Choosing your A levels? Your questions answered here!

hi

i was thinking of choosing

maths, further Maths, physics, chemistry and ethics+philosophy

but as i am considering applying to medicine i was thinking of changing ethics+philosophy for biology

would 3 sciences and 2 maths be too much/ a bad combination?

also law is a possible degree i would like to study-would my lack of an essay subject hinder my application?

i hope to go to a top 10 uni for any course i apply to. my GCSE should be A*/A
i will also be studying the extended project over next summer-any advice appreciated

thanks in advance

You should seriously think about what career you want to do as it would be hard to reach a satisfying compromise between the subjects needed for medicine and those needed for law. Also do you prefer maths/science or essay subjects like english/history? Maybe you could swap further maths for biology as FM isn't really needed for law or medicine.

Why not do biology, chemistry, maths, further maths and philosophy?

i really like physics so i want to be able to take that

*also it is ethics and philosophy not just philosophy

i do prefer science subjects in general
but i do not dislike writing essays-english i dislike not for the essays but the content

i cannot drop further maths for biology as i take further maths instead of general studies not as one of my a-level subjects

thaniks for your help-any more thoughts?

i really like physics so i want to be able to take that

*also it is ethics and philosophy not just philosophy

It depends which exam board your school uses. If you're on AQA then it's just philosophy. If you're on OCR then it's philosophy and ethics with half being philosophy modules and half being ethics modules. However, if you're on OCR you will do the philosophy and ethics modules but your actual AS and A2 will be called 'Religious Studies' after certification.

Well then I guess you don't have to do ethics & philosophy, there are plenty of people who get into Oxbridge to study Law with all science subjects So go ahead and do biology, chemistry, maths, further maths and physics

that is really helpful actually
i was wondering if ethics+philosophy is considered to be RS/philosophy
thanks for that

i know in the booklet they gave us on it(in my school) it said:
unit 1: ethics
unit 2: philosophy

unit 3: ethics
unit 4: philosophy

it is all exam based

do you know which exam board this would be? (the teachers didn't tell us when explaining the subject)

thanks a lot

Your exam board is OCR. You will do the philosophy and ethics modules and be exposed to all the ethics and philosophy content, but after you have taken the AS and A2 exams, your AS and A2 will be called 'Religious Studies' not 'Philosophy and Ethics'.

It is called religious studies because on OCR a school or student can mix philosophy and ethics modules with modules about religion such as there are entire modules devoted to Christianity and Islam for example, so a school could could do two philosophy modules, an Islam module and a Christianity module and get the religious studies A-level. For this reason, even if you only do the philosophy and ethics modules your A-level will always be called Religious studies.

Check out the OCR wesbsite for the specification and past papers:

http://www.ocr.org.uk/qualifications/type/gce/hss/rs/index.html

http://www.trin.cam.ac.uk/index.php?pageid=604

Feel Stupid?

Economics and business is more unrespected as it is more vocational than straight economics.