A-level Help

Hi! I'm in year 11 awaiting my GCSE results, I'm expecting grades 6-9s. I am taking EDEXCEL A ECONOMICS, MATHS AND FURTHER MATHS EDEXCEL A_LEVEL AND PHILOSOPHY AQA 7172 next year and EPQ.
Could you give me any advice, links, preparation tasks, techniques etc. as I really want all A*s, it would be much appreciated. I want to do PPE or Phil + Theology at LSE or Oxford and want to go into Finance. (PLEASE MAKE THEM AS SUBJECT + EXAM BOARD SPECIFIC AS POSSIBLE) many thanks x.

Hi! I'm in year 11 awaiting my GCSE results, I'm expecting grades 6-9s. I am taking EDEXCEL A ECONOMICS, MATHS AND FURTHER MATHS EDEXCEL A_LEVEL AND PHILOSOPHY AQA 7172 next year and EPQ.
Could you give me any advice, links, preparation tasks, techniques etc. as I really want all A*s, it would be much appreciated. I want to do PPE or Phil + Theology at LSE or Oxford and want to go into Finance. (PLEASE MAKE THEM AS SUBJECT + EXAM BOARD SPECIFIC AS POSSIBLE) many thanks x.

I'm studying AQA philosophy (achieved an A* in my mock, currently predicted an A which may increase to an A*) and in terms of doing well, the most important thing to do is make sure you understand the content. There isn't actually much content in the specification and the way exams are structured means that half of your marks are all AO1 marks. You'll be given two 3 hour long papers and each topic will contain a 3 marker, two 5 markers, a 12 marker and a 25 mark essay questions. The 3, 5 and 12 mark questions are all about things that are on the specification and you're essentially asked definitions, to outline arguments or parts of different philosophical theories or to explain criticisms. These are easy marks and you can get a B/C just by knowing the specification very well as these questions fall under AO1. Your 25 mark essay will only be worth 5 AO1 marks. The other 20 marks are AO3 marks and are based on how well you can defend your position, evaluate arguments, theories and criticisms and make balanced judgements. You should be looking to maintain one position all the way through your essay. I got 20/25 on an essay about cosmological arguments simply by defending my position well. You can get into the top band of marks by having some back and forth debate between criticisms and defences. Essentially, your opinion is what gets you the marks here. I struggled a lot at first with philosophy and most people I know are still struggling. I started the year off with a D and only figured out how to structure my essays around a month before mocks.
In terms of resources, there are two sets of textbooks I use. One set is by Michael Lacewing and the other is by Hodder Education. I got these from my school library, but you can also find them online. I've also linked a few websites below that I found helpful when trying to understand different concepts and structure my essays. For philosophy, more than anything, I recommend making essay plans and getting feedback from your teachers as you go along. There's only so many questions they can ask you and you'll soon learn this when you start, so making essay plans and trying to memorise them will help you prepare for the real exam. This year, my head of department correctly predicted all four of the 25 mark essay questions, simply because there is not much on the specification that they can ask you about.
https://philosophyalevel.com/
https://alevelphilosophyandreligion.com/philosophy/how-to-write-a-top-band-essay/
https://iep.utm.edu/
http://www.philosophypages.com/index.htm
https://plato.stanford.edu/
If you have any more questions, I'll do my best to answer them. Hope this was helpful!

The exam board is irrelevant. The difference between an A* student and an E student is pretty much only the amount of time they study. I would suggest at least 4 hours per subject per week outside of lesson times. Do past papers. Do exercises. Write notes and revision cards as you go along but you need to be relentless. Good luck!

Hi, thank you so much this is really helpful. What A-levels do you take btw? and Thank you for the resources. (the 4th link doesn't work though) also, I've been told by various ppl in sixth form to start at least 1 topic in all subjects now so I'll be ahead in sixth form. should I do this for Philosophy?

I study politics, philosophy and psychology. I wouldn't recommend starting any topics in any subject before going to sixth form, as you may get confused when you start or you may not even begin with the topic you've started. With philosophy especially, I would avoid doing this as the content is minimal but very specific. If you have any bridging work that was given to you this would be a better use of your time, but don't try and jump the gun. You'll have lots of time to learn the content and starting now won't necessarily get you ahead.

oh ok, would pre reading content be ok rather than actually doing it, just so i know roughly the gist of it before i start? also i've checked the spec and there are a lot of set texts mentioned, do you read all of them, are they a large part of the a level?

You don't need to pre-read any content. Enjoy your summer as the next one will be full of things you have to prepare for. I personally have not read any of the set texts and this is largely due to the fact that most of the specification is comprised of small sections from different philosophical texts. They are not a large part of the A level, but if you would like to read them for your own enjoyment, you can do so. However, unless you have prior experience with philosophy, you'll likely struggle to grasp the concepts. Don't worry about trying to get ahead - your teachers are there to teach you for a reason. The first few weeks tend to be relaxed to help ease and transition you into A levels anyway. I didn't start properly learning any philosophy content till after November as the first half term was focused around introductory topics and introducing us to philosophical debate.