What A levels has everyone chose? Past and present:)
I've picked Maths, Biology, Geography and Chemistry
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What A levels has everyone chose? Past and present:)
I've picked Maths, Biology, Geography and Chemistry
Started AS French in Year 10, continued it in Year 11, and in the end didn't take the exam :/
Started AS Maths in Year 11, A2 Maths in Year 12, A Overall.
Then Physics, Further Maths and Chemistry in Year 12 and Year 13, with A, B, B.
So A, A, B, B :)
How did you find Maths and Chemistry if I may ask? :)Quote:
Originally Posted by Kardan
History A
Geography A
Re A
dropped biology at As and got a B in that.
Psychology
Sociology
Philosophy
Law
Have to "finalise" the learning programme next Tuesday, can't wait :)
Was also quite shocked to learn that one of my good friends is doing 3 of the same courses as me haha. But she's opted for Government + Politics over Philosophy.
Maths was nice and easy really, but I wish I worked a hell of a lot harder. If you have to retake, I'd suggest not retaking them at the next available exam period.Quote:
Originally Posted by Rixion
The first exam in AS Maths is Core 1, I took it in January and got 73% for a B - retook it in June, and you have to take Core 1 and Core 2, the second exam, straight after each other. Got 48% in Core 1 and 60 something in Core 2. Revising for two exams at the same time is not good.
So I retook Core 1 again the next January, when I had no other exams, and got 100% :) Maths is good, if you get a choice of modules, D2 and S1 are the easiest :) M1 is often considered the hardest of the optional modules :)
Chemistry was my worst A Level by far, at A2 it gets really difficult. Having to remember numerous, numerous reactions, with the reactants, products,conditions required, colours, shapes, diagrams etc.
http://alevelchem.com/aqa_a_level_ch...4/s3404/01.htm
Basically, a good memory is good for A2 :P The pratical part of the A-Level, the ISAs, are good, and a good way to get easy marks :)
I only did the first year of A levels then started my apprenticeship as a design engineer but the subjects I chose and my experiences with them were
Mathematics - Big step up from GCSE, I recommend you only take it if you are willing to put the work in, I know many of my friends who got A's and A*'s at GCSE and struggled to get C's.
Physics - Quite heavy maths but I didn't find it a bad as pure maths, real world
Computing - Very easy if you're interested in it, quite a bit of binary
Chemistry - Pretty hard, you have to learn many different chemical reactions, quite a bit of maths but nothing too bad. You know how in GCSE you could kind of wing answers to questions and hopefully some of its right, at A level, you need to get the wording and answer next to perfect and prove you actually understand what you're saying
Hope I help some of you!
Physics is quite heavy in Maths, especially at A2. Many times when Maths came into it, I was the only one in the class who knew what to do instantly, because I was the only one taking Physics/Further Maths - Physics is probably the most fun science to take though :)Quote:
Originally Posted by Futz
As - Media Studies, Business Studies, English Language and ICT.
A2 - Media Studies, English Language and ICT.
Failed business so had to drop it lmao.
My school did maths A-level instead of Advanced Higher (which they offered for everything else) so I did that in my final year alongside my Advanced Highers. It was pretty easy and I scooped an A* but I sometimes wish I'd done Further Maths too. The prospect of studying 12 modules in a single year was a bit too offputting at the time though and I wanted some free periods. :P
An ideal situation would have been to just study the first four core modules and FP1 with FP2 or FP3 for the maths A-level rather than S1 and S2. Still I enjoyed stats in the end.
I did;
English Literature
Classical Civilisation
Music
and for AS, those 3 plus
Philosophy
Food Technology
I loved them so much, especially class civ, and all of them are coming in really usefully for Uni life :)
Quote:
Originally Posted by Futz
I'm thinking of doing Physics/Maths/Computing so, if you don't mind me asking, how was Physics? haha!Quote:
Originally Posted by Kardan
I did triple and additional and I literally had 4 after-school lessons of triple because my school screwed up the timetables and I have to teach myself basically and got a D in it (5 marks off a C). Additional however I got an A*, so that made me kinda happy to take it.
What topics did you learn about and were they interesting? Or were they really complicated and confusing? :D
Also (Futz), how was computing? Was the exam difficult?
Thanks!
I'm taking
Maths
further maths
economics
pre-u history
:D
I'm going to be doing,
Creative media
Acting
and Buisness Studies
i'm taking;
photography
film studies
graphic design
english literature
can't wait to starttttttttt.
Physics was the most fun of my A-Levels, there's a lot of pratical work which in Physics is actually fun, although the pratical part of the A-Level are quite difficult because you gain marks on how reliable your answers are, and as you might know, getting scientific answers in a secondary school lab with ancient equipment can be quite difficult :PQuote:
Originally Posted by Ardemax
I did AQA Physics, so we did Particles, Quantum Phenomena and Electricity as the first AS module and Mechanics, Materials and Waves as the second AS module, with the third AS module being the practical ISA.
