5 A-levels and Subject dilemma! Help Please! :)

Hi there

Well I've decided to do

History
Maths
Philosophy
Chemistry

for my a levels

However I'm set on doing a Law (possibly History) degree with Japanese, yet I haven't taken a language at GCSE and although most say to do Japanese require no real prior knowledge, I'm worried that sue to my lack of language experience this may affect my chance although I'm really interested and passionate about studying Japanese with either Law or History.

Here is my question: would you advise me to pick up a 5th a level English Language (shows I have the ability to do languages) - which looks rather interesting compared to English Literature (my opinion ) yet I'm reading post talking about workload. However in year 10 I did AS Geology along side some GCSEs on Saturday's and in year 11 did Astronomy GCSE on Saturday (got A's in both); along side 13 other GCSEs two which we started at the beginning of year 11 and I managed to have sufficient time for each subject and came out with A's and A*'s.

Or could I asks to do a fast track GCSE course in st my sixth form enrollment in French which I did up to year 9???

What would be less stressful and time consuming or be better for my chances for my chosen Uni course bearing in mind I'm looking to go to a competitive university....

Any help will be well received and appreciated

Law is one the most competitive degrees, and most of them like History - essay writing.
Maths, Chemistry, History, French would make you attractive to most courses...although addition of Further Maths would be advantageous if you decided to pursue Science path...you don't need Philosophy at A-Level to pursue it.

Law is one the most competitive degrees, and most of them like History - essay writing.
Maths, Chemistry, History, French would make you attractive to most courses...although addition of Further Maths would be advantageous if you decided to pursue Science path...you don't need Philosophy at A-Level to pursue it.

do some out of school qualification in Japanese, there'll be something running at a local college or something, and just write that into your personal statement. You can do like a Skills in Business language course in Japanese. It's fairly fundamental stuff, but at least it will show you're willing to give your spare time to study the language etc.

Difficult question...I would not do English lang. Its not a very well respected a-Level and work be a waste of effort.

Are you more interested in doing Japanese or History/law?

Does your sixth form allow you to do languages that you haven't done at GCSE??
If not you could look into doing japanese outside of school like you did with geology and astronomy.
I don't think that English language would be favourable as most of the top universities frown upon the subject (don't ask why)
You could also just do law or history and do japanese outside of your course at the uni.

Thanks But I was planning on doing it in as a joint honors I guess that doing outside uni may be an option but I don't really know how that will work rather do it with my degree if you get where I'm coming from

I'd advise you not to do English Language (it's not especially relevant) and spend the time working on extra curriculars (ie Japanese) instead.
Workbooks/CDs are much cheaper than courses and easier to fit in btw

I get what you mean, however it may not be possible.
Out of curiosity, how many universities actually offer law and japanese/history and japanese??

Hey,
regarding the four subjects that you said to do what would you suggest doing at A2 for a history degree?? I'm definately doing maths and history but torn between chem and french.
Thanks for your help

Difficult question...I would not do English lang. Its not a very well respected a-Level and work be a waste of effort.

I know someone who got into Oxford to study History taking Art as one of three A2 levels, and Art is far less respected than English Language!

As a fifth a level, would they really discount an application because the applicant has a fifth as level in a subject they consider "of less relevance". It's not like it's blacklisted, like Drama or PE. English Language may not be 'as good as' English Literature, but it's not exactly a really soft subject of the likes of those! I know someone who got into Oxford to study History taking Art as one of three A2 levels, and Art is far less respected than English Language!

Yeah I've looked into that it's a bit costly but I'm willing to do that. Thanks

So English Language as 5th would be fine after all if I do go to Japan having English Language up to AS or A2 will look good right?? Just asking because to foreigners English Language is valuable it shows you have further understanding of the language. That's what I think anyway