Do some A’levels have a heavier workload?

[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?

Dd is swamped at the moment by her 3 essay subjects. She has 2 coursework deadlines looming and it’s not helped by UCAS/application stuff at the same time plus a y13 EPQ (lots of other schools get this out of the way in y12). The third subject also has coursework but it doesn’t “clash” so much. Maybe she will feel better knowing 20% is out of the way before the exams but right now she’s struggling.

Agree, Art is very time intensive. My DS did Maths, Physics, Geography and Art and Art by far the most stressful and time intensive.

It depends. If he is naturally good at maths then he may be finding it not very hard.
I did maths, further maths and physics and almost never had anything outside lessons, dh added chemistry to that and said he didn't ever bring work home.

Maths and Further maths I just whizzed through, never felt it was hard at all, and the maths carried me through Physics.

From what I remember of my Maths A Level there definitely were long formula proofs - I could easily write 1k words trying to prove a few equations in Calculus. Back then we also had projects to do but these have probably been stopped now.

DD1 doing Spanish, English, Politics and Philosophy and Ethics. 4 heavy essay subjects with a lot of reading.

She will drop one before year 13 I think.

She's got lots of work but is pretty organised and likes a list

I did that exact combination 25 years ago! Don't remember having to do much extra work, certainly had more when doing GCSEs.
Daughter has just finished A levels and worked on FM but didn't need to do anything for maths as saw that as a 'free' one alongside the further maths.

Dd did Art, Music and Eng lit. OMG... Y13 was stressful. There was so much coursework, source reading etc. Just way, way too much, not enough hours in the day. She took a year out after just to relax. Now doing English at uni and loving it.

Have DS in same situation with same subjects and we were having the same conversation earlier in the week.
He gave us lots of reassurances about being on top of it and working in his free periods. First set of exams after half term so I guess we’ll see.

DD is doing 4, art and history are the worst of them, art just sucks up your time, and history - so much extra reading, she has a huge book list.

DS did maths, FM, physics and chemistry, and had loads of free time. He said he did a lot of the homework in the lessons as well as in the free periods. There was quite a lot of overlap - chemistry involved a fair bit of maths, but there was a lot more work to do in the organic chemistry. If you do FM, maths seems very easy in comparison. However, if you are not mathematical, I can imagine it would be a lot more work.

History and art are definitely very time consuming, but if they are your subjects, I can imagine it wouldn't seem like work.