Choosing A-levels for medicine

There is a care home next to me that I have recently asked to volunteer. But most hospital based work experience requires me to be in year 12. So work experience has been tricky to find

Hi, I've just done my GCSEs and have chosen my A-levels. I really want to do medicine at university and currently, my choices are:

- maths
- biology
-chemistry
-economics

However, I was just wondering if psychology might be a better choice for my fourth A-level, instead of economics. For me, it sounds a lot more interesting, but it has also come to my attention that some unis see it as being a 'softer' A-level.

I would really appreciate any advice. Also, is anyone else considering/doing medicine. If so, what are/were your A-level choices?

Thanks

Volunteer work at an aged Care Home is a BRILLIANT opportunity - you will learn so much about caring for people. You can use examples from this in your PS to show 'communication', 'altruism', 'compassion; 'understanding end-of-life care' etc. With an ageing population, much of your working life as a doctor will be taken up with the elderly - Med Schools know this and so any experience like this puts you in a really good place.

Work experience doesn't have to be in a clinical setting. Look for opportunities at Special Schools, Homeless Shelters, Refugee Groups etc - all of this shows you can deal with a wide range of people and have an understanding of the difficulties/circumstances of the lives of people you'll deal with as a doctor.

There is a good section in the Medicine Wiki on Work Experience and How to Get it - http://www.thestudentroom.co.uk/wiki/Medicine

If the 3rd subject isnt specified (ie. AAA including Biology and Chemistry) ALWAYS choose a subject where you are most confident of an A grade - it can be Dance Studies or Art History, it doesn't matter as long as you get an A ! Forget 'usefull' or 'will look good' - the Uni doesnt care about the subject, just the A grade.

I chose the exact same subjects! Also applied for med and just finished A2, waiting for results now. Out of the 4 I found maths and chemistry most interesting, biology easiest to get high marks on, and economics requiring the least effort. Chemistry was definitely the hardest! (I did edexcel) I don't regret these choices at all, I'm sure you'll enjoy them

Your Alevel choices are completely up to you, as long as they include biology and chemistry you will be fine for most medical courses (at cambridge I think they requires 3 science at A2 so you would have to do maths to A2 also so just keep that in mind). My advice is choose whichever alevels you find interesting and think you will have a good chance at getting the A grades in (especially if your doing 4). I did bio, chem and geography and found this combination to be great, but its up to you!

One thing I do want to say is with medicine the prestige of a university isnt really important, because you come out with the same graduate prospects whether you study at oxbridge compared to a non-russel group medical school such as Keele, so try not to focus on league tables when your applying. Be aware also that getting into medicine is incredibly competitive, and applying to schools requires you to apply to your strengths, so my advice is do not get your heart set on certain universities right now, just aim for the highest grades possible and get some medical work experience and that will set you up well.

Best of luck!

Hi Emilia1479

How are you feeling about your choices now?

To be completely honest, the subjects you have listed are great and completely fine for going on to study medicine. As I am sure you are aware, Chemistry is really essential for studying medicine, with Biology strongly recommended (at least to AS level). What you take in addition to those is really up to you. Maths is a good choice if you are considering applying for Oxbridge due to the theoretical nature of the course, although having said that, it certainly is not compulsory.

As some other people have already said, the most important thing when picking your subjects (once you have the essential ones ticked off) is that you enjoy them, just simply because if you enjoy studying those subjects, you are far more likely to do well in them

You might be interested in reading this blog as it is about this exact subject.

Do give me a shout if you have any questions I can answer for you.

I hope that helps!

UniAdmissions

Thanks so much!

This has been really helpful and I've now made up my mind - thank you all so much!

I'm thinking about applying to medicine as well (just finished GCSEs). I've chosen Maths, Chemistry, Biology and FM. Chosen these becuase I know I will enjoy these at A-level and will do well in them as opposed to other subjects. Just go for the Uni requirements and the subjects you will enjoy as you'll find them easier to do. Then you can get them amazing grades as opposed to people with "non-soft" subjects who are doing them because they think it'll get them in. I was always put down by a friend who claimed to be doing "smart" subjects at GCSEs and said that because I had one DT subject, my subjects aren't "smart" (yet all our subjects were the same - 1). Little does she know I have an A* in that "dumb" subject (since it was coursework and controlled exam) and she was struggling with her "smart" subject (our other subjects were exactly the same).
Just do Psychology as Chemistry and Biology are the main subjects and anything else really doesn't matter.

Be careful most medical schools do not class maths and further maths as seperate subjects, instead they average your UMS between the 2. So your taking 2 A2s when actually they only count for 1 in the medical schools eyes, just making you aware.


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I know, thanks for letting me know. I'm doing it since it has been made available to us and I enjoy maths.

Thats great, just letting you know, to often students 'spread themselves to thinly' between more alevels than needed, and this can lead to extra stress and sometimes applicants for medicine miss offers because the extra stress meant they didnt meet the AAA required but got AABB because they took 4 subjects. Just keep that in mind, if medicine is your goal and its getting tough with 4 just drop one, its better to do that and make the grades than stress to much and not. Best of luck x


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Hi, I've just done my GCSEs and have chosen my A-levels. I really want to do medicine at university and currently, my choices are:

- maths
- biology
-chemistry
-economics

However, I was just wondering if psychology might be a better choice for my fourth A-level, instead of economics. For me, it sounds a lot more interesting, but it has also come to my attention that some unis see it as being a 'softer' A-level.

I would really appreciate any advice. Also, is anyone else considering/doing medicine. If so, what are/were your A-level choices?

Thanks

I have talked to teachers about this and considering dropping FM if everything gets a tad stressful but I am quite organised and generally well-prepared. I'll take the advice and if it is getting stressful, I'll drop FM (I doubt it regarding my competitiveness with the maths nerds in the school). Thanks x