How Can I Successfully Prepare for Taking A-Levels Early?

[FeDeX_LaTeX]

Hello,

Thanks for your replies. I just got my GCSE results today - I am still shaking. I didn't get what I wanted but I think I did okay - 8A* 2A 2B. 8A* were in Physics, Maths, RE, Eng, Eng Lit, ICT, Spanish, Geography. 2A were in Biology and Business Studies, 2B were in Chemistry and Statistics. If I had bothered to actually hand in the coursework for Chemistry and Statistics on time they could have been easy A*s and my grades would have looked a lot better! But I am happy, still. Especially with getting 300/300 in physics and maths! :)

Thank you for telling me about the mock Cambridge interviews. They are a lot better than I thought they would be. I think I can prepare for them, hopefully I won't puke if I ever get the opportunity for an interview there!

I don't think I will be doing Maths with Statistics. While I find some aspects of statistics fun, it just isn't for me... but I will still consider it for sure.

I have to make up my mind about A-level choices by August 31st. I achieved the mandatory BBB in Triple Science and have an APS of 7.5, meaning I shouldn't have trouble getting into any courses. At the moment, my definite choices are:

Further Maths
Further Maths (Additional)
Physics
Chemistry

Still wondering about the Biology though. I don't know if I should pick it. These were my results for biology;

Unit 1 - 43/50
Unit 2 - 44/50
Unit 3 - 83/100 (puking in middle of exam)
Crappy coursework with C grade (not handed in on time)
Avg = A

I am not sure about picking A-level Biology because of this. I don't want to pick anything that I won't get A/A* in. It's a bit of a gamble and I'm not certain I'll find the course interesting. I will talk to them about it. The first A-level Biology exam is in 139 days; I could start preparing now and memorise the whole textbook, do past papers, etc. but I would have to be careful with my time management, since it is entirely self-study. The results above seem like I wouldn't get an A* in Biology A-level even if I tried.

As for spreading out the units over a bigger period to get a higher UMS - I don't know if this is possible. I'm being put into the Further Maths class who are a year older than me who are aiming to get it done that year. I would prefer to get it done by the end of Year 12; I can complete a module within 2 weeks (1 week learning content, 1 week revising/past papers/prep/etc.)... the Further Maths (Additional) is there to ensure that I don't get rusty in my maths, for example, the Statistics and Mechanics components (A2 Physics has only astronomy/waves units). I'll talk to them about it, but given that I only had a couple of months to prepare for 4 maths modules, a year to do 8 maths modules (despite doing other subjects) doesn't seem that bad. I am lucky because I know some of the course content of the harder modules (FP3, M3/4) through general experience; I won't have to spend time looking at inverse square laws, centres of mass, differential equations, etc. because I have been practicing those kinds of problems for 2-3 years now.

I have thought about taking Computing. I don't know if it is for me. It doesn't look that hard - I looked at the paper and I can already answer 30-40% of it. But it doesn't really interest me. I like programming but it's the extra stuff in the course at my college that puts me off. At my college you have to do Computing but it has extra modules like web design, animation, etc... I hate that stuff. I might be able to get a good grade, but I won't enjoy it. Congratulations on your results by the way, I hope you get what you're hoping for. :)

EDIT: Do you think I should get my chemistry coursework remarked? It's a long-shot but I could scrape an A with some luck. I have nothing to lose. Here are my chemistry GCSE results;

Chem C1C2C3 - 45/50
Chem C4C5C6 - 50/50
Chem C7 - 100/100
Chem C/W - 40/100

It's just really irritating to say that I'm a B-grade chemistry student despite achieving an average of 97.5% in the modular papers. All I need is 5 extra marks - that would bring me to 240/300, which is an A. I'm currently on 235/300 with those marks. Should I retake? Will I be able to write to universities and explain that basically the only reason (other than my idiocy) for my grade was the coursework?

