A levels - what should they be doing outside of lessons?

[Jungfraujoch]

Went to the parents intro evening and they said they expect the same no of hours of lessons in college to be spent studying at home.

DS is very vague, do they get given advice/suggestions on what to study? He's taking Graphics, Media and Geography.

What are your teens doing outside of college?

Footnote!
Yesterday got a study guide for a Media and Graphics, so that is a little clearer - but am still interested on people's views/experiences - especially any A level teachers out there.

Thank you.

DD is doing Geography, she is given a list of "further reading" for independent study at home or in study periods, plus a set of past questions on the current topic so they can get used to the types of things asked for. (they reckon 5 hours a week per subject independent study)

bumping for you.

Geography: you could get him a subscription to National Geographic. He could join the Geographical Association
Media: listen to The Media Show on Radio 4.
Graphics: not a scooby, I'm afraid.

Thank you for the suggestions. I'm hoping a Geography study guide will,appear very soon!

(Oh, I was thinking of posting things like part time job, PS4, certainly not doing extra 5 hours....).

DC doing geography, likes social/human geography more than physical geography. What is National Geographic like for that kind of things? (younger dc used to get Kids NG but seemed to be a lot of advertisements).

I would say that NG is more Human than Physical. This month we have pets, Jane Goodall, Ecology in Dubai, the Rohingya, reindeer herders in the Russian Arctic. They do like a good photo.
I'd forgotten that there is a TV channel, too.

At my dcs sixth form they expect you to self study the topic of the next lesson, really learn it, then they spend the lesson explaining bits the kids don't understand.

DD didn't do any similar topics (not does DS but he's only just started year 12 and copies his sister's work methods!) but she used to write up all the notes and work from class when she got home into a revision format (Flashcards/posters/mindmaps/sometimes just copying them straight up in an A4 format) and then find past paper questions on the topics she'd done, or do extra essays for essay subjects. Also extra reading and research made up quite a lot of her time - especially when coursework came around. Doing all of this meant she had a pretty low-stress exam season, despite having exam clashes meaning she had 4 and a half hours of exams in one day on two occasions!

I have heard staff from 3 different schools say 5hrs, per subject, per week of self study.
Obviously going to vary a bit, per child, but think that is a good starting point.

Thank you very much for all the feedback, all interesting and helpful!

Oh, all my schools suggested that when the dc were starting with 4 subjects in Yr 12 - just thought!
Don't know if the advice is different now it seems to be reverting back to taking 3 subjects...... I presume that means more time available to give to each subject.

Keep in mind though they can study in free study periods in school, it's not like GCSEs when they are fully timetabled, so it might not all be done at home.

Look online for the exam board syllabus.
Make sure you've covered everything in the syllabus and actually know it well.
Past papers will help for geog and media but not sure about graphics

My students were from poor deprived backgrounds and didn't always have internet at home
A good way to get them to understand and remember facts, names, dates etc was plain and simple post it notes, taken from the boards text book.
A sp told me she had no time to do extra study, she posted them all over her flat and replaced them when she understood/had consolidated the information.
She reported that she learned most when feeding her baby and washing up She got an A bless her, but it wa Sociology and psychology.