About A-level courses in Britain

Now there are A-LEVEL schools in many cities in China, such as Shenzhen and Shanghai.

A-level courses include more than 70 courses for students to choose from. Students usually take 3 or 4 courses. The Chinese and English names of some subjects are listed below for your reference:

Accounting, Accounting, Archaeology and Archaeological Art&; Arts and Crafts: Interior Design Art: Interior Decoration Design

Art: Pottery: Making Pottery Arab Art: Embroidery Art: Embroidery

Art and art. Design art design art history ancient history

Biobiology: Basic Business Studies in Bangladesh &; Legal business and law

China China chemical chemistry calculation computer classical civilization classical civilization

Research on Communication and Expression of Classical Greek Communication in Computer Science

Drama, drama, Dutch dance and dance painting &; Painting painting

Data/word processing

Electronics Electronics Economics Economics English Literature English Language English Linguistics

European history European historical environment research environmental economy and social history economic history and social history

European studies European studies economics and public affairs economics and public affairs.

French film studies, film fashion and advanced mathematics of textiles.

Geography Geography Greek (ancient and modern) Geography Geology German

The general principles of English law&; Political government and politics

Art History History Human Biology Human Biology Home Economics Home Economics

human physiology

Italy Italy Industrial Design Industrial Design Instrumental Music Information Technology Information Technology

Japanese Japanese

Latin laws, Latin laws and constitutions, laws and constitutions

Research on Modern Greek Modern History Modern History Mathematical Media Research Media

Mechanics mechanics music music technology music technology

Politics, political philosophy, photography, photography, physics and physics

Sports psychology psychology public affairs public affairs Portuguese

Performing Arts Performing Arts Punjabi Punjabi

Religious studies, religious Russian

Sociobiology Sociobiology Spanish Statistics

Sports research kinematics, social and environmental biology, social and environmental biology

Theology Theology Technical Theatre studies drama Turkish.

Urdu

16th century history16th century history19th century history19th century history

How to prepare for the A-LEVEL exam;

A-level school A-Level economics, IGCSE business research teacher, instructor.

Nowadays, the phenomenon of small international students is becoming more and more common. Moreover, with the increasing difficulty of visas in the United States, more and more international students are looking to Britain. In Britain, young international students mainly study GCSE (Certificate of General Secondary Education) and later GCE A-level (Certificate of General Education, Advanced Level). Especially after that, the scores of A-Level courses often largely determine what kind of universities these young international students can attend in Britain, which is almost as important as the college entrance examination in China!

But recently, I have heard some tragedies about studying abroad from time to time. The reasons are asymmetric information, immature children's psychology and physiology, and reckless decision to study abroad. After listening, I am deeply saddened!

As an economics teacher of A-level economics and a business research teacher of IGCSE Business Studies, one of the first A-Level schools in China, he is a member of the International Examinations Institute of Cambridge University, CIE (Cambridge International Examination), College UCAS (Universes and Colleges Admissions Service, English Higher Education Admissions Service Center, which is similar to the University Admissions Committee in China) coordinator and university application instructor, (last year, I applied for four pre-admission notices of conditional admission notices from Cambridge University, pre-admission notices from Oxford University 1 0, pre-admission notices from Imperial College London 10, pre-admission notices from London School of Economics and Political Science, and pre-admission notices from Warwick University 14. 9 pre-admission notices from Bath University, 9 pre-admission notices from York University, pre-admission notices 17 from famous British universities such as Nottingham University, and admission or admission notices from universities such as Toronto University, McGill University, Waterloo University, Melbourne University in Australia and University of Michigan in the United States). At this moment when parents are busy deciding where to go for their children, let me share my understanding and practice of the British education system (curriculum system, examination system, university admission application procedure, etc.). ) I have been with you for the past two years, hoping to play some reference role in your decision-making. Just as the school is organizing parent-teacher conferences of all grades near the end of the term, I have compiled some speeches as parent-teacher conferences to guide students how to take every step of the school and reassure parents. Considering that many other students and parents feel the same way, I thought of posting it online, hoping to benefit more people. Let's start today, and I hope to have the opportunity to put every key link in studying abroad, such as filling out the application form of Oxford and Cambridge, the choice of institutions (Oxford and Cambridge is a college system), the preparation of application materials, the real process of interview, the problem of written examination, how to prepare, the choice of A-Level and IGCSE courses, the scope and outline of investigation, the methods of study, and the skills of taking exams (as long as it is an exam, China people will have exams).