 

[FeDeX_LaTeX]

It's just really irritating to say that I'm a B-grade chemistry student despite achieving an average of 97.5% in the modular papers. All I need is 5 extra marks - that would bring me to 240/300, which is an A. I'm currently on 235/300 with those marks. Should I retake? Will I be able to write to universities and explain that basically the only reason (other than my idiocy) for my grade was the coursework?

Sorry, that should say "should I get a remark?". To retake it I'd have to do all of the modular papers again, which I'd prefer not to do. I was wondering if I should get the coursework remarked.

 

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As I have said before, I don't think GCSEs are as important as you seem to make them out to be. However, if you're not paying (much) for the remark, then go for it. It can't hurt you now, can it? :-) :-)

Out of curiosity, how much work do you put in so you can get a module done in a week? (just the studying part) Don't you find it hard with all your regular school work?

If you enjoy doing Biology, by all means, go for it. Remember that you have 4-5 hard A-Level subjects already and doing Biology won't actually broaden your options for university study all that much. Besides a Biology course, I don't think (I might be wrong but I've looked through lots of courses and their requirements before settling on my subjects) there is anything more (that you can't already get into) that A-Level Bio would enable you to access. Are you doing all five subjects (i.e, including AFM) up to A2?

I only say all of this because I think it would be a shame to see your grades in your other subjects drop because you're doing an extra subject...just because it *might* look good. You don't appear to like Biology all that much; you're always unsure about this one subject alone. If I am not mistaken, Cambridge generally include your fourth subject in the conditional offers they give out. It's not fair, imo, but that's the way it goes.

 

[FeDeX_LaTeX]

Hmm... well, I suppose. It costs between £20 and £40 I think. The money gets refunded if the mark changes. I also want to get a remark for M1 -- it's more likely to go up than down, I think. I counted my marks after the exam and I counted 97/100, yet my final mark was 88/100. Somewhere there are 9 marks that are unaccounted for...? I would understand it if it were 3-5 marks, but 9 is a bit much.

Well, it might be different in my AS year, because the workload wouldn't be the same. With about 2.5 hours a day of maths that doesn't seem very hard; each maths module has about 7 chapters. M2, for example, I was working at a rate of about 3 hours per chapter, and that has 6 chapters. But I was working through it quicker than usual; I was able to skip the whole of the kinematics chapter because I already knew about using calculus in kinematics. In a nutshell, that's why I can work through the modules quite quickly; I've encountered the material through general experience. This does not work for Statistics modules though (S2-4). S1 it only worked because I had done a GCSE in Statistics, and it was mostly common sense (a lot of formula-substituting). I still have ample time to relax a little though; I like to watch a lot of tennis in my spare time. US Open is around the corner!

The thing is, I didn't really enjoy GCSE Biology. It was boring. But I've heard A-level Biology is much more interesting. But that does not mean I will find it interesting. I would like to have a better understanding of how I work, how my muscles, nerves, bones, etc. work with each other. At GCSE, you were introduced to ATP, but they never told you what it was (I had to research dark reactions of photosynthesis where ATP changed, and so on).

I'm doing Maths, Further Maths, Physics and Chemistry up to A2. Further Maths (Additional) is something that I'm still not 100% sure that I will be allowed to do; no one in my college has ever gone further than Further Maths. My Director of Sixth Form is confident that I can get to do it, but it's a bit of a grey area. I suppose I'm doing Biology more out of general interest, and also as a personal conquest to prove to myself that I can do very well in Biology (A-A* at A-level).

Yes -- it is Biology that I am very unsure about. My Biology skills aren't really on par with my knowledge of Chemistry, and certainly not for Maths and Physics. I've been told the A-level Biology course is really hard. But, then again, I've been told Further Maths is hard, and it doesn't seem hard. Chemistry does not seem as hard as they make it out to be either, after doing about half the exercises in the 400-page textbook (they claim it's the hardest A-level).

