[Chlomc]

I'm currently just finishing off my year 11 exams (which will be over in less than 2 weeks! Finally:L) and I'm predicted to get A*AAAAAABB + 2 Distinctions in ICT

So that means i'll be starting 6th form in September which i'm quite excited about, the only problem is what A levels to take!

I'm interested in becoming a Speech and language therapist/Psychologist so i decided on doing:
Biology, English Language, Psychology, Philosophy and Ethics (Would drop after AS) <-- Any changes you recommend i should make?

Was wondering what people's opinions are on these subjects? Are they difficult? Are they interesting? What grade's did you get in them? Would you recommend them as a levels? Looking at my GCSE grades would i be capable of doing well in them?

Also on a side note, if i continued on to get a degree in speech and language therapy here in the UK would that be recognized for me to works as a SALT in the US?

Thanks to anyone who took the time to read this !

[amz1209]

hey,
firstly, you're predictions are great,well done!
i do not think you should take philosophy and ethics and rather take a philosophy because in my opinion, philosophy and ethics isn't real philosophy. it's more towards r.s as opposed to philosophy which is more towards real philosophy; sorry, im not sure if that quite make sense. i know this because im in year 12 at the moment, and like you wanted to do philosophy and at first, picked philosophy and ethics, however through thorough research and looking at the spec of the two, i could quickly distinguish between the two and for that reason, i feel it is best to take philosophy (i am doing it on aqa, and am enjoying it)

i also do biology and completely hate it. (im doing it on ocr) it really depends on what type of person you are. if you prefer logical,analytic, abstract thinking, and understanding the subject, like i do, then you are most likely not going to enjoy the course. if you, however, are the sort of person who prefers memorising and applying what youve memorised, then you'd really enjoy it.

are you sure you want to do english language as opposed toenglish lit?

your subject and career choices match well and i wish you all the best. if you have any queries then don't hesistate to ask. i took biology,chemistry,maths/f.maths,english lit and philosophy so ask if you need any advice.

[aWildPidgey]

They're good for if you wanna do psychology :}

But, Chemistry would be better as it is another science, and psychology is a science, so it would look better than Philosophy or English.

[Dobrzynski]

Pick English Literature instead of Language, or do both. The rest of your A-Levels are fine.

[Chlomc]

(Original post by amz1209)
hey,
firstly, you're predictions are great,well done!
i do not think you should take philosophy and ethics and rather take a philosophy because in my opinion, philosophy and ethics isn't real philosophy. it's more towards r.s as opposed to philosophy which is more towards real philosophy; sorry, im not sure if that quite make sense. i know this because im in year 12 at the moment, and like you wanted to do philosophy and at first, picked philosophy and ethics, however through thorough research and looking at the spec of the two, i could quickly distinguish between the two and for that reason, i feel it is best to take philosophy (i am doing it on aqa, and am enjoying it)

i also do biology and completely hate it. (im doing it on ocr) it really depends on what type of person you are. if you prefer logical,analytic, abstract thinking, and understanding the subject, like i do, then you are most likely not going to enjoy the course. if you, however, are the sort of person who prefers memorising and applying what youve memorised, then you'd really enjoy it.

are you sure you want to do english language as opposed toenglish lit?

your subject and career choices match well and i wish you all the best. if you have any queries then don't hesistate to ask. i took biology,chemistry,maths/f.maths,english lit and philosophy so ask if you need any advice.

Thanks for the advice I'm thinking English language is so much more relevant to the university courses i'd be looking at to do. Plus I find language so much more interesting and i'm more confident in myself at achieving a decent grade in. I'm fine the the Philosophy and ethics being more towards the RS really as I told the school i wanted to do RE and that's what they ended up putting me down for :L

[Chlomc]

(Original post by aWildPidgey)
They're good for if you wanna do psychology :}

But, Chemistry would be better as it is another science, and psychology is a science, so it would look better than Philosophy or English.

Hmm, the thing is I want to make sure that im not ruling out the other career choice with my options, i want them to be able to apply to both if you understand?

For speech and language English is pretty much a must

[aWildPidgey]

(Original post by Chlomc)
Hmm, the thing is I want to make sure that im not ruling out the other career choice with my options, i want them to be able to apply to both if you understand?

For speech and language English is pretty much a must

Maybe do Bio, Psych, Chem, and English then? :}

[britchick]

I'm currently doing Biology and Psychology at A2. Just to give you an idea at GCSE I got 4A*s 8As and broken down into each unit so far I have gotten (%):

Psychology: 88 90 100 - on target for A*
Biology: 90 74 100 74 89 - on target for A

I'm not going to lie, both subjects have proved very difficult in different ways, but I have thoroughly enjoyed studying both. Psychology is different to anything I've ever studied and opens up a lot of new ideas and theories which you can relate to everyday life (I find myself analysing situations or explaining certain situations in my head to myself on a day-to-day basis!) and the concepts are all pretty much in plain English, except from some biology-related stuff you'll need to learn, but it's fairly dumbed-down because they don't expect everybody to do Biology. However, especially at A2, there is a huge jump and instead of asking 6 to 8 to 12 mark essays like they do at AS, you'll have to do three 24 mark essays in the exam, and the amount of content is pretty overwhelming. You have to learn case study after case study and figures and research etc. but it is doable. If I'm honest, I pretty much blagged my January exam because Psych was least important at the time, thought I'd got a mid-C grade, then turned out to have 100/100. Grade boundaries can be as low as 45/72 to get an A. So that really helps.

Biology at AS was more of a jump from GCSE than Psychology (Psych was not that much of a jump at all) but, like Psychology, jumped an enormous amount by A2. The concepts became more detailed and processes became longer, which meant more to revise. The key for both subjects is to be organised and get notes done as far in advance before the exam as possible, so that nearer the time you can be relaxed and read over your notes in confidence, do plenty of past papers, and take your time for the knowledge to all sink in.

I have enjoyed studying both subjects, and I'm going on to uni to study a Biology-related degree in September hopefully - they are both really interesting and engaging, but require a lot of hard work and motivation. Best of luck with A-levels!

[hannah1994]

I'm doing Biology A level.
I got an A* in Biology GCSE 393/400 UMS
I got 100/100 UMS in Biology Unit 1 at AS level.

Biology AS is definately a jump up from GCSE, lots of people think of it as a 'soft science' and its just a memory test etc. etc. To an extent it is a lot of memory (a lot) but there is also a lot of application too - you have to know everything well and be able to figure stuff out. All in all it is a really good A level, but of my others - Maths, Chem and Geog, I would probably say it requires the most effort.
I'd say go for it, if you're interested in Biology and are good at it!