How big is the step up to A levels really?

There's a good blog on the transition written by a tutor who helped my DD out: www.mytutorweb.co.uk/blog/starting-your-a-levels-how-to-hit-the-ground-running/

Emma's description of teachers referring to it as ‘the jump’, and making it seem more of a 'catapulted spring into an unfamiliar universe' reminds me of the transition : )

DD1 in year 13 is finding the step up from AS to A2 difficult but hopefully with more revision and past papers she will do okay. Year 13 is difficult as time is spent on uni applications and interviews etc and partying

Op, we have had an email home outlining what school (state) expect of the students:
during a typical school-week, students should be studying for three hours in the evening, ten hours over the weekend and five to six hours per day during the holidays.
DD in year 12 thinks that is far too much! But they do have mocks in January.

Dd in year 12 found the step up from GCSE challenging to begin with and is under no illusion that she will need to buckle down to achieve the grades she is capable of getting at A'level. My dd's school emphasise the importance of choosing A'level subjects that the child is capable of studying and all students can attend taster lessons while in year 11, which was really helpful. In addition I think students will do better at A'level if they enjoy the subject as they are expected to work independently a lot of the time.

I got mostly Cs at GCSE with a couple of Bs and a couple of As. I was initially predicted Cs and Ds at A Level based on the average of students who had the same GCSE grades as me (I was NOT impressed, I hadn't even done any work and I got given these predicted grades. Pffft).

I got AAB at A Level with 95-100 per cent in several of my modules. I just excelled in sixth form, I got to look in-depth at subjects that I was actually interested in, the class sizes were smaller which suited me better and I loved the work. I got a B at English Lit GCSE and an A at A Level (this is in the days before As, but now I would have got the equivalent of an A based on my percentages). It is definitely possible to improve but it really depends on your daughter and her interest in the subjects. I was really passionate about my subjects so working hard didn't bother me. If she's really into them then let her go for it, if she seems ambivalent then I'd be looking at the BTEC route. I suppose it depends on what she wants to do afterwards as well.

TooHasty - why would I be 'mistaken' ? . I can understand the words the teaching staff at the schools spoke to me. What an odd thing to post. They all said that, yes, for University offers it counts as a full A Level, but from a timetabling pov you only get around 1/2 the hours teaching each school gave me a number) so dd would have space on the timetable to do an extra A-level. There was a concession that not everyone coped with it, but that she should start and drop something if not coping, rather than "only" starting with 4 like most people would.

Good post catslife.
DDs' school specifies Bs in most subjects (except FM).
How they do does seem to relate to how much effort they put in as well as the starting point. DD1 has friends that got better grades at AS than Gcse and friends that did far worse. Both my DDs are doing well because they enjoy their subjects and no longer have to study subjects they hated. They both attend after school or lunchtime clubs in their subjects when they don't understand a topic and they do lots of past papers. They also work in their 'frees' except on a Friday afternoon

Interesting though the info on FM is, this won't be relevant to pupils with a grade B or C at GCSE.
So far PP have assumed that pupils with A or A* at GCSE are the better pupils, but this disregards the effect of the school attended at KS3 and 4. Surely pupils at a school with poor teaching could have underachieved at GCSE and be more capable than those who have attended the best schools (or had extensive tutoring) and obtained top grade GCSEs.
Most non selective sixth forms would accept pupils with a grade B at GCSE onto A level courses in these subjects and wouldn't mind if pupils had grade Cs in non A level subjects.
I would ask this question to the sixth forms you are applying to OP. What A level grade would a grade B GCSE student expect to obtain at A level at this college? Obviously it's going to vary for each student but it may help you decide.

At my DDs' school, FM counts as a full subject BUT the odd degree course/uni doesn't count Maths and FM as 2 individual subjects e.g. Medicine and some pharmacy courses etc. So the A levels still count but the course may require 2 further A levels - so 4 in total are needed rather than 3. At our school, the pupils are encouraged to take 4 to AS level and continue all 4 to A2 if 1 of the options is FM. DD2 (yr12) is doing FM as a 5th subject at AS level but self studying it - mainly because she wanted to keep her options open (maths and 3 sciences). She was planning to do medicine but was not 100% sure and I think she will now go down the engineering route.

