Best A-Level choices for Economics?

JOR2010

Hi, I'm wanting to do Economics at university, hopefully, and I've read in some places that further maths is almost essential for the best Economics universities. My choices were Maths Statistics, German, History and Economics. Would I be better off switching one out for Further Maths, or adding it on, or not bothering?

Thanks.

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Reply 1

Aristotle's' Disciple

Do Maths Further Maths and either of the other 2, Maths and Further maths are the only 2 which are really needed.

Reply 2

JOR2010

But is Further Maths essential? I really would like to take the other subjects, five may be a bit too many? I though only Maths was the essential pre-requisite for Economics?

Reply 3

Azza919

At AS...

Maths
Further Maths
Economics
Physics/History/A Language

At A2...

Maths
Further Maths
Economics

Reply 4

little_wizard123

Maths, FM, History and Economics. Or do AS FM if you really want to do German.

Reply 5

Markleberry

Piggybacking on this thread so I'm not clogging things up:

I'm not doing the full further Maths course (I hadn't decided I wanted to do an Economics degree when I chose my ASes), but I'm probably going to be doing the AS Pure Maths module next year. What would a uni think of that?

Reply 6

Tateco

After talking to admissions tutors and hearing from others on here who have spoken to admissions tutors it is becoming increasingly apparent that Further Maths is only wanted as a fourth subject (in most cases). And even then it doesn't make as much difference as you might think. The only universities I have heard which actively say they strongly prefer it are Cambridge and LSE. UCL likes it but it is by no means essential for any university, it gets increasingly less important as you move out of the top 5.

Having said that, it is still a good subject to have and I would personally recommend:

Maths, Economics, Further Maths. Then 1/2 from: History, Lit, Languages, Sciences (Chem and Phys more than Biology), Geography.

Reply 7

Tateco

Original post by Azza919

At A2...

Maths
Further Maths
Economics

That is a bad idea. You would cut off several options straight away with these A2, it's too narrow (when there is no fourth A2)

EDIT: For everyone that is negging me, scroll down and see the solid evidence that this set is too narrow for some universities.

(edited 12 years ago)

Reply 8

Azza919

Original post by Tateco

That is a bad idea. You would cut off several options straight away with these A2, it's too narrow (when there is no fourth A2)

Not really, if the OP wants to study economics.... also 4 A2's are never REQUIRED. Essay writing can still be shown in History and some extra-curricular work can compensate for any fourth A2...

Reply 9

Tateco

Original post by Azza919

Not really, if the OP wants to study economics.... also 4 A2's are never REQUIRED. Essay writing can still be shown in History and some extra-curricular work can compensate for any fourth A2...

4 A2s are never required? That's strange...

"Further Mathematics taken at A level is strongly preferred and is seen as an additional or fourth subject. Thus a combination of Mathematics, Further Mathematics and one other subject is not seen as providing the required breadth of knowledge and skills. " That one's straight from LSE for you Here

"Candidates who offer Further Maths are expected to offer a minimum of 4 subjects (to include Maths) at A2 level." And that one is from Warwick :smile:

Here

Nice subtle negative rep from you there :rolleyes:

Reply 10

Glen_Nichols

Maths, Further Maths, Economics, Physics

Reply 11

Groat

In my opinion, I would go for the following combinations:

A-Level: Maths, Further Maths, Economics, History
AS-Level: German

If you cannot manage five to AS-Level, I would recommend dropping German.

Reply 12

Azza919

Original post by Tateco

Here

Nice subtle negative rep from you there :rolleyes:

that wasn't me actually.... for most uni's it still isn't a requirement. those are top 5 so it just depends where you apply.

Reply 13

24DJF

I know they're all good, but what are the advantages to having a) a science, b) history/english (essay type subjects), or c) modern foreign language, for your 4th a level after maths, fm and econ :smile:

Reply 14

hockeyjoe

Original post by JOR2010

Don't drop the language, it'd be absolutely essential for most economics based carreers, maybe instead of history do Fmaths?

Reply 15

Datbreh

Economics
Maths
Further Maths

Reply 16

Potally_Tissed

Original post by Datbreh

Economics
Maths
Further Maths

And something else, though what exactly doesn't matter much. See post #10.

Maths
Further maths
Economics
One of Physics, Chemistry, History, Geography, Politics, English Lit, a modern language, etc. Probably a few others I haven't mentioned are fine as well. Can't go far wrong if you've got those first three.