Is it possible to self study 3 A-levels in one year?

Hi everyone,
I’m looking for some advice and perspective on something I’ve been working towards.

I’m currently self-studying three A-levels: Philosophy, Politics, and Religious Studies — and I’m trying to complete them all within one year. I know it’s quite an ambitious goal, but I’ve already started learning the content and I’m really motivated to make it work.

For some context: I’m originally from Scotland and I graduated there with good grades — I got all As in my Highers (English, RMPS, Applications of Maths, Modern Studies, and History). I had an offer from a university in Scotland, but I’ve since moved to London and made the decision that I’d prefer to attend university in England, mainly to be closer to my mum.

While I’m committed to this path, I do have moments of doubt where I wonder, “Is this even possible?” So I wanted to ask if anyone has experience with or advice on self-studying multiple A-levels in a year — especially these specific subjects.
• Is it realistic?
• Are there tips or resources you’d recommend?
• What are some of the biggest challenges I should prepare for?

Any thoughts, stories, or encouragement would be really appreciated. Thanks!

Reply 1

UniofLawstudent2

Official Rep

Original post

by uloero

Hi everyone,
I’m looking for some advice and perspective on something I’ve been working towards.
I’m currently self-studying three A-levels: Philosophy, Politics, and Religious Studies — and I’m trying to complete them all within one year. I know it’s quite an ambitious goal, but I’ve already started learning the content and I’m really motivated to make it work.
For some context: I’m originally from Scotland and I graduated there with good grades — I got all As in my Highers (English, RMPS, Applications of Maths, Modern Studies, and History). I had an offer from a university in Scotland, but I’ve since moved to London and made the decision that I’d prefer to attend university in England, mainly to be closer to my mum.
While I’m committed to this path, I do have moments of doubt where I wonder, “Is this even possible?” So I wanted to ask if anyone has experience with or advice on self-studying multiple A-levels in a year — especially these specific subjects.
• Is it realistic?
• Are there tips or resources you’d recommend?
• What are some of the biggest challenges I should prepare for?
Any thoughts, stories, or encouragement would be really appreciated. Thanks!

Is it not possible to take a 2 year-route?
Why time-constrain yourself to one year?

Reply 2

McGinger

Yes, its possible, but why would you want to.

Reply 3

UniofLawstudent2

Official Rep

Original post

by McGinger

Yes, its possible, but why would you want to.

You're giving yourself a disadvantage in exchange for saving a year, but is there much point in saving a year if you could have achieved much higher grades if you just spent 2 years doing it normally?
You sit the same exams as two-year students, usually in May/June of the academic year, but with a year's less revision.
They are designed to be taken and digested over 2 years for a reason, there's just that much content, and even then the recommended study hours, OUTSIDE of lesson-time is 15 Hours per week, so 30 hours total including lesson time and revision outside of school.

So assuming you do 1H of revision for every Hour of lesson time, and since uloero, want's to do it in one year,
they would be recommended to do 30hours of revision outside of lesson time, and so the total combined study time they would be doing per week is 60 hours.
60hours into 7 days is nearly 9 hours of A-level material per day.
Where as if they took the 2 year format they could just do a combined total of 4-5 hours total per day (including content that would be covered in and out of school).

If uloero, is that confident, fair enough. I personally just don't believe the stress is worth it.

(edited 8 months ago)

Reply 4

Reality Check

Original post

by uloero

Hi everyone,
I’m looking for some advice and perspective on something I’ve been working towards.
I’m currently self-studying three A-levels: Philosophy, Politics, and Religious Studies — and I’m trying to complete them all within one year. I know it’s quite an ambitious goal, but I’ve already started learning the content and I’m really motivated to make it work.
For some context: I’m originally from Scotland and I graduated there with good grades — I got all As in my Highers (English, RMPS, Applications of Maths, Modern Studies, and History). I had an offer from a university in Scotland, but I’ve since moved to London and made the decision that I’d prefer to attend university in England, mainly to be closer to my mum.
While I’m committed to this path, I do have moments of doubt where I wonder, “Is this even possible?” So I wanted to ask if anyone has experience with or advice on self-studying multiple A-levels in a year — especially these specific subjects.
• Is it realistic?
• Are there tips or resources you’d recommend?
• What are some of the biggest challenges I should prepare for?
Any thoughts, stories, or encouragement would be really appreciated. Thanks!

The most important bit of information is missing: are you doing these 'full-time', as if you were going to college, or are you fitting them around a full time job? Trying to do them all in a year is possible, and with tuition and enough time set aside for it, you could get a good result. Doing them on your own, and trying to fit them around full-time (or high part-time hours) work is quite a different matter. You also don't say how long you've been out of education for, which is germane to giving you a useful answer.

Reply 5

uloero

Original post

by Reality Check

Hi, I’ve been out of education for a year and I'm currently not working, I’ve decided to stop work in order to dedicate my full time to studying my a levels.

Reply 6

Kingston Eve

Official Rep

Original post

by uloero

Hi everyone,
I’m looking for some advice and perspective on something I’ve been working towards.
I’m currently self-studying three A-levels: Philosophy, Politics, and Religious Studies — and I’m trying to complete them all within one year. I know it’s quite an ambitious goal, but I’ve already started learning the content and I’m really motivated to make it work.
For some context: I’m originally from Scotland and I graduated there with good grades — I got all As in my Highers (English, RMPS, Applications of Maths, Modern Studies, and History). I had an offer from a university in Scotland, but I’ve since moved to London and made the decision that I’d prefer to attend university in England, mainly to be closer to my mum.
While I’m committed to this path, I do have moments of doubt where I wonder, “Is this even possible?” So I wanted to ask if anyone has experience with or advice on self-studying multiple A-levels in a year — especially these specific subjects.
• Is it realistic?
• Are there tips or resources you’d recommend?
• What are some of the biggest challenges I should prepare for?
Any thoughts, stories, or encouragement would be really appreciated. Thanks!

Hi @uloero,

As long as self studying A-Level Philosophy, Politics and Religious Studies is your main activity of the day - e.g. you're not in full-time work or other training - it definitely is a realistic goal. Most A-Level timetables at college/sixth form allot for a lot of self-study time/'free' periods: if you fully focus for six-seven or so hours a day over a one-year period, you should be able to complete three A-Levels within a year without too much stress.

The main difficulty with self-studying subjects is a) making sure you've covered all the material in the specification to an adequate level and b) teaching yourself the topics/material you don't fully understand. In these cases, online revision videos or online study notes/textbooks might be of use to you.

Best of luck! 🙂
Eve (Kingston Rep).

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