Year 12s: what will be the first way you research your future options? >>

MR MAJOTHI aqa

300 ums dirttt

(edited 10 years ago)

If you want to do medicine then you realistically (not always, but pretty much always) need to be a straight A student - that's the way it is as there is massive demand and very few universities that offer it. There are other ways in (e.g. a friend of mine did biomedical science for 2 years then transferred to medicine to start an additional 5 years) but if you want to get medicine straight out of A-Levels then you'll need strong academic grades.

In terms of engineering - if you're going to study it you need to want to do it - it's a hard course, and if you're second guessing yourself then you won't keep it up for very long. Physics is the better choice for engineering without a doubt, but not strictly always necessary providing you have strong maths - maths + two sciences ought to be enough for engineering at the majority of good universities, though you might need to explain your reasons at interview/personal statement for not taking physics.

Having not studied medicine I can't say whether a higher grade in physics would be preferable to a lower grade in biology, but I would suspect that you'd want to choose the subject which is going to get you the highest grade. If you do chemistry at A-Level then I would have thought that too detracts from the need to have biology - but go and ask a few questions in the medicine forum.

At the end of the day though, you need to study something with good prospects which is also something you enjoy. Otherwise university will be hell, and you won't walk out with a degree.

Stu Haynes MEng

(edited 10 years ago)