A Student’s Guide to A-Level Syllabuses
It is a good idea to have a copy of your syllabuses (or specification) for the A-levels you are sitting or resitting. The syllabus will give you a good guide to what you are supposed to know for each module or unit you will be taking. The syllabus will cover AS and A2 modules.
Finding your syllabus
Before attempting to find your syllabuses you need to establish exactly which ones you need. All syllabuses have some sort of reference number – this is vital. For example it is not sufficient to just know that you are doing OCR Physics; there are currently two syllabuses and there have been as many as four. Many syllabuses have options within the unit (also known as 'modules'); for example the 2012 Edexcel History syllabus has literally thousands different possible combinations! The questions to ask your school or college are: "Which syllabus am I doing, including reference number? Which units am I due to take, including reference numbers? And which options, if any, are there with each unit I am taking?" Once you have all this information you are ready to hit Google or use the links below. Exam board websites can be difficult to navigate so be prepared to have to dig a little to find your syllabuses.
One last thing is that you need to have Acrobat Reader installed on your computer – if you are not sure, click on this link – test pdf – if it doesn’t open then you will need to install Adobe Reader – click on this link: Adobe Reader X and follow the instructions. Below are links to the main exam board and instructions on how to navigate each site.
How to find your syllabus on the AQA site:
Click on the following to go to the site: AQA exam board . Once you are at the site you want to click on “Select a qualification type”, then pick “A-level (GCE)” and a “select a specification” box should appear, then pick your syllabus. You would think that this would take you to your syllabus. It’s not quite that easy! You now need to click on the “Key materials” tab roughly in the middle of the page, then click on “Specification”, then on the specification link. This can then be printed or saved.
How to find your syllabus on the Edexcel site:
Click on the following to go to the site: Edexcel exam board. Once you are at the site you want to click on “Qualification finder”, then pick “GCE from 2008” then select your subject, then press “Go”. Towards the bottom of the page click on the “Specification” link. Note that there may be a couple of options. Make sure you pick the correct one! Students sitting their exams in the UK will almost certain want the specification that is NOT for “international centres only”.
How to find your syllabus on the OCR site:
Click on the following to go to the site: OCR exam board. Once you are at the site you want to click on “Qualifications” which is on the left hand side, then pick “By type” then select click on “AS/A Level GCE”. Then click on your subject from the list. In the middle of the page towards the bottom should be the specification link under the “Popular documents” heading.
How to find your syllabus on the WJEC site:
Click on the following to go to the site: WJEC exam board. Once you are at the site you want to click on “Find qualifications and resources” which is on the left hand side, then pick “by subject” then select click on “GCE AS/A Level”. Then click on “Search”. Click on the “Specifications” link which is on the right hand side under “Documents”, then select your specification from the list.
Things to consider
From a student's point of view there is a lot of unnecessary information in the syllabuses. What you are looking for is the section headed “Subject Content” (AQA), “Unit Content” (Edexcel & OCR) or “Specification Content” (WJEC). This section should contain detail of each unit or module.
Although the syllabus is a very useful guide to what you should be studying it does not mean that you should only cover exactly what is on the syllabus. Often there are very good reasons to cover a little extra material as it can make what you need to cover make a great deal more sense.
It is worth noting the arts syllabuses generally require much more interpreting. Syllabuses are written for teachers and will therefore assume that phrases like “strength and weaknesses of the view that…” will be reasonably self-explanatory. It is difficult for a student to judge how much detail to go in to. The best thing to do if you are uncertain is first, don’t panic and second ask your teacher. Also pay attention to the small print – a text may be recommended, but it may not be necessary to be familiar with the complete text.
If something is stated as “not required” then in principle it should not appear in the exam. However, it will be something that is on the edge of what you should know. If the “not required” something is easy enough to understand then include it in your revision/learning, otherwise exclude it – either way it is not something to worry about. If something is explicitly stated as “required” then it is really worth paying attention to – make sure you do understand theories or issues which are emphasised in your syllabus.
Also you need to keep an eye out for “prerequisites” – i.e. stuff you are expected to know prior to studying a particular unit. Mostly you will find that the prerequisites follow from early units or perhaps even GCSE. You might need to revise these topics in order to gain a full understanding on the current work.
It is reasonable practice to consider the syllabus as a check list of things you should know. One way to approach this would be to check what you have recently covered at school against the syllabus. In a perfect world you will have ticked off almost all of the syllabus by the end of your course.