Advice for A-levels
Hello!
Im going into year 12 and i am studying Bio, chem and Maths. Id like to ask
a) How do u study and is studying diffrent than how it would be during GCSE; i studied frequently , not like crasy but frequently, so im curious is there any external research involved or something. If so pls add in links and any websited u'd recomend
b) im aiming to either get a scholarship (full ride or just ones that pay tuition) and/or get into a top / good university. Pls any tips on what i should do . I have done a program at the uni of surrey, studying programming, ive traveled alot, GCSE's are primarily 9's with 2 8's and 2 7's, i was a senior prefect, librarian and a participated in my schools anti-bulling program +more. Ik others have done something similar to me so i need to yk do better
c)id like to know if i should start studying right now, like now or tmr. I want to do really well and get A*'s or just A's
pls any recommendation is really appreciated
From a desprate girl who wants to make a living and her parents proud
Im going into year 12 and i am studying Bio, chem and Maths. Id like to ask
a) How do u study and is studying diffrent than how it would be during GCSE; i studied frequently , not like crasy but frequently, so im curious is there any external research involved or something. If so pls add in links and any websited u'd recomend
b) im aiming to either get a scholarship (full ride or just ones that pay tuition) and/or get into a top / good university. Pls any tips on what i should do . I have done a program at the uni of surrey, studying programming, ive traveled alot, GCSE's are primarily 9's with 2 8's and 2 7's, i was a senior prefect, librarian and a participated in my schools anti-bulling program +more. Ik others have done something similar to me so i need to yk do better
c)id like to know if i should start studying right now, like now or tmr. I want to do really well and get A*'s or just A's
pls any recommendation is really appreciated
From a desprate girl who wants to make a living and her parents proud
Reply 1
9
Also im looking to study medicine too
Reply 2
Original post
by hermessnowHello!
Im going into year 12 and i am studying Bio, chem and Maths. Id like to ask
a) How do u study and is studying diffrent than how it would be during GCSE; i studied frequently , not like crasy but frequently, so im curious is there any external research involved or something. If so pls add in links and any websited u'd recomend
b) im aiming to either get a scholarship (full ride or just ones that pay tuition) and/or get into a top / good university. Pls any tips on what i should do . I have done a program at the uni of surrey, studying programming, ive traveled alot, GCSE's are primarily 9's with 2 8's and 2 7's, i was a senior prefect, librarian and a participated in my schools anti-bulling program +more. Ik others have done something similar to me so i need to yk do better
c)id like to know if i should start studying right now, like now or tmr. I want to do really well and get A*'s or just A's
pls any recommendation is really appreciated
From a desprate girl who wants to make a living and her parents proud
Im going into year 12 and i am studying Bio, chem and Maths. Id like to ask
a) How do u study and is studying diffrent than how it would be during GCSE; i studied frequently , not like crasy but frequently, so im curious is there any external research involved or something. If so pls add in links and any websited u'd recomend
b) im aiming to either get a scholarship (full ride or just ones that pay tuition) and/or get into a top / good university. Pls any tips on what i should do . I have done a program at the uni of surrey, studying programming, ive traveled alot, GCSE's are primarily 9's with 2 8's and 2 7's, i was a senior prefect, librarian and a participated in my schools anti-bulling program +more. Ik others have done something similar to me so i need to yk do better
c)id like to know if i should start studying right now, like now or tmr. I want to do really well and get A*'s or just A's
pls any recommendation is really appreciated
From a desprate girl who wants to make a living and her parents proud
Hello! I just finished my A-Levels this year and will be studying aerospace engineering, having undertaken maths physics and geography during sixth form. I will try my best to answer your questions given that I have done maths.
a) I study almost every day. I say almost as it is inevitable that you will be burnt out sometimes, feel unmotivated or unwell so I do give myself breaks however my daily revision for maths consisted of completing textbook questions with extra emphasis on the problem and exam ones (if you do edexcel). Edexcel also have a practise book which I used for extra practise if I still didn't understand (otherwise I'd leave this for when I'm re-capping in the near future). I would also recommend using old specification questions for practise as they can help with confidence in a topic before moving onto new spec questions. Any problem I didn't understand, I would upload a picture and email it to my teacher or go after lesson to improve my knowledge. If you need help, DO NOT push it aside, either ask a teacher or a trustworthy friend.
