Workload

Hi everyone, I've just started A levels and I'm taking bio, chem, lit and maths with view to either drop one at the end of y12 or carry on if it's not too intense. Obviously the workload isn't too intense right now but I'm told the expectation is 20hrs a week for 4 subjects. When in people's experience does workload increase, both for these subjects and in general? In.a month? 3 months? Never? Thanks!

Reply 1

"'"'"

I don't think you should drop any. You don't need 20hrs a week for each subject-20hrs is the max for your weakest subject I think. The increase of workload hardly happens if you have consistent passion to face the different topics.

Reply 2

Kai.C43

Original post by Camer0nR

From my experience having just finished a-levels (aqa bio, aqa chem, ocr mei maths)

Aqa chem is consistently challenging, make sure not to underestimate how surface level a lot of the content seems. Practise reaction mechanisms and isomerisms as much as you need. You do not need to go beyond spec for Chemistry, but it can help to establish context

Aqa Biology is stupidly easy at AS but becomes significantly harder in year 2. This involves using very specific required terms as well as going beyond spec. For a flawless a-level response to the essay question, only ~25/30 marks can be awarded, the rest of these marks (along with some other questions throughout papers 2 and 3) will require that you use developed knowledge from non specification material (such as reference to dendritic cells and macrophages in an immunal response as opposed to White blood cells)

Ocr mei Maths *should* be similar to other exam boards in that the first half of year 1 is fairly basic but the rest of the course is explosive in terms of difficulty (correlating with prior knowledge or ability to learn quickly). Be consistent on maths and do as many papers as you can over the next 2 years using madas maths or TLmaths.

If your exam boards are different to mine, I'm sure someone more qualified would happy to help give you a more accurate response!

Good luck and remember not to get demotivated, it's hard for a reason so remember what your goal is :smile: