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I will be doing a-levels next year and I want advice

I am sure that the next two years of school will be difficult for me. Provided I get the grades, I will be taking maths, comp sci, physics and further maths. I really want to make the most of my next two years of school, which, for me, means that I will have good grades, feel like I understand what I have learnt, improved on my focus and improved on my currently-awful ability to communicate. I understand that these expectations may be too high, but I so am desperate to achieve them.
Original post by eightocho
I am sure that the next two years of school will be difficult for me. Provided I get the grades, I will be taking maths, comp sci, physics and further maths. I really want to make the most of my next two years of school, which, for me, means that I will have good grades, feel like I understand what I have learnt, improved on my focus and improved on my currently-awful ability to communicate. I understand that these expectations may be too high, but I so am desperate to achieve them.

Okay. Many things:

- Do some pre-reading on the topics.
- Make sure you can organise yourself.
- Practice active recall and reviewing your stuff - helps to stay in the brain (I recommend Anki)
- Revise AS YOU GO. Not starting a few months before your exams, do it from the beginning, you'll then see that you know everything and memorised everything by the time you finish content so it will be a case of just doing all the past papers and you'll have hella free time.
- Use TSR as a platform to communicate with other students and support team if you need any help with physics concepts.
- Past papers will be your best friend, especially for maths, further maths and physics.
- Think about maybe getting an iPad/graphic tablet for notes, people find them easier.
- Think about how you write your notes, you can make them super scruffy if you're just writing quick and when you're reviewing, you can condense it more/make it neater and organise it so you may highlight key words, understand the key concepts and definitions.
- Ask for help in lessons. If you don't do it, you will struggle. If you have a question, do not think you're going to be 'stupid' for asking it, A-Levels are difficult and your teacher will see that you're serious and will understand if you need help with explaining something or not.

That's all I can give as I did not do any of those subjects and I still flunked. :smile:
Reply 2
Original post by JA03
Okay. Many things:

- Do some pre-reading on the topics.
- Make sure you can organise yourself.
- Practice active recall and reviewing your stuff - helps to stay in the brain (I recommend Anki)
- Revise AS YOU GO. Not starting a few months before your exams, do it from the beginning, you'll then see that you know everything and memorised everything by the time you finish content so it will be a case of just doing all the past papers and you'll have hella free time.
- Use TSR as a platform to communicate with other students and support team if you need any help with physics concepts.
- Past papers will be your best friend, especially for maths, further maths and physics.
- Think about maybe getting an iPad/graphic tablet for notes, people find them easier.
- Think about how you write your notes, you can make them super scruffy if you're just writing quick and when you're reviewing, you can condense it more/make it neater and organise it so you may highlight key words, understand the key concepts and definitions.
- Ask for help in lessons. If you don't do it, you will struggle. If you have a question, do not think you're going to be 'stupid' for asking it, A-Levels are difficult and your teacher will see that you're serious and will understand if you need help with explaining something or not.

That's all I can give as I did not do any of those subjects and I still flunked. :smile:


This is the best comment I've ever seen, have nothing to add other than Reddit - you may get dragged for asking a simple question but at the end of the day, smn will help you.

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