GCSE to A-Levels!

Hi guys, 

If you haven't read my 'Get to know me' blog post you probably aren't aware I just made the dreaded GCSE to A-Level jump! 

I chose Psychology, History, Biology and Sociology. 

How did you decide to do those subjects?
I enjoyed both Biology and History at GCSE and so I knew straight away I wanted to take it onto a further level in Sixth Form, so I never had one doubt about taking these two subjects.

When it came to picking sociology, I was really torn between taking Chemistry or Sociology. After I achieved an A* in chemistry, I was really sure I wanted to take it a-level. After speaking to my schools careers advisor, she REALLY put me off ever setting foot into another chemistry lesson with all the 'NO WAY! You can't do chemistry! It's the hardest A-Level out there!' 'No, chemistry isn't for you' talks, I really turned my nose up at the thought of chemistry, so I took a huge risk at taking sociology. I'm not going to lie, I don't think I really did any research into sociology before ticking 'Sociology Column 5' in my application form. This was a huge mistake! 

Psychology really interested me on the open evening and I always found it so interesting why people do certain things so I guessed psychology would be for me. Without much thought, when it came to doing my application form there was a big ol' tick in 'Column 2 Psychology'.

How is it different to GCSE?
I'm finding A-Levels a massive jump from GCSE, I always heard those comments how 'gcse to a level is a bigger jump than a level to university' and thought 'no way! That can't be true!' I was so so wrong! I find the work load insane! The homework is quite bearable for me personally but I find the independent study workload intense such as the revision. You might think 'why do you need to revise in term one, the exams ages away!' but the content of the courses is massive so you always need to be going over what you learn from the beginning or you'll get to exam period and find it impossible to learn what you did back in September. Doing the bare minimum at A-Level just isn't enough, every night I find myself bent over my desk doing revision and extra notes for every subjects. At GCSE, teachers spoon feed you the knowledge, tell you what's important and what you need to know to scrape your target grade, at A-Level it is SO independent.

Favourite subject? 
I'd 100% say psychology is my favourite subject, I have two teachers. One of them I absolutely love and she's so lovely however the other one I don't get on with too well but that doesn't really affect my school work to much as I really enjoy the course content. I think psychology is the subject I want to continue at degree level.

Worst subject?
Without a doubt I can 100% say history is my least favourite subject. Like with psychology, I have one teacher who is SOOO nice and one who just ... isn't. The teachers have a huge influence on me in history because with the teacher who I just don't like I am really struggling with her work. I find that I don't understand anything! With my other teacher, I'm learning about the American Revolution and I really enjoy it. 

At one point, probably about 3 weeks back I sent both my form tutor and head of year an email basically telling them that I want to drop history. Then, my history teacher spoke to me about, she really reassured me and I ended up staying on for AS, if it wasn't for my nice teacher I probably would have dropped it by now!

Organisation

When it comes to organisation, I'm not the best I have to admit! I use a ring binder folder to keep all my notes from class together. Heres just an example of how I separate my work. I have each subject separated by unit/teacher.

I find it vital to keep my notes together for class because a lot of the time you need your notes from previous lessons.

GOOD LUCK!  Please don't be scared, you get used to it and teachers are always there to support, whether you like them or not they do have your best interests at heart- It's their job!

Sorry this is such a long rambly blog post today, I didn't intend for it to be so long and wordy!
If you have any questions, please comment them and i'll reply as soon as I can.
Love, Hannah x