The Student Room Group

Taking the supposedly 4 hardest A-Levels

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Original post by Platopus
Drama, creative writing, general studies and media studies?


Hope that's a joke, Media requires creativity more so than actual intelligence, it is exceptionally easy if you have a passion for it but I wouldn't recommend taking it as a subject if you want to take it up as a career, it will put you off and almost serves no purpose.
From that list I only do Biology and it's hard.
I do English literature which is hard because there is so much stuff about each text - literally like doing 4 a levels within itself.

My friends that do chemistry always complain. I don't hear many complaints about maths or physics. I would've loved to have done chem and physics if I was better at maths but oh well.

Good luck
Reply 42
Well Doing Chemistry, FM, Maths and physics, was naturally better at maths and physics, so I did not find maths or physics really hard however I can say that they are harder than chemistry conversely I understand physics far more than I do chemistry. Though everyone says this, it depends and Further maths is essentially harder.

People tend to follow this pattern : Good at memorizing , worse at logic and understanding or the opposite. For me it was simply:
"states physics answer in chemistry and gets told that I can not do that" but why its the same question??? < that's what I found most difficult to understand in my entire AS year, all year.
Reply 43
Original post by maggiedavies
From that list I only do Biology and it's hard.
I do English literature which is hard because there is so much stuff about each text - literally like doing 4 a levels within itself.

My friends that do chemistry always complain. I don't hear many complaints about maths or physics. I would've loved to have done chem and physics if I was better at maths but oh well.

Good luck


My current bio teacher abhors maths but she took chem and physics at A level. She still has some difficulty in rearranging simple equations and she uses a long drawn out process to rearrange them but it worked out for her in the end since she ended up with two degrees and a PhD.
Reply 44
Original post by Mathemagicien
I thought about doing the same combination as you, when I was in your position, because I thought I wanted to go into physics. I didn't think I'd be doing maths. I only changed my mind (Bio to Further Maths) at the last minute.

Now I'm incredibly glad I did so, because I think doing physics would have been a huge mistake, and I thank A-level physics for convincing me of this (don't want to put you off physics, sorry, but I don't want to lie, either). It'll be better for you, because you won't have to do the ISAs (practical assessments), which were truly ridiculous and entirely unfair in their assessment.


In my current AS my practical assessments for physics and chemistry are identical.
I think that depends on exam board.
Original post by Samii123
My current bio teacher abhors maths but she took chem and physics at A level. She still has some difficulty in rearranging simple equations and she uses a long drawn out process to rearrange them but it worked out for her in the end since she ended up with two degrees and a PhD.


Wow that's really impressive. I wouldn't say I abhor maths because I think it's actually really interesting, the only problem is: I can't do it. I came out with a C at GCSE, struggled since the beginning, was predicted a B and wanted the B but oh well. I can easily do the maths required in AS Biology (I'm still in yr 12) and was accepted onto AS Chemistry but changed it at the last minute for Literature - I got AA at GCSE so was certainly confident in that. :smile:

I have so much respect for your bio teacher.
(edited 7 years ago)
Reply 46
Original post by Mathemagicien
I thought about doing the same combination as you, when I was in your position, because I thought I wanted to go into physics. I didn't think I'd be doing maths. I only changed my mind (Bio to Further Maths) at the last minute.

Now I'm incredibly glad I did so, because I think doing physics would have been a huge mistake, and I thank A-level physics for convincing me of this (don't want to put you off physics, sorry, but I don't want to lie, either). It'll be better for you, because you won't have to do the ISAs (practical assessments), which were truly ridiculous and entirely unfair in their assessment.


Glad to see that it worked out well. What grades did you get for your A-levels btw.
I'm doing Maths, Further Maths, Biology and Chemistry next year.
Never would be able to do Physics; I don't enjoy it.
I feel like the only thing motivating me is the fact that I will have amazing teachers at sixth form.
Reply 48
Original post by maggiedavies
Wow that's really impressive. I wouldn't say I abhor maths because I think it's actually really interesting, the only problem is: I can't do it. I came out with a C at GCSE, struggled since the beginning, was predicted a B and wanted the B but oh well. I can easily do the maths required in AS Biology (I'm still in yr 12) and was accepted onto AS Chemistry but changed it at the last minute for Literature - I got AA at GCSE so was certainly confident in that. :smile:

I have so much respect for your bio teacher.