That is my worry too; that my other subject grades might drop. For Further Maths, I don't think it will; I have a method of doing it. Doing all the past-papers, and Solomon papers, is the best preparation and I can do them anywhere; at break-time, lunch-time, on a bus, at one point I even did one while walking home (I dropped it in a puddle though -- maths is usually a good thing to do on a rainy day!).

I have been looking at Cambridge's list of offers and there are some colleges that have 4-subject offers and some with strictly 3. It says this on their website -- I counted that 18 of 25 colleges at Cambridge strictly never have 4 A-level offers.

4 days to decide... should I pick Biology?

Would it be better just to do the EPQ? This is an investigation-type report; you do an experiment, write a 5000-word report on your findings, including evidence, data, statistical analysis, etc etc etc, present it to audience and get graded. This appeals to me more than Biology does. However, I was planning to do the EPQ for certain; Biology is still the problem. In general I am quite good at writing long, detailed reports. I did one for physics on Snell's law with anomalous and normal dispersion, with added details about topics like C(h?)erenkov effect and Kramers-Kronig relations. The only thing about the EPQ is choosing a topic that I can work on for a year. I'd like to do something good but not something I have to spend too long in the lab doing. I could do something mathematical, but I don't know what I would write about... any ideas about this? A little off-topic but I'm worrying about this too. I would like the topic to be a very mathematical one with little practical work involved, for a cheap cost.

 

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It seems to me that you are very bored. Have you considered applying to uni a year earlier? I don't how much of a good decision that would be but at least you'd get to do what you want a year earlier. Not to mention that you would be among peers who would more likely have similar interests.

You want to know how your body functions, correct? Well, learn about it independently. You don't need a piece of paper saying you that you have achieved X grade in A-Level Biology for that. Learning about this independently also means that you have no one to answer to for it (which can be a good thing, considering what your work load is going to be like - even if you find the work easy, I suspect it won't be too easy to just not do all the homework you're set). It also means that you get to choose what to learn. I, too, am interested in Biology. I am also interested in Economic History and Literature. I am not doing additional A-Levels in any of those, though. Instead, I choose to study them at my own pace, leisurely, once I'm done with my A-Levels. Not having exams for those, means I don't need As-A*s on them, which also means that I don't need to hone my exam technique for these specific subjects, which let's face it, is very tedious.

Another thing about Biology, if you haven't already, read the "prescribed" text and see if you would like studying that. Personally, what I dislike about A-Level biology is that I *have* to learn many things I am not very interested in. Maybe I might actually like it once I start doing it but I don't like the subject *that* much. I had an excellent biology teacher and while I loved what I studied with him in class (he'd answer any question he could, even if it meant going a few miles from the syllabus), I just *hated* GCSE Biology. Frankly, to this day, I am baffled as to how I got a 3 (B+) in it. I came out of the exam, thinking I'd get a 6. Then again, what works for me might not work for you. What I can tell you is this: figure out what does work for you and what you would like doing. Then, do just that.

Don't worry too much about everything. You're on the right track.

If I were you, I would spend that 20 quid on my M1 module. If you want to conduct some kind of research, go the extra mile and see if you can do it with a teacher or at a local university.

 

[FeDeX_LaTeX]

Thanks for the reply.

