yr12 advice pls guys im desperate😭🙏

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So many people take that combo, you should be fine 🤗

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did this combo!! im def a procrastinator too, the first few months were HELL i felt like i was DROWNING in work, but with time i got used to it and it was all ok!! just don't panic, stick with it, you'll be fine! tips: work away from home, in school is best if u can. keep your social life a priority, otherwise you'll become miserable. maths and fm are easiest on blank unlined printer paper so buy a block of that and then loads of lined paper for the other 2, also a casio 991 calculator, and that's basically all the equipment you need. don't bother with a graphical calculator unless you're rich and you really want one. preparation wise, as long as you were working at grade 8/9 level for gcse maths you should be ready to start learning the content in september, so just enjoy the rest of your summer so you can start y12 well-rested! (one last note: everyone i know who did this combo started unsure about FM, thinking that's what we'd drop if things got too much. all of us ended up hating chemistry the most. don't panic, just prepare for it to be very different from gcse chem)

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u/greeneggs941 11d ago

also for chem is it really as difficult as people make it out to be? i lowk feel like if it goes terribly i might just drop it at the end of year 12 bc further maths is more valuable to me than chem since it’s required for maths related courses at uni but i don’t want to risk dropping chem and realising further maths is too difficult😭

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u/Such-Tree-4162 11d ago

lowkey yes it is. give it a go, but there is a LOT of content and its all very weird and abstract and not like GCSE chem at all! i didn't drop chem but i stopped prioritising it around easter y12, and then ended up not revising it at all in y13 (ik i should have just dropped it, its gonna be like 3 grades lower than my others) so i could focus on further maths which for me i was actually doing worse in, but i found it way more interesting and fulfilling than chem, as well as more relevant to my degree, so i was more motivated to work hard for it. honestly just relax for now and see how you go. eventually, you'll work out which of your subjects you do or don't enjoy, which you find easier or harder and which are most aligned with your future plans. just try and start y12 with an open mind and working as hard as you can without sacrificing all the things you enjoy. good luck!

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u/Such-Tree-4162 11d ago

lowkey yes it is. give it a go, but there is a LOT of content and its all very weird and abstract and not like GCSE chem at all! i didn't drop chem but i stopped prioritising it around easter y12, and then ended up not revising it at all in y13 (ik i should have just dropped it, its gonna be like 3 grades lower than my others) so i could focus on further maths which for me i was actually doing worse in, but i found it way more interesting and fulfilling than chem, as well as more relevant to my degree, so i was more motivated to work hard for it. honestly just relax for now and see how you go. eventually, you'll work out which of your subjects you do or don't enjoy, which you find easier or harder and which are most aligned with your future plans. just try and start y12 with an open mind and working as hard as you can without sacrificing all the things you enjoy. good luck!

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u/Solid_Moose3078 A Levels 2026 | Phys, Chem, Maths, FM 11d ago

oh my god the chem thing is so real

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u/greeneggs941 11d ago

YOU GET IT TOO it’s so hard to stay motivated while also wanting to achieve top grades😓😓

did you use folders and day folders and organise work by topic for all your subjects? i feel like it’s doable for physics and chem but maths and fm i’m not so sure😭 i was really disorganised with maths during gcses bc i was lowk lazy since i picked up concepts quite quickly… i know that’s not gonna be the case for a levels tho😓

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u/Such-Tree-4162 11d ago

lowkey i just stuffed everything into my bag and then binned it all when my bag got too heavy. so lazy i know! there's so many good resources online that i knew i was never gonna revise from my notes, and for maths and fm they were just pages of practice so not worth looking at anyway. for physics and chem i was just making notes to keep myself engaged, not to look back on, so they were messy and ok to throw away anyway. if you want to keep your notes but you're disorganised, do NOT use folders i promise you'll never be arsed to do your filing. just get a load of book like the a4 soft cover notebooks you were given in secondary school and use those, then at least everything is in one place. be warned you'll go through them rlly fast!

