Good A-Level choices for a career in Psychology?

I am yet to make up my mind about choosing my A-Levels yet my school are pushing me too choose within the next month or so. I have researched all career choices I would find interesting and I would like to become a Psychologist or Psychiatrist. I've had a look on some university websites and they generally mention that you should take two sciences. I have good GCSE grades at the moment and I am expected to get 14 GCSE's at A-C ( the majority are Bs and As ) so I was thinking of taking 5 AS levels and then carrying either 3 or 4 onto A2. I would just like to know what A-levels may be useful for learning psychology at university and which ones would be good ones to take for the qualifications.
I definitely want to take history at A-level as I have an interest in it and it is my strongest subject and I also want to take biology as it is another subject I find interesting and I also have good grades. I also want to take psychology because I think it will give me an insight into it and I do think it would be a good general qualification to have even if I were to change my mind about studying it further.
For the other two I was thinking of; Law, religious studies, sociology, chemistry or physics.
Also, I know that taking maths at A level is supposed to be very handy but I do not like maths at all and I do find it difficult and I am only predicted a B for it.
If you could recommend any others that may be useful I would find that extremely helpful and if you have any advice about how many I should take would also be great.
Thanks!

Reply 1

cool pilot dude

11

Original post by Toon Belly

I am yet to make up my mind about choosing my A-Levels yet my school are pushing me too choose within the next month or so. I have researched all career choices I would find interesting and I would like to become a Psychologist or Psychiatrist. I've had a look on some university websites and they generally mention that you should take two sciences. I have good GCSE grades at the moment and I am expected to get 14 GCSE's at A-C ( the majority are Bs and As ) so I was thinking of taking 5 AS levels and then carrying either 3 or 4 onto A2. I would just like to know what A-levels may be useful for learning psychology at university and which ones would be good ones to take for the qualifications.
I definitely want to take history at A-level as I have an interest in it and it is my strongest subject and I also want to take biology as it is another subject I find interesting and I also have good grades. I also want to take psychology because I think it will give me an insight into it and I do think it would be a good general qualification to have even if I were to change my mind about studying it further.
For the other two I was thinking of; Law, religious studies, sociology, chemistry or physics.
Also, I know that taking maths at A level is supposed to be very handy but I do not like maths at all and I do find it difficult and I am only predicted a B for it.
If you could recommend any others that may be useful I would find that extremely helpful and if you have any advice about how many I should take would also be great.
Thanks!

To become a psychiatrist, you will need to have studied medicine at university. I know it sucks, right?

on your a-level choices, whatever you pick-dont pick psychology!

its a bunch of crap where you study hunderreds of case studies and got to look for critiscm studies and back up studies to go with each one..... you revise everything you learnt in the year and only a few things come up..... :mad:

like when I had my mock exam only 6 questions came up :mad:

Reply 2

Boo_x

11

Biology is great, especially if you enjoy it, taking that will really help you when you go onto uni as every accredited psychology course has to include biology elements. Psychology of course is great.

Don't worry about not doing maths, a lot of courses now use computer based programs to work out the maths. I got a B at GCSE and find the stats at uni fine. I attempted maths a level and only got a D at AS then dropped it though because it is a big leap up from GCSE.

In terms of another one sociology would be best for psychology out of your choices, but a lot of that will overlap with your psychology course so it's not necessary and if you like another subject better I'd do that. If you like English I'd recommend English Language as it often has child development of language in it that came in very useful for me when lectures started talking about phonetics, pragmatics, syntax etc I wouldn't of had a clue if I hadn't done that course.

Reply 3

Boo_x

11

Original post by cool pilot dude

To become a psychiatrist, you will need to have studied medicine at university. I know it sucks, right?

on your a-level choices, whatever you pick-dont pick psychology!

its a bunch of crap where you study hunderreds of case studies and got to look for critiscm studies and back up studies to go with each one..... you revise everything you learnt in the year and only a few things come up..... :mad:

like when I had my mock exam only 6 questions came up :mad:

It total helps you get a basic understanding for uni though...yes it's a lot of remembering but at least it's interesting :smile:

Reply 4

cool pilot dude

11

Original post by Boo_x

It total helps you get a basic understanding for uni though...yes it's a lot of remembering but at least it's interesting :smile:

Very basic; But extremely boring! Yes, it was good for the first few months but peopel started dropping out because its damn right booooringggg!

Reply 5

username826246

Two sciences is usually needed which you already have if you take Biology and Psychology (which is usually accepted as a science by most unis)

Law and RS aren't the strongest subjects for what you want to go into, but I've heard that Sociology and Psychology go together really well :smile:

You don't need to take 5 AS, the norm is 4 because of the high workload, but if thats what you want to do then I would take Biology, Psychology, History, Sociology and then Chemistry (I said Chem over Physics just because its quite odd to take Physics without Maths and Chem would also be slightly more relevant for you)

But remember to choose what you enjoy - good luck :biggrin: