Didn't study science A Levels? Then your grades aren't worth as much

You are exactly the sort of person which needs to be persuaded to go down the science root.

You obviously have some sort of talent for maths and science, otherwise you wouldn't have got the A*'s at GCSE, yet you have chosen not to go down a science root.

Governments or who ever need to identify the people who this and ask them questions such as 'why did you choose not to study sciences?' or 'why did you chose the subjects you did?', 'what is it about science which doesn't interest you?', 'what would make it more interesting/enjoyable/fun?', 'what would have made you more likely to study sciences to A Level and beyond?

Collect enough information from such people from questions like that and hopefully a picture will start to develop of where science education is going wrong and some indications of how to increase people studying it to higher levels. You can just wave a magic wand to make science subjects worth more UCAS points and hope that solves the problem for you with no effort at all.

So, supercat, feel free to try and answer those questions above, so at least we can maybe start to see the reasons

I'm not. Deal with it.

This is quite difficult to think about. I did well in GCSEs, so I had a lot of choice A-Level wise. I chose all my subjects because I enjoyed them (with, perhaps, the exception of German, which I chose because I thought it would be useful to have a language). So why not sciences? I know it's not exactly insightful, but they were boring to me. I never really got interested in Bunsen burners and I was always breaking test tubes. I suppose I have a more arty brain than a scientific one; I honestly don't think that's down to choice. I've always read, since I was little and so I've always loved English. With science, I never really enjoyed it except for when I was little and got to play with water.

I suppose one reason for science not interesting me that much is that a) it was all very theoretical and although we did practical work we had to write it up afterwards, with diagrams and lists of apparatus, which seemed to be a complete waste of time to me, and b) because it never appeared to be that relevant. I took psychology at A-Level, and although it was very theoretical and we even did research, it was all so much more interesting because I could relate to it. I don't think I liked the fact that there was always a right answer in science. Perhaps I would have preferred it if we had essays such as "Creationism - discuss".

I don't know what would have made science more enjoyable - probably, to be honest, it's just a matter of what is taught and how it is taught. Fundamentally, I think it's down to the way you are. Some people have a scientific brain, and others an arty one. At least, that's the way I see it.

I honestly can't think of a way to make science more attractive. UCAS points are not the answer, but then again I don't know what is. I'm sorry - this probably isn't very helpful!

Edit: also sort out the cirriculum. Ensure maths is a required subject for anyone wanting to study chemistry or physics at A2 as then more physics can be done in physics lessons.

Interestingly, according to the BBC,

SUBJECT ENTRIES
last year's position in brackets
1 (1) English 86,640
2 (2) General Studies 58,967
3 (4) Mathematics 55,982
4 (3) Biology 54,890
5 (5) Psychology 52,621
6 (6) History 46,944
7 (7) Art & Design Subjects 41,989
8 (8) Chemistry 40,064
9 (9) Geography 32,522
10 (11) Media/Film/TV Studies 30,964

There are more people doing Maths, Bio and Chem than Media Studies. Dear me, I am disappointed, could it be that the Daily Mail has misled the public yet again?

Anyway, why is it that Chem and Bio thrive (relatively so) whilst Physics is on the wane?

considering the actual word in question is 'mathematicS' the abbreviation is maths.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mathematics
"The word "mathematics" is often abbreviated math in the U.S. and Canada and maths in Britain, Ireland, Australia and many Commonwealth countries."

Given that nearly 300 million English speakers in the world call it math, please just accept it as a dialect difference and stop trying to make me feel stupid and correct it.

Does having more science graduates from mediocre universities help this problem? No offense, but I've seen some people on TSR doing degrees in chemistry or math with Cs at A-Level. Somehow I'm not sure they're going to necessarily be the leading scientists and engineers for the country.

How do you know? There are many examples in chemistry alone where people have gone on to a career in science after Cs (or worse) at a-level. The more people with degrees, the bigger the pool of resources from which to draw out the scientists and engineers of the future. I do think it is a) rather naive and b) rather dismissive to assume that those who didn't get the top grades at A-level are going to be incapable of making an impact in science and engineering in this country.

With a growing dependancy on hi-tech industries we need more people with technical and scientific skills. Someone with C's at A-level is going to be far more useful to the economy if they train as a chemist or engineer than if they study sociology for instance.

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Yes but someone with As/Bs at A-Level and a degree in economics and languages would probably be more useful to the economy than the chemist you are talking about. Especially as it's relatively easy to get a student from Asia to come over, who is smarter than the C-grade British student. By the way your government already has a scheme in place to do just that-the Science and Engineering Graduate Scheme.

Of course, what would I know, I didn't get any A's.

Erm, its not like you can swap a C grade student in chemistry for an A grade student in economics. I still maintain that that person would be more useful to the economy having taken a degree that gives them skills that are in high demand by business.

The SEGS is a response to a lack of supply internally, not a response to a lack of quality. Being grade-smart doesn't neccessarily make you good at research or technical problem solving either (I speak from interesting experiences with chinese research students).

Of course, what would I know, I didn't get any A's.