The Student Room Group

I just started Sixth Form

So I started sixth form about 2 weeks ago. I'm studying English lit, sociology and geography. For English lit I'm doing a streetcar named desire and also started Hughes' and Plath poetry. For this subject I just make my notes in a book as at the moment I don't really require a folder and I'm annotating my texts. For sociology we started with the introduction so like functionalism, marxism and the general keywords but the teachers goes so fast in class hard to keep up - I feel like they rush things a lot. He hasn't specified if we need a folder so atm I'm just writing notes in a book and we haven't had many paper handouts yet so I'll see how it goes. I'm enjoying it the least but I think I'll prefer the education and family topics which we are doing next week. Lastly, geography is good but they started fast - already had tests and the teacher is a perfectionist which tbh I like. I have 2 folders - one for human and one for physical. I make my notes in a book which I rip out and put in my folder. For human we started with the urbanisation topic and for physical we started with the water cycle. Any tips/ advice for any of my 3 a level subjects - I have already started making keyword flashcards and condensing my notes into mindmaps/ cornell notes especially for geography as there's so much to know :frown: I'm just putting these revision resources back into my geography folders. So yh just any suggestions for any of these topics or like future hints would be great. I would love As or A starts in all my subjects and I know that if you start off strong it's good :smile: sorry about the long essay aha and apologies if you got bored reading it. Thank you all xx
Reply 1
Original post by Elz15
So I started sixth form about 2 weeks ago. I'm studying English lit, sociology and geography. For English lit I'm doing a streetcar named desire and also started Hughes' and Plath poetry. For this subject I just make my notes in a book as at the moment I don't really require a folder and I'm annotating my texts. For sociology we started with the introduction so like functionalism, marxism and the general keywords but the teachers goes so fast in class hard to keep up - I feel like they rush things a lot. He hasn't specified if we need a folder so atm I'm just writing notes in a book and we haven't had many paper handouts yet so I'll see how it goes. I'm enjoying it the least but I think I'll prefer the education and family topics which we are doing next week. Lastly, geography is good but they started fast - already had tests and the teacher is a perfectionist which tbh I like. I have 2 folders - one for human and one for physical. I make my notes in a book which I rip out and put in my folder. For human we started with the urbanisation topic and for physical we started with the water cycle. Any tips/ advice for any of my 3 a level subjects - I have already started making keyword flashcards and condensing my notes into mindmaps/ cornell notes especially for geography as there's so much to know :frown: I'm just putting these revision resources back into my geography folders. So yh just any suggestions for any of these topics or like future hints would be great. I would love As or A starts in all my subjects and I know that if you start off strong it's good :smile: sorry about the long essay aha and apologies if you got bored reading it. Thank you all xx

Hi! I did A-Level Sociology back in 2019 and got a grade B, and I'm currently in my third year reading Social and Political Sciences at York.

Based on what you're saying about Sociology, it does sound slightly concerning that your teacher appears to be rushing through teaching the content on the specification. When I did my A-Levels between 2017 and 2019, we were taught Education and Families and Households side by side albeit in alternate lessons and did a clear and concise introduction to the sociological theories such as functionalism, feminism, Marxism, etc.

I think at this point in time, it's definitely worth refreshing your basic understanding of the different sociological theories - look at the key arguments for each sociological theory and its flaws as well. That should make it easier to learn and understand new content in Education and Families and Households as you'll have a basic understanding of the sociological theories, but now you're learning specific knowledge and key sociological arguments in relation to the topics and sub-topics you're studying throughout the course.

Making flashcards and condensing your notes into the Cornell method and into mindmaps sounds good. I would also recommend practicing exam-style questions and praticing exam techniques for the different questions further along the line - your teacher should explain how this all works. Hope this helps! :smile:
Reply 2
Original post by JT_888
Hi! I did A-Level Sociology back in 2019 and got a grade B, and I'm currently in my third year reading Social and Political Sciences at York.

