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Is there more lessons for A levels than GCSE?

I’m in college doing GCSEs and I don’t have many lessons on my timetable and a lot of free time, will this be the same with A levels?

Reply 1

{Moss}

Hello,
It will depend on several factors:

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The college: different colleges/sixth forms will do things differently. For example, some like you to do an EPQ/Core Maths/something else, and that generally takes up a few slots in a timetable.

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How it's laid out: note that, again, this will be different for different schools. Some places have each day being one lesson, e.g. EPQ on Tuesday, English on Friday, Maths on Wednesday. Other colleges have a timetable similar to GCSEs, where you have each day as a jumble, e.g. first period Maths, second English, etcetera.

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Study days or study periods: due to the massive workload of A-levels compared to GCSEs, you have set out Study points. Some places do this as an entire day you get 'off' which you are meant to use to conglomerate learning, revise and do homework. Other schools will have study periods, where you get points in a day without a lesson to study in.

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Subjects: how many subjects do you plan to do? Notably if you do 4 A-levels you're going to have a lot less free time than doing 3. There are plenty of threads if you need to look more at this :smile:

So yep, those are the things that might influence you're timetable: in short, you probably will have about the same amount of 'free' time, if you do 3 A-levels (equivalent to about 4 lessons free if you have 4 lessons in a day). However it's important to note that the jump from GCSEs to A-levels is huge, and you will be expected to use most of this time to revise and such (obviously not all, as breaks are just as important for your mental health, rather than exams). Hopefully this helps? It's hard to say for sure, but this should give you a relatively good idea. Sorry if I've gone into a bit too much depth haha, best of luck with your exams!

P.S. I may seem to be saying that A-levels are like torture compared to GCSEs, and most of your free time is taken up by doing stuff for school. Sorry if it seems that way, please rest assured that there is plenty of time for rest, and rest and relaxation is actually just as important when taken together :smile: