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A levels in September

So, somewhat similar to my last post but a different question and motivation to make it.
Before I didn't have a place at a college, now I do for September (doing biology, chemistry and psychology)
I'm on provisional enrolment so like, I don't know the exact time period that I'm on that for but apparently it means for that time period if my attendance and grades aren't good enough I can't stay there

so I just want any possible advice to make sure I start off on the right foot. obviously attendance is my responsibility, I mean more so academic advice or any advice for those 3 subjects so I can start off doing well

Reply 1

I take biology so can give you some advice and answer any questions for that 🙂
Make sure you make resources from the get go! Flashcards are a key resource for biology so either find some pre-made ones and review them regularly or make your own consistently. Theres a lot of content so be prepared for that. Do exam practice questions weekly so that you know what points to make in tests and what question styles are used. Look ahead before the start of the course and see what topics will be taught first then review all gcse content on those and pre-learn some of the a level content. Theres a CGP head start book you can get for this. Hope that helps, happy to answer questions.
@Trickia @always-anxious @study23! can you help with some advice?

Reply 2

Original post
by mariings
So, somewhat similar to my last post but a different question and motivation to make it.
Before I didn't have a place at a college, now I do for September (doing biology, chemistry and psychology)
I'm on provisional enrolment so like, I don't know the exact time period that I'm on that for but apparently it means for that time period if my attendance and grades aren't good enough I can't stay there
so I just want any possible advice to make sure I start off on the right foot. obviously attendance is my responsibility, I mean more so academic advice or any advice for those 3 subjects so I can start off doing well

Derdrac has said wonderful advice for bio so I will give you tips on chem!
I'm not sure which examboard you do but ocr a chemistry has a spec checklist which is very handy. Even if there is no checklist use the spec as a base to make sure you understand and have covered all your content. E.g. Flashcards, blurting, mind maps etc
Also always ask for help if you don't understand something! Whether it is ai, TSR, teachers etc
Constantly do past paper questions obviously at the start of term you won't have much but make sure your gcse knowledge is strong! Cognito and seneca are nice
Original post
by mariings
So, somewhat similar to my last post but a different question and motivation to make it.
Before I didn't have a place at a college, now I do for September (doing biology, chemistry and psychology)
I'm on provisional enrolment so like, I don't know the exact time period that I'm on that for but apparently it means for that time period if my attendance and grades aren't good enough I can't stay there

so I just want any possible advice to make sure I start off on the right foot. obviously attendance is my responsibility, I mean more so academic advice or any advice for those 3 subjects so I can start off doing well


Building upon from what Trickia and DerDracologe said, active recall (e.g. flashcards, blurting etc.) and regular exam practice would be the most effective forms of revision. It's important to do revision little and often and avoid cramming since there's a lot of content you need to remember.
I studied psychology and biology so if you have any questions about these two subjects I'd be happy to answer :smile:
(edited 8 months ago)

Reply 4

Original post
by DerDracologe
I take biology so can give you some advice and answer any questions for that 🙂
Make sure you make resources from the get go! Flashcards are a key resource for biology so either find some pre-made ones and review them regularly or make your own consistently. Theres a lot of content so be prepared for that. Do exam practice questions weekly so that you know what points to make in tests and what question styles are used. Look ahead before the start of the course and see what topics will be taught first then review all gcse content on those and pre-learn some of the a level content. Theres a CGP head start book you can get for this. Hope that helps, happy to answer questions.
@Trickia @always-anxious @study23! can you help with some advice?


One question I have about flashcards is when it comes to sciences, how do you not end up putting too much on them? I feel like when I use flashcards they're useful but sometimes there's so much content I end up with so much on the cards it defeats the purpose. idk if that made sense

Reply 5

Original post
by always-anxious
Building upon from what Trickia and DerDracologe said, active recall (e.g. flashcards, blurting etc.) and regular exam practice would be the most effective forms of revision. It's important to do revision little and often and avoid cramming since there's a lot of content you need to remember.
I studied psychology and biology so if you have any questions about these two subjects I'd be happy to answer :smile:


I guess applying to both bio and psych I wanna ask how you sort of...get yourself into doing regular revision for them both since they're so content heavy how do you manage to regularly somewhat revise both

Reply 6

Original post
by mariings
One question I have about flashcards is when it comes to sciences, how do you not end up putting too much on them? I feel like when I use flashcards they're useful but sometimes there's so much content I end up with so much on the cards it defeats the purpose. idk if that made sense

That makes perfect sense, i get what you mean. Flashcards are best used by having individual terms and their definitions or a category and a couple of examples. If you want to have more info then notecards to review by blurting might be a good thing to do alongside your flashcards 🙂
Original post
by mariings
I guess applying to both bio and psych I wanna ask how you sort of...get yourself into doing regular revision for them both since they're so content heavy how do you manage to regularly somewhat revise both


I found it useful to have a revision timetable, so you can plan your revision to make sure you have time to revise both subjects :yep:

Reply 8

Original post
by mariings
So, somewhat similar to my last post but a different question and motivation to make it.
Before I didn't have a place at a college, now I do for September (doing biology, chemistry and psychology)
I'm on provisional enrolment so like, I don't know the exact time period that I'm on that for but apparently it means for that time period if my attendance and grades aren't good enough I can't stay there
so I just want any possible advice to make sure I start off on the right foot. obviously attendance is my responsibility, I mean more so academic advice or any advice for those 3 subjects so I can start off doing well

Congrats on getting into college! I’ve just taken chem and bio so can give some advice there.
My main tip is to be consistent from the start. A lot of people after doing their GCSEs approach a levels quite casually, especially if they were ‘naturally smart’ or were able to do well with one night of revision. But at a levels you can’t wait until exam season to start, work begins in September

And that’s not me saying do like 3 hours per day from day 1, just to try and keep on top of things. Bio and chem (bio especially), are VERY content heavy a levels, and there are some topics where you won’t be able to understand them if you didn’t understand the previous one. I tried updating my notes weekly on both subjects and made flaschards on terminology etc because this was making revision resources. That way when the teacher surprised me with a test in a few days I was pretty on top of my notes and could review them, use my flashcards and recall to consolidate knowledge rather than trying to learn things quickly before a test.

For chem do focus on the practicals. Exams love to give questions about apparatus and reasoning behind steps within the practicals so it’s important not to neglect these.

I find the best methods of revising are blurting, flaschards and past papers. Chem especially you need to do as many questions as you can. It can look easy on lessons but believe me when you do your fist few past paper questions they are humbling 😭 You have to put the knowledge into practice. Over time it gets easier

lastly don’t give up! Your a level combo is extremely challenging and you will feel down at times, but stay resilient and just keep going against every hurdle because it is 100%doable to do well, many people have and so can you. Remember that these are considered hard for a reason and you don’t need to be an expert straight away

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