As a year 11, how should I start revising for Alevels now?

5

Hello,
For alevels I'm going to be doing biology, chemistry, and geography, many people have been saying now it's the good time to start revising for alevels however I don't know where to start as it's overwhelming. Any tips/advise?
Thanks!

(edited 12 months ago)

Reply 1

squemily16

10

Hi!
I'm just finishing year 13 and I did bio, maths and English lit. For my sixth form, they set us some transition work to do over the summer, once we'd had an offer holder day. For bio, this involved some building on GCSE topics we'd covered (an essential for me as I did combined science) and I also did the geography work (having previously applied to geography) and this was again bridging the GCSE-A Level gap. I personally wouldn't recommend learning loads of content over the summer but the CGP "head start to A Level Biology" was great for me as it covered the first topics of each unit and was a great way of familiarising myself with the content. I am aware that there is also a chemistry one and I assume that this is similar to the biology one.
Don't forget to enjoy this summer though!! Let me know if you have any other questions! 🙂

Reply 2

McGinger

20

How can you 'revise' when you have not actually started the course.

Reply 3

PreciseOmission

11

Original post by mishellexoxo

Hello,
For alevels I'm going to be doing biology, chemistry, and geography, many people have been saying now it's the good time to start revising for alevels however I don't know where to start as it's overwhelming. Any tips/advise?
Thanks!

HEY! Im year 11 too and have applied for the exact same courses and was literally thinking the same thing as you! Do u know what exam board u will b doing? Maybe buy textbooks in advance and try and grasp the basics?

Reply 4

mishellexoxo

OP

5

Original post by squemily16

Hi!
I'm just finishing year 13 and I did bio, maths and English lit. For my sixth form, they set us some transition work to do over the summer, once we'd had an offer holder day. For bio, this involved some building on GCSE topics we'd covered (an essential for me as I did combined science) and I also did the geography work (having previously applied to geography) and this was again bridging the GCSE-A Level gap. I personally wouldn't recommend learning loads of content over the summer but the CGP "head start to A Level Biology" was great for me as it covered the first topics of each unit and was a great way of familiarising myself with the content. I am aware that there is also a chemistry one and I assume that this is similar to the biology one.
Don't forget to enjoy this summer though!! Let me know if you have any other questions! 🙂

Thank you so much! That really helped. My sixth form is new and they have yet to confirm about what exam board they are doing. I have emailed them and still haven't gotten a reply... However do exam boards matter? So say if I got AQA (it would kind of make sense because I did AQA at GCSE) as my revision source for the summer but we end up doing OCR, does it actually matter? Have different exam boards have distinguished contrasts in terms of what you need to know between each other or are they more or less the same?

Reply 5

fizzywizzybizzy

13

Original post by mishellexoxo

Thank you so much! That really helped. My sixth form is new and they have yet to confirm about what exam board they are doing. I have emailed them and still haven't gotten a reply... However do exam boards matter? So say if I got AQA (it would kind of make sense because I did AQA at GCSE) as my revision source for the summer but we end up doing OCR, does it actually matter? Have different exam boards have distinguished contrasts in terms of what you need to know between each other or are they more or less the same?

it probably wouldnt matter much to you at this stage as they all do share some basic content which is what you'd be doing, but they can be quite different as a whole course so its not really worth buying a textbook for the wrong spec. for example OCR bio tends to stick to a maximum of 6 marks as their long answer questions, whereas i think AQA its somewhere around 25 marks

Reply 6

Mooshyroom

2

exam boards don't matter for now, as they all pretty much cover the same content, but don't buy any resources until you know as the paper structures will differ. your school probably won't use the same exam boards for gcse and alevel, mine didn't for any of my subjects. I'd recommend not revising and enjoying the time off while you have it. Your school will probably send out transition work or if they don't you can find some online - though I'd recommend the little and often strat - 1 hour per week MAX!

Reply 7

squemily16

10

Original post by mishellexoxo

Thank you so much! That really helped. My sixth form is new and they have yet to confirm about what exam board they are doing. I have emailed them and still haven't gotten a reply... However do exam boards matter? So say if I got AQA (it would kind of make sense because I did AQA at GCSE) as my revision source for the summer but we end up doing OCR, does it actually matter? Have different exam boards have distinguished contrasts in terms of what you need to know between each other or are they more or less the same?

As people above said, the exam boards at this point don't matter too much as basic concepts are building blocks for the entire course, no matter the exam board. They do have to cover certain topics but have variations in the ins and outs of the course and the way they ask questions! if you really want to start some work over the summer, I'd stick to online resources - websites/YouTube videos etc. to build some foundation knowledge, then once you start invest in textbooks if you want to! Don't burn out though!!

Reply 8

YSJstudents

Official Rep

15

Original post by mishellexoxo

Hello,
For alevels I'm going to be doing biology, chemistry, and geography, many people have been saying now it's the good time to start revising for alevels however I don't know where to start as it's overwhelming. Any tips/advise?
Thanks!

Hi,

I'm assuming you have just finished your GCSE exams? I would definitely recommend that you give yourself a break over summer, as A levels as you mentioned yourself, can really overwhelming at times. By having a break you will refreshed and less likely to burnout during your A level years.

If you have decided that you definitely want to do some work over summer, I would recommend talking to some of the teachers at your school, about what they would suggest. Maybe have a look at what topics you'll be covering over year 12 but I wouldn't recommend trying to learn lots of stuff over the summer break.

Good Luck with Year 12

Suzan - Student Ambassador

As a year 11, how should I start revising for Alevels now?

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