When your done with a topic I would recommend Edexcel's topic tests which are really good for consolidation, and they're not too long.
Around exam season I'd revise intensively for longer hours and use new spec exam questions and really focus on the topics I struggled with the most.
When you get to year 13 and have finished AS I'd suggest doing 2 old spec papers a week (there's different units on pmt some of which include A2 content so do check) and an AS paper. At least 1 -2 months before your official A Levels you should be doing the official practise papers daily. When you finish this, do the mock and shadow papers and lastly the official A Level new spec past papers. Don't rush the past papers because you'll still want to revise for paper 2 and 3 once paper 1 is over and rushing will leave you with no material to practise with.
Some guidance for revising using past papers:
•
sit past papers in the early morning
This way there are few distractions and you can sit the paper under exam conditions
•
Time yourself using your phone
•
If you DONT finish within the time limit, complete the exam in another colour
You still want to attempt every single question in your revision. Timing will come with practise
•
When marking, use the examiner report alongside the mark scheme and actively mark whilst trying to understand the solutions
•
If you don't understand a solution, email a teacher
•
Keep a tracker (I used excel) of all your scores for each past paper
•
Don't throw away the papers until you finish your final exams
b) I wouldn't worry too much about scholarships now as that is something to consider in year 13. Even now, some scholarships and bursaries at my uni haven't opened until I enroll in September. The programmes you've done in secondary I would ignore when writing a personal statement as its irrelevant. I'd say anything done in year 12-13 is worth writing. You want to be linking your experiences to medicine and your take aways from these experiences.
I'm not too sure what you could do for medicine although for I'd generally encourage these things listed below:
•
volunteering
•
summer school
•
read a book or podcast
•
complete an online MOOC
c) Don't bother studying now. Its pretty useless especially when in the first week or 2 you will be eased into your A-Levels and may even do some GCSE recap. If you want you can take a look at the specification for your course and maybe read up on the topic a few days before you start otherwise I wouldn't even bother revising now.
Good luck and feel free to ask more questions!
Reply 3
9
Original post
by strong-pedestriaHello! I just finished my A-Levels this year and will be studying aerospace engineering, having undertaken maths physics and geography during sixth form. I will try my best to answer your questions given that I have done maths.
a) I study almost every day. I say almost as it is inevitable that you will be burnt out sometimes, feel unmotivated or unwell so I do give myself breaks however my daily revision for maths consisted of completing textbook questions with extra emphasis on the problem and exam ones (if you do edexcel). Edexcel also have a practise book which I used for extra practise if I still didn't understand (otherwise I'd leave this for when I'm re-capping in the near future). I would also recommend using old specification questions for practise as they can help with confidence in a topic before moving onto new spec questions. Any problem I didn't understand, I would upload a picture and email it to my teacher or go after lesson to improve my knowledge. If you need help, DO NOT push it aside, either ask a teacher or a trustworthy friend.
When your done with a topic I would recommend Edexcel's topic tests which are really good for consolidation, and they're not too long.
Around exam season I'd revise intensively for longer hours and use new spec exam questions and really focus on the topics I struggled with the most.
When you get to year 13 and have finished AS I'd suggest doing 2 old spec papers a week (there's different units on pmt some of which include A2 content so do check) and an AS paper. At least 1 -2 months before your official A Levels you should be doing the official practise papers daily. When you finish this, do the mock and shadow papers and lastly the official A Level new spec past papers. Don't rush the past papers because you'll still want to revise for paper 2 and 3 once paper 1 is over and rushing will leave you with no material to practise with.
Some guidance for revising using past papers:
b) I wouldn't worry too much about scholarships now as that is something to consider in year 13. Even now, some scholarships and bursaries at my uni haven't opened until I enroll in September. The programmes you've done in secondary I would ignore when writing a personal statement as its irrelevant. I'd say anything done in year 12-13 is worth writing. You want to be linking your experiences to medicine and your take aways from these experiences.