Hmm... applying to university a year earlier? In other words, in a couple of months time? I'm not sure how that might work... by Jan 2012 I will have a full A-level in Maths and by Jun 2012 I should have, at least, full A-levels in Maths and Further Maths, with AS in Physics and Chemistry, + EPQ (not an AS but very useful qualification). Where would I apply to? The advantage is that I could apply to 5 top universities rather than just 2-3, since I have nothing to lose really. But would they make on offer based on two A-levels and 2 AS-levels (e.g. A*A*aa)? I suppose I could do A-level Physics in one year but that might be tricky to organise. Perhaps I could try and get to do Further Maths (Additional) this year too? That might be a bit much... that's 14 modules. I might be getting a bit ahead of myself here... I have heard of a kid who got into Cambridge at 15 and one who did it at 16. I could do that, but those guys did their A-levels in Year 11. I have no A-levels yet... but the obvious advantage would be being able to apply 2 years in a row. Should I discuss this with my school? I don't have a lot of stuff do put on my personal statement... entered UKMT 4 times (4 gold awards), did maths tutoring videos. Not much else apart from formal qualifications (GCSE + AS in maths). Not only that but they might have to make me do STEP II and III in Year 12 too. It would be a lot of work... can you retake STEP? If I did this I wouldn't have many A-level qualifications... most people have 3 and I could end up having only 2 + 2 AS-levels. Unless I did an A-level in one year. The first bunch of science modular exams are in 140-150 days. If I start studying now maybe I could do the entire AS for Chemistry and Physics in Jan. Maybe. There is a G&T group at my school that does half the AS in January. But not the whole thing. I will think about this -- I had never thought about applying early before.

I think you're right. I think an A in Biology GCSE is good enough. I will tell my Director of Sixth that I don't want to be entered for it. I don't want to have to memorise all that stuff about the heart, and other things. Regarding the homework, it is a private A-level, so I won't have to do any (unless they decided to send me it in the post or something).

Someone on another forum offered to mark a photocopy of my work. He seems very legitimate. Plus I could get my maths teachers to mark it too.

I just don't know about the applying to university early thing. There is another kid who is applying to my college (but not in my school) who did the AS early too. I'm not sure how well he did. But we are going to be in the same FM class next year. I'm not sure he is considering applying to university early... I will try to research this. Thanks.

 

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I do not know if you can retake STEP. As for your PS, check on thestudentroom.co.uk. While I don't think the website is very reliable (or even a good place to spend time at) *in general*, it can have some valuable information. For instance, this: http://www.thestudentroom.co.uk/wiki/Personal_Statement_Library

You could do them in a year if you do *just* Maths, Further Maths and Physics. That, however, does not seem like such a good idea after all. I'd say, stay in school; you'll get to continue with Chemistry. If going *a little* earlier is something you'd want (and maybe you do, considering you want a PhD), have you considered applying to Australia? They have a February intake. The ANU has very good courses, not to mention that they're very flexible, meaning that you can do subjects from other departments but maths. Considering your academic record, you might qualify for some kind of financial aid/scholarship.

I just thought you might be interested in knowing that. If I were you though, I would stay for year 13.

I, on the other hand, am faced with a bit of a dilemma. I can finish this year with good-average grades, which would be more than enough to do Maths/Physics at my local uni. Or, I could stay an extra year and work my behind off to get 3A* and two additional As in two other AS subjects, which would mean that I get a very realistic shot at getting some kind of scholarship somewhere and studying practically *where I want, anywhere in the world* for free. If I don't get it, I am confident I will be able to at least, be ranked among the best in at least a subject, which would really increase my chances for getting to uni in the US. When I put it that way, I should suck it up, face my responsibilities (I made some bad decisions in the not so distant past) and get this done, considering I want it. But staying that other year seems daunting, considering I will have to be doing more exam questions than learning material. Ah god, I don't know.

 

[FeDeX_LaTeX]

Thanks for that link. I saw a couple there; it seems that a lot of people write about books they have read. I ought to read more books myself, I think. Not just for my personal statement but in general.

Hmm... Australia? I have never considered doing it abroad. Is my academic record really that great? I thought there were thousands of people who got straight A* at GCSE... none at my school did but I've heard of a few people who did that. I am looking around the ANU site at the moment. I'm seeing things like AAAA offers for a scholarship for people from UK and Singapore. What attracts me the most is the 100% coverage of international student fees. The thing is though, I'm not sure if I want to study outside of the UK. There are lots of good universities over here, which I doubt I would be able to apply for a scholarship for, but... I'm just not sure. My dream is to study maths at Cambridge. I would at least like to apply to them. If I got into ANU (and it is a very, very big if), would I know what to do? Would I be mature enough to start living my own at 17? Would I be able to pay for the stuff the scholarship doesn't cover? It's hard to say... I guess what I'm really saying is that I still need to finish growing up. In the UK you can get a driving license at 17, I'll try to get that next year.

