Official thread - May/June 2023 Edexcel IAL

I had French

I don't have statistics but I heard from other students it was very easy

It is actually really easy, mostly inputting numbers in. It can get boring quite fast though and people can get careless due to that.

A lot of the stuff is simply below GCSE level in S1 lol. I don't know why I delayed taking S1 for so long, but yeah.

The grade boundaries may be relatively high though, and if you really want full UMS... you'd basically need full marks.

If only people don't told me that A level maths is easy when I was choosing my subjects then today most UK unis wouldn't be out of my league.

I also heard that question 7 in s1 was a bit hard and some people were not able to answer it

A-level maths isn't too difficult. It's not proper maths, it's mathematical methods, although for A/A* you'd need some problem-solving. It shouldn't be that hard as long as you have enough practice, and some problem-solving skills.

Real statistics is significantly harder. That stuff is actually challenging. But then after my A-levels I'm perhaps going to be studying a math and stat degree anyways.

Woah! A maths and stat degree? Sounds very hard. Good luck with it!

Not that hard, I'm not going to COWI (Cambridge Oxford Warwick Imperial) for maths and stats if I do decide to go, so it shouldn't be that difficult. COWI is pretty expensive for math degrees, and Oxbridge have their substantial college fees, on top of their exorbitant international fees.

Might as well go somewhere much more inexpensive, while the uni and course still has a decent reputation. As some have advised, if one really want to go to top unis, apply for postgrad. I would need to work pretty hard in undergrad though...

Yeah you're right. The top unis have the ability leave us international students skint as hell.

Everyone says undergrad in foreign unis require hard work. ALMOST makes me want to not go to the UK....

Yes they do. It's ultimately why I decided to settle on a "worse" uni, just to keep my wallet from becoming empty. I could top up in a postgrad in a top uni if I really wanted to.

In UK they have low contact hours (~10 per week, but depends on course) and a lot of independent study (30-35 hours per week) so you're looking at a full time job for a degree alone if you want to get a First, or secure a 2:1. Add breaks to that (because it's exhausting to study that much) and you got your hands full enough in a course. Then if you want to add societies, especially multiple societies, you'd probably have a pretty full schedule. And don't get me started on those dudes doing a full-time job while in uni, they'd basically have no time.

If you have higher grades than required for a uni, odds are you'd be more exceptional in a uni so don't need to study as much to secure a First. If you find the work easy you can always extend it by doing seminars, internships and research projects (along with extracurriculars and supercurriculars), but if you find the work tough you're probably scraping a 2:1.

Thanks for scaring me. Now I don't even wanna go to uni at all. God knows how I will maintain 2:1 with loooong hours of studying and also support myself.

But I think I can show what you wrote to my parents to get more finance from them

Update me! Hopefully it works out for you.

You could go to a uni that you'd probably get into, with a bit lower grade requirements than predicted, that way you'd be more exceptional in that uni. However bear in mind reputation.

Yeah thanks! Let's see what uni I choose to apply to this year.
Good luck with your A levels

Hey how was your French exam?

Oh, it was so easy. Shame I can get an A* in AS Level

How was m1

HI did anyone do Statistics 2? If so, how did you find it?

Does anyone know for sure how to get an A star in Mathematics? As I saw the website it says 480 in total and 180 in P3 and P4. So initially I thought I only need to get 180 in P3 and P4 since I have 300 in my As. Now I checked again saw 90% in A2. Does that mean like I still need to get 270 in my A2 for mathematics???