I wish I was British and had any idea what's going on. :3
Is this like a placement test for colleges in the U.K.?
Is this like a placement test for colleges in the U.K.?
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A-level results day
- Thread starter Wichu
- Start date
Good job everyone :]
Wait a couple years and maybe I'll be there on UK working on my PhD :o
Wait a couple years and maybe I'll be there on UK working on my PhD :o
Congrats dude! Natural sciences (physical), right?
@IB - congrats on the grades, sorry you didn't make STEP. :/ they're missing out!
@mrindigo - no. A*s introduced last year at alevel. But have been in GCSEs for about 20 years?
what College?
Can someone british explain why you take so few courses in your final years, and exactly how in-depth you get with those courses?
I assume it's significantly further than we do here in Canada or would in the states.
I assume it's significantly further than we do here in Canada or would in the states.
we're born with knowledge a priori of general academic subjects on account of our excellent breeding, so there's less to pick up
You take A-levels over two years, AS and then A2 when you are 16-18 before going to uni. Your A-levels are meant to prepare you somewhat for your degree choice; you specialise into relevant things.
Most people take 4 subjects at AS plus General Studies/Critical Thinking (useless crap that no-one cares about) and then drop one though I did 5 at AS and then 4 at A2 (Maths, Further Maths, Physics, Economics now studying the latter at uni) plus Critical Thinking.
Maths I wouldn't regard to going into a proper amount of depth, the hardest thing you'll find is probably trig calculus. Further maths is a lot more indepth and a lot of the principles you find will be covered in the first year of your degree course if you do a degree that involves a lot of maths like Engineering, Economics, Physics etc. You'll learn matrices, complex numbers in very good depth.
The general idea is that the first year of your degree is the same difficulty of your A2 subjects although clearly you won't have gone into as much depth in just the one subject. It's hard to generalise though, you don't have to need to have studied economics to do it at university though, only maths. My general experience is that a lot of what you learn at A level is useful to degree level stuff but you aren't taught the derivations and indeed how to question the basic premise of it.
As an additional note, unlike many places in the world (Australia, the USA), the universities in the UK tell you what they'll accept in advance. E.g. you apply to a particular degree program, and the university says "We'll take you if you get an A in Physics, an A in Maths, and two B-or-betters in any other subjects", or something along those lines.
http://www.fleetstreetfox.com/2011/08/more-pictures-like-this-please.html?spref=tw&m=1
An excellent blog post, tangentially related to A-levels.
An excellent blog post, tangentially related to A-levels.
Might as well post these here
AS results: AAAB in Biology, Chemistry, Maths, Critical Thinking (but nobody cares about CT)
(Since I'm doing Pre-U in English, rather than A-level, I didn't have to take an exam in it this year)
Highlights: 100% in Biology F212 and in Maths Core 2 (I think)
This is, you realise, pretty much the only positive thing I've got out of the last few months.
AS results: AAAB in Biology, Chemistry, Maths, Critical Thinking (but nobody cares about CT)
(Since I'm doing Pre-U in English, rather than A-level, I didn't have to take an exam in it this year)
Highlights: 100% in Biology F212 and in Maths Core 2 (I think)
This is, you realise, pretty much the only positive thing I've got out of the last few months.
I think my ACDE makes me feel somewhat inadequate in this A* minefield. I don't even have any excuses, I just sucked at school.
Don't care too much, had my gap year. If anyone else is going to Lincoln they should let me know. You guys all so smart though. Congrats on everyone getting first choices and such.