I'm not too sure what you could do for medicine although for I'd generally encourage these things listed below:
c) Don't bother studying now. Its pretty useless especially when in the first week or 2 you will be eased into your A-Levels and may even do some GCSE recap. If you want you can take a look at the specification for your course and maybe read up on the topic a few days before you start otherwise I wouldn't even bother revising now.
Good luck and feel free to ask more questions!
a) I study almost every day. I say almost as it is inevitable that you will be burnt out sometimes, feel unmotivated or unwell so I do give myself breaks however my daily revision for maths consisted of completing textbook questions with extra emphasis on the problem and exam ones (if you do edexcel). Edexcel also have a practise book which I used for extra practise if I still didn't understand (otherwise I'd leave this for when I'm re-capping in the near future). I would also recommend using old specification questions for practise as they can help with confidence in a topic before moving onto new spec questions. Any problem I didn't understand, I would upload a picture and email it to my teacher or go after lesson to improve my knowledge. If you need help, DO NOT push it aside, either ask a teacher or a trustworthy friend.
When your done with a topic I would recommend Edexcel's topic tests which are really good for consolidation, and they're not too long.
Around exam season I'd revise intensively for longer hours and use new spec exam questions and really focus on the topics I struggled with the most.
When you get to year 13 and have finished AS I'd suggest doing 2 old spec papers a week (there's different units on pmt some of which include A2 content so do check) and an AS paper. At least 1 -2 months before your official A Levels you should be doing the official practise papers daily. When you finish this, do the mock and shadow papers and lastly the official A Level new spec past papers. Don't rush the past papers because you'll still want to revise for paper 2 and 3 once paper 1 is over and rushing will leave you with no material to practise with.
Some guidance for revising using past papers:
•
sit past papers in the early morning
This way there are few distractions and you can sit the paper under exam conditions
•
Time yourself using your phone
•
If you DONT finish within the time limit, complete the exam in another colour
You still want to attempt every single question in your revision. Timing will come with practise
•
When marking, use the examiner report alongside the mark scheme and actively mark whilst trying to understand the solutions
•
If you don't understand a solution, email a teacher
•
Keep a tracker (I used excel) of all your scores for each past paper
•
Don't throw away the papers until you finish your final exams
b) I wouldn't worry too much about scholarships now as that is something to consider in year 13. Even now, some scholarships and bursaries at my uni haven't opened until I enroll in September. The programmes you've done in secondary I would ignore when writing a personal statement as its irrelevant. I'd say anything done in year 12-13 is worth writing. You want to be linking your experiences to medicine and your take aways from these experiences.
I'm not too sure what you could do for medicine although for I'd generally encourage these things listed below:
•
volunteering
•
summer school
•
read a book or podcast
•
complete an online MOOC
c) Don't bother studying now. Its pretty useless especially when in the first week or 2 you will be eased into your A-Levels and may even do some GCSE recap. If you want you can take a look at the specification for your course and maybe read up on the topic a few days before you start otherwise I wouldn't even bother revising now.
Good luck and feel free to ask more questions!
thank u , thank u , thank u for the reply and advice too. I was just worried coz people said A-levels will be much harder and i wanna do really well so. I never heard of an MOOC but ill look into that too. By read a book or podcast do u have any that ud recommend?
Interms of year 12 i should just use that to get adjusted to it then? year 13 is more the primary focus?
and um last thing , are textbooks better than online resources coz i dont wanna spend too much on them as i usually just carry a bundle of notes around yk. If i do need textbooks the are CGP textbooks still good ?
thx again and enjoy your summer!!!
Reply 4
Original post
by hermessnowthank u , thank u , thank u for the reply and advice too. I was just worried coz people said A-levels will be much harder and i wanna do really well so. I never heard of an MOOC but ill look into that too. By read a book or podcast do u have any that ud recommend?
Interms of year 12 i should just use that to get adjusted to it then? year 13 is more the primary focus?
and um last thing , are textbooks better than online resources coz i dont wanna spend too much on them as i usually just carry a bundle of notes around yk. If i do need textbooks the are CGP textbooks still good ?
thx again and enjoy your summer!!!
