A Levels? help!

Calum · 3 Sep 2007 at 19:04

The age thing wasn't much of a hassle at all, moving to a new college meant that i didn't grow up knowing them as the younger year - although it is annoying to get asked to buy alcohol for parties lol

Plus the people i did know there already were my age, so could hang round with them last year, which made for an easy transition

Two years will go past realllllllly quickly, last year was like a blur, what with 300 people's names to learn!

PureAppleJuice · 3 Sep 2007 at 19:10

Exams for the win. My advice would be to meet deadlines I think, that's what caused me to only do averagely at college, oh and attendance! Attendance is a must! Mine dropped to something like 70% and it shows in my grades imho.

syke · 3 Sep 2007 at 19:43

Stay where you are - or even think about doing a compressed third AS/A2?

Or even get 2 A Levels and do another AS.

Dont quit and start again.

And Thorpy, when you start - keep the mood of working and dont take any temptation to quit/slack. I learnt my lesson.

I took 4 AS levels, and dropped one within two months (Psychology) and in a way regret it with the free time i have.

I dont mind having only 3 AS Levels, which will become 3 A Levels *touch wood*.

More you get, the better.

Fraggr · 3 Sep 2007 at 19:44

syke said:
I took 4 AS levels, and dropped one within two months (Psychology) and in a way regret it with the free time i have.

I dont mind having only 3 AS Levels, which will become 3 A Levels *touch wood*.

More you get, the better.

I'm taking Psychology, what made you drop it?

syke · 3 Sep 2007 at 19:47

Fraggr said:
I'm taking Psychology, what made you drop it?

The teachers the year before were really good & actually made learning 'fun' (shouldnt say that), and were really good teachers.

But they ended up leaving. Then the new teachers dropped the teaching set up and started a new one, and in a way it just took the interest out of it - they started with the really boring stuff first, and i lost interest.

Dont get me wrong, its a great, great subject, i just lost interest. And its a really hard, demanding subject too.

Nix · 3 Sep 2007 at 19:58

Fraggr said:
I'm taking Psychology, what made you drop it?

I originally did an AS in it but failed the exam. I actually had a look at the textbook which I discovered I still owned this morning and although I was looking for something in particular for my dissertation, it reminded me on how easy the A-levels are providing you are willing to work. Sadly, I was not and I will always regret that, but I'm working hard now and that's what counts.

If you lot take anything from this conversation, learn this - don't spend your time worrying about fitting into cliques, where to go during your free periods, or whatever else it is 16-18 year-olds do. Instead, focus on the task at hand and just get on with it. If you don't you will only regret it.

4p · 3 Sep 2007 at 20:06

Cheers syke

For the first term they basically spam you with work to see if your worth 1, 2 or 3 A levels

Lol

syke · 3 Sep 2007 at 20:10

Thorpy said:
Cheers syke

For the first term they basically spam you with work to see if your worth 1, 2 or 3 A levels

Lol

Haha, once you start - the first week or two is a breeze, then they get you with the work. It'll hit you harder than GCSE's, but its just you have to focus on it rather than be too laid back.

Its fine after a while, once you get used to it.

RoachycaL · 5 Sep 2007 at 12:22

To bring this thread up from the depths, I started AS last year taking Psychology, Geography, ICT and English. I realised around christmas time that I was REALLY struggling - I just wasnt remembering anything I was being taught so I dropped Geography and thought I was doing ok as I had more time to focus on my stronger subjects. I ended up going into school in August to get my results and I got an E in Psychology, D in ICT and a C in English and basically worked out that I just wasnt putting the effort in. I go back tomorrow to start year 13 and I really need to start getting my act together .

As people have already said, Psychology is an incredibly difficult subject to master and I really wish I had dropped it over Geography as I work part time in a garden centre and I'm starting to get involved with the plant side of things and its really interesting me.

I guess I just really have to make sure I learn everything for psychology and re-take my exams which is going to be a serious pain!

furnace · 5 Sep 2007 at 12:34

*checks profile* too many people don't specify their age

Well, I went to sixth form and got a lot of trash from one of the tutors there. Unfortunately she taught two of my subjects, and when I dropped one of them, she turned into uber time-of-the-month woman every day. So I stopped turning up for her lessons in the other subject, and then - rather than helping me by putting me in another tutors class - they said I either turn up or I quit, so I quit. Result; my future plans went out the window. There's more to it than that but that was the jist of it.

So I had ~9 months out then went to another college to do a 2 year "programming" BTEC - it turns out during the 9 months I had off college, I had taught myself far more programming than the tutors could ever teach on the BTEC. That's probably why they're tutors in a college, not programmers at IBM. So after 2 years of mind-numbing paperwork, some drugs to keep me happy, and a distinct lack of actual programming, I came out of the course with 240 UCAS point (which is OK, but not to be big headed, a huge underachievement as I know I could do far better). The course wasn't stimulating enough, and to be honest, the fact I was learning with such numpties (minus one guy who pretty much had the same experience as me) really got me down in the dumps. 240 points wasn't enough to get me in to Southampton Uni's Comp Sci course.

If I could wind back time? Either re-take A-Levels at the second college, or go to the highest level at the first college and get my lessons taught with another tutor. Either way, I would take A-Levels if I went back in time.

Right now, you're choosing how you're going to live the rest of your life - and I think A-Levels followed by a degree is certainly the easiest way to earn £50k+ a year. Although my girlfriend's degree (podiatry) has a ceiling of ~£30k/year, hence I'm pushing her to do a different degree afterwards as she wants to do something medical, but you need a degree for everything medical and I don't want her stuck on £30k and regretting it in 20 years time.