Why do people do 5ASs?

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I don't understand why schools force their students to do general studies/critical thinking when universities tend to exclude them from offers?!

In response to your question, some people enjoy more than four subjects and thrive on the challenge whilst others may do it for a more impressive UCAS form. There are so many different reasons, it's all about personal preference at the end of the day since what suits one person might not suit another. To be honest, if someone has the willpower to do five and achieve straight As, they may as well go for it. However, no one at my school did five AS levels in one year and offers ranged from Oxbridge to Imperial, etc, which just goes to show that taking the standard four doesn't harm anyone.

Reply 41

oli_G

Well I'm doing five as they all link together well, will challenge and interest me. Although technically i'll have 7 ASs (one of them being G.S. and the other being an ICT AS I took in y.11).

Reply 42

username533239

Original post by Philosophalover

Nope, even Oxbridge say on their website that candidates with five AS levels will not be favoured. It's pointless doing 5; I found 4 super-stressful and I don't think I could have coped with a fifth! xD I think people do it because they think that whatever people say, 5 subjects show that they can organise their time and cope well academically, but really, universities are very careful not to favour those with 5 subjects. :smile:

Agree with all you said, as you can see from my ASs in my sig 4 is stressful

Reply 43

DustBowlDance

GS was made compulsory at my sixth form so most people ended up doing 5 AS subjects.

Reply 44

natashapt

I did 4 at AS and genuinely found the workload a massive struggle, so did 3 for A levels. It depends on what you feel you can personally do

Reply 45

ihatethispart

In my school, you had to take 5 if you wanted to do further maths and do 4 A2s if you did the full a-level in them. Just in case some unis want two a-levels other than maths, since they might think that the two a-levels count as one. Some people might want to do it just because they want to, choosing to study only 4 subjects can be quite hard, especially if you're not sure about what you want to do.

Reply 46

Octohedral

Original post by Titty Milk

were you high when you decided to work part time whilst doing 7 a levels? so unnecessary and a waste of time. here i am celebrating the fact that i only have 3 years of education left, whilst people like you just can't wait to slap on their glasses, pick up a book and write **** down.

ridiculous.

Waste of time??? What could be less of a waste of time or more fascinating than exploring thousands of years of research, whether it's understanding battles and empires that made this world, or the quantum reactions that hold together the very air we breathe?

There is knowledge in the average school library that Cantor or Gallileo would have given both their feet to know, and thousands of people walk past it every day.

:biggrin:

Sorry, don't mean to come across as an intellectual snob or anything (or clinically insane), but I really do enjoy it. Everyone's different.

Reply 47

Extricated

Because they enjoy their subjects. It certainly is possible ; a kid did 23 FULL a levels which is like 40 AS levels lol

Reply 48

Titty Milk

Original post by Octohedral

Sorry, don't mean to come across as an intellectual snob or anything (or clinically insane), but I really do enjoy it. Everyone's different.

wtf are you smoking?

Reply 49

h2shin

Hey guys!!... I made a thread about this earlier... but do you guys think that my choice of Maths, Further Maths, Physics and Computing would be sufficient for higher end universities? or do you guys think I should take another subject? like chemistry...

Reply 50

The Patriot

I did 5, but two were easy/pointless/doss subjects, so I will bundle them and say I did 4 lol

Reply 51

KingGoonIan

My friend did 5 A levels and got 5 As. I think he did it because he could.

Reply 52

Octohedral

Original post by Titty Milk

wtf are you smoking?

Fair enough, :tongue:

, but I still think you're missing out.

(edited 12 years ago)

Reply 53

The Patriot

Original post by h2shin

with a view to studying what?

Reply 54

Octohedral

Original post by cdoyle

I did 7 too.... i really enjoyed all of them. those were the days. I just like studying and no-one can take that out of me. I am doing a part time course as well as doing a degree. Despite all those that say dont- its my choice and as glad I did as I really enjoyed the first year and felt happy. I hope to do a post grad in Pain Science and Practice once I finish my undergrad course.

Lol, that sounds like dedication - good luck with the postgrad!

I never understand when people do exams for the sake of admissions rather than for themselves.

(edited 12 years ago)

Reply 55

Titty Milk

Original post by Octohedral

Fair enough, :tongue:

, but I still think you're missing out.

you're missing out on life. who cares what a few dead people did hundreds of years ago? galelaio discovered stars and i have no ****ing clue what the other guy did but people were dumb asses back in those days anyway. newton got famous because he discovered that apples hit the ground after a chav lobs one at your head.

7 a levels and a part time job? if you were my kid i would have thrown a table at you already, jesus. i'm guessing you're a virgin?

(edited 12 years ago)

Reply 56

ed_jnr

I did 6. We did World Development though which required barely any work. Critical Thinking was a doddle (and really enjoyable, I thought). History was interesting and I enjoyed the challenge having not done it since year 9.

Then the other three I wanted to carry on to A2. I was swept into taking extra because they were supposed to look impressive but in reality, it made little different to my university. In short, don't take loads of ASs unless you enjoy them or feel you will get a lot out of them.

Reply 57

Groat

Original post by llys

People do five because they think they will not be adequately challenged by three or four.

This. I'm doing five A-Levels because I feel I'd be bored with seventeen free periods a week if I dropped Biology. The challenge is good and I've proven I can still work at a high level with all five! :sexface:

Reply 58

Astronomical

I guess I'll end up having done 5.

I did A2/A2 maths, and AS physics and chemistry in year 12.
Next year I'm doing AS/A2 further maths, continuing with physics and chemistry, and my school has decided either general studies or critical thinking is compulsory, so I'll be doing critical thinking too.

Weirdly, I have very recently had an urge to learn a bit more about politics and so on, so I might ask if I can sit AS politics too!