Interms of year 12 i should just use that to get adjusted to it then? year 13 is more the primary focus?
and um last thing , are textbooks better than online resources coz i dont wanna spend too much on them as i usually just carry a bundle of notes around yk. If i do need textbooks the are CGP textbooks still good ?
thx again and enjoy your summer!!!
You don't need to buy a physical copy of the textbook for A-Levels especially when you can find one online. My school gave us an ActiveLearn account however its easier to use an online pdf especially when many people try to open the book at the same time.
I used the textbook throughout year 12 and slowly became inconsistent. Sooner or later I was only doing the problem and exams style questions the textbook had to offer so don't rely ENTIRELY upon the textbook cause you do need to practise the style of questions that exams like to throw, however, the textbook will prepare you for that. Like I said past paper exam questions are good.
As for the CGP books, I've only ever used the maths one for the next link I will share. It can be found in the Pearson edexcel mathematics folder and it's the white workbook. I also recommend this for extra practise. Unfortunately I discovered this quite late but this was a very good resource which supported my revision. I actually used my printing credit to print out the entire booklet which was quite thick (although this may leave you with no credit until the next time it gets topped up).
I do want to add that if you REALLY don't understand a topic then i'd recommend doing Mathsgenie. Mathsgenie questions are really easy hence why they're so good to use for topics you struggle with as they help build your confidence.
As for books and podcasts, I can't really recommend anything as I'm not well read up on medicine as my interests lie in the aerospace sector, although one youtuber I recommend is Andrew Huberman (he may actually have a podcast although I'm not too sure). I have watched some of his videos and they are pretty interesting.
(edited 1 year ago)
Reply 5
Original post
by hermessnowthank u , thank u , thank u for the reply and advice too. I was just worried coz people said A-levels will be much harder and i wanna do really well so. I never heard of an MOOC but ill look into that too. By read a book or podcast do u have any that ud recommend?
Interms of year 12 i should just use that to get adjusted to it then? year 13 is more the primary focus?
and um last thing , are textbooks better than online resources coz i dont wanna spend too much on them as i usually just carry a bundle of notes around yk. If i do need textbooks the are CGP textbooks still good ?
thx again and enjoy your summer!!!
Interms of year 12 i should just use that to get adjusted to it then? year 13 is more the primary focus?
and um last thing , are textbooks better than online resources coz i dont wanna spend too much on them as i usually just carry a bundle of notes around yk. If i do need textbooks the are CGP textbooks still good ?
thx again and enjoy your summer!!!
By the way, if you were to buy ANY books for the duration of your A-Levels, especially UCAT or BMAT revision and practise books, use https://www.worldofbooks.com/. They sell books second hand and you can choose the condition. All of the books I've ever bought have come from here, some of which are very old discontinued physics books from the early 2000's. This website is truly a hidden gem and I can't recommend it enough!
Quick Reply
Related discussions
- are there other students taking chemistry and maths a level
- History A level dilemma
- advice for self-studying a levels
- A level law vs A level politics
- sixth form options help!
- AQA A-Level Politics
- Wanting to switch to Economics at University of Glasgow
- Edexcel chem a level help
- Struggling with finding the best route to take A-Levels
- Help - A level choices !
- Should I switch to online a levels?
- getting less homework at alevels??
- Advice for college/university
- Entry level IT Jobs
- Catching up?? Idk
- Studying help!
- Choosing A-Levels and Need Advice?
- Btec student/alevel maths private candidate ucas application
- A levels
- Sixth from options
Latest
Trending
Last reply 2 months ago
UCAT in 6 weeks..but my father wants me to learn ALL year 13 content!?!?!?Last reply 3 months ago
A Level+ Results Day 2025 Countdown thread - UCAS Hub is open #BeResultsProudLast reply 4 months ago
Further Maths Edexcel Grade Boundaries 2025 - CP1 CP2 FM1 FS1Last reply 4 months ago
LNAT Warning – Don’t Waste Your Time (or Money) on Arbitio!!!Last reply 4 months ago
Will I be predicted A*??? BIOLOGY plsss replyLast reply 4 months ago
How do I convince my teacher to let me take A-levels
How The Student Room is moderated
To keep The Student Room safe for everyone, we moderate posts that are added to the site.
