A Levels- Everything I DON'T Know =]

[Khawaja]

Hey guys, since my O'levels exams are about to end. Here are some few questions that pop in mind and are really important

1. Differentiate Between AS and A2 PLEASE
2. Are you eligible to apply for bachelors after AS?
3. Is it possible to complete whole of A'level within a year PRIVATELY(Knowing that I am a bright student )?
4. Are there any problems associated with doing Alevels privately?
5. I was a science student in O'levels and if I attend Business classes in A Level would it create any problem(Like a serious problem)?

Thanks,
Khawaja Talha

[SaadChohan]

1- AS- Is advance subsidiary. (easier) A2- More advance. (harder)
There are 6 papers for each course divided equally between AS and A2, also 1 practical for each, depends on your subject.
2-In some universities, yes you are, but then they will pester you to do a foundation course with them.
3-Yes, depends on how many subjects you are taking, it gets tougher. From their sake, do 20 alevels in one year, as far as the dates don't clash, and usually they don't for core subjects.
4-Less practical knowledge, if you want to pursue future in science. Other that that, its on the person, how much effort he takes.
5-Obviously, as you will not know the basics of business, and when you enter alevels, they expect you to have prior foundation knowledge of the course. No serious problem as mentioned below.

Good Luck!

[Aquaburst]

Hi. AS Level is half of your course which you will be covering over 2 years (if you decide to do it from a school/college i.e). AS is the easier part of your syllabus. When you get your course books you'll see for yourself. While A 2 is the course which schools usually make you cover in your 2nd year. It's the difficult and more advanced part (continuity of AS topics).
You're not eligible to apply for Bachelors after only completing your AS level as most universities ask for full A level qualification.
It is possible to complete whole A level in a year if you are a good student already. My advise would be to give AS and A2 papers in separate sessions if you're giving it privately. That way it is much easier, trust me. I wish I had done the same.
There are no problems with giving A levels privately, regardless of what you might have heard. Unis only look at your grades, not the school/college you did it from. So just focus on your GRADES.
If you were a science student in O level, and are opting for business in A level, then you wont be facing much of a problem as the teachers teach you about the business subjects from the start, so it becomes irrelevant whether you had Business in your O level or not.

Hope i helped. Just finished with A levels myself.

[Anurin]

Obviously, as you will not know the basics of business, and when you enter alevels, they expect you to have prior foundation knowledge of the course.

Nope. They expect you to have prior knowledge only for science subjects. Just go through the syllabi, its written there what sort of knowledge they expect you to have before you begin the course. I'm doing Econ and almost everything I studied in AS, I'd already done in O levels. So no prior knowledge needed.

[Ahmad498]

4. Are there any problems associated with doing Alevels privately?
5. I was a science student in O'levels and if I attend Business classes in A Level would it create any problem(Like a serious problem)?

Thanks,
Khawaja Talha

I'll answer these.

Ans.4: Well, in short, no problems. Sometimes, some unis have a tendency to relate your A lvl to your school/college. But nothing to really worry about.

Ans.5: I was a science student in O levels, and in A levels I completely shifted to the business side. Like Aquaburst said, every social science subject starts fresh. And the case is same with Business Studies, Eco and Accounting. Sure, if you know the basics, they help a lot. But even if you don't, just work hard on the course/syllabus and you'll have no problems. It's nothing like pure sciences that you must know about.

[Shary Bhallu TC]

AS is the first year of A Levels (one half of the course), while A2 is the other half.

Not sure whether you can apply to a University straight after doing AS. A commerce friend of mine got 4 As and 2 Bs in AS and he told me that LUMS had accepted him. Not sure if he was telling the truth or lying.

Yea you can complete the whole A Levels (AS and A2) in one year provided you study very very hard. The papers may initially seem easy if you've done Add Maths etc and you look at AS and A2 Maths. But you have to give S1 and M1 too along with Maths' P1 and P3. So for Maths, there are in total 4 papers you have to give and all are extremely difficult.
I had to give practicals in my first year only (AS), no practicals in A2. But there are some schools where you have to give practicals in A2, as far as I've heard.

