The Student Room Group

Prep for gcse to a-level transition

Hey guysss, i am currently year 11 and I would like to make use of my long summer holiday. I have received a couple offers for sixth form but I have not decided on one yet. I would like to prepare myself and do some pre-learning but I am aware that the sixth forms use different exam boards for the subjects. Is there any recommendations of studying resources in general (not specific for an exam board but covers some content that each exam board have in common) I should check out? Or is there any advice of how I should prep and make use of my summer? (for ref. I will likely be doing A-level chemistry, biology, maths and economics ; I would like to do something in the healthcare sector as well in the future!) Thank you so much!
Original post by bludolphin
Hey guysss, i am currently year 11 and I would like to make use of my long summer holiday. I have received a couple offers for sixth form but I have not decided on one yet. I would like to prepare myself and do some pre-learning but I am aware that the sixth forms use different exam boards for the subjects. Is there any recommendations of studying resources in general (not specific for an exam board but covers some content that each exam board have in common) I should check out? Or is there any advice of how I should prep and make use of my summer? (for ref. I will likely be doing A-level chemistry, biology, maths and economics ; I would like to do something in the healthcare sector as well in the future!) Thank you so much!

Do easy a levels eg to be in healthcare you don’t need economics so don’t take it. It’s unnecessary stress.
Original post by bereaved-bookie
Do easy a levels eg to be in healthcare you don’t need economics so don’t take it. It’s unnecessary stress.

I disagree with this point of view (respectfully). I took the economics A-level and don't think that it is a particularly difficult or time intensive one. It's a good opportunity to show that you can think critically and write good essays. I also really enjoyed learning the theory that's taught at A-level (although I am somewhat biased).
Reply 3
Original post by bereaved-bookie
Do easy a levels eg to be in healthcare you don’t need economics so don’t take it. It’s unnecessary stress.

heyy i agree that it will be more stressful! However apparently the sixth forms I applied to made it compulsory to take 4 a levels in year 12 and you can drop one in year 13. I chose economics because it is kind of versatile and opens me up a different pathway (econ and maths) if I change my mind.
Reply 4
Original post by SiberianLIGER
I disagree with this point of view (respectfully). I took the economics A-level and don't think that it is a particularly difficult or time intensive one. It's a good opportunity to show that you can think critically and write good essays. I also really enjoyed learning the theory that's taught at A-level (although I am somewhat biased).

May I ask if it will be more maths based or essay based? And will I be at a disadvantage if I did business gcse instead of economics gcse? (as my school only offered business at gcse level) Thank you
Original post by bludolphin
May I ask if it will be more maths based or essay based? And will I be at a disadvantage if I did business gcse instead of economics gcse? (as my school only offered business at gcse level) Thank you

The economics A-level is mostly essay based. The maths that you do will be extremely basic (just arithmetic really), so there will be almost zero cross-over with the maths A-level.

In my class there was a mix of students, some of whom were doing economics for the first time. They all did just as good as the rest of us in class (It will just take a little bit of catching up in the beginning to get on even footing). The course doesn't assume any prior knowledge so don't worry about not taking the econ GCSE.

I don't really know what the business GCSE entails, but I imagine that it doesn't cover the majority of economic theory. The only downside that I can see from that is that you don't know whether you enjoy studying econ or not. Maybe consider doing some reading on the topic over summer to see if you like the sound of it?
Reply 6
Original post by bludolphin
Hey guysss, i am currently year 11 and I would like to make use of my long summer holiday. I have received a couple offers for sixth form but I have not decided on one yet. I would like to prepare myself and do some pre-learning but I am aware that the sixth forms use different exam boards for the subjects. Is there any recommendations of studying resources in general (not specific for an exam board but covers some content that each exam board have in common) I should check out? Or is there any advice of how I should prep and make use of my summer? (for ref. I will likely be doing A-level chemistry, biology, maths and economics ; I would like to do something in the healthcare sector as well in the future!) Thank you so much!

hey i'm in year 12 right now and i go to a sixth form like the ones you've applied for. i also do the same subject combination (bio, chem, maths, one year of econ, aspiring med applicant)

slightly unrelated but i think econ is a great choice. ngl i have regretted it a lot over the past year but in the end it was a really enjoyable as subject and i'm going to miss it. if you can, for economics i'd suggest just reading over some introductory material and trying to get used to the subject, especially if you haven't done it at gcse. at my sixth form they basically just threw us into the deep end and we either had to learn how to swim or drown in the depths of our despair (hence why i developed a love-hate relationship for the subject.
Head Start in A-Level Economics: the Transition Resource for Year 11 Students | Collections | Economics | tutor2u
have a look at some of those if you want. it might not be relevant your your sixth form's exam board but it'll get you to start thinking like an economist maybe

the start of maths was a bit like gcse for me, and then they picked up the pace. you could start looking into stuff like differentiation + integration, binomial expansion, mechanics. take it easy though.