I'm not certain if I want to do a PhD -- something might crop up in the future that might make me want to do something else. I have heard of people who didn't like maths at university and ended up working in IT/programming.

What are "good-average grades"? I am curious about your story. It seems like we have similar aspirations.

 

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What's important is you do what you like. Why do you dream of studying at Cambridge?
Personally, the only reasons I can think of studying either there or Oxford is because there are *lots* of courses to choose from and frankly, at our local university, there is practically no flexibility. (that is not to say that the maths course is not good) Further to that, there would be lots of fairly interesting people to hang out with, living in the colleges and I think the place looks nice. And if you think about it, these are not things exclusive to Oxbridge...

Those would be something along the lines of ABCb. (Maths, Physics, French, AS General Studies) This might change, depending on how much I focus on what over the next few weeks. I will do Chemistry in May/June next year. Studying at the ANU also means going through a very rigorous program. And one with a lot of flexibility. (comparable to US colleges, from what I gather) Which then makes the "what if I don't like uni-level maths/physics all that much?" question irrelevant. I can always switch to something else. So, things like that make staying another year in high school quite tempting but when I think of how much I *hate* it there...

My story is not very interesting; you've probably heard it a few times before. Smart kid, was going through a rough patch, had other priorities, developed some bad habits (thankfully, I sorted my act out), affected my academic progress (said habits + bad teaching =/= good combination), etc.
My story also involves me changing subjects a few times and going to an IB school for a few months. Eventually, I grew up. I don't regret any of it though. I made some interesting encounters along the way which helped me learn lots of pretty cool things. The good thing about learning things the hard way, is that it is very likely that you won't mess up again. At least, not in the same way. Or at least, *I* won't!

For the record, I don't know how similar your aspirations are to mine. I just want to do something interesting (and intellectually stimulating) and make money with it. I'm not very picky... I'm also fascinated by people, which is why I haven't put off studying medicine. (although it's not very likely)

 

[FeDeX_LaTeX]

I have been to Cambridge several times on summer schools and been to sample lectures. I have been to UCL also. I really liked it at Cambridge. I haven't been able to find any courses which offer mathematics and physics other than at Cambridge...

Interesting... I thought it would be extremely difficult to change subjects, especially with starting an IB.

I think I am a bit bored, though. I would love it if I could just study Mathematics at A-level (and Physics), but unfortunately I have to do other things too. That's life but going to university a year early might help combat the boredom. But there are probably thousands and thousands of students like me who feel the same way and are still doing 4 AS + 4 A2 and following the normal route to university.

 

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Actually, no. There is preconceived idea, which I find very wrong, that people have about IB being "very hard". IB can be piss easy if you're doing the easier subjects. I know people who do IB, complain about it to no end and I assure that they would suck as hard as they do in IB if they did 3-4 A-Levels in similar subjects. The only difference would be that I wouldn't hear their incessant complaining.

If you're doing higher level maths and science, along with other time consuming courses, it can get tricky. However, the key is just time management. It's not all that harder - actually, it's not even harder. I do appreciate the flexibility in the science and math courses though. I had much more "options" to choose from. (like, astrophysics & relativity, further differential equations & series and further organic chem & medicinal chem)

Whatever floats your boat. I always (try) look at the different ends of the spectrum, so to speak. There is this Matt McGann dude, who went to MIT a year earlier while there are also people who get into college/uni much, much later. What's important is what you *can* do and what you *want* to do. I'm not passive enough to just accept things the way they are. If there is something I don't like, I either change it or work around it.

