how hard is as/alevel physics? could i teach myself?

A level physics is more like an extension of gcse physics, just more formulae and complexity. If your gcse physics is good enough then a level physics may not be a very difficult subject for you. Just as a reminder after sef studying look at the past papers of your exam board to check if you are ok with the exam questions, and ask someone if you got some trouble. wish you success

thanks for that it's super helpful. do you think most exam boards are similar? my school teaches AQA and i've always taken AQA science, so was planning to do the same this time around and haven't looked at any other exam boards.

How will you do the practical?

i think you would still need guidance, but overall its pretty simple if youre already good at physics (and you seem like it!)
youll be fine, maybe ask the teachers at physics clinic about exam technique as it is quite important. make sure to practice the hell out of multiple choice tho! speed will be your best friend.

there is no practical endorsement for as physics as far as im aware

Yes but the spec says 'Likewise, practical work in the subject needs to be underpinned by an awareness of the nature of measurement errors and of their numerical treatment'

i think if the practicals aren't assessed then i'll be able to just read about/watch them online? otherwise if i really needed to i guess i would ask my school to let me do them; I already take bio and chem so i'm in the labs a lot anyway

Why aren't you taking Physics then? You'd need experience of writing up the practicals and why should your school help if you aren't taking the subject?

hi everyone - looking for some advice as i am thinking about teaching myself AS physics to take at the end of this academic year. i'm in year 12.
does anyone think it's possible? how hard is physics alevel and do you think that having a teacher is something that has made a large difference to your experience (e.g. in biology i could probably understand things to just as high of a level if i spent enough time on it at home). physics was my highest gcse science- 185/200 grade 9 but not sure how this carries over to alevel.
i'm taking maths but not further maths at alevel.
i haven't started learning it yet so does anyone taking physics at the moment think I could learn it all between now-may? i'm thinking 3/4 months to learn the content, 2/3 months to revise? I can probably go to my school's physics clinics if i'm really struggling with anything but am planning to use online notes/textbook and youtube
i want an A or A* otherwise i'll probably just use the ucas points but not really make a thing of it in anything like uni applications. any opinions would be very much appreciated.

im planning to teach myself AS physics. my school doesn't offer AS exams and i'm already taking 4 alevels, so i can't take it in school. There's no practical endorsement for AS physics so I won't need formal write-ups, i'll just have to understand how to answer exam questions on it which I can do from past papers and textbooks. There's no guarantee that my school would help me although I would hope that they wouldn't mind if i needed help on a rare occasion.

thats rlly helpful thanks. how long do you think it would take me to learn the content? if i spent maybe 4 hours a week?

also, i checked the grade boundaries for this year and you needed just under 60% for an A (the top grade you can get). I can't tell if that should put me off, because it's obviously hard and the grade boundaries reflect that, or convince me to do it because it might be easier to get an A if i put the work in?

If you really put a lot of work into it, I don't see why not. But ideally, it would be better to get a tutor to guide you through. However, I don't know if physics even has a practical endorsement for AS level. Might be worthwhile checking though.