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I Can't decide which A level to drop

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Original post by paradoxicalme
I'd say keep all 5, if you think you can handle it. Gold Crest and EPQ are beneficial if you do them, you'll be fine without them though.


Would having an extra A level be better than Gold Crest and EPQ? I think I need something else aside from A levels to get to a good uni
Original post by Mcwtbslhyfsehmjg
Would having an extra A level be better than Gold Crest and EPQ? I think I need something else aside from A levels to get to a good uni


I don't even know what Gold Crest is, but I'd say an extra AS would be similar in value to the EPQ - depending on which subject, it could swing either way.

And reading around the subject/a few ECs should do the trick for that :smile:
What did u get at AS
Original post by CoffeeAndCake
I got AAAAA at AS, and then dropped History. It was my worst subject at AS, albeit not significantly. I carried on with the other 4.


Nice! Did Art take more time than other subjects? I feel like I'm over complicating it and do more work than I'm supposed to :frown:
Also did you do any extra projects that would look good on your application? Sorry if I ask too many questions :colondollar:
You shouldn't drop A levels, as they are fragile
Original post by paradoxicalme
I don't even know what Gold Crest is, but I'd say an extra AS would be similar in value to the EPQ - depending on which subject, it could swing either way.

And reading around the subject/a few ECs should do the trick for that :smile:


Gold Crest is a project in science, takes about 70hrs I think. What are ECs?
Original post by 123formyabc
What did u get at AS


I've just started them now
Original post by Mcwtbslhyfsehmjg
Nice! Did Art take more time than other subjects? I feel like I'm over complicating it and do more work than I'm supposed to :frown:
Also did you do any extra projects that would look good on your application? Sorry if I ask too many questions :colondollar:


What grade did you get in GCSE art?

Art did take a lot of time, but it wasn't unbearable. I think I actually spent more time on History, but I think that's because I had psychotic teachers who set 4 essays a week plus note taking. Art didn't have that much writing, and I typed up all my annotations on a computer, which also saved time. Most of my time was spent on creative work.

I did an EPQ in year 13, not year 12. I also did 3 weeks work experience in the summer holidays and made the effort to visit notable buildings where I live. Although I am fortunate in living in London, so I appreciate not everyone can do that. The only other ECs I did really were Maths Tutoring and Life Drawing sessions. So no DofE \ Gold Crest. I still had time to see friends and do sociable things at weekends and in the evenings.
Original post by Mcwtbslhyfsehmjg
Gold Crest is a project in science, takes about 70hrs I think. What are ECs?


Extra curriculars. :smile:
Reply 29
Original post by Mcwtbslhyfsehmjg
Gold Crest is a project in science, takes about 70hrs I think. What are ECs?


Extra Curriculars I'm assuming...
It's always good to do other stuff outside of college no matter what subject you're doing...
I did my gold crest award in the summer of my AS year so I only concentrated on that
Why not drop further maths?? Or just do 5 ASs and drop the subject you don't like next year...


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Original post by CoffeeAndCake
What grade did you get in GCSE art?

Art did take a lot of time, but it wasn't unbearable. I think I actually spent more time on History, but I think that's because I had psychotic teachers who set 4 essays a week plus note taking. Art didn't have that much writing, and I typed up all my annotations on a computer, which also saved time. Most of my time was spent on creative work.

I did an EPQ in year 13, not year 12. I also did 3 weeks work experience in the summer holidays and made the effort to visit notable buildings where I live. Although I am fortunate in living in London, so I appreciate not everyone can do that. The only other ECs I did really were Maths Tutoring and Life Drawing sessions. So no DofE \ Gold Crest. I still had time to see friends and do sociable things at weekends and in the evenings.


I've got A*s at GCSE for the subjects that I'm taking a for A level.
I did work experience for a week last summer in Architecture but I'm still not quite sure about my future career.Thank you for your answer that's going to help me to decide hopefully. Maybe I should keep 5 after all. Would there be any point taking chemistry for AS and dropping it for A2?
Original post by m.dot.mak
Extra Curriculars I'm assuming...
It's always good to do other stuff outside of college no matter what subject you're doing...
I did my gold crest award in the summer of my AS year so I only concentrated on that
Why not drop further maths?? Or just do 5 ASs and drop the subject you don't like next year...


