Study Links
Super Curricular Study
‘Super-curricular’ is different from extra-curricular (hobbies and enriching activities) in that it is about stretching yourself academically beyond the narrow A Level syllabus, and it is something all the best A Level students will be doing. When we say you should be working an hour independently for every hour in class this is a big part of what you should be doing.
Step 1: Take a look at our wider reading list for each subject in this document.
Step 2: Consider using some of the following news, journal, lecture and research site links, or taking on a ‘MOOC’ (massive open online course) from one of the providers listed below.
Online Lectures And Talks For General Or Sixth Form Audience
Bristol Festival of Ideas has a full index of its talks at https://www.bristolideas.co.uk/listen/
Bristol University have produced lots of resources, including online lectures, to support students in exploring HE options or super-curricular research. You can sign up for access to these at http://www.bristol.ac.uk/study/outreach/virtual-resources-for-students/
Another fantastic reservoir of free online lectures to add power to your University personal statement can be found through Gresham College at https://www.gresham.ac.uk/
Swansea University has a great range of webinars related to the full range of Uni course they offer and wider issues at https://www.swansea.ac.uk/study/webinar-series/
Speakers for Schools run an excellent series of online talks relating to particular areas of work through the year. The full list is at Upcoming Broadcasts - Speakers for Schools.
TED Talks – videos and transcripts of inspirational talks by leading subject experts.
Michael Sandel’s ‘Justice’ course – the most popular Uni course in the world, both at Harvard (everyone goes) and on-line – covers the nature of morality and justice
Online Courses For General Audience
Futurelearn - browse the online free courses on a wide range of subjects – all provided by Universities and constantly updated with courses that are linked to a wide range of A-level courses and beyond…
Podcast / Radio Programmes With Academic Focus
In Our Time archive - a vast range of radio discussions between academic experts on almost everything imaginable – listen online or download as MP3 files to play on the move.
Learning Focused Websites
- Loopa - a great resource for students studying and revising A-level Psychology.
- HE+ - a website put together by Cambridge University to support 6th form students in all subjects with wider reading and applications (not just for Cambridge)
- Staircase 12 - a website put together by University College, Oxford to support students considering HE applications (not just Oxford) - contains interviews and book reviews from current students
- CrashCourse on YouTube is fantastic for lots of subjects, parcelling them up into 10 minute videos including nice animation
- IFL Science - well worth following for updates on science stories
News Sites
- BBC News online
- Al Jazeera English
- CNN online
- The Economist
- The Financial Times online
- The Financial Times (for secondary schools) - our school is registered to enable access to full content from within the school. You are also encouraged to register yourself for updates at https://join.ft.com/f52def46-bc77-4211-9095-0c292609f469
Online Journals, Magazines And Academic Articles
- The New Statesman magazine
- The New Scientist - we have subscriber access to the full archive with the login available from the 6th Form librarian
- The New Internationalist - we have subscriber access to the full archive with the login available from the 6th Form librarian
- Directory of Open Access Journals
- JSTOR – the SIxth Form has a login to this huge database of subscription academic journals
Free Online University Courses
- Coursera - free online courses from a range of Universities
- MIT - free online courses from MIT
- EDX - free online courses from a range of Universities
- Yale - free online courses from Yale
- Open University on Itunes
- Oxford University podcasts
- Cambridge University audio and video lectures