Is it possible to study AS Chemistry in the summer holidays (2 months?)

So basically I’ve just had a realisation that I should do medicine but my current A-Levels are: Biology, Psychology and Maths. Since I want to do medicine my best choice would be to take on Chemistry. Now I could take a gap year and do it all then but I’m trying my chances at seeing if I could get the majority of AS done over the 2 months of Summer Holidays before next year starts- and I join the Chem class for A2. As someone who doesn’t have an idea of the specification and probably should look into it, how doable is it? I snatched a 8 in chemistry at GCSE and a 9 in the other two sciences (I took Triple (separate) sciences). In other subjects at A-Level currently I’m predicted an A for most of them, if i were to be safe maybe a B for one or two. Thanks for the help!

Reply 1

Trappist-1

Hi,
I study Biology, Chemistry and Maths at the moment, I'm also in Year 12. I'm gonna go out on a limb and say that, if you were to teach yourself the course, it may be doable (to a good standard, as in B or above) within 3-4 months.
2 months is a very, very risky stretch for a 1-year course that you are to be taught by teachers, not to mention end of chapter/topic assessments. You may be able to catch up sometime in Year 13, that is if you manage your time immaculately.
I personally wouldn't go for it; and if I was to, then I'd start now, rather than waiting until the holidays.
Best of luck :j

(edited 2 years ago)

Reply 2

ejanee

Yes of course, I might start around the time where we start finishing the course of most of my a-levels and are doing revision or starting next year’s content- which we would end up covering when next year starts anyways, thank you for the help! How different is the content to GCSE? Maybe compared to Biology? Because the concepts are pretty similar if I were to say to the GCSE stuff just more in depth. Thank you again!

Reply 3

Trappist-1

Okay, good that you choose to start it soon because it will certainly be much more achievable that way.
In comparison to biology, which like you said has not gotten all that much harder, chemistry is definitely a lot more intricate and demanding - it's even more knowledge-based than it was in GCSE.
You get introduced to new and somewhat challenging concepts in organic chemistry, which build greatly on your understanding of organic molecules, ability to work with skeletal formulae, memorising and recalling reactions, mechanisms and conditions necessary for reactions. I'd say it is definitely harder than Biology, of which the most difficult concept so far (in my view) has been protein synthesis.
If you are seriously considering devoting yourself to it, then you'll have to be consequential with yourself, because that's the only person you'll be working for. I'd recommend getting help from teachers/knowledgeable people on the topic, perhaps even Year 13 students.
Feel free to pm/ask more questions in this thread if you have any :P
No problem :biggrin:

Reply 4

goldenthread

Hiya, i am also considering doing the same as i recently realised i want to do dentistry. I am currently studying physics art and biology, which is a weird mix i know but i have not been decisive until now, and of course my options are very limited for dentistry without chem. Did you end up learning all of it? How was your final result?

Is it possible to study AS Chemistry in the summer holidays (2 months?)

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