I used to hear from people that you will run into difficulties in Universities etc if you do it privately, but IMO thats Bull****.

No issues if you were a science student and are willing to take commerce. Some of my friends have done it and they have seemed to fit right in, but they did below average in Science.

Additional notes: If you are giving Maths, remember that there is Mechanics (shit load of difficult), Stats (probabilities, permutations and combinations are very confusing here, needs lots of time), and of course Mathematics (P1 which is very lengthy and P3 which is not as lengthy but more difficult). If your school is forcing you to give General Paper (GP), DO NOT GIVE IT. There is no value for GP out there, and you will only end up wasting time and money on it.
In Chemistry, AS course might seem difficult to adjust to from the easy Chemistry of O Levels. But its not that difficult if you do it well. In A2, you have 3 huge ass chapters (Application Booklet) which will require atleast 2 months of dedicated studies to master them. Practicals are a bitch.
In Physics, AS and A2 courses both seemed quite easy to me. Applications were not as long as Chemistry and you might be able to do the 3 application chapters in 1 month if you give it time.

[Anurin]

Not sure whether you can apply to a University straight after doing AS

You can apply, but you have to do their foundation course first. I've talked to my school counsellor about this, she told me this was a very bad idea, cause without your A2, you don't have a high school degree. It'd be more expensive too and its not like you'd be saving any time.

[YamHEad]

Hey guys, since my O'levels exams are about to end. Here are some few questions that pop in mind and are really important

1. Differentiate Between AS and A2 PLEASE
2. Are you eligible to apply for bachelors after AS?
3. Is it possible to complete whole of A'level within a year PRIVATELY(Knowing that I am a bright student )?
4. Are there any problems associated with doing Alevels privately?
5. I was a science student in O'levels and if I attend Business classes in A Level would it create any problem(Like a serious problem)?

Thanks,
Khawaja Talha

1. AS is Almost half the Alevel syllabus. Other half comprising of A2. Some A2 topics continue whats taught in AS others are completely new.
For Science there are 5 papers and out of them 3 come from only AS Syllabus. Now you can appear in AS one year and A2 second year or both at the end of second year.

2. Some universities allow that.

3. If you have taken add maths then you can do maths in one year. Physics and bio can be done in one year too. Chemistry is a bit different but if you work very hard you can ace it in one year too.

4. Yes. You dont have much practice for practicals. And If you are having problems there wont be a readily available teacher to go to. You will have problems about recommendations and extracurricular etc.

5. No. No problem at all. Infact many students (mostly those who find science difficult) shift to business during A Levels. Some even take all the sciences and economics at the same time.

---------- Post added at 04:47 PM ---------- Previous post was at 04:43 PM ----------

And if you can take AS and A2 separately. It helps a LOOOOOOOOOOOOOTTT. Some schools discourage this (including mine) I disagree with them.

I wish right now that I had also done like.

[Anurin]

Some even take all the sciences and economics at the same time.

/10char

[Mark89]

Hey guys, since my O'levels exams are about to end. Here are some few questions that pop in mind and are really important

1. Differentiate Between AS and A2 PLEASE
2. Are you eligible to apply for bachelors after AS?
3. Is it possible to complete whole of A'level within a year PRIVATELY(Knowing that I am a bright student )?
4. Are there any problems associated with doing Alevels privately?
5. I was a science student in O'levels and if I attend Business classes in A Level would it create any problem(Like a serious problem)?

Thanks,
Khawaja Talha

1) im sure ppl have answered this but i dunno if its been said but in foreign universities, AS is half a credit and A2 is a full credit.. about 80% of universities will accept 2 AS level subjects as one whole credit.. (they dont accept general studies), for example i had given AS English Lit and AS Psychology... they count as one full A2 subject.
2) Depends, see above....
3) yes you can.... (would be difficult if you were a science student, but since you are taking business classes it should be possible)
4) not that i know off...
5) im an A levels science student halfway through my ACCA... and im not even that smart... shouldn't be a problem!!!