A-level Trouble

[Onza Kieron]

Hey, well I'm currently attending 6thform and doign 3 As levels, Graphics, Maths and Physics because my ideal goal is arcitecture. I got a B at GCSE for maths but that's because I pissed around way too much. I got 2 C's at GCSE for Science but my chemistry and Biology pulled that down.

Basically without sounding too big headed i'm reasonably clever but I'm really struggling at A Level with some of my Maths and some of my Physics. I was just curious if anyone has took Maths or Physics at A Level and what they thought of it as i've only done 2 weeks so far but i'm currently in the position of not understanding the homework and really struggling with the classwork. Does anyone have any advice that they think would be useful for me? I would appreciate anything people have to say.

Thanks.

[Shaun H]

If you did double award science then Physics is going to be a struggle to begin with, I imagine most of the students in your class did triple award and therefore already have a bit of a head start on you. The only thing you can really do is work hard on revising/finding out the background knowledge that goes with the topics you're struggling with. Stick with that and it should work out ok, once you've got all the "basics" held down you should be fine to keep up with the triple award students.

As for maths... maths is just hard! I found alot of the topics a struggle to begin with, but I've come out on top thanks to preseverence.

[JD™]

i didnt do physics, but I know plenty of people who did that only did double award science at school. the idea of the first few months at A level is always to bring everyone up to the same level, which is why you'll find some people feeling its real easy because they've already done these bits last year. just keep concentrating and you'll be fine, it's early days yet.

maths wise, i did that and it is hard. it's just a fact of life that it's always going to be a difficult subject, but there are easy bits for everyone, so again just concentrate and ride it out. get as good as you can at the bits you struggle with, and excel at the bits you find easy.

good luck

J

[poopipe]

If you did double award science then Physics is going to be a struggle to begin with,

Amen to that.

I was buggered on physics - as were all the other kids from my school that'd done the double award and weren't doing further maths - cos I just wasn't up on the mechanical maths stuff.

I gave up in the end and went to art college, I was only doing A levels to get the physics and there was no way I was going to pass unless I dropped art and took up further maths instead.

Worked out ok in the end mind - I earn at least 5k a year more than most of the astrophysics graduates I was at university with

*disclaimer - this was 10-11 years ago when exams were difficult

[Deonn h]

Yeh , im in the same position as you in Maths A level exept ive started it a year early in yr 11 , and spreading the course over 3 years.

Think its just a matter of trying your best and do extra work on the things you carnt do , theres a book which covers everything and

is useful which i will be getting which has the whole of C1 and C2 in think you can get it off amazon or something teacher said. Not sure what

its called though il find out if you dont already know

[Simpson]

I dont care what grades people have got... i dont have enough interest in it / the determination to carry on..... but maths.... is either the easiest thing... or the hardest thing you will do in your life depending on how many hours you put in reading ahead/backwards/forwards in your spare time!

[sfboy]

My advice is books. At A level the courses are very linear, but I think teacher's face an imposible task to get everything they want in 50min lesson. A book can demonstrate a point in a concise manor, re-enforced with examples. I used the Letts series and did well at AS level.

[011001000110010101110010]

I failed maths, because I didnt see the point in doing all these calculations for what? It just didnt make sense, you need to apply maths then it becomes alot easier.

[BIG Drew]

I am doing maths and Physics (I was in the intermediate maths GCSE class but moved up to higher in the last term and got a A and was in the Double award science class and got A-A). So far they are both fine. (Only one week in) I'm doing them along a double Engineering course which is basically more maths and physics along with some other stuff so I'd Imagen that is giving me a hand. (Showing me how to apply what we learn as someone has already said)

But as someone has said go grab some books and pick up some extra info of what you have been taught. If you put the extra time in to figure out what you don't get I'd Imagen you'd be fine.

Or just google what you are stuck with. Be careful with that as we all know how much crap is on there though....

[Village Idiot]

I did A level maths but not physics. Found the maths a bit harder than the other A levels I did and it seemed to need a bit more work than the others as well. Best thing to do is what some other people have said - try and read a bit ahead before the lessons - you probably won't understand it fully when you read it, and may just understand little bits, but when the teacher/lecturer's going through it you'll have a slight head start on it so it should help a bit.

[Onza Kieron]

Ok, thanks very very much for that everyone. I guess perserverence is going to be the key and I have 10 hours of free's at school during the week so I think I'm just gunna have to use them better and read up on alot more stuff, thanks for your help and it's given me alot more motivation, if anyone has anything else to add please feel free to. Thanks :$

[dangerous_dave]

I failed maths bad at AS level, and so gave up on the A levels as a whole.

I did triple science and got a B in physics but still found it quite challenging, though I probably should have tried harder to not piss about

But as the other people said, the first few weeks they'll just be trying to bring everyone up to the same level so don't worry if you find it harder than everyone else.