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Should I take 4 or 5 A-levels?

Reply 20

BeritV

9

Well.. I take 5 and it's quite alright as long as you are willing to work hard. (Which you are, I presume?)

Reply 21

Leto

10

sunnybacon

I definitely want to take Maths, Biology, Chemistry and Economics. My question is, should I take a 5th A-level? Will it help me in any way?I've been considering French as a 5th A-level, but will it be too much work? I've also been thinking about Further maths as a 5th, but apparently a lot of unis ignore it when applying for medicine...is that the case with Oxford as well?

Don't bother. :smile:

You don't need a fifth AS and it's much better to concentrate on doing 4 very, very well then 5 well. You can't realise how much work just 4 is until next May when you have exams.

The advice I had from a uni admissions office when I had the same dilemma was don't do an AS you don't intend to carry on to A2. There was no way I'd do 5 A2s (and it seems a little silly to do 4 A2s) so I dropped the fifth subject.

Reply 22

TheDannyManCan

6

Take four...5 is unnecessary extra work :smile:

Unless you really like the subject, there really is no point. No Uni's ask for more than three A levels, and some ask for three A levels and an AS. With Medicine, you don't really want extra work - I'm a hopeful applicant, too, and I'm on 4. Let me tell you, it was hard enough getting 4 A's! So, unless you're one of those robots who're naturally uber smart and wanna do it for the hell of it, don't :smile:

Reply 23

Daniiel

13

lekky

I think 5 is unnecessary

and yeah 4 is more than what is required but I think taking 4 is a good idea if you've done well with the time management at AS (ie, your AS grades are good) because it gives you room if you slip up in one subject of still meeting your offer. :smile:

The OP is actually choosing AS Levels (GCSE Results tomorrow) therefore personally I'd recommend 4 is the minimum, whether it's for a points Uni or grades. For me when researching I found most offers AAAb or AAAc so AS is probably wanted even though not in final offer on UCAS.

Reply 24

danhirons

15

Focus on getting top grades in your 4 subjects and obviously revising for interviews and tests. Fifth one will give you little, in fact probably no advantage at all!

Oh right: ignore the bit about tests and interviews, just seen you were doing AS level. 4's probably still all you need. It did fine for me :smile:

Reply 25

Awesomesauce

10

Sparkly-Star

...

Hi! What subjects did you take? I'm starting A levels next year, and I took Chemistry, Physics, Maths, economics.
What is the jump like; as I'm worried I may not keep up with the workload especially with chemistry and Maths destroying my dreams of going into Physics! :frown:

Reply 26

sunnybacon

OP

12

Again, thanks to all the replies :smile:

I guess I'll probably go with 4...tomorrow I'll have a discussion with my tutor before my final choosing. I may go with 5, but if I do then I'll most likely drop French within a few weeks if, as all you guys say, it's too hard to stick with 5.
Thanks for the good luck and birthday wishes as well, good luck to everyone else collecting GCSE results :biggrin:

Reply 27

kleighandrews

Don't do 5!! seriously, there's no point what so ever. Oxford would prefer you to just have AAA instead of AAABB! I know it's silly but that's the way it is. I did 5 and it could have ruined my oxford chances, I got aaabc n my AS levels, A-levels are loads harder than GCSEs, I got 7As and 7A*s at GCSE with not much work, I thought A-levels were just as easy and started off doing 6!! Big mistake!! Honestly don't do it, unless you enjoy being completely stressed out!!

Reply 28

Fozila

four of the subjects you have chosen are not as easy as they may seem. i have done two of them, maths and economics, and both of the subjects require a lot of attention. i'm assuming you have not done economics and in that case you will have to do a lot of reading around the subject. maths, on the other hand requires a lot of practice. no matter how clever you are, you will have to work hard and smart to get the grades. sorry for the long message, but doing 5 A levels my self plus extra curriculum puts a lot of pressure and can affect your grades at the end. oxford asks for 3 Az and may ask for A* as well when you apply for uni next year so be aware of that. :smile:

Reply 29

xCBRx

9

Do 5 As then do 3 at A2, this is what I did for Higher then Advanced Higher. :biggrin:

Reply 30

HighSkies

15

Its not necessary to do that many really. Someone in my year is going off to Cambridge this year and they only did 4. The other did 5, but then again she is very clever and got 5A*s so thats a totally different matter. :p:

