A Level Options: Maths, Biology, Chemistry, Physics and History

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Nah there's far to much to learn, especially when combined with having a **** teacher. If I've learned anything, complain about the standard of teaching early so that it doesn't get to this stage before you realise you're ****ed.

You don't even really need a teacher for history, just buy like half a dozen books and work through them, drawing A3s and the like. Teachers are more necessary to STEM since you need to understand concepts rather than just plain info.

Reply 21

FakeDumbledore

Original post by TercioOfParma

Yes but you still need the teachers to mark essays etc. I understand you can learn the content by yourself but if you can't apply it to questions, it's impossible to succeed.

Reply 22

TercioOfParma

Original post by FakeDumbledore

Yes but you still need the teachers to mark essays etc. I understand you can learn the content by yourself but if you can't apply it to questions, it's impossible to succeed.

You can ask people here to mark them, and besides, It is really easy to structure the answers anyway, it just requires a little thought.

Reply 23

FakeDumbledore

Original post by TercioOfParma

You can ask people here to mark them, and besides, It is really easy to structure the answers anyway, it just requires a little thought.

True but it still doesn't take away the fact that the subject is really demanding time wise and so it's hard to balance time for other subjects with History.

Reply 24

mliela

It's not worth doing five. Trust me. Especially with these subjects. Do you not have any inkling about what you want to do in the future? That will really determine it.
Something like medicine would need bio Chem and two others.
Whereas physics would need physics and maths.

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Reply 25

TercioOfParma

Original post by FakeDumbledore

True but it still doesn't take away the fact that the subject is really demanding time wise and so it's hard to balance time for other subjects with History.

I disagree, I think it is probably as demanding as Maths or Computing, having done all three. Then again, I like history so It doesn't feel like work.

Reply 26

nexttime

Original post by Nurani61105

I'm in the exact same predicament with Biology, Chemistry, Physics, History and Maths. I love sciences and history but an admission officer at Oxford told me at a student conference that maths is really important for medicine and many don't realise and struggle when they come to do it. They prefer 3 sciences for A level (which Maths counts as) and I think they prefer it to Physics (which I love and would be my alternative to maths, being a maths-based science).

There is extremely little maths in medicine, trust me.

I don't know who this person was, but there is no official preference for maths or 3 sciences.

There's data on the topic below. There is a very slight correlation with people taking maths getting offers but its difficult to tell if its a university preference or that having maths correlates with other factors (e.g. better work experience/interview preparation). Neither physics nor biology correlate with better outcomes.

http://www.medsci.ox.ac.uk/study/medicine/pre-clinical/statistics
http://web.archive.org/web/20150216123605/http://www.medsci.ox.ac.uk/study/medicine/pre-clinical/statistics
http://web.archive.org/web/20140110204835/http://www.medsci.ox.ac.uk/study/medicine/pre-clinical/statistics

Reply 27

eliwats

Original post by FakeDumbledore

Don't do History. You will regret it.

How so? Thinking of doing it next year :/

Reply 28

spidle

Original post by eliwats

How so? Thinking of doing it next year :/

If you enjoy it then go for it. I only had partial interest in the topics I did for history but enough to revise it and remember all the important details. I think I've done well for my exams recently, knew all the content to answer the questions :u:

Reply 29

k0chia

Original post by nexttime

There is extremely little maths in medicine, trust me.

I don't know who this person was, but there is no official preference for maths or 3 sciences.

There's data on the topic below. There is a very slight correlation with people taking maths getting offers but its difficult to tell if its a university preference or that having maths correlates with other factors (e.g. better work experience/interview preparation). Neither physics nor biology correlate with better outcomes.

http://www.medsci.ox.ac.uk/study/medicine/pre-clinical/statistics
http://web.archive.org/web/20150216123605/http://www.medsci.ox.ac.uk/study/medicine/pre-clinical/statistics
http://web.archive.org/web/20140110204835/http://www.medsci.ox.ac.uk/study/medicine/pre-clinical/statistics

Thank you for the information. The reason why I was even debating taking an essay based subject was because I've been reading about universities being appalled by the standard of writing of STEM students.

Reply 30

k0chia

Original post by spidle

Sounds good, hope you have done well :h:

The topics the college I'm going to will be studying will be Tsarist and communist Russia and British history i don't really care about so I forgot which topic they're teaching for that 2H

Reply 31

k0chia

Original post by FakeDumbledore

True but it still doesn't take away the fact that the subject is really demanding time wise and so it's hard to balance time for other subjects with History.

I see it differently, I think having an A Level in an essay based subject would show that you can write eloquently and have good evaluative skills

Reply 32

k0chia

Original post by DatComicalManiac

In all honesty 5 subjects is waaaay to much. The work load will be immense and you might be underestimating A levels. But if you think you can you can try but in my opinion you shouldn't do more than 4

I get you and really I'm not undermining them that's why I'm not going to both trying. I'll go ahead with physics since writing under timed conditions gets me stressed out