essay based a levels

hi there, i did four a levels and i still got free periods!

That’s interesting. How many did you get per week out of interest? How did this compare to those who did 3 subjects?

i got two a week (+ 4 study periods) compared to my school's normal 6 a week (+ 4 study periods)! if my school hadn't had compulsory study periods i would've have 6? i know people who did four who have much shorter lessons got way more free periods than i, i'm actually on the lower end!

Ig it depends the school, which a levels did u do and how r u finding them x

i did classical civ., history, drama, and english lit! i honestly found it pretty chill the entire way through; the exams themselves weren't even that bad (though i am worried about results day LMAOOO) (i also did two EPQs) although there was one week where i had four exams, but i had no double days or exam clashes or anything. (english lit was also a last minute substitute after my school decided to drop doing a french a level)
i can honestly say: do the reading you're supposed to do, go to your classes, make notes in your classes, and you'll be fine. try keep up with homework but prioritise essays and the like because practice essays are the most useful. your best strat is just genuinely knowing what you need to do to improve (i.e., why did i get 18/25 on my history essay? well, i didn't have a clear line of argument, and to get a clear line of argument i need specific language linking my evidence to my point, and specific language linking my point to the question) and then it's pretty much fine. i had a lot of free time tbh

I do english lit (OCR), history (OCR), politics (edexcel) and french (AQA) rn and I'm still alive! As others have said, you don't need 4 to get into the best uni in the world but my school made us start with 4 so I just had to get on with it. At my sixth form we don't have 'free periods' we have 'study periods' (depressing ik) where we do independent study in the library. I have 1 study period a day 4 days a week and on the other day where I don't have one, we have enrichment where we do an activity and I've done things from debating to film review to crochet to colour by numbers.
I think there's really interesting bits in politics that can overlap with law, such as the topic on issues surrounding the constitution, and we even end up looking at law cases as examples to use in essays in my politics lessons. The best thing i found to do well in my subjects is to stay consistent and try to create systems for each subject. I found it best to create my own revision guide made up of my class notes & the textbook for history and politics, whereas for english, i focused on having a large bank of quotes and key info to memorise on an app called Remnote (but you can also use notion). Revision for french was completely different because I got to do something apart from just learning facts all day, so I ended up enjoying moments where i got to do speaking practice or just ANYTHING but write huge essays all day.
I may be biased but I think you should do a language, just for a bit of variety if you do end up doing 4. To be honest, all the subjects you are considering have some level of overlap and will all be great for a law degree!

by revision guide, do you mean a condensed form of notes? and im rlly struggling between choosing history or politics as my fourth. which one r u getting higher grades in, finding easier to do well in/revise, workload wise, and also which one would help me more when applying for a law degree? tysm x

ahh ty this has made me feel much better. was it hard doing history and english lit together tho? i heard their coursework overlaps? also which exam board did u do for english lit x

nah, it didn't overlap at all for me? i did aqa history and edexcel english lit! they were pretty separate and i didn't find doing the two of them separately, although i will say that during mocks my hands hurt kind of a lot but hey. i did pick four essay subjects and it wasn't as bad in my actual exams

no sorry I meant as in bc of coursework was it not difficult to manage? btw what did u get in gcse for English and history compared to what u’re predicted now? I heard if u got 9s it’s very likely I drop to a C so I wanted to know how true this was

oh no my coursework periods are different! i had from i think june/july to september for history and my english lit was due in october :3
and i got 8 in history and 9 in english lit and i have been predicted A*s for them both! the exams were kind of a disaster for me though so idk what’s actually happening i’m just crossing my fingers and praying

Do you think history a level is rlly difficult ? I’m tbink of whether to do politics or history a level , I’m predicted like a 7/8 for history atm