GCSE (GCSE course outside the UK is called international GCSE, abbreviated as IGCSE course) lasts for two years. * * * There are 665,438+0 courses to choose from, including mathematics which China students are good at and familiar with (IGCSE and A-Level have two courses, which are strongly recommended for China students to choose. This can give full play to China students' mathematical talent and comparative advantage), physical physics, chemistry, biology, history (but it is very different from the content of history lessons we usually study, and the methods of investigation are also very different), music (many students may mistakenly think that music lessons are not important, but in fact, many famous foreign universities attach great importance to the achievements of lively disciplines such as music and drama, because they think that students who can learn these courses well while studying related courses will. One of my students received a pre-admission notice from Cambridge University and studied AS-Level music. There is also a business subject that China students are unfamiliar with but should be interested in (English is extremely demanding, and there are no multiple-choice questions. All students need to discuss and read cases. It is strongly recommended that students with poor English must be cautious when choosing, even if they are interested in this subject. This is my real experience after teaching this course. Some students with poor English have not fully understood the textbook at the end; On the other hand, if students accept the challenge of physics and learn this course well, their English level will rise sharply, which will directly help them get high marks in IELTS. More importantly, I often tell students in class that learning management well is not necessarily about managing others, but also about self-management), accounting and economics (a very useful subject, which not only teaches students the general law of economic operation, but more importantly, teaches students a brand-new thinking method of cost-benefit analysis to maximize the benefits of optimal selection of limited resources. Last year, among the four students who received the pre-admission notice from Cambridge University, two chose economics, and one of them chose a university major unrelated to economics. Another thing to point out is that economics is not difficult to learn at all. On the contrary, it is a very easy subject to get an A. At least according to the author's teaching experience, the author has really let students master its test-taking method. (Business studies, accounting and economics are three classic courses in business) Art and design Art and design, information technology, travel and tourism, religious studies, Arabic, Portuguese, etc. There are two kinds of Chinese that are unfamiliar but may be uninterested, and even make China students feel proud (but useless for studying abroad). Chinese (Putonghua) and Chinese-first language Chinese-mother tongue (unfortunately, I didn't do much related research because it is not very related to the application of China students).

Fortunately, the education system in Britain is very humanized, and you can freely choose and combine courses, so you can choose courses that you are familiar with and interested in, so as to achieve the best grades and academic background closely related to university majors and gain the strongest comparative advantage when applying for universities. Generally, elective courses are controlled at 4-5 classes per academic year. According to the admissions brochure of Cambridge University, taking five A-Level courses is more advantageous than taking four. Therefore, getting an A is the most important thing!

Compared with the scores of A-Level courses, IGCSE is much less important. For an extreme example, even if you only have an A-Level score and no IGCSE score, it will not affect your child's college application at all. To make a familiar analogy, IGCSE is similar to China's national examination, and only A-Level scores are college entrance examination results, so college admission is only based on college entrance examination results! Last year, all the students who applied for studying abroad directly entered the college to study A-Level courses without any IGCSE courses, and even did not have a domestic high school diploma, because they were senior one or senior two (students with good English foundation and discipline foundation can even skip a grade and attend A-Level courses in senior one, which can save their children a year; Of course, children can also study A-Level after the third year of high school, but in this way, children will spend an extra year studying. In fact, this is not a bad thing, because the more solid the foundation, the more confident they are to get good grades in the A-Level exam. And these are all due to the flexibility and formality of the British education system! ) come to our school. In the end, almost all of them applied to the best universities in Britain and even the United States, Canada, Australia, Lida, Hong Kong and other countries and regions.

Compared with IGCSE courses, A-Level courses are of course much more important. Because this is the "college entrance examination" in Britain! A-Level courses choose more subjects than IGCSE, with 76 subjects, which are roughly equivalent to IGCSE. (This is normal, because A-Level is a continuation of IGCSE. The principle of course selection is the same: give full play to your own advantages and choose the easiest course to learn in combination with your own interests. Because the choice of A-Level courses has a great relationship with the application of university majors, in a sense, you are right to choose university majors when you start choosing A-Level courses. The right choice is an advantage; If you choose the wrong one, you will have to change it then. This is a disadvantage.

