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What topics did u find the most challenging in either of these a levels

Biology (AQA), Chemistry (OCR), Psychology (AQA) or any tips for any
I’m only in year 12 but for biology the hardest is immunity and chemistry I’d say drawing the shapes in bonding. I know it’ll get a lot harder next year though! For biology I really like Seneca and for both I like making flash cards on Quizlet and then doing practice questions.
Reply 2
Tysm!! how is year 12 btw?? is there anything u wish u did before it? like over summer
The only thing I wish I did was start revising for my mocks earlier. I know everyone says this. But I was only revising consistently through the whole year for biology and it’s been a life saver. My other subjects I only started revising at Easter and my mocks are in a week and I’m not nearly as prepared as I should be. Are you in year 11 now?
Reply 4
Original post by LittleFire10
The only thing I wish I did was start revising for my mocks earlier. I know everyone says this. But I was only revising consistently through the whole year for biology and it’s been a life saver. My other subjects I only started revising at Easter and my mocks are in a week and I’m not nearly as prepared as I should be. Are you in year 11 now?

yes i am about half way through gcse season now and want to start looking to sixth form related things so fr any advice is so helpful! im planning on doing bio, chem and psych (+core maths)
Here are some of my nuggets of wisdom haha:
- if you’re planning on going to uni, start looking at courses etc early as you have less time at the end of year 12.
- try do some work experience or volunteering if you can.
- start making your revision notes from your first term so you’re ahead of the game.
- keep up to date on your maths skills for bio and chem, I had forgotten all the basics after gcse and had to relearn
- make the most of academic opportunities from teachers and sixth form
- I do aqa chemistry but I’d say learn equations and mechanisms really well.
- check if your school does EPQ and if so start planning ahead for that.
- for biology learn the big processes for long answer questions.

I think that’s everything. Hope it helps!
Reply 6
Original post by LittleFire10
Here are some of my nuggets of wisdom haha:
- if you’re planning on going to uni, start looking at courses etc early as you have less time at the end of year 12.
- try do some work experience or volunteering if you can.
- start making your revision notes from your first term so you’re ahead of the game.
- keep up to date on your maths skills for bio and chem, I had forgotten all the basics after gcse and had to relearn
- make the most of academic opportunities from teachers and sixth form
- I do aqa chemistry but I’d say learn equations and mechanisms really well.
- check if your school does EPQ and if so start planning ahead for that.
- for biology learn the big processes for long answer questions.
I think that’s everything. Hope it helps!

haha i love that nuggets of wisdom! THANKSS SO MUCH ill take all this advice!!! I might also get one of those bridge that gap from gcse to a-level books to read over summer too tysm!!!
In chemistry I found drawing the bonding structures for complex compounds the most difficult, but I have heard it gets harder in year 13! But I have found all other topics in chemistry to be fine, although if you don't do maths you might struggle with the amount of substance calculations.
For biology, the most boring topic for me was microscopes and transpiration, but I did not find the topics very challenging but that's just me 🙂 I do maths a level alongside these, so you might need to brush up on your maths skills before September, as biology (and chemistry) has a lot of new maths in it like statistics!
Tips:
-In biology, make flashcards or notes on each topic after you cover it in the lesson as this really helps to consolidate your knowledge and make sure you understand the topics.
-In your revision for year 12 mocks, what really helped me get top grades throughout year 12 was to do past paper questions and recap on a couple of topics every week to make sure your knowledge is up to date and so you don't have to revise everything before a big exam.
-DO PAST PAPER QUESTIONS!!
also for chemistry make sure you know the mechanisms and how to apply them in any context of the questions as they come up a lot!
Reply 9
Original post by HadronCollider
In chemistry I found drawing the bonding structures for complex compounds the most difficult, but I have heard it gets harder in year 13! But I have found all other topics in chemistry to be fine, although if you don't do maths you might struggle with the amount of substance calculations.
For biology, the most boring topic for me was microscopes and transpiration, but I did not find the topics very challenging but that's just me 🙂 I do maths a level alongside these, so you might need to brush up on your maths skills before September, as biology (and chemistry) has a lot of new maths in it like statistics!
Tips:
-In biology, make flashcards or notes on each topic after you cover it in the lesson as this really helps to consolidate your knowledge and make sure you understand the topics.
-In your revision for year 12 mocks, what really helped me get top grades throughout year 12 was to do past paper questions and recap on a couple of topics every week to make sure your knowledge is up to date and so you don't have to revise everything before a big exam.
-DO PAST PAPER QUESTIONS!!

are year 12 exams any different to gcse as in same set up
(edited 8 months ago)
Original post by phob17
Biology (AQA), Chemistry (OCR), Psychology (AQA) or any tips for any

Hi, I’d say it depends on the person but I am in year 12 and currently find the cardiac cycle, immunity and cell division/genetic diversity the hardest topics. Though if I had to choose one it would probably be cell division/genetic diversity.

For chemistry, I find that some parts of physical chemistry are difficult for example enthalpy or rate equations(depending on your exam board these may be taught in year 13), but these I can improve on easily with practice. For organic chemistry, learning the mechanisms is also a little difficult, but again, can be improved by practice.

Initially in year 12 chemistry can feel like a little bit of a shock. Atomic structure is very different to GCSE, try preview this topic if you can but don’t worry if you don’t understand it initially. Usually schools will ease into the topic slowly.

As for what you can do over summer to prepare, I would recommend doing any bridging tasks prepared by your school first. Obtain a copy of the scheme of work and store this in a folder. Maybe preview the first topic to come up, but don’t worry too much about the details. Just write key points and you can add the specific details in later.

MyEdSpace is a platform that provides summer schools (usually over a day or two) online at a very low cost (£10 usually for one), to help people going from year 11 into year 12. I didn’t try those exact courses, but I have tried their other courses end would highly recommend them. It should help you if you are struggling on how to preview topics independently. Here’s the link:
https://learn.myedspace.co.uk/summer-school/y12?utm_source=google_ppc&utm_medium=youtube&utm_campaign=HO_PMax_BMF_Leads&utm_term=&utm_content=ytmb3_HO_Pmax_BMF

I’d also recommend CGP head start to a level books!
(edited 8 months ago)
Original post by phob17
are year 12 exams any different to gcse as in same set up

Hi, year 12 exams will be like AS level mocks (AS is basically year one of your A Level). I would recommend looking at the relevant specification to see the paper format in AS level.

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