Based on what you're saying about Sociology, it does sound slightly concerning that your teacher appears to be rushing through teaching the content on the specification. When I did my A-Levels between 2017 and 2019, we were taught Education and Families and Households side by side albeit in alternate lessons and did a clear and concise introduction to the sociological theories such as functionalism, feminism, Marxism, etc.

I think at this point in time, it's definitely worth refreshing your basic understanding of the different sociological theories - look at the key arguments for each sociological theory and its flaws as well. That should make it easier to learn and understand new content in Education and Families and Households as you'll have a basic understanding of the sociological theories, but now you're learning specific knowledge and key sociological arguments in relation to the topics and sub-topics you're studying throughout the course.

Making flashcards and condensing your notes into the Cornell method and into mindmaps sounds good. I would also recommend practicing exam-style questions and praticing exam techniques for the different questions further along the line - your teacher should explain how this all works. Hope this helps! :smile:

Wow thank you so much for what a great help! I'll definitely practice exam questions. Thanks again for your advice 😄
(edited 2 years ago)
Original post by Elz15
So I started sixth form about 2 weeks ago. I'm studying English lit, sociology and geography. For English lit I'm doing a streetcar named desire and also started Hughes' and Plath poetry. For this subject I just make my notes in a book as at the moment I don't really require a folder and I'm annotating my texts. For sociology we started with the introduction so like functionalism, marxism and the general keywords but the teachers goes so fast in class hard to keep up - I feel like they rush things a lot. He hasn't specified if we need a folder so atm I'm just writing notes in a book and we haven't had many paper handouts yet so I'll see how it goes. I'm enjoying it the least but I think I'll prefer the education and family topics which we are doing next week. Lastly, geography is good but they started fast - already had tests and the teacher is a perfectionist which tbh I like. I have 2 folders - one for human and one for physical. I make my notes in a book which I rip out and put in my folder. For human we started with the urbanisation topic and for physical we started with the water cycle. Any tips/ advice for any of my 3 a level subjects - I have already started making keyword flashcards and condensing my notes into mindmaps/ cornell notes especially for geography as there's so much to know :frown: I'm just putting these revision resources back into my geography folders. So yh just any suggestions for any of these topics or like future hints would be great. I would love As or A starts in all my subjects and I know that if you start off strong it's good :smile: sorry about the long essay aha and apologies if you got bored reading it. Thank you all

i'm in year 13 studying geography and my main advice is to practice lots of exam questions especially the 20 mark questions (assuming you do AQA) or the long mark questions bc in the exam you will be rushing to answer all the questions and if you don't know a technique for answering exam questions you will not do well no matter how well you know the content.
Reply 4
Original post by eniale10
i'm in year 13 studying geography and my main advice is to practice lots of exam questions especially the 20 mark questions (assuming you do AQA) or the long mark questions bc in the exam you will be rushing to answer all the questions and if you don't know a technique for answering exam questions you will not do well no matter how well you know the content.

Ooo thank you so much. Yes I am doing AQA. Thanks for the advice its really helpful. Where can I find good exam questions just for the topics that I'm studying that have a mark scheme as well?
Reply 5
Yh I never did for gcse so I do feel they should take that into consideration but I'm not sure if anyone else in my class did for gcse
Last lesson we went over functionalism I'm quite a lot of detail but just so much to know 😭I will put my flashcards onto quizlet it's just finding the time aha I've already had lots of work to do. In sociology we have to use cornell notes and it's quite annoying lol but hopefully I'll get used to it.for now I'm not gonna get a folder but I'll see how it goes. Thanks again xx😄
Original post by Elz15
Ooo thank you so much. Yes I am doing AQA. Thanks for the advice its really helpful. Where can I find good exam questions just for the topics that I'm studying that have a mark scheme as well?

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i would suggest looking on physics maths tutor for past papers, but since geography uses a new spec now there's not many available online so maybe ask your teachers for past paper questions as well. :smile:
see now you are wise ella lol:biggrin:
Reply 8
Original post by eniale10
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i would suggest looking on physics maths tutor for past papers, but since geography uses a new spec now there's not many available online so maybe ask your teachers for past paper questions as well. :smile:

yh I will ask. Thank you so much:smile:

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