Haha maybe I exaggerated when i said abhors but she definitely was not naturally gifted at maths like others were.
im in yr 12. biology isn't bad if youre good at it now, but maths is really hard along with chemistry :smile: physics is okay
Original post by surina16
I'm almost going to be taking the same as you:
Maths, Further Maths, Chemistry and Biology (and an EPQ :colonhash:)

Shitting myself because I've heard the same - apparently Chemistry is a killer :redface:


I don't know what exam board you are doing but I wouldn't say its a killer. It's just the content is not the best, you may find yourself under a lot of stress as the amount of content you need to cover is phenomenal.

You can do it though,
think of the outcome if you were able to smash it
I'm doing my AS levels at the moment and I'm taking three out of four of the subjects you've mentioned; maths, biology and physics.

You should be able to do well in maths if you keep up with the workload. At the beginning of the year I was getting Es and Ds because I was doing the minimum amount of work possible, but once I got into it a bit more my grades went up to B/A.

Biology is probably my favourite subject. The application isn't too difficult, but you really need to remember a lot of stuff. Our teachers have compared A level biology to learning a new language because of all the key terms and definitions. I find it helps to read textbook chapters the morning before the lesson so that I have a bit of an idea of the information before we learn it. It just helps to solidify the learning a bit if I'm getting told stuff and I've already done some work about it or have some background knowledge it before hand.

Physics is definitely the hardest subject I take, I would say it's a 9/10 in difficulty. However, I still enjoy the subject, and loads of my friends do really well in it.

I think as long as you're committed and dedicated to the subjects, and do maybe an hours work every weekday after school, then you should be able to do the subjects you want and come out with great grades. Good luck.
Reply 52
Further maths would be among the bracket of "Hardest" subjects at A level, physics is a tough one too and chemistry can be quite hard depending how well you dealt with c3 unit at gcse since they overlap slightly although new concepts are introduced. Biology isn't bad, just memorising- however there is a lot of it.
I'm doing the exact same A-levels as you. Apparently Biology is the hardest of the sciences which is quite unusual...
Original post by surina16
I'm almost going to be taking the same as you:
Maths, Further Maths, Chemistry and Biology (and an EPQ :colonhash:)

Shitting myself because I've heard the same - apparently Chemistry is a killer :redface:


Same as me. I regret Bio. Choose Wisely..
Original post by stormblazer999
I'm doing the exact same A-levels as you. Apparently Biology is the hardest of the sciences which is quite unusual...


Hardest because it is the most boring. That of course is subjective, but it definitely is dry IMO.
Original post by FailedMyMocks
Hardest because it is the most boring. That of course is subjective, but it definitely is dry IMO.


I wouldn't necessarily say it's boring, it's quite interesting actually. But yeah the context itself is kinda dead.
Original post by stormblazer999
I wouldn't necessarily say it's boring, it's quite interesting actually. But yeah the context itself is kinda dead.


Each to their own. I personally, cannot memorize things. Which is basically what most of biology is. Granted there are application questions, however you do need to recall concepts to help you answer..
Original post by Samii123
In September I will be starting A-level maths, physics, chemistry and biology. Pretty much everyone who I have talked to have said that these are the hardest subjects I could have took and how I will have such a phenomenal workload that I won't be able to have a social life but is it really THAT vigorous and THAT difficult?


Yes. Yes, it is. You think GCSEs was hard? If you don't, you're right. You haven't come close to hard until you reach A-Levels. Imagine GCSEs x 100. Don't get overconfident, don't take it lightly, don't think it'll be easy or it could ruin you.
Original post by Samii123
In September I will be starting A-level maths, physics, chemistry and biology. Pretty much everyone who I have talked to have said that these are the hardest subjects I could have took and how I will have such a phenomenal workload that I won't be able to have a social life but is it really THAT vigorous and THAT difficult?


pshaw i'm taking all those AND further maths

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