A Level Physics: Can I Achieve a Good Grade?

[jasmin59]

Unsure on whether I should do an A level in physics as I only got a C at GCSE and only a B in maths, would it be possible to do if I put loads of time and effort in or will it be to difficult to achieve a good grade?

 

[DEvens]

Hi jasmine59. Welcome to the forum.

Your best choice for advice on this is to talk to one of the teachers in your school, preferably one who knows you well and you have a good relationship with. They will have a good idea of how capable you are and whether you have the ability. Other possible sources of good advice are other students, preferably those who have taken the classes you are thinking about taking.

 

[ZapperZ]

Unsure on whether I should do an A level in physics as I only got a C at GCSE and only a B in maths, would it be possible to do if I put loads of time and effort in or will it be to difficult to achieve a good grade?

First of all, WHY would you do A-Level physics in the first place? Are you going into a subject area that requires this? If you are going into Law or Economics, etc., this would be silly, wouldn't it? So you never explained in the first place why you would even consider doing this subject, especially when you didn't do well previously.

Zz.

 

[artfullounger]

ZapperZ raises a good point. More pertinently, if you got a C in it at GCSE, what makes you think will change at A-level so you'll do better?

You only NEED to take physics if you're going to do Physics or Engineering at uni (including joint and combined honours of these courses). There are also a number of engineering courses you can get on without Physics A-level anyway. If you aren't planning on doing either of these, there's no NEED to take it. While it'd be certainly USEFUL if you end up doing say, Chemistry, Earth Sciences, or Maths, it's far from essential.

You can certainly get by with a B in maths (I'm doing engineering at uni and got a B in GCSE maths and a first in our first year maths methods module so...), and honestly you can probably do fine with a C at GCSE, but you'll need to spend extra time making sure you're up to scratch on the relevant GCSE topics. You should take Maths A-level with it however. There's really no point in doing A-level Physics without Maths, it's a prerequisite for both aforementioned courses and the topics will help make sure your maths skills are up to date and up to scratch, and the calculus you do, while not used explicitly (at least for most exam boards) will help you conceptually think about the topics better.

But yeah, you should a) think about your future aspirations and b) come back and clarify what those are if you want this question to be answered well on here xD

 

[William White]

Unsure on whether I should do an A level in physics as I only got a C at GCSE and only a B in maths, would it be possible to do if I put loads of time and effort in or will it be to difficult to achieve a good grade?

yes, of course you can get better.