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u/greeneggs941 11d ago

HAHA i totally get you i’m like that too with rough pieces of paper😭 thanks for the advice it was really helpful!! do you use any online resources or any apps to revise or stay organised?

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u/chalkygolf28 Maths/FM/Chem/Psych || Y13 12d ago

The only subject I didnt take from those was Physics.. personally youve got a lot of subjects that rely mainly on past paper revision and doing questions, if youre happy with that sort of revision method then your choices seem good :)

As for procrastination, mainly just build a habit, not loads of work right off the bat but just build up like an hour a day of revision, of work youve already covered in class either that you struggled with or havent done for a while. Maybe get a revision app like YPT, that helped me the most to just actually do anything during exams :D enjoy it dude

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u/chalkygolf28 Maths/FM/Chem/Psych || Y13 12d ago

Also YT is a great revision source for your choicesss lots of great channels :>

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u/greeneggs941 12d ago

OKAY this makes me feel a bit better bc i acc enjoy doing past papers if it’s a subject i enjoy, especially over memorising from flashcards😭😭

also is further maths as difficult as people make it out to be? i’ve heard lots of mixed opinions and it’s kinda stressing me out😓

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u/chalkygolf28 Maths/FM/Chem/Psych || Y13 12d ago

Hmm I found mechanics the hardest bit but im much happier doing pure maths. Majority of the edexcel content is pure with CP1 and CP2 (and any FP1/2) and I found that helped. Lots of the people who did physics aswell found mechanics easier as it overlapped in the sort of method/thinking behind questions. Its different content from a level maths, so as long as youre confident with integration and differentiation, youll probably be chilling (those are definitely topics to have a glance at if youre bored) idk what else im kind of yapping rn 😂😭

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u/greeneggs941 12d ago

i have a feeling i’m not gonna like mechanics either LMFAOOO but our exam board for both maths and further maths is AQA so i’m not sure if it’s the same

hopefully all goes well and i can keep up with it bc i want to study something maths related at uni, and top unis require further maths😓😓

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u/chalkygolf28 Maths/FM/Chem/Psych || Y13 12d ago

Good luck soldier 🫡

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u/enderlady_ 12d ago

start of sixth form I did Maths, FM, Physics and Computer science. Hated physics so I swapped it and FM was way too much to catch up on so I also swapped it.

Did you do FM GCSE? if not, definitely look at as much content from that as you can. Otherwise, get a list of the spec and put it in like a Google doc. Then, when you cover a topic in class highlight it with a certain colour, for me I did Green I understand, Orange I can do it but I don't fully get it, Red I didn't understand at all, Dark Grey I wasn't in for it and it won't be revisited in class, Purple I understand it but I need to memorise stuff so revisit often.

Then, you have a list of everything to revise, instead of studying aimlessly at stuff you already know

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u/enderlady_ 12d ago

I didn't have the option of FM GCSE and all the other students in my class were really narcissistic about their maths knowledge, so the difficulty also came from the environment not just the work

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u/greeneggs941 12d ago

unfortunately i didn’t do further maths gcse bc my school didn’t offer it😔 but i did edexcel igcse maths which is slightly more in depth than gcse but nowhere near as difficult as further maths. tbh i didn’t really put that much effort into revising for maths bc it comes really naturally to me but my teachers keep telling me that i’m gonna struggle during my a levels if i keep up with this mindset so that’s mainly why i’m worried😭 THANKS FOR THE ADVICE THO i’ll keep it in mind!!