 

[FeDeX_LaTeX]

Hmm... I had a physics teacher who said that he got 8 A*s (90%+ in each paper) but he did an IB so it's equivalent to 8 A-levels. I guess he is wrong then... I thought about doing an IB but I don't want to study so many things even if it isn't as hard as people make it out to be.

What I am concerned about is if I really am as good at mathematics as I appear to some people. For example, is Fourier Series really that hard? When I get down to it it almost seems like just plugging numbers into a formula... I know of a lot of higher maths and can do a lot of it but I wonder if this really is 'higher level maths' -- by that I mean, what happens when I reach a ceiling, something that I don't understand? If I get to university and get deep into a Group Theory course and then hit a wall? I almost feel like I know a lot of random pieces of higher-level maths but am still just an average mathematician. Akin to knowing lots of titles of books but not knowing anything about them. I don't know.

What I want to do is maths and physics. Just the maths of physics. I hate doing practicals, I want to know how to do them but I am just terrible at them. I don't know why. I am practically an incompetent person when it comes to those things. But what happens when I reach some kind of ceiling and I realize that I actually don't know that much at all?

 

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I still don't really like my chemistry practicals but I've started to enjoy my physics ones. I think they're fun. Sometimes I have to play a bit with the instruments I have to get a desired effect. I was doing this practical where I had a wooden rod with a weight attached to one end and with a spring on the other. The part with the spring was attached to a fixed support. The point of the experiment was to measure the position of the rod as the depth of water was increased. What happened was that I was given the rod (sounds so wrong :D) with the weight attached to it by clay-do/plasticine (lol) and often, the weight would fall. What looked like a very simple experiment, became annoying. So, I had to figure out how to get this weight fixed with just the materials I had in the (limited) lab. Looked around, managed to find a nail and makeshift hammer and voila. That was pretty simple but at other times, I have to figure out some other stuff. But anyway, I like doing the actual practicals. To a certain extent.

I think he might have meant 6. IB consists of 6 subjects. One science, one humanities, two language, one maths and either one arts subject or anyone subject from the other groups. Rarely, students take a seventh subject or take 4 higher level subjects and only 2 standard level. Either you heard him wrong or he's a tad pretentious and got carried away... I'd say, doing the IB diploma like everybody else does it, (3 HLs, 3 SLs) is equivalent to doing 4 A2 subjects. And maybe an additional AS. Just comparing the load of work here. It's also something that differs a lot between subjects, some of them have very annoying coursework.

I don't know what a Fourier Series/Transform is but I know it's on EE, Maths and Physics curricula. That's the cool thing about maths and physics. At some point, you will crash on the wall and you will feel all kinds of crap about it. Then, because you find it so fun (or interesting, in my case), you'll sit back and figure how to get it right. There's also too much knowledge for you to know everything about everything.

It took me a very, very long time to figure out what I want to study at university, hell, it took me a long time to figure out if I even wanted to go! I went from medicine (which is what everyone wanted me to do), to English Literature/Languages/Arts, to both Arts and Engineering, then finally, to Maths and Physics. Then, when I figured that out. I thought "what next?". "What if I'm just not good enough at it? What happens then?" I'm no genius but I'm confident that I am persistent enough to get something done, especially if it's interesting. Also, "not knowing" certain things, is another interesting thing. Being surprised is pretty cool. Curiously, I still like all those other subjects. The only difference between now and then is I don't see the point in spending that much money in them. I can't afford that kind of thing. I also like maths/physics better.

Good luck.

 

[Sankaku]

But what happens when I reach some kind of ceiling and I realize that I actually don't know that much at all?

Welcome to the real world. A person's character is not shown by how they handle something they are good at, but instead by how they handle what they are not good at.

Everyone reaches ceilings. That is the whole point of exploring. If it was all easy, it wouldn't be nearly as interesting.

Motivation is much more important than raw talent. As long as you keep your enthusiasm, you can break through any ceiling you meet.