Just now I introduced some courses in the British IGCSE/A-Level curriculum system. It sounds interesting and there are many choices, but here I want to tell you the bad news: no IGCSE or A-Level school has opened all these 60 or 70 courses. Schools of average size will provide mainstream courses around 10. It would be a pity if this school doesn't offer the courses that students want to learn. Therefore, when choosing a foreign or domestic A-Level school, students should first ask themselves what courses they want to study, and then see if this school is open, otherwise even the best school may not be suitable for you.

The arrangement of A-Level examination is quite different from the national college entrance examination, and China students can gain great advantages by making good use of it. Well, it's a long story.

Some suggestions:

1. English question: English is to be learned well sooner or later. In this case, why not make up your mind to learn English well at once? Moreover, learning English well is not only reflected in the high scores of IELTS or TOEFL, but also different, especially in the case of getting high marks through examination skills; I often tell students: we all know how this score of 6.5 or 7.0 comes from, depending on the skill; What do we help you achieve this score for, just to meet the admission requirements of foreign universities, especially good universities; We all know your real English level, so if you think your English strength has really reached this level, it is a great self-deception! In fact, after mastering English, students will find that IGCSE courses and A-Level courses will become much easier, and many problems will be solved because they don't understand them. When I write the application materials for studying abroad under the guidance of my teacher, especially the very important personal statement, I won't have any ideas but I don't know where to start; When you have the opportunity to attend interviews in Oxford and Cambridge, you can express yourself freely. In the end, your dream of entering the top universities in the world will be much closer to you! This is the importance of English!

2. Attitude towards learning: International education is only a part of children's whole learning career, so even if you have decided to study abroad, you should read the current books in a down-to-earth manner. Any book, whether read at home or abroad, is a part of your knowledge and will have an effect on your future success. Moreover, according to our observation, the better the original foundation, the easier it is for students to enter the IGCSE/A-Level stage and get good grades. Therefore, don't think that they are independent of each other, let alone that China students will automatically become smart after taking foreign courses. These views are untenable.

3. Preparation for studying abroad: Frankly speaking, IGCSE scores, A-Level scores, IELTS scores and TOEFL scores are all intermediate processes. What kind of university to apply for and whether it is a major that interests us are the intoxicating significance of all our efforts. Therefore, it is the best policy to give priority to college applications! And we know that foreign universities, especially good universities, pay attention to many other aspects besides your grades, such as relevant professional practice, full social practice, showing volunteers who contribute to society and so on. Therefore, all these things should be prepared for a rainy day, and we can't leave this problem until we start writing the study abroad documents. At that time, scratching your head is useless, because we never advocate making up stories! A professional and experienced international admissions officer can tell the story at a glance. And the consequences are very serious: they will doubt your personal integrity, and maybe even if you are excellent, you will not consider your application again!

4. Timing of studying abroad: I often tell students that if IGCSE fails to learn the course well, it will be promoted to A-Level course in the blink of an eye during the summer vacation. Why do the more difficult A-Level courses learn well? Some A-Level students study very hard, and their today may be your tomorrow. If you can't learn IGCSE or A-Level courses well in China, and then want to transfer to study abroad, how can you ensure that you can learn well abroad? In China, we have experienced foreign teachers working with diligent China teacher Qi Xin. Teacher China studied all the papers in previous years and developed examination skills to help students get high marks. In foreign countries, language is an obstacle, and teachers may not care as much as they do at home, and so on.

The above is the author's experience in teaching A-level economics and IGCSE business studies in A-Level schools, and as a tutor and UCAS coordinator, as well as some consulting help from British colleagues (thank you again for their help in this paper and sincere help in my work), and write it for your reference, hoping to play some role in your respective decisions.

The British education system and the application of British universities are not small topics. Today, when I want to give a brief introduction to students or parents who are facing choices, I find that it is just like writing a paper. It's hard to write big topics, but it's much easier to write small topics: it's important to explain everything when you find it, but the article is organized in a chaotic way, so I apologize here. If you have any questions, welcome to discuss. The author's usual e-mail number is huacaifeng@hotmail.com. Finally, I wish you all the best!

References:

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