But 5 may be unreasonable workload. And I have to say that I've never heard of med schools not taking further maths into account. o.o

Reply 31

sunnybacon

OP

12

Fozila

four of the subjects you have chosen are not as easy as they may seem. i have done two of them, maths and economics, and both of the subjects require a lot of attention. i'm assuming you have not done economics and in that case you will have to do a lot of reading around the subject. maths, on the other hand requires a lot of practice. no matter how clever you are, you will have to work hard and smart to get the grades. sorry for the long message, but doing 5 A levels my self plus extra curriculum puts a lot of pressure and can affect your grades at the end. oxford asks for 3 Az and may ask for A* as well when you apply for uni next year so be aware of that. :smile:

I've never done economics before, I have a few friends who did it at GCSE level...it seems quite interesting, but you're right, I will have to read a lot on the subject.

Reply 32

Josh-H

14

You could take 5 and drop one if it's a bit much. I wouldn't recommend it though, 4 is enough.

Reply 33

toxik_apple

I did Maths, Italian, Psychology, Biology, Chemistry and General Studies at AS; I was so spread out that even keeping up with homework was near impossible. When it came to study leave in the summer I barely had time to revise for everything, resulting in a U in Maths, which actually worked in my favour as unis didn't find out :smile:

4 A levels are manageable and impressive, 5 is unbearable and just looks idiotic. Especially if you end up with Cs.

Reply 34

Medea91

17

If you want yes, but you may also have to do General Studies too, so that would be 6 in total.

Reply 35

sunnybacon

OP

12

Mudya

If you want yes, but you may also have to do General Studies too, so that would be 6 in total.

My college likes to "encourage" their students to take General Studies, however a lot of people choose not to...I don't think I will either, after reading up on different unis and a lot of them say that they don't accept GS.

Reply 36

Medea91

17

sunnybacon

My college likes to "encourage" their students to take General Studies, however a lot of people choose not to...I don't think I will either, after reading up on different unis and a lot of them say that they don't accept GS.

Well then go for 5 :smile:

Good Luck!

Reply 37

Josh-H

14

I wouldn't bother with general studies if it's optional, bit of a waste of time although the course we did we didn't even have lessons for, just an exam to take and they asked us general knowledge questions to write an essay about, so that was worth it.

Reply 38

Sparkly-Star

13

Awesomesauce

Hi! What subjects did you take? I'm starting A levels next year, and I took Chemistry, Physics, Maths, economics.
What is the jump like; as I'm worried I may not keep up with the workload especially with chemistry and Maths destroying my dreams of going into Physics! :frown:

Hiya,

I did bio, chem, maths and further maths. The jump in the begin isn't as huge as anyone makes it out to be, not for the begin of maths anyway, the first module of maths has some chapters that tries to 'bridge' this jump and is not too bad. I would totally recommend getting the textbook by your exam board and completing every single question thoroughly and once you understand those, do every single past paper and then there are some more past papers around such as 'Solomon' papers and so on.

For chemistry the main thing is that you understand the concepts and then apply these concepts. Once you understand these concepts you can work your way around it, whatever they throw at you. Again do past papers, follow the specification, learn keywords because definition questions are 'free' marks. :mmm:

I don't know about physics or economics but if you stick around here the coming year there will be people to advise you. :cute:

http://www.thestudentroom.co.uk/showthread.php?t=1301690

My advice would be to make a timetable (doesn't have to be strict) and then follow it, do homework the moment you get it, make use of your frees, read up on stuff you will do before lessons and make a study plan of the content you have to cover before your exam.This way you will not fall behind and will still have free time to yourself! Make sure not to rely on teachers as you might not get anywhere if you do this. Do not leave anything till the last minute!! It is not advisable at all. Start early, but not too early. Early enough for you to be comfortable with what you have learnt before an exam. :cute:

Wish you the best. :grin:

Reply 39

notchip

I did French AS and found that it took up more time than most of the other subjects put together in terms of private study hours. I did the AS and got a respectable B but then decided to drop it so that I could devote the time to my other subjects, since I needed AAA for my first degree and didn't want to risk dropping a grade for the sake of French, which was the least relevant to my degree choice anyway.

It was a shame though, because I really like the subject itself.

Should I take 4 or 5 A-levels?

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