that I didn't enjoy either. We covered all of the maths necessary in the lessons so you should be fine without it. Taking notes and creating revision resources such as flashcards from the start will really help you so definitely do that. I recommend a lot of exam question practice. I used the website physics and maths tutor (it has bio and chem as well) and that was such a good place for exam questions sorted by topic. I think it's mainly about doing little and often so you can keep on top of the content. Make sure to revise in the holidays as well (I didn't do much over the summer between years 12 and 13 to focus on my admissions test for medicine and that was not the best decision).

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