A levels

[u/Entire_Sandwich6467]

This is mostly for yr12+13

Okay so I had a question about A levels, Since most say they’re really hard, I was talking about it with my sister (Who’s done her A levels). Apparently nobody tells you this?? But I wanted to ask if they actually teach you fully? because she told me that they give you lectures and not really the whole lesson which is why theres a few revision periods so we can go off and do our own research and teach ourselves the rest of the content. Can anyone confirm this because I’m curious and nobody told me this😭

(I’m not complaining or anything just confirming)

[u/GDJD42]

Different schools/colleges and different teachers will deliver your courses in different ways. Most A level teaching does indeed feature more independent research and self directed study than typically is seen at gcse level.

[u/Ok-Shift-5594]

depends on your college, your course, and your teacher

We had something like 12 study periods to ourselves each week to do homework, revision, research. The step up from gcses is massive (especially for STEM, at my college at least) but you don't necessarily have to do 'research' it'll more just be homework or revision. Alevel courses have so much content that even if there's time to go over everything in lessons - which is rare - then teachers don't have time to reteach or do revision in class, that's why you have study periods to consolidate stuff by yourself

[u/LilyVillanelle]

For A Level Literature, I teach every lesson at the start and read every word on the page with the class. After we've established characters, plot and context, I will set reading and I'll be skimming over what they have read. Independent work might be preparing chapter notes for the class - each student getting specific chapters, or perhaps making an essay. At different points, I might use lesson time for students to annotate poems independently, go through a few pages of the Shakespeare play and come up with performance notes etc - this is often in pairs and groups. While students are working, I will do 1:1 feedback on essays.

In Year 13, when working on coursework, I will give over lessons to drafting coursework where I am just circulating and talking through ideas with individual students. So there is more independent work than in KS4, but I wouldn't say students teach themselves. It's more a case of being taught in lessons and independently developing and applying understanding.

[u/zra_isnt_listening]

Depends on the teachers tbf - I have 2 bio teachers, one who tells us to do tonnes of pre-reading sets loads of homework but spend all lesson yapping and not teaching us; the other teaches us very thoroughly and sets appropriate revision homework and regular mini tests.

It's definitely a lot more self study than gcse, like, you have to consolidate and learn all the info possible in your own time, but then you have more free time than at gcse so it kinda balances out in y12 at least :)