At ds's school the timetabled FM classes will only get a student an AS at the end of the two years. In order to get an A2 in FM, they need to commit to additional lessons off timetable which take place after school. This is at a high performing league table school (top 100).

'don't particularly wish to identify either myself or my dd that openly thanks'

why would you identify yourself? surely your DD isn't the only one applying!!! I just wanted to check out their website to see you aren't mistaken about FM not being a full subject choice.Have looked at all our local schools and that is not the case.

Well I can TooHasty but don't particularly wish to identify either myself or my dd that openly thanks. Point being, 3 out of the 4 we've looked at said the same thing. 2 were grammars, one an ordinary state comp.

Real problem is, how do we know what dd should do for the best ?

How much work Further Maths is depends both on how good you are at maths and how your school/college teaches it. There's a huge difference between a naice school where the whole top set does Further Maths and (the more common situation) where, at most, a handful of students do it, with a significant amount of self-teaching.

Who doesn't count FM as a full A level? At our school it has a full timetable slot.Why wouldn't it? It has as many modules as Maths.The thing is that you can use some modules for either.I think that confuses some people.
Can you name one of these 6th forms that doesn't regard FM as a full subject?

"but 3 out of the 4 6th forms said they wouldn't count FM as a 'full choice' so they'd expect her to take Physics, Maths, FM, and 2 others."

Why 2 others? FM often doesn't count as a full timetable slot, but it's common and normal for it to be a 4th A level. It doesn't need to be a 5th.

DS is considering 5, but that's largely because he's looking at medicine but his favourite individual science is Physics.

LSE want to see Further Maths to at least AS level for Economics but wont offer against it.

Part of the point may be that for a very able mathematician double maths really is not the work load of, say, two humanities A levels. So two maths plus only one other won't provide evidence that a candidate can manage the work load at University, which again is quite a step up.

BackforGood The one situation I'm aware of where FM might not 'count' for university admissions is medicine: www.furthermaths.org.uk/medicine. For a Physics or Maths degree, Physics, Maths and Further Maths is a good set of A-levels. And probably for most Engineering degrees too (but I don't have first hand expertise there).

BackforGood It's true (but only on MN) that sometimes Further Maths is looked upon as not a full A level.
DS1's friend did exactly what your DD is looking at - Maths, FM and Physics. A levels. She is now studying Maths at a top university and she got 5 good offers with those subjects.
She did also do Chemistry to AS but I appreciate that things are changing as far as AS goes next year.
I admit to steering DS2 away from FM because he is also only "ordinarily bright". I saw many of DS1's cohort do very badly at it and he doesn't love maths enough .

We've been looking at 6th forms this last month. My dd had made up her mind she wanted to do Physics, Maths and Further maths, and was wavering a bit over her 4th, but 3 out of the 4 6th forms said they wouldn't coundt FM as a 'full choice' so they'd expect her to take Physics, Maths, FM, and 2 others.
Obviously, being the dd of a MNer I have to say she's quite bright but seriously, she's only "ordinarily bright" not outstandingly G&T or anything.

jeanne16 Five good AS is doable for the most able youngsters though not for everyone, also with Maths and Physics there is a little overlap. DS1 was warned not to spread himself too thin but achieved top grades with very high UMS in 5 AS and A* in four A levels.
The poster with a DC doing 5 mentioned STEP so I presume is aiming for Cambridge.
This thread is not about DC like that though it's about those who work hard to get GCSEs and whether A levels are the right choice for them. There is no question that my DS2 would attempt 5 AS levels. He is finding the step up in content manageable but the self study much more difficult.

I think Trilby is spot on - a lot of it's down to how much you are able to work independently. DS1 was hopeless at self-motivation and independent working so really bombed his A levels. DS2 is excellent at independent working - has never needed to be nagged or encouraged. He coped with the jump from GCSE to AS very well (apart from in maths ....).

What I would say is that, while everyone talks about the jump from GCSE to AS, the jump from AS to A2 is, from my experience, far greater. Not only is the work harder at A2, they are having to juggle personal statements and uni visits in the first term as well..

missed the post from the mner whose ds was doing 5 AS levels jeanne

Please be aware that the top unis, incl Oxbridge, do not look at ucas points. They look at AS module marks. So your son should not be doing 5 subjects as he is spreading his efforts too thinly. He should drop one now and focus on getting the best possible marks in the AS exams of the remaining 4.