Do some A’levels have a heavier workload?

Verbena87 · 05/10/2021 07:50

Don’t know across the board, but I know art and design subjects are a huge workload though the year but then no revision because the exams are different, whereas other subjects are lighter on coursework through the course but require intensive exam prep towards the end.

Citygirl2019 · 05/10/2021 07:51

I would say they are heavy A levels. They won't have the essay writing, but he will need to put in additional hours out of school revising/reading.

honkytonkheroe · 05/10/2021 07:51

Essay subjects would definitely be more time consuming. Three exam subjects would be quite hard going. My daughter did Biology, Psychology and Geography. Psychology was clearly essays, Geography was long answers but not essays and Biology shorter answers. That seemed a reasonable balance. Her friend did Psychology, Sociology and Government and Politics though!

honkytonkheroe · 05/10/2021 07:52

Sorry, I meant 3 essay subjects would be quite hard going!

Kosmoceratops · 05/10/2021 07:53

One of my DC did Maths, FM, Physics and History at A level. History definitely took way more time. Involved much more reading and essays took much longer to write. They were equally strong in all these subjects so it was not a question of ability.

This is why many students will take 4 maths/science based subjects and get high marks in all but the numbers of students getting top grades in 4 essay based A levels is much smaller.

Gladioli23 · 05/10/2021 07:54

I think this depends massively how easily you "get" what's being taught.

I did 5 a levels, plus a variety of in and out of school extra curriculars and didn't need to do much work outside school except when it came to exam time. I understood the concepts, got on with my work in class and found the home work fairly easy.

Other friends needed to work outside lessons in free to get the conceptual stuff and the homework took them 2/3 times as long.

Whereas people doing e.g. history had to do lots of hours no matter whether or not the concepts in class came easily to them.

Snowdropsandbluebells · 05/10/2021 07:55

I think he sounds very bright

SarahBellam · 05/10/2021 07:59

Also depends on how talented they are. My friend is a naturally very gifted mathematician and could do her homework almost in the time taken to read it, whereas it took me half the evening. That said - arts, humanities and social sciences will require more research and essay writing which will take longer.

toomuchlaundry · 05/10/2021 08:03

DS has just gone into Y12. I keep seeing threads on here talking about the extra reading students need to do for A-levels. Is this a thing for Maths and FM?

TeenMinusTests · 05/10/2021 08:37

If he is doing homework and getting it all correct and understanding everything that's super.

However if he is not going over areas he doesn't quite 'get' then he will find he gets more and more lost as things build.

I did maths and FM way back in 80s so probably totally different then), and found it a breeze so I can see it could be possible. (Didn't help me when i got to uni and had no idea at all how to 'work' at maths though!)

minipie · 05/10/2021 08:41

Yes the essay based subjects were definitely a lot more work than Maths and Physics.

If you don’t “get” Maths and Physics then they are really hard work but then if you didn’t “get” them, you wouldn’t choose them as an A level subject I imagine. Unless they were a requirement for chosen degree/career.

sanam2019 · 05/10/2021 09:03

I did Maths / Latin / History A-Levels. Maths and Latin I did not need to do much at all because I "got" it - knew the grammar by heart by then in Latin and understood Maths, so just needed a bit of practice before the final exams but low workload throughout the course. History required a LOT of reading and writing.

From what I saw, Art and Biology were the most time intensive A-Levels. I am guessing your son chose A-Levels that suit him, if he is naturally strong in them, he will be able to manage at that pace. Since he finds it easy, maybe he could dedicate some time to maths competitions or preparing for STEP?

FreeButtonBee · 05/10/2021 09:04

I did Maths, FM, Physics and English Lit back in the day.

The Maths barely registered for me as by the time we did it in Maths we'd already done it in FM (so it was like in built revision). Physics was also mostly fine and built off the maths/FM nicely although with some conceptual topics I had to work quite hard to really understand what was going on so later topics may be trickier for him.

English took the most amount of work/time but I didn't find it hard, just more time consuming. Not that I didn't have to work pretty hard at times but certainly at this point in L6 it was pretty easy breezy.

I think an able mathematician doing M,FM,P shouldn't have to work particularly hard at this stage but that won't necessary be true the whole way through. If they don't understand the concepts and are having to grind their way through now then that would be more troubling.

OhYouBadBadKitten · 05/10/2021 09:07

I think if he has lots of spare time, then like Sanam suggests, he could be working on preparing for university entrance papers, like MAT and STEP, and/or appropriate ones for any subject he might be interested in.
He could also be doing some reading around his interests, watch videos etc.

JuneOsborne · 05/10/2021 09:09

Ds is also in y12.

We went to a parents information evening and we're told that each subject required 5-7 hours of self study per week. No matter the subject.

Ds is doing chemistry, maths and computing. Chemistry has the highest work load by far.

