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How many subjects should I do?

I want to do medicine at cambridge, How many subjects should I do??
Is 4 enough bio,phy,chem and maths
or should I do more?

Reply 1

member234278

Yeah I think that would be ok, better do 5.

Reply 2

moomin_love

15

Dr.Black Knight

I want to do medicine at cambridge, How many subjects should I do??
Is 4 enough bio,phy,chem and maths
or should I do more?

Four is fine. Don't do five unless you really think you can cope with it. A lot of people's grades suffer when they take 5. Even the cleverest of people. I'd take four and aim for 90% in each rather than taking 5 and aiming for 80% in each if you get me...

Reply 3

x_LiNk_x

13

I would advise doing 5 at AS-Level, then potentially dropping one to do 4 at A-level.

The benefit of 5 is you can do 3 Sciences, 1 Math and 1 Art subject to show breadth of skills.

Reply 4

didgeridoo12uk

16

i'd say start off with 5, drop one if you cant hack it.

but seriously 5 a'levels is literally no work whatsoever compared to what you'll be doing at cambridge

Reply 5

Dr.Black Knight

OP

3

moomin_love

Four is fine. Don't do five unless you really think you can cope with it. A lot of people's grades suffer when they take 5. Even the cleverest of people. I'd take four and aim for 90% in each rather than taking 5 and aiming for 80% in each if you get me...

hi I am doing my Al in one year I did AS this jan and would be doing A2 this june the thing is am doing it privately
but my school would give reference saying I studied from school,
would the uni accept it.
please help

Reply 6

Dr.Black Knight

OP

3

didgeridoo12uk

i'd say start off with 5, drop one if you cant hack it.

but seriously 5 a'levels is literally no work whatsoever compared to what you'll be doing at cambridge

wt should I do?

Reply 7

moomin_love

15

Dr.Black Knight

hi I am doing my Al in one year I did AS this jan and would be doing A2 this june the thing is am doing it privately
but my school would give reference saying I studied from school,
would the uni accept it.
please help

Yes they'd accept it. Also, just because 5 A levels is nothing compared to the work you'd be doing at Cambridge is no reason to take 5 A levels. There are no benefits of taking 5 (They'll only ask for 3 A2 subjects and 1 AS subject). Work on perfecting your 4 subjects rather than scraping an A in 3 subjects. At Cambridge you'll need at least 1 A* as well at A level.

Reply 8

ByronicHero

20

Do as many as you think you can get A*/A in.

If this is 4 do that.

If this is 20 do that.

<3

Reply 9

Tyrotoxism

2

take five. if you're cambridge standard it shouldn't be hard.

Reply 10

username218989

1

Depends how much free time you want..
I would say there's not much real benefit to doing 5. I do 4, and have an offer for vet. Talking to people at interviews, it was a roughly even split between people doing 3 and people doing 4. Personally, I prefer to do 4 (not that my college would have let me do 5) and have time for extra reading around the key ones.

Reply 11

Canned Door

didgeridoo12uk

but seriously 5 a'levels is literally no work whatsoever compared to what you'll be doing at cambridge

Tyrotoxism

take five. if you're cambridge standard it shouldn't be hard.

I don't want to disagree completely, because clearly there is a jump to university level. BUT, I took 5 subjects at Y12 and ended up only doing 3 in Y13. And I am convinced I did things in the best way possible for me. I'm not going to say I found A levels harder than uni, but what I will say is, I think A levels are a stepping stone. You can't claim to be at the same level for both, you progress upwards from one to the other. Having been able to really work on my main subjects in sixth form has made coming here so much more pleasant, and has, dare I say it, made me happier here. In Y12 I had a full full timetable, in Y13 a more relaxed one. Perfect for me, it meant I could do my own thing more, spend more time on the things that matter, go overboard in preparing for my orals and stuff, so I wasn't just hoop-jumping.

