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Should I take 4 Core A levels?

Hi there! I'm going to be starting Sixth form in a few months, and I'm considering taking on a fourth core A level (i.e. 5 subjects in the first year, 4 in the second). I'm passionate about all the subjects, and after doing some research, I'm fairly confident I could (all things being equal) handle the workload. My question is, how might this affect my social experience?

I know taking on an extra A level would leave me with either very few free periods, or none whatsoever - and also that it would take up a significantly greater amount of my out-of-school time. Would either of these things (or any other factors) substantially negatively affect my ability to form good relationships / experience this stage of my life fully / just plain have fun?

I'm home educated at the moment, so I might be missing a lot of context that would be obvious to anyone who's been to secondary school.

Thanks! :smile:
Moved this to A level for you.

Original post by TallerThanSmall
Hi there! I'm going to be starting Sixth form in a few months, and I'm considering taking on a fourth core A level (i.e. 5 subjects in the first year, 4 in the second). I'm passionate about all the subjects, and after doing some research, I'm fairly confident I could (all things being equal) handle the workload. My question is, how might this affect my social experience?

I know taking on an extra A level would leave me with either very few free periods, or none whatsoever - and also that it would take up a significantly greater amount of my out-of-school time. Would either of these things (or any other factors) substantially negatively affect my ability to form good relationships / experience this stage of my life fully / just plain have fun?

I'm home educated at the moment, so I might be missing a lot of context that would be obvious to anyone who's been to secondary school.

Thanks! :smile:



Personally i think 4 A levels is enough and don't see much gain for the 5th one.

What are you planning on studying and applying for afterwards?
Original post by Motorbiker
Moved this to A level for you.




Personally i think 4 A levels is enough and don't see much gain for the 5th one.

What are you planning on studying and applying for afterwards?


(Thanks for moving, apologies for posting it in the wrong place originally)

I'm fairly certain I want to be a writer (and study English Lit at University) and I'm thinking of taking English Lit, Film Studies, Modern History, Philosophy, and Politics at A-level - but I'm increasingly considering just sticking to 3 core A-levels, and dropping Modern History. I know it's considered one of the more prestigious of the group (most people would probably say Film Studies was the obvious choice) but here's my reasoning:

Philosophy and Politics are both very important subjects to me, both central to what I want to write about, and I think discussion is core to each of them. I was also very impressed by the English Lit I have to take at A-level if I'm going to study it at University, but I feel like the syllabus and teachers at my future sixth form are a little lacking, and I think Film Studies (which I also enjoy as a subject in and of itself) can help me fill in these gaps, looking at the relationship between creator and audience, metanarratives in addition to specific works, etc. History I enjoy - but I think it's something I can more easily learn in the future on my own, in my own time, and it's not something I want to go into as a career.

So, yeah, right now I'm thinking of taking the standard 3 core A-levels, so they don't end up completely occupying my life for a year.
Reply 3
You'll almost certainly have a much better idea of what subjects to drop and whether or not you do an extra a level when you come torwads the end of hear 12

I saw so many of my year mates saying stuff like 'oh yeah I'm dropping xxx after AS' then come results day they return to the A2 group after finding out they got a cruddy grade in yyy


Posted from TSR Mobile
Subject makes a difference. If doing double maths you need the extra A level as well.
Original post by TallerThanSmall
Hi there! I'm going to be starting Sixth form in a few months, and I'm considering taking on a fourth core A level (i.e. 5 subjects in the first year, 4 in the second). I'm passionate about all the subjects, and after doing some research, I'm fairly confident I could (all things being equal) handle the workload. My question is, how might this affect my social experience?

I know taking on an extra A level would leave me with either very few free periods, or none whatsoever - and also that it would take up a significantly greater amount of my out-of-school time. Would either of these things (or any other factors) substantially negatively affect my ability to form good relationships / experience this stage of my life fully / just plain have fun?

I'm home educated at the moment, so I might be missing a lot of context that would be obvious to anyone who's been to secondary school.

Thanks! :smile:


If you really are passionate about them all and you're absolutely certain that you'll be able to cope with the workload then sure, go for it. There are plenty of people in my school who do 5 AS levels and they all seem to have perfectly functional lives. Personally though, I'm glad I didn't. I invested that time into doing more relevant extracurricular engagements into my subject, which I think was much more useful than doing an extra AS.

Just don't delude yourself into thinking that you're getting an advantage for university admissions by doing 5 AS levels because any difference will be very, very marginal.

Original post by Old_Simon
Subject makes a difference. If doing double maths you need the extra A level as well.


No, you don't.
(edited 9 years ago)
Original post by Chlorophile
If you really are passionate about them all and you're absolutely certain that you'll be able to cope with the workload then sure, go for it. There are plenty of people in my school who do 5 AS levels and they all seem to have perfectly functional lives. Personally though, I'm glad I didn't. I invested that time into doing more relevant extracurricular engagements into my subject, which I think was much more useful than doing an extra AS.

Just don't delude yourself into thinking that you're getting an advantage for university admissions by doing 5 AS levels because any difference will be very, very marginal.



No, you don't.

A lot of unis require 3 a levels but do not count maths / fm as two.
Original post by Old_Simon
A lot of unis require 3 a levels but do not count maths / fm as two.


Firstly, I'm not entirely sure what you mean by "a lot of unis" since I've not seen a single one explicitly stating that. Secondly, the OP is asking about doing 5 AS subjects. Secondly, the standard is 4 so even if he takes Further Maths and did apply to a place that doesn't count Further Maths as an individual subject, he's still absolutely fine as long as, if he drops a subject at A2 (which the OP isn't planning to), it's Further Maths. Since this decision is well over a year away, I don't think it's very relevant.

For physical sciences, the most common combination seems to be Chemistry, Physics, Maths and Further Maths at AS. I've seen plenty of people get into top universities like Oxford and Cambridge with that combination.
(edited 9 years ago)
Original post by Chlorophile
If you really are passionate about them all and you're absolutely certain that you'll be able to cope with the workload then sure, go for it. There are plenty of people in my school who do 5 AS levels and they all seem to have perfectly functional lives. Personally though, I'm glad I didn't. I invested that time into doing more relevant extracurricular engagements into my subject, which I think was much more useful than doing an extra AS.

Just don't delude yourself into thinking that you're getting an advantage for university admissions by doing 5 AS levels because any difference will be very, very marginal.



No, you don't.


That's my instinct right now - that I'll get more out of the extra free time of 3 core subjects than I would from an additional subject.
Original post by TallerThanSmall
That's my instinct right now - that I'll get more out of the extra free time of 3 core subjects than I would from an additional subject.


You could always go for 5 AS levels and drop one if the work load is obviously too much.

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