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Yes, maybe I'll do that then. But I want to keep FM in case I will do physics/engineering degree
Original post by Mcwtbslhyfsehmjg
I've got A*s at GCSE for the subjects that I'm taking a for A level.
I did work experience for a week last summer in Architecture but I'm still not quite sure about my future career.Thank you for your answer that's going to help me to decide hopefully. Maybe I should keep 5 after all. Would there be any point taking chemistry for AS and dropping it for A2?


You'll probably be fine with AS art then :h:

Certainly there's a point to it. An extra AS in an 'academic' subject such as Chemistry looks strong on an application for either Engineering or Architecture.
Original post by CoffeeAndCake
You'll probably be fine with AS art then :h:

Certainly there's a point to it. An extra AS in an 'academic' subject such as Chemistry looks strong on an application for either Engineering or Architecture.


I think I'm going to keep 5. Thank you very much for your help:smile:
Thank you so much everyone for all your advise :smile:
I would recommend keeping all 5. This keeps all your options open, and you can usually do a gold CREST award as part of the Nuffield Bursary Scheme in your summer holiday - this would be great to mention on your UCAS form without requiring any extra work during term time. EPQs are usually done in yr13 - by which time you should have more of an idea what you want to do and so will probably drop one/ two of your subjects so should have loads of time for it if you want to do an EPQ.
Reply 36
As someone who did maths, further maths and physics all to A2, IMO they're really not that time consuming as a combination because they have a lot of crossover. Will you be doing mechanics modules?
Reply 37
Original post by Mcwtbslhyfsehmjg
I am currently taking 5 A levels: Math, Further Math, Physics, Chemistry and Art. I have been told that it would be better to drop one and concentrate on the remaining four in order to achieve good grades. However I cannot decide which one to drop because I am not certain about my future career.


If I am going to drop one it probably would be either Art or Chemistry.


Art has been more time consuming and I do not particularly enjoy large amounts of writing we have to do and it could be difficult to think of the concepts behind the artwork but I like doing the creative stuff and everyone had been saying that I should take art. Also it shows that I have a broader ability to do a subject which requires different skills to maths and science and will open up more career choices (I think I might want to be an Architect or Interior/ Landscape Designer) whereas taking Chemistry would mean that I can only do science related job in the future.


So far Chemistry has been quite easy and far less time consuming than Art. It would be good as a complementary subject if I'm going to do a degree in Engineering, Science or Physics (which people say is not worth it but I like physics).


I am finding it very difficult to decide :frown: Should I just keep all five subjects? But then I would not have enough time to do things like EPQ or Gold Crest Award which could help with University Applications. Has anyone done similar combination?

Help would be very much appreciated :smile:


Do you want to be an Architect or not? If an architect at one of the top universities, you'll almost certainly need Art A-level, plus a portfolio.
Hi, I took five AS Levels; Maths, Further Maths, Physics, Chemistry and Spanish and I am now going to uni to study Chemical Engineering. I decided I wanted to drop one because I would have prefered to get better grades in 4 subjects rather than average grades in 5. Also, university offers are (generally) for 3 subjects, so taking 5 is excessive! I decided to drop Spanish even though I really really enjoyed it because essay writing took up a lot of my time so without it I could really focus on my other subjects. Although I missed Spanish lessons I still keep up an interest in Spanish at home so I don't feel I'm missing out. I felt I made completely the right decision - I found that there is a jump from AS Level to A Level difficulty wise, especially in Chemistry and Further Maths, so dropping a subject really helped me to keep on top of them, and I don't think I would have been able to achieve the grades I got in my A Levels without dropping Spanish. I would definitely recommend dropping to 4 A Levels!
In your case, I would ring up/look at prospectuses for the arty courses you're interested in and see whether art is a recommended or necessary subject - you may find you don't need art at all, you don't need Biology to study Medicine! Chances are you may not need Art A Level and universities will be able to see that you've got an AS Level in Art so that puts you in a strong position.

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