Is Physics A-Level even THAT hard?

yeah it's a safe choice

I’m in y12 doing it right now, and although I don’t want to speak too soon it’s really ok. Not the horror that I have heard it has been made out to be, plus you don’t even have to memorise formulas they are all given to you.

I was in your exact same position at gcse haha. I loved physics and was getting super high marks at gcse so chose it for a levels but dropped it after 2 months. that being said, my school has little to no “reliable” physics teachers and so I finished 2 topics (myself) and dropped it after I realized we were getting nowhere in lessons. If your sixth form/college has a good reputation for physics I would still recommend picking it if you enjoy it! it helps a lot with a2 maths.

lol my physics teacher often teaches us the complete wrong thing. the whole class gets super confused and no ones brave enough to point it out like every single lesson. hes quite old so idk if hes passed him prime. im mainly concerned abt whether it is even that interesting to learn and study?

it’s a huge jump from gcse, I mainly picked it because I did the electronics a level topic at gcse (due to my electrical engineering gcse) so I should’ve found it easy lol. I found gcse physics more interesting so dropped the a level as it wasn’t worth keeping as a 4th. if you enjoy maths you’ll enjoy a level physics a lot. (personally I found bio and maths to be the most interesting a level subjects)

i too prefer bio and maths, for a level im acc thinking of doing bio chem maths and english lit instead of physics as i enjoy lit very much and revising it is kind of theraputic, and reading being a form of revision seems like a dream. i like maths but i dont rlly like physics currently at gcse bc the maths is so basic. paper 1 is inputting numbers into calculator, and paper 2 is electricty and stuff which i found quite boring (maybe it was just i switched teacher midway thru and my current one teaching paper 2 is bad) but idk. physics doesnt seem that appealing, but is a useful a level.

my friend and I both wish we chose english lit because we love reading (and book collecting). imo, english lit keeps your doors wide open and is a nice refresher between the stem subjects. I’m applying for med this year and I wish I chose english lit so I could’ve made that my 5th uni option (can only do 4 med options). physics is great if you enjoy it or plan on doing engineering/physics at uni. you can choose any 4 subjects you want but if you end up hating a subject, you can swap it for another in early year 12. deffo recommend looking at the specifications in the summer and seeing which subjects suits you!

my friend and I both wish we chose english lit because we love reading (and book collecting). imo, english lit keeps your doors wide open and is a nice refresher between the stem subjects. I’m applying for med this year and I wish I chose english lit so I could’ve made that my 5th uni option (can only do 4 med options). physics is great if you enjoy it or plan on doing engineering/physics at uni. you can choose any 4 subjects you want but if you end up hating a subject, you can swap it for another in early year 12. deffo recommend looking at the specifications in the summer and seeing which subjects suits you!

ALSO THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR YOUR HELP, it rlly means a lot

seems like ur doing pretty good for the "hardest" a level out there. do you find it quite interesting or is it quite boring? in terms of both the lessons and revising it (i feel like for physics- since there isnt as much content- is mainly practicing exam questions which seems super boring imo if a lot of it is just rearranging formulas and stuff)

Out of all sciences, doesn't it have the least amount of content? and low in general for A levels?
I mean memorising formula doesn't even seem too bad.
Isn't a lot of it just maths?
If you are talented at physics gcse (like get very close to 100%), would physics a-level even be that difficult?
Also, is it interesting? Doing formulas and stuff seems boring, so does circuits...

I do A level Physics and I'm currently in Y13. I don't take Maths (as I dropped it after the second week of Y12) but honestly I find it alright. The hardest part is probably the start of the course as there are a lot of new concepts to understand but these concepts are often repeated in Y13 (like alpha/beta decay in nuclear physics). The grade boundaries are relatively low too for AQA (compared to other sciences), so I'd encourage you to take it if you're doing well at GCSE and are comfortable in your maths skills. Obviously Maths is valuable to do if you take Physics, but I haven't struggled with the math much and I'm on a solid A. Let me know if you have any questions!

thx for ur reply. ig it doesnt seem too bad then as long as i keep on top of everything.
i was wondering how enjoyable u found physics? a lot of ppl say if u are mathsy u will like physics but i feel like the maths in physics is pretty boring like rearranging formulas. and trigonometry which isnt too bad but not rlly too fun. at gcse im not enjoying electricity and stuff at all and it makes up a big part of the course. im concerned that even tho i wont struggle too much, revising it will become a chore.

Out of all sciences, doesn't it have the least amount of content? and low in general for A levels?
I mean memorising formula doesn't even seem too bad.
Isn't a lot of it just maths?
If you are talented at physics gcse (like get very close to 100%), would physics a-level even be that difficult?
Also, is it interesting? Doing formulas and stuff seems boring, so does circuits...

have you done a level physics? if so, how did it go? was it dead? or interesting? or a mix? mostly boring or mostly interesting? rn in gcse i find physics like 70% boring,

I'm in year 13 doing AQA A-level physics. You get 95% of the formulas with a formula sheet, the rest you need to derive yourself or just memorise. Also, forget your GCSE's. Just because you have good GCSE's in a subject does NOT mean you will find the A-level in that subject easy. The actual content of A-level physics is alright, but the questions that AQA especially can give you in exams get absolutely horrendous; that is why people find it so hard. I don't know much about other exam boards, but AQA is horrifyingly bad at making physics papers which causes grade boundaries to fluctuate by ~10 marks every year (A huge amount). Again, for the other exam boards, I don't know, but for AQA it is horrible.
And yeah, electricity is an entire year 1 topic and everyone hates it because of how stupid the questions can get.
Long story short, don't take physics unless you plan to do engineering or physics at uni. Physics is completely useless for any other course, unless the uni course requires two sciences and you don't want to take Biology or Chemistry.