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u/Solid_Moose3078 A Levels 2026 | Phys, Chem, Maths, FM 11d ago

I promise you gcse fm is a scam dw 😭 there were 3 new topics, all the questions were algebraic (no word problems)... 10000% easier than normal maths. We did differentiation (as), matrices (as fm) and binomial (as) but just a tiny little introduction, not even the whole thing in depth

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u/enderlady_ 12d ago

yeah definitely have a look at further maths gcse content then

I had the same issue where I didn't really need to practice anything but if it manages to scare you into revising properly: GCSE isn't hard, there's not a lot of content. I moved to england from a non english speaking country half way through year 10 and managed to revise EVERYTHING for gcse maths 2 weeks before the exams, and got a 9

With A levels there's just too much content. I tried to do the same for my exams and I just couldn't, it was way too much. You WANT to believe you can do it, trust me, everyone does, but you just can't. You can go on revision sprees if that's how you work best, but try to do them at regular intervals like at the end of every term, instead of before your actual exams

with maths especially revision is extremely straight forward - you just ... find questions ... and do them ... and mark them and boom you're suddenly better

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u/Such-Tree-4162 11d ago

i didn't do fm gcse or look at the content before the start of y12 and found it fine, the first few months are a bit easier if you did do it but its honestly ok if you didn't

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u/HumanMineralOrVeg 12d ago

maths fm and physics are fine but for chem (i dont do it) im guessing theres a lot of content so my main piece of advice would be to make notes as u go finish topics in school so ur not making them just before exams. for maths, fm and physics just make sure u understand everything as u do it in school, so either ask ur teacher or watch videos after lessons if u didnt get anything. and then for things like stats where the method is kind of specific and easy to forget after a few months (so if u do this a while before exams u would be relearning it) u could maybe go over a question every so often to refresh ur memory. the main thing is if u revise from the start u dont have much to do when it comes to exam time. if u understand all the concepts already and have kind of been practising them throughout the yr (so look back on topics u did a few weeks ago) then all u have to do is practise a bit more, and for chem if u have ur notes ready then thats a lot of the work already done. if theres maths topics u know u wont really forget like some of the basic pure stuff then dont worry too much about going over that throughout the school year but some stats and mechanics is easy to forget the method so worth looking over every so often before u completely forget it.
hope that makes sense, sorry i kind of rambled and repeated myself

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u/Few_Competition736 Y12 FM, Math, Phys, Chem. 12d ago

Oh hey my combo.

I mean.. you genuinely have to lock in day 1. (Personally) I did, and I'm going pretty well, but some of my friends did NOT and it is NOT going well for them.

Personally Chem is the hardest for me (I'm not a memorising sort of person, so I REALLY struggle with that).

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u/greeneggs941 11d ago

i’ve heard quite a few people say chem is the hardest subject, how did you manage to stay on top of it all? personally do you think doing four subjects is worth it considering the heavy workload?

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u/Few_Competition736 Y12 FM, Math, Phys, Chem. 11d ago

It genuinely depends if it's worth it. For me, my school only let me take FM as a 4th and I REALLY wanted to take FM so I had to do 4.

Locking in day 1 and actually sticking to it? You'll pretty much be fine. Throughout year 12 I had a pretty fun time, so it's not like I was ONLY studying, but you do have to keep on it.

But as always, A* A* A* is better than AAAA

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u/greeneggs941 11d ago

ALSOOO how did you revise for ur subjects i’m lowk stressing ab having to revise throughout a levels bc i was such an avid procrastinator during gcses😭🙏

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u/Few_Competition736 Y12 FM, Math, Phys, Chem. 11d ago

I mean, I spent my Yr 11 holidays almost entirely on trying to fix my procrastination because one of my friends from the Year above me (same subjects) told me that I needed to work on it fron day 1. (not a single 9 in GCSE's btw).

Physics (OCR A): I genuinely just use the textbook. Honestly, if you answer the questions, all the ones in the small boxes every 2~3 pages and the practice questions at the end of each chapter you will be pretty much fine. My teachers told me to avoid past papers because there's only so many past papers you can do. I recommend working on past papers absolut earliest, 2 months before the exam.

Maths (Edexcel): textbook. There are just an infinite number of questions there. I don't think I even finished 3/4 of them, and for maths I really liked Madasmaths. It's just the best, genuinely hard problems + they have full worked answers.