At A2 I did Fields and Further Mechanics which is very mathematical, so suited me perfectly and then for the first part of the second module it is Nuclear and Thermal Physics, which is essentially a repeat of what you did in GCSE Physics, and what you will do in A-Level Chemistry with thermal equations. The second part of your second A2 module has a variety of options:
Astrophysics, Medical physics, Applied physics and Turning points in physics.
I did Astrophysics since its very mathematical, and so did the rest of the class. Medical physics looked very difficult, and I'd only reccomend it if you're interested in going into that field at a later today. Didn't take a look at the other two.
And then for the third module, its your practical ISA again :)
Thanks for that answer +REP haha!Quote:
Originally Posted by Kardan
What were the practical ISAs like? :)
I did:
sociology
ict
art
english language
im dropping sociology and ict next year and picking up psychology
A2 psychology in my third year at sixth form (yay) and probably fast track health and social care or something else i dno
I've picked them too. I'm thinking of going into the medical side of things in the future. I start in 10 days, the summer has gone quick D:Quote:
Originally Posted by Rixion
I did Economics, Maths, Biology and Music. I'm at university now.
I did an English Lit AS during year 11, ended up with a D because I put it at the bottom of my priority list.
Currently doing History, English Language, Sociology and Maths (Mechanics). I've chosen to drop Maths but I'm redoing my mechanics module as I got an E in it but A and B in my other 2 modules.
For Physics, they were pretty difficult actually, because you gain marks depending on how accurate your answers are. Many times I've done experiments trying to prove the coefficient of gravity is 9.81, and always end up with something around 10.6 - but you can't just fudge your answers.Quote:
Originally Posted by Ardemax
The question paper itself isn't too bad, but the mark scheme is very very specific, so people tended to do a lot worse in the ISAs than in the exams, but luckily, they're worth a lot, lot less than the exams in the overall grade :)
Alright then, I guess that isn't too bad. I've heard I may be doing things like lasers haha, know anything about it? :DQuote:
Originally Posted by Kardan
I chose:
Maths
Physics
IT
Religious Studies,
And I ended up with D,E,U,U. LOL.
Then I went back to College, dropped RS,
And got A, A, C :P
At enrollment when the lecturer said that S1 is in the first year I breathed a short sigh of relief (Statistics part of GCSE being my easiest by far) and the Core 1 stuff looked like a build upon algebra done in GCSE, looks fun. The only Maths part I'd struggle with would be calculating 3D shapes, he said something about calculus playing a major part on the course as well.Quote:
Originally Posted by Kardan
back in the day I did History, Media and Religious Studies
I do too, 6 days for me. I was thinking Biochemistry or something relating to that field (no chance of Medicine due to how high the competition is).Quote:
Originally Posted by Jordan
I took
Travel & Tourism.
ICT.
History.
Philosophy & Ethics.
Dropping travel for A2.
Mm so close to going back after the summer for it now but this is what I'm gonna take
Double maths
Chemistry
Music
Physics
We didn't do anything with lasers :) Our equipment was very old and out dated anyways, so the most interesting thing we did was mentos rockets. Most of the stuff was the usual springs, pendulums etc.Quote:
Originally Posted by Ardemax
i got a pass in btec level 3 nat dip IT practitioners
Oh don't tell me it's the tedious springs like in gcse hahaQuote:
Originally Posted by Kardan
Spring equations mainlyQuote:
Originally Posted by Ardemax
Honestly, physics A-level is a joke, especially the AS. There is a step up from GCSE to A level that might surprise you but other than that the only 'tricky' part of the A level is some of the magnetism in the second A2 exam, which isn't bad if you read the book for 30 minutes. The practicals are a pain in the arse, I was with OCR and while the actually undertaking of the experiment is pretty simple, you can lose marks for absolutely anything when it comes to the write up. If you're on OCR, make sure your teacher helps you out with the write up side of the practical, the OCR practical handbook actually contradicts itself (repeatedly)... Very annoying.Quote:
Originally Posted by Ardemax
Topics covered vary slightly from syllabus to syllabus (variations usually in order of topics, not actual content) but this is what I learnt for my first unit, I'll leave out the other 3 for now:
Motion: Using units properly e.g N, kg, m, s. Velocity as ms^-1, force as N (or kgms^-2). SUVAT equations, equations to calculate basic stuff like how far a ball will fly given a few pieces of information like starting velocity (U), time (t) etc. Simple mechanics questions, though they may not seem simple at first. These involve drawing out a vector triangle and rearranging SOHCAHTOA to work out the magnitude of acceleration up a slope or something - goes perfectly with M1.
