*MEGATHREAD* - The 'What Subjects Should I Do' Megathread

Those A levels will definitely get you into med skl-no doubts. However, you need to start thinking beyond getting into med skl and what A levels would help you maximize opportunities within the medical field. When you start your clinicals, you'll understand better.
Courses like history of medicine, medical ethics, epidemiology/Public health, anatomy, biochemistry, pathology, immunology, pharmacology-these all form the foundation of med skl and do not require any knowledge of further maths.

You are much better off familiarising yourself with the bit of maths that you really need for medicine-statistics-how to read a paper, how to appraise a research paper, etc.

Just my little contribution.

But there's no disadvantage of doing Further Maths.

If they want to do it, they should do it. Just because it isn't a requirement doesn't mean they shouldn't do it. Personally, I couldn't be bothered with the effort of doing it, but it someone wants to, I don't really think there's any reason against it.

There are no A Levels that particularly "maximise your opportunity within the medical field" so I'm not entirely sure what you're talking about there.

Philosophy is a strong subject. The Russell group document can bite me.

Take philosophy; even if admissions tutors considered it soft, as a fourth it wouldn't harm you at all.

But there's no advantage of doing it. It's a waste of time seeing that half of the med schools don't recognise and it puts more stress on you to achieve the other grades that are actually required. Also doing something like English could help say if you want to do the BMAT, also some unis including UCL prefer students with contrasting subjects.

But there's no disadvantage of doing Further Maths.

If they want to do it, they should do it. Just because it isn't a requirement doesn't mean they shouldn't do it. Personally, I couldn't be bothered with the effort of doing it, but it someone wants to, I don't really think there's any reason against it.

There are no A Levels that particularly "maximise your opportunity within the medical field" so I'm not entirely sure what you're talking about there.

Only 2 universities prefer students with contrasting subjects.

The person who posted their subjects said they wanted to do Biology, Chemistry, Maths, Further MAths, PHysics. I could perhaps see the logic in someone suggesting they don't do Further Maths, to help tgive more time to their other subjects, but certainly suggesting doing English would be completely bizarre IMO.

But there's no advantage of doing it. It's a waste of time seeing that half of the med schools don't recognise and it puts more stress on you to achieve the other grades that are actually required. Also doing something like English could help say if you want to do the BMAT, also some unis including UCL prefer students with contrasting subjects.

Not as bizarre as doing further maths!

Doing Further Maths isn't bizarre if they want to do it. Maybe they enjoy maths?

I really don't see what's so hard to fathom about that.

It is infinitely more bizarre that you suggest someone do a subject totally different from the others they expressed an interest in.

Some people might just want to do it because, and this might seem crazy and perverse; they enjoy it.

Every person that I know that did Further Maths with the intention of studying Medicine walked away with at least all A's. It's generally those kind of people that choose to do it in the first place, so they're more than capable of getting the grades in their other subjects. It honestly isn't that big an increase in workload if you're good at the Maths.

At the end of the day, the only mandatory A Level for 90% of the Universities is Chemistry. Some Universities or Colleges at Oxbridge might specify that Biology is wanted as well, but anywhere else, you just fill in the gaps yourself.

I don't disagree with you, if someone really wants to do a particular subject then they should, but no one said they really wanted to do it just that they were, my point is if your only going to do it for the sake of it or because you think it will give you an edge or you just want to do more than the average then another subject would be better as further maths isn't recognised by most med schools.

Also a lot of med schools actually want both biology and chemistry to Alevel and if not then they want AS biology. Again I'm talking about maximising chances of getting into med school, a subject like English etc which focuses of writing skills etc would allow you to most likely do Better for example in the essay section of the BMAT.

I have an A at English A Level that I got when I was 16, and would've been an A* if I had done it a year later; the only part that it would have remotely helped me with on the essay section would be the Use of Language grade (which I got an 'A' mark in). Something like 60-70% of applicants this year got an 'A' mark. All you need to do is not misspell and use good grammar and you've got it.

As far as essay writing skill, that's something that you can learn without doing an A Level - I would actually argue that the 'Essay writing skill' you get from doing an English A Level is quite different from the sort of essay you have to write for the BMAT. In reality, because of how science orientated your essay is likely to be, A Level Vs GCSE English capability would be indistinguishable.

Just to play devils advocate here, having done the BMAT, I would argue that doing Further Maths would help more overall than doing English would, purely because Decision Maths would actually help a lot for Section 1 (Logic based problems, maximising times etc), and general Mathematic ability/ confidence would help a lot for Section 2. I know it did for me. If I hadn't of been doing Mechanics 2/3 at the time, I wouldn't have known a trigonometric ratio that helped me split a trapezium into manageable, formulated triangles that I could then use to solve it, and one of the Energy/ Momentum questions was phrased in a way that only AS Physics/ Mechanics students would have understood in time.

My point being, that your 3rd/ 4th /5th choice is your choice. It's all well and good saying that doing these 4 subjects maximizes your chance of getting into Medical school A, but the reality is that you're studying these subjects for 2 years, and that's a long time to be studying something you might not enjoy. If someone enjoys Maths enough to want to do Further Maths, then to put them off doing something that might actually, indirectly keep them focused and attentive during their other subjects due to breaking up the monotony because "Universities don't want it" is missing the point of learning something in the first place.

This isn't actually aimed at you, by the way, it's general frustration I have with people pigeonholing students into potentially doing a subject(s) they don't like in the hopes that they will get where they want to get. While that might seem like a worthwhile endeavor on paper, I would argue that if you feel you can't enjoy yourself in your studies along the way even a little, you're sacrificing too much for something you haven't even experienced yet.

So my overall point is you should do the subjects that you want and not be talked into doing all science, maths and further maths, if you want a heavy work load and want to do like 5 subjects then doing another subject that contrasts in my opinion would produce a more well rounded student, after all are those not the principles of the international baccalaureate.

If someone wants to do 5 subjects (or indeed, no matter how many subjects they do), they should do subjects they enjoy.

Whether that is all sciences, and further maths, or bio chem history and english, it doesn't really matter.