[Anonymous103]

Hi i was wondering if anyone could advise me on suitable A level choices to take next year. Im hoping to get a maths/financial related career in the future and had originally chose to do: maths, f.maths, economics and chemistry. However, im not sure whether or not to take chemistry as i found it difficult at gcse. Is there any other A level which would be useful for me to take? Also, when chosing my maths modules i was planning on taking all the core, all the futher pure and statistic modules, would this be a wise decision. If not could you suggest different applied modules to take which would benefit me.

[nevergohalfpace]

Business Studies, from friends have told me, all the sciences get a lot harder from GCSE to AS. Maths was easy for me at GCSE (1 mark off an A*), couldn't understand anything at AS so dropped it. Do what you're good at is my advice.

[Iamnothuman]

hello,i personally didnt take chemistry at a level but it apparently is the hardest a level dont take it if you find it hard at gcse as it is a huge step up at a level .You should take something like physics as it contains a lot of maths but with regards to a career in maths i would say that you are pretty much settled
Hope this helps 8-)
About the maths modules i would say see how you fare and then if you find it quite easy you can consider doing all the modules but if you are finding it challening then you can focus on the ones you find hard without learning any new ones

[battycatlady]

If you struggled with GCSE chemistry, you might struggle at A-level. Having said that don't let me put you off if you enjoy it. It's a really interesting A-level. Just prepared to work hard!

[Dark Lord of Mordor]

(Original post by Anonymous103)
Hi i was wondering if anyone could advise me on suitable A level choices to take next year. Im hoping to get a job in a math/financial related career in the future and had originally chose to do: maths, f.maths, economics and chemistry. However, im not sure whether or not to take chemistry as i found it difficult at gcse. Is there any other A levels which would be suitable. Also, when chosing which modules in maths to take i was thinking of doing all the core, all the further pure and statistics modules, would that be usefull or should i take different ones?

Thanks in advance

I don't how you feel about it, but Physics usually goes well with Further Maths (although I see you're not doing the Mechanics modules, however Pure Maths is also helpful for Physics by itself)

[Lunch_Box]

Physics - the combination of this together with Maths + FM shows a strong passion for maths.

Don't listen to the people saying Business studies. You are already doing Economics which is a proper subject.

[Aurorae]

(Original post by Anonymous103)
Hi i was wondering if anyone could advise me on suitable A level choices to take next year. Im hoping to get a maths/financial related career in the future and had originally chose to do: maths, f.maths, economics and chemistry. However, im not sure whether or not to take chemistry as i found it difficult at gcse. Is there any other A level which would be useful for me to take? Also, when chosing my maths modules i was planning on taking all the core, all the futher pure and statistic modules, would this be a wise decision. If not could you suggest different applied modules to take which would benefit me.

Over whether to choose Chemistry, it really depends on your interest in it. What made you want to choose Chemistry? Did you enjoy the work? If the answer is no, then it's probably better to choose a different subject. I've found that most colleges list their course content in their prospectus so you might want to have a look at those to see whether you're likely to remain as interested in the subject as you are. I'm doing a very similar set-up to your A-Level choices in that I'm aiming to take Maths/Further Maths/Econ/Physics. The reason I took Physics is purely because it's interesting (Particle Physics ftw) for me and I do well at it.

The easiest mistake to make when choosing A-Level is to pick subjects which make you look like an elite-uni candidate but doesn't suit what you enjoy. It's much better to achieve high grades in subjects you are strong at, than achieve low grades in subject you take to look impressive.

In all honesty, the career you wish to be in when you're older is pretty well covered by your econ/maths choices. If it were me, I would use the 4th subject for a topic that you'll find easy and take an active interest in. Russell Group universities generally will not penalise you for taking an unorthodox course like physics (a significant deviation from Economics) as it shows diversity and you already have the required subjects covered.

Hope that helps!

[matty123]

Physics is a good idea as Lunch_Box suggested.

However, you then do have four strong, hard A Levels. Good in the long term, but do you think you could cope with it all (absolutly no offence as I don't know you), just a thought?

[Nooshkabob]

Form what I've heard, chemistry is crazily hard, so if you don't love it, I wouldn't advise doing it... I would recommend biology, as it sounds like you're into the sciences, and imo it's easier and more interesting I'd also recommend taking decision maths modules rather than core... D1 is much easier than S1!

[Claire888]

My friend got all her 5 offers for accountancy and finance for this year with Maths, Politics, Economics and Chemistry at AS. So obviously that mix works, but I don't really have any personal experience.

If you found chemistry hard at GCSE DO NOT do it for A-level, it is much much harder than GCSE. I got an A* at GCSE and found it fairly easy but a C at AS, finding it really difficult. It is not a subject to take a gamble on, lots of people took it as their 4th at my school and got Ds or Es.

[kevin s]

accounting, really logical subject, picked it as my 4th AS choice just to fill the space really but took it onto A2 and really enjoyed it

[Anonymous103]

Thanks alot for all the replies I think im going to avoid taking chemistry but i was unsure about taking physics i found medical physics boring at gsce, ill just try and find a suitable 4th option