Original poster

wednesdayblack · 05/10/2021 09:24

Funnily enough he was just talking about doing a MOOC related to the subject he wants to do at university so I will encourage this. He’s fairly busy as he does sport a couple of evenings a week and had a part time job (which would have to go if things get too much) but I’m relieved he seems to be managing at the moment. It does make sense that essay based subjects would be very time consuming.

OP posts:

NewModelArmyMayhem18 · 05/10/2021 09:26

DS did geography, history and govt & politics. A huge amount of work!

OnTheBenchOfDoom · 05/10/2021 09:38

Ds did those exact A levels (he has just started uni) and he also did pretty much all the work in the free periods. He had 5 "free" hours per week two of which were back to back so 2 hours together. Plus once enrichment (forced extra curricular stuff) was completed for the year he also had a whole afternoon too. Ds achieved 4 x A*s.

I do think some of it comes down to how easy they found what they were learning and there is no essay writing unlike History or English. I agree with looking toward uni and starting anything related to his chosen course. Ds sat a lot of MAT papers for practise as he sat the CTMUA which is actually TMUA (maths) but for Cambridge and they fund the fee for Computer Science applicants.

I know it feels early but get him to keep notes of what he is doing MOOCs wise and what he is learning from it for his personal statement. Ds was glad he kept notes from year 12 etc of what he was doing and what he was learning or where it was taking him next.

clary · 05/10/2021 09:55

I think it depends on a lot of things.

I know from speaking to DD that she spent easily as much time on French A level as she did on her other two (geography and Eng lit) put together. But that may be because French was especially hard for her. Eng Lit is her subject so maybe it was easier.

I recall clearly spending a lot more time on my ancient Greek A level than my other two language (modern) A levels. In fact the one I got the best grade in I did barely any work for.

OP your DS sounds as if he is doing really well which is great. Agree with others, use any spare time productively to go over what he's done or as enrichment.

DogFoodPie · 05/10/2021 10:01

Computer science has a 50 hour coding project so that takes some time but as others said a lot of the extra time in these subjects would be your own revising and practice papers and so on.

maofteens · 06/10/2021 16:10

It's early yet! My daughter is doing art, history and psychology, and History is, by quite a long way, the most time consuming so far, but she has a dragon of a teacher and they are required to do copious notes which then must turn in and get marked. Psychology she has done a few essays but has found that fine, and they have yet to really get going in art.
All this may yet change as they get further along. Also, my daughter has a number of study periods and she does quite a bit of work then, rather than use some of the time to socialise like many of her classmates. As she commutes an hour each way this means if she can get 70% of her homework done in school then home time is down time, though we anticipate the workload will increase as time goes on.

Chilldonaldchill · 06/10/2021 17:38

DD did History, Eng Lit and Government & Politics. Most of her friends did Maths, FM, Chemistry and Physics. She definitely had to do a lot more hours outside lessons than they did but their lessons were maybe a bit more focused and a bit less "discussion around the subject". They all got the same grades in the end.

Kanaloa · 06/10/2021 17:43

It depends on the person. I have found a literature degree quite easy because I’m a fast reader and good at linking ideas. Others who thought it was an easy subject have struggled just with the pure volume of reading and with the criticism.

I imagine if you’re naturally mathematically gifted then it would feel ‘easy’ but to someone like me it would be so hard.

Also, it sounds like he’s being sensible and using his free periods to work away. Many teens at sixth form think ‘oh great I’m only in school x hours, loads of time to myself’ and don’t properly use their time for independent study. By keeping on top of everything like he is he won’t become overwhelmed and will manage well. So that will make a difference as well.

augustusbloom · 06/10/2021 17:52

@wednesdayblack

My year 12 DS is doing Further Maths, Maths, Physics and Computer Science A’levels. So far he’s pretty much managing to get all his homework done in his free lessons with just a few hours a week at home. I was expecting him to be swamped with work but he seems to be fine. Is this because of the subjects he’s doing? Are essay based subjects like History and English Literature heavier subjects?

I think it really depends - I did my A Levels 10 years ago so not really best placed but I did English and two other soft subjects and whilst I had a lot of essays I got along fine, and I worked 12 hours a week part-time and, like your son, used my frees to do my homework. I wanted to have my outside of school time free to see friends and earn money, so it made sense. I also worked 20 hours a week part-time at uni, and still went out and had lots of fun, travelled, etc...

I'm definitely more towards the approach of if someone can't cope with the amount of work involved in A Levels (without having a part-time job, especially), then they're going to have a hell of a wake up call in the future. Your year 12 DS sounds like he is going to do great - those subjects are haaaaarrrddd and if he's managing his own time to keep on top if it, he'll be just fine.

gogohm · 06/10/2021 18:04

They vary. Portfolio based subjects like art and fashion can be the biggest workload in my experience.