I'm in my first year of MML here, and I managed five subjects in the first year (Fr, Ger, EngLit, Maths AS+A2, if you count maths AS + A2 as two, which timetable-wise yes, but workload compared to two distinct subjects, perhaps not quite). At the end of Y12, I dropped a subject as normal, and then about half-way into the Autumn term of Y13 I dropped half of Further Maths and so came down to three for A2. I just found I didn't have the time to *really* work on my languages, to do the reading I wanted to be doing, and generally to enjoy my time. Don't underestimate the importance of free periods for getting work done or being happy etc.

I did extra subjects because I *wanted* to, because I *enjoyed* them. And then I dropped down to three in the final year, because I found I wasn't managing it, or rather, it was too much of a strain. Of course, if you start with 3, you can't work upwards, but if you start with 5, you can definitely lose subjects, as digeridoo says. There's no shame in that. Everyone's different, and I reckon you just have to do what works for you.

Reply 12

DaveJ

Yeah, doing Biology, Chemistry, Maths, Physics should be fine really. I can't imagine doing 5 gives much advantage, when they look at GCSEs, UMS, BMAT and interview.

Reply 13

Jabroni

^ Medicine is extremely competetive though, and doing not doing a humanity when applying for Medicine may slightly disadvantage you, particularly when ethics is a big part of it as well as the written and essay skills needed in general for things like writing up experiments. I'd recommend doing something like Philosophy, History or English in addition to the core of Chemistry, Biology, Physics and Maths (statistics will help from what I've heard). You can always drop the humanity subject but having a high UMS in it will do you good.

Reply 14

DaveJ

Jabroni

^ Medicine is extremely competetive though, and doing not doing a humanity when applying for Medicine may slightly disadvantage you, particularly when ethics is a big part of it as well as the written and essay skills needed in general for things like writing up experiments. I'd recommend doing something like Philosophy, History or English in addition to the core of Chemistry, Biology, Physics and Maths (statistics will help from what I've heard). You can always drop the humanity subject but having a high UMS in it will do you good.

I disagree - only 2 medical schools express a small preference for a humanity. There's really no need for a humanity, especially for Cambridge when I think they want as much science as possible. I know you suggest it on top of the 4 science/maths subjects, but to be honest, I think it's unnecessary extra effort. Medical schools use GCSEs, UKCAT, interviews etc, to choose candidates. I highly doubt subject choice, once you meet the requirements, really comes into it.

Reply 15

Jabroni

It's always best to maximise your chances though, and tbh, if you're applying for Cambridge medicine, doing one extra subject at AS should be a piece of piss.

Reply 16

DaveJ

Jabroni

It's always best to maximise your chances though, and tbh, if you're applying for Cambridge medicine, doing one extra subject at AS should be a piece of piss.

Well I have an offer for Cambridge medicine, and I don't think I'd have found another AS Level a piece of piss. :p:

I just don't think doing a humanity AS Level will have any impact on your chances.

Reply 17

pgl

Read Cambridge's statement on the number of A levels you should study. It is entitled 'Collective response to an enquiry regarding the number of A level subjects studied' and can be downloaded from this page:
http://www.cam.ac.uk/admissions/undergraduate/responses/

Reply 18

7589200

18

Doing four is absolutely fine, doing five will help you a bit - but only if you can handle it.

Reply 19

Dr.Black Knight

OP

3

DaveJ

Yeah, doing Biology, Chemistry, Maths, Physics should be fine really. I can't imagine doing 5 gives much advantage, when they look at GCSEs, UMS, BMAT and interview.

The thing is I got just AAAABBBBBC for gcse because there was war in my country I'm in sri lanka so I had to my O Levels in one year.
then did nothing for the next year after which I'm doing my A levels
I did As this Jan and would be doing A2 this june so its like I'll be doing My A levels in one year.
will I be acceppted.
what were your ums and ur bmat score?

How many subjects should I do?

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