you could get cgp's headstart books - they're designed to be done in the transition from yr 11 to 12. (they don't have one for economics sadly)
Head Start to A-Level | CGP Books

good luck for sixth form! feel free to pm me if you have any other questions you'd like to ask me 🙂
Reply 7
Original post by bludolphin
May I ask if it will be more maths based or essay based? And will I be at a disadvantage if I did business gcse instead of economics gcse? (as my school only offered business at gcse level) Thank you

one of my friends did business gcse before doing economics, they think it actually gave them a bit of a head start
everyone in my sixth form didn't do the gcse before the a-level though, so no prior knowledge is required to do well in the subject (although in hindsight i'm sure it would've helped a lot)
Reply 8
Original post by klafow
hey i'm in year 12 right now and i go to a sixth form like the ones you've applied for. i also do the same subject combination (bio, chem, maths, one year of econ, aspiring med applicant)
slightly unrelated but i think econ is a great choice. ngl i have regretted it a lot over the past year but in the end it was a really enjoyable as subject and i'm going to miss it. if you can, for economics i'd suggest just reading over some introductory material and trying to get used to the subject, especially if you haven't done it at gcse. at my sixth form they basically just threw us into the deep end and we either had to learn how to swim or drown in the depths of our despair (hence why i developed a love-hate relationship for the subject.
Head Start in A-Level Economics: the Transition Resource for Year 11 Students | Collections | Economics | tutor2u
have a look at some of those if you want. it might not be relevant your your sixth form's exam board but it'll get you to start thinking like an economist maybe
the start of maths was a bit like gcse for me, and then they picked up the pace. you could start looking into stuff like differentiation + integration, binomial expansion, mechanics. take it easy though.
you could get cgp's headstart books - they're designed to be done in the transition from yr 11 to 12. (they don't have one for economics sadly)
Head Start to A-Level | CGP Books
good luck for sixth form! feel free to pm me if you have any other questions you'd like to ask me 🙂
hey, this is really helpful! I will definitely look into the materials, i guess further maths gcse helps a lot with the maths in economics then! Thank you so much!
Original post by bludolphin
hey, this is really helpful! I will definitely look into the materials, i guess further maths gcse helps a lot with the maths in economics then! Thank you so much!

Slight correction. You shouldn't expect a lot of maths in the Econ A-level. However, if you choose to take Econ to degree level, then it can potentially become quite mathematical. The Econ A-level is more closely linked to the other social sciences than it is to STEM subjects.

I'm sure that you can clear it up further by looking into the materials that klafow has suggested to you.
Original post by bludolphin
May I ask if it will be more maths based or essay based? And will I be at a disadvantage if I did business gcse instead of economics gcse? (as my school only offered business at gcse level) Thank you

It was a lot of essays, minimal maths maybe a few ratio questions
Reply 11
Original post by bludolphin
hey, this is really helpful! I will definitely look into the materials, i guess further maths gcse helps a lot with the maths in economics then! Thank you so much!

sorry sorry
when i started talking about maths i meant like actual maths a-level, not the maths in economics
i need to format my replies better 😅

econ as-level barely has any maths as mentioned above. its mostly essay writing. the calculations are quite simple at AS level (like four marks for a simple percentage change) so you don't need to worry about maths.
Reply 12
ah okok never mindd
thank you for your help tho!
Original post by bludolphin
Hey guysss, i am currently year 11 and I would like to make use of my long summer holiday. I have received a couple offers for sixth form but I have not decided on one yet. I would like to prepare myself and do some pre-learning but I am aware that the sixth forms use different exam boards for the subjects. Is there any recommendations of studying resources in general (not specific for an exam board but covers some content that each exam board have in common) I should check out? Or is there any advice of how I should prep and make use of my summer? (for ref. I will likely be doing A-level chemistry, biology, maths and economics ; I would like to do something in the healthcare sector as well in the future!) Thank you so much!

With maths and a lot of other subjects you want to make sure that you have consilodated the top end content around grade 789 because you end up expanding on that knowledge in year 12 for a lot of concepts. You'll need the fundamentals in order to understand what you're being taught.
I would honestly just enjoy your summer, however if you really want to do some work I would recommend staying on top of some of the maths content as a level maths is just a much harder version of gcse.

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