Any zoology students?

I'm going to take Biology, Chemistry, Russian and History for my A levels and I'm thinking about studying biology specializing in Zoology at uni. Are these good choices and what is the content involved in the course like, any particularly hard areas? It would be great to spend time abroad, is this common for a zoology course? Any pointers would be appreciated.

Reply 1

Electronica

14

I'm a zoology student, the monkeys are my favourite. :biggrin:

Reply 2

Bardem

OP

1

Ok lol, I'll bear that in mind.

Reply 3

heartskippedabeat

10

They seem like good choices, a lot of unis ask for two sciences, and most will want one to be biology. I don't do zoology at the moment, I'll be starting in september so can't tell you much, but most of the courses I looked at had an optional module abroad, usually Africa or South America :smile:

Reply 4

Bardem

OP

1

Original post by heartskippedabeat

They seem like good choices, a lot of unis ask for two sciences, and most will want one to be biology. I don't do zoology at the moment, I'll be starting in september so can't tell you much, but most of the courses I looked at had an optional module abroad, usually Africa or South America :smile:

Ok, cheers. Where are you going to study? Are you going to take the abroad module?

Reply 5

heartskippedabeat

10

Original post by Bardem

Ok, cheers. Where are you going to study? Are you going to take the abroad module?

Queen Mary :biggrin:

Hopefully yeah, although it's not til third year. It's two weeks in Borneo studying tropical ecology and conservation, looks really good!

I know that Cardiff and Manchester, and probably some other unis aswell, do a Zoology sandwich course where your third year is spent on professional placement and you could go abroad for that year, if that's more the type of thing you were looking for :smile:

Reply 6

Bardem

OP

1

Being in London I imagine you can get involved with the Natural History Museum, London Zoo, F.E etc? Yeah, the professional placement sounds cool, I want to work abroad anyway so it would be fitting.

Reply 7

heartskippedabeat

10

Yeah London's a good place to be for Zoology, I know UoL have good links with the zoological society of london aswell which is a bonus :smile:

Ahh cool, it's nice to find other people wanting to do Zoology, there doesn't seem to be many of us!

Reply 8

Bardem

OP

1

Yeah, there dosen't. I don't know anyone who's done Russian A level either so I'll have to see how it goes. I was going to take maths but I don't have enough of an interest to do it for 2 years, I don't imagine it would be that difficult in a Zoology course anyway, is it just statistics and data collection?

Reply 9

Holly Hiskey

11

I do zoology at Reading! I did Biology, chemistry and psychology (and french AS)

Reply 10

Bardem

OP

1

Original post by Holly Hiskey

I do zoology at Reading! I did Biology, chemistry and psychology (and french AS)

What year are you in? Is maths a level needed for the course, or do they teach you the relevant skills?

Reply 11

Holly Hiskey

11

Original post by Bardem

What year are you in? Is maths a level needed for the course, or do they teach you the relevant skills?

I'm in second year! you shouldn't need maths, but you could check individual universities' requirements on their websites. In the second year you do a fair amount of statistics, but I feel pretty confident with it and it's not anything too insane, just using Minitab to run stats tests or looking at standard deviation.

Reply 12

Bardem

OP

1

Ah ok, have you been on many field trips? Or do you a final project or something in your last year? I'm quite interested in doing an independent project or similar so I'll have to read through the content involved in different courses.

I'm pretty interested in the MSci Zoology course at UCL, I did my work exp at the collections there so the Grant museum intrigued me. I'm a bit worried about Chemistry A level, it seems to be infamously difficult.

(edited 13 years ago)

Reply 13

Holly Hiskey

11

Original post by Bardem

Ah ok, have you been on many field trips? Or do you a final project or something in your last year? I'm quite interested in doing an independent project or similar so I'll have to read through the content involved in different courses.

I'm pretty interested in the MSci Zoology course at UCL, I did my work exp at the collections there so the Grant museum intrigued me. I'm a bit worried about Chemistry A level, it seems to be infamously difficult.

I went on one field trip last year, but there have been more available e.g. to Borneo or Guernsey zoo or Spain. I approached a lecturer to sponsor my dissertation instead of waiting for the topic booklet to come out, so my dissertation will be on water fowl. I would advise that you do this because zoology final year projects tend to be on insects because it's easier logistically.
I hated chemistry. Do check the university guidelines though, some count Psychology as a science, some don't, and so on.