Another panicking about-to-be sixth former...

Hey!

I have my 6th form induction in a few days and will need to verify my A Level choices.

At the moment I'm definitely going to take Maths, English Lit and Biology, but I was wondering what you thought my fourth (and possibly fifth) should be. I'm choosing between History and Spanish, and maybe Further Maths.

Which would be a better combination? And how useful (and difficult) is further maths? I enjoy both history and Spanish, and I could start with both of them and my original three, and then decide after a week or two of lessons. But then, I wouldn't be able to do further maths...but then I'm not sure I should do that either.

I don't really know what I want to do at Uni - until very recently I was absolutely set on becoming a journalist and so was planning on doing something essay-ish, but now I'm considering a more science-y course.

I've got A*s in all my GCSEs - I dropped 2 UMS in the whole maths GCSE and have got 91/100 UMS in C1. For Spanish, I only dropped marks in the listening test and nothing else, and I also did very well in history.

So...any advice? Thanks! :smile:

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Further maths! <3

Original post by hayzelle

Further maths! <3

Any particular reason? :smile:

Reply 3

DdotT

Your Panicking?
I have to bloody move out to somewhere i've never been and live there.

Reply 4

Fuzzed_Out

Further maths is awesome, but with your subject set it would only be worth it if you wanted to do pure maths at uni, I personally would add physics to the list, and maybe history.

Reply 5

Xero Xenith

You seem good enough to do Further Maths, and if you're one of the freaks who can do maths without loads of practise, it'll be less work than some other options. Assuming you're good enough, of course. If you got 91/100 in C1 that early, there's a good chance that you are :smile:

Reply 6

annamerrett93

Only take spanish if you're genuinely pretty good at it..i know a lot of people who dropped it after AS-Levels :smile:

Reply 7

.snowflake.

If you want to do something sciencey, possibly choose another science/maths AS level. Spanish would contrast nicely with maths, bio and Eng. lit.

I wouldnt reccommend you take both history and spanish along with Eng. lit. I had a friend who took eng. lit, history, classics and german. She had essays coming out of her ears pretty much 24/7.

Reply 8

uxa595

Unless biology is relevant to a course you wish to do at uni, don't do it.
It's a horrible subject.

Go for FM :biggrin:

Reply 9

TheBigI

History, such a great subject and so interesting :smile:

Reply 10

physicsfuntimes

I wouldn't say further maths was much harder than maths, so if you did great at GCSE you should be able to cope happily with that, although it's quite a step up. However, it might not be worth the effort if you haven't got a mathsy future planned! For a sciencey future, biology may not help you too much, as it quite limits you to biology... but I spose it's up to you!

I think languages (ie spanish) are a LOT of work at A level, so if you're not too fussed about it, I'd maybe think about that one carefully. The flexibility of being able to choose after a week would be handy though... I guess it all depends on the elusive future!

Reply 11

hayzelle

Original post by Florence321

Any particular reason? :smile:

To be honest, I'm just a bit of a maths nerd :colondollar:

On a serious note, it sounds like you're really good at maths and in my opinion further maths is not too difficult and very useful. If you want to take Maths at uni it's necessary and as a scientific subject it would be well looked upon for most science courses, who want you to mainly do science subjects with perhaps one 'contrast' essay based subject. If you're able to take further maths and one of the others that could be a good option as well :biggrin:

Reply 12

Obadetona

Do you want to go to uni? If so, which course?

Reply 13

Florence321

Original post by Fuzzed_Out

Further maths is awesome, but with your subject set it would only be worth it if you wanted to do pure maths at uni, I personally would add physics to the list, and maybe history.

Although I like certain aspects of physics, I don't think I like it enough to be able to take it and do well at A Level.
Would doing further maths not benefit me if I decided I wanted to do something like natural sciences at uni? It would mean I would technically have 3 science subjects...(and before you say it, I'm not doing chemistry! I did really well in the GCSE but I just found the lessons so tedious and I really dislike the teacher).

Reply 14

uxa595

Original post by Xero Xenith

From looking at your sig, you're one of those freaks :tongue:

C1 is just mental maths at college though, it's nothing challenging.

Reply 15

Cicerao

I'd say Spanish, without a doubt. I've spent many a night enjoying a French-dubbed film or romancing in Portuguese or nattering away to some German pals and so many other experiences. Whereas I can't say I ever had a riveting experience involving algebra or a world war. I know I'm simplifying there, but my point is that language opens up a whole world of things you can enjoy beyond just academia.

Reply 16

Florence321

Original post by Obadetona

Do you want to go to uni? If so, which course?

Ah, the million dollar question...

The problem is I keep changing my mind!
When I chose my provisional subjects I was aiming for a career in writing and so was thinking of doing English Lit.

After getting my GCSE results though I went onto Cambridge's website and had a look at their courses, and Natural Sciences suddenly seemed much more appealing...

I know that generally for that it would be wise to take chemistry but I really can't face that! And biology has always been my favourite science. (chemistry is also not essential for that course!)

But, I don't want to completely change to science subjects (especially when it's the end of the holidays and I've not had a lesson since June) and then decide I do in fact want to do something humanties/English based.

But then again I don't want to completely close off the science option....

Reply 17

physicsfuntimes

Original post by Florence321

Natural sciences courses usually like at least two sciences... 'technically' isn't much use if you need to know either physics or chem! Not sure you'd really be suited to a natural sciences course if you don't like two of the *main* sciences!

Reply 18

Florence321

Original post by physicsfuntimes

Yeah, but maths counts as a science so if I do that and biology I will have two! But I do know what you're saying, and that course would be ridiculously competitive and most people would probably be offering all science subjects.
I didn't really explain it very well - it was more the idea of studying those kind of topics rather than that particular course. I do find biology very interesting - I love learning about life processes and how the body works and things like that, but not so much how electrons and nuclei react...

Reply 19

ak9779

Your subjects sound strong and varied which is good considering you don't know what to do. Further Maths is seen as a very strong subject but is only really necessary for a Maths degree. I'd go with the 5 subjects and leave Further Maths considering you don't know if you want to go sciencey or not at uni.

Russel group guide to A Level Choices: http://www.russellgroup.ac.uk/uploads/InformedChoicesupdated_3.pdf