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The linear A-levels explained

The A-levels exams have changed in a huge way to become “linear”, but what does that really mean for you? Let’s take a look together and break this down, along with the changes that have happened to the A-level exams.

Eleanor Foulds
by Eleanor Foulds
Last Updated:
01 Mar 2024

What A-levels used to be


The A-level exams use to be modular with two exam windows each year; one in January and one in the summer around May/June depending on your subject.

But a few years ago the January window was removed meaning you only have one exam window per year now. This means you have less chances to retake your exams – in fact your chances for retakes has halved. Here’s what the exam windows use to be like:

So now if you want to retake your exams you have to wait a whole year and retake them the following year in ADDITION to your second-year subjects. This makes things really difficult as you've effectively been stripped from four chances to sit the exams over a 2-year course to two chances. Ouch.

What happens now?


A-levels are no longer modular and are now "linear". This means in your second year of study you have to sit all your exams again as your AS results will not carry over. Here’s an image from an A-level psychology courase illustrating this just to give you a working example.

So, this means that you may be able to choose whether or not to sit your AS exams in Year 12. Some schools still ask their students to take the exams, whereas others let students choose and encourage students to only sit the AS exams if you're planning to drop the subject after Year 12.

In Year 13, you'll sit your A-level exams, which will cover everything you learned in Year 12 and Year 13. And if you sat the exams in Year 12, the grade you got won't count towards your A-level. 

So, if you sit the exams in both Year 12 and Year 13, you'll resit modified versions of your AS papers but this time they tend to have more content. You'll also sit additional exam papers too covering the A-level content from your second year of study.

So, going into your second year you're now cramming everything you studied in your first year as well as this upcoming second year and resitting all the previous topics you've studied for AS plus additional ones. And all the marks you received previously at AS do not contribute towards your A-level grade at all.

Glass half-empty or half-full?


Now there's two ways of looking at this.

Firstly, yes the exams just became a little harder but there’s a positive too; if you happen to do poorly at AS you now have a chance to make up for it at A-level with no negative consequences. It also means you may sit fewer exams in Year 12.

On the other hand, if you did well at AS the downside is of course again your score doesn't count towards your A-level mark so you need to put that level of effort in again (plus more).

Ultimately the first year of sixth form will teach you a lot about yourself and how your studies are going. So, it will either be a case of maintaining the positive work you've been putting in or buckling up and trying even harder.

I prefer to think of this situation as a glass half-full scenario as previously, people who did poorly at AS had to sit their AS exams again anyways as well as their A2 ones. The benefit now is you will be studying all the topics throughout with everyone else in class whether you did poorly or not so think of it really as a second chance.

If you also need additional help you can find this on Whatuni's revision section. There's some fantastic guides and tips there.

 

When he's not fighting crime by day; you can catch Saj Devshi writing popular psychology textbooks here. Or follow him on twitter @sajdevshi.

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