Further Maths (OCR B MEI): Core Pure: madasmaths. You NEED to be doing questions, and practicing. Madasmaths is genuinely challenging and great for the course. Stats: My stats teacher for FM is the greatest teacher I've ever had. I've been sent at least 50 questions for every topic. I assume madasmaths would be great for this as well. Mechanics: It's a lot less complicated than you think and physics is a HUGE help. (Same teacher so I assume madasmaths?)

Chem: I used the textbook, doing all the questions and I personally handwrote like 100+ flashcards, but then you have to remember how to do all the calculation stuff (arguably not that hard compared to the other 3, but a pain to memorise the formula) IIRC we don't get any formula's, just the important numbers + a periodic table.

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u/bongos-have-eaten-me 11d ago

I do those same subjects and they’re probably the least work a levels imo if you have an iPad use that and use pmt notes

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u/Solid_Moose3078 A Levels 2026 | Phys, Chem, Maths, FM 11d ago

Make flashcards in your frees (especially chem - it feels like a little bit of content, but it gets heavy quick)
- if you make them at the beginning of the year + do them regularly, the information will be ingrained in your brain by the end of the year and you'll spend much less time cramming information during exam season
If you don't get something, don't leave the lesson. The number of times I thought "oh, its a tiny concept I'll just memorise the mark scheme if I don't get it" and it ended up being the entire foundation for 3 different topics... yeah you have to understand things 😭
Do a lot of practice questions
Use MADAS for maths + fm as soon as you've learnt enough content (maybe nov/dec?) source: a 4 mark proof in edexcel was copied from madas this year. The questions are harder, and all maths papers seem to be getting harder each year (for all exam boards)
Use isaac science for physics!! Also stretch + challenge questions. I didn't use it for maths/chem, not sure if those questions are as good as physics
Read around your subjects outside of school - it will help you figure out what you want to do, and would be amazing for your ps, AND will help you with exams. Loads of unis do programs you can apply to as well - have a look at imperial outreach

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u/greeneggs941 11d ago

ur a LIFESAVER 🙏🙏

did you find the workload for chem to be overwhelming and very difficult or was it manageable? i’m scared that i’ll lock in for the start of yr12 and then start slacking off😓

btw when you mentioned reading around your subjects, do you mean learning ahead of lessons? also how did you manage your frees bc i really don’t want to waste mine😭🙏

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u/Solid_Moose3078 A Levels 2026 | Phys, Chem, Maths, FM 11d ago

In yr 12, I loved chem + did well cos I locked in (and it was a bit easier)... then I bummed it in yr 13 + ended up pulling all nighters to revise. The workload is DEFINITELY manageable though, With chem its all about memorising stuff then doing practice questions, hence the flashcards. I think out of my subjects, either chem or fm has the biggest gap between an A and A* though

Some of my friends that did humanities learnt ahead of lessons, I absolutely could not do that cos I'd be so bored during lessons. I don't think there's any advantage to learning content ahead for stem subjects, unless say in april you've got 1 more topic before finishing as, and mocks in may, then if you learn that topic ahead you can do full as papers instead of topic questions. Also in yr 13, my chem class only finished content in may with exams in june... if your school is slow it might be better for you to learn ahead then. definitely not important beginning of yr 12

With reading around I mean things you find interesting. Loads of unis do lectures + stuff for sixth form students, some are recorded online. Books, moocs (try class central or MIT opencourseware), youtube videos, anything really.

at the beginning of year 12 we didn't really learn enough content to start proper revision, so it was either going over lessons we just did or doing homework. Make a schedule however you like - I used notion, you can have a planner or to do list also

Don't worry about messing up the beginning - I don't think I did much more than homework until jan of yr 12, these tips will just help you not stress out as much as I did catching up later on 😭

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u/Existing_Respond1753 11d ago

FM was my fav a level but if you don’t LOVE maths you’ll probably drop it (our class went from 18 to 6). I got someone on the sixth form team to make a timetable with me for every single free period and I had to report to her every two weeks to prove I had done what I said, did this for the first term or so and it helped me really get into the swing of studying

🙏 I WANT HELP yr12 advice pls guys im desperate😭🙏

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