Forces in motion: Looking at momentum (Momentum = mass*velocity) and simple collisions between point masses. Looking at energy as work done, some ******** on car safety that is probably OCR only and looking at moments (turning points) to determine things like whether a plank of wood will be balanced if there are 3 objects at different points on it, and it rests on the end of a nail or something.
Work and energy: Looking at kinetic energy, gravitational potential energy (and likely solving problems to do with SUVAT based on kinetic or gp energy, the units mesh together like this for higher grade questions). Basic stuff to do with work done = force*distance and energy/time = power. The final topic (for me) was looking at springs, elasticity of materials and young's modulus.
Sorry for the long post but I couldn't really condense it down much more :P
---------- Post added 27-08-2012 at 10:48 AM ----------
The calculus at AS is pretty simple stuff, just basic differentiation and integration. In c2 you may integrate between two limits to figure out the area of a curve. Not much more than that :) Not sure about calculating 3d shapes though. You look at volumes of revolution (a curve rotated about the x-axis forming a lamp shade like cone) at a2 but nothing like that at AS.Quote:
Originally Posted by Rixion
Oh right, nothing too dull is it? hahaQuote:
Originally Posted by Kardan
Nono a long post is just what I needed thanks +REPQuote:
Originally Posted by Wig44.
So compare it to, say triple or additional GCSE, is it that much different and how in depth are we talking?
Once again, thanks!
I'm not sure what your GCSE was like but mine was triple too. I gained a GCSE in biology, chemistry and physics, with all 3 GCSEs having separate tests unlike the double award, if yours is a triple award it may be different from mine. My GCSE courses supposedly went in to a lot of depth and bridged the GCSE-A level gap, but this really didn't seem to be the case. There is a big step up from GCSE to A level physics (your mileage may vary), but that doesn't mean the A level is that challenging. It is far more in depth, especially at A2. When you get used to the algebraic manipulation of SUVAT equations you'll be ok for most of the A level as a lot of it is just algebraic manipulation, or subsituting a quantity for an equation. This is especially true for the first A2 unit.Quote:
Originally Posted by Ardemax
An example of what I mean is: Kinetic Energy = 1/2*m*v^2 and Energy = Force*Distance, so 1/2*m*v^2 = F*d.. substituting in equations. It doesn't get a lot harder than that, you just have to make connections and you will be taught to do this.
I think a good conclusion to come to is that if you found GCSE Physics at all interesting (I didn't, but A level is so much better) and you are good at it - A or A* - you will be ok. Less than that and you will struggle. I'd suggest being competent at GCSE maths (A or A*) as well. A level maths is optional unless you want to do physics at uni where you will need it.
Yeah well I'm also planning on taking A level maths so I dunno haha. Thanks for your contribution though, it helped out a lot! :DQuote:
Originally Posted by Wig44.
What did you get in it at A-level if you don't mind me asking? And how difficult did you find it was to get that grade? :)
In maths I got an A* and in physics I got an A, I got A* in both the A2 physics tests but the practical cost me the A* as it only got a D! You need an average of 90% over your entire A2 for an A* btw. I don't ever feel that comfortable talking about both my grades AND how much work I put in to them, but since you asked...Quote:
Originally Posted by Ardemax
If I'm honest, I put a bare minimum of work in, I slacked off during term time (my attendance was 70% ish) and grudgingly did the homework for physics. I revised the sunday before the last physics exam, which was on a monday and that was enough. For maths, I did past papers for a couple of days before and ended up getting 100% on C4 (this sounds arrogant... can't really help it).
This was my experience, personally I think there is a pretty big step up from GCSE and a second decent step up from AS to A2, particularly in maths and physics. Take from that what you will, remember that it may be different for you. The point I'd like to make is that I'm not a genius and I did well in the courses with little effort, so they can't be that hard. If this sort of thing is harder for you then you'll just have to spend a little more time on it. I think that with enough effort you can do well in this course, so long as it interests you or failing that you have some natural ability. :P It is an interesting course.
AS/A2 Maths, English Lit, Art
AS Further Maths, Citizenship
Dropped AS Law :P
Did AS French as part of Fast-Track but chose not to take the exam :P
Haha oh right that's an interesting perspective! All I've been hearing from sixth form friends is "YOU WILL DIE NEXT YEAR" (not literally) and how much more difficult a level is than GCSE. I didn't even feel happy about my GCSE results because I knew that if I had said anything all of them would have been like "They're pointless, they have nothing on a level, GCSE's are so easy". So yeah, haha.Quote:
Originally Posted by Wig44.
Also I may be sounding incredibly stupid here, but I'm looking at a course at uni and it says: "General studies is excluded" underneath like the course a-level requirement. Any idea what it means haha? Thanks! :D