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I dont know what A levels to do, any advice?

Hi guys/girls

So I will start A levels in September 2014 and I cannot decide on anything! I think this is because I don't know what I want to do with my life which depresses me because jobs seem to be everywhere , I turn on the TV and there's a program about vets or Brian Cox talking about physics or even the actors on tv , all these things make me think about jobs and A levels and make me worried about A levels.

My target grades are as follows:
English:A*
Maths:A
Biology:A
Chemistry:A
Physics:A*
History:A
Geography:B
French:A
DT:A

At the moment I am considering doing english, chemistry,biology and maths, but each of these have their own problems:

English: I have been targeted an A* for my GCSEs and in my mock I missed out on an A* by 2% for my language exam and have been similarly close for my literature exams. I always thought of English as my strongest subject but looking at those results I am starting to doubt that and question whether I should do it at A level. I read a lot and so I suppose I do enjoy English but I am worried that I may find it boring and have to drop it.

Chemistry: I am targeted an A for my GCSEs and have solidly achieved this throughout the year but at the beginning of year 10 I received Cs for my attainment grade , which had changed to As by the end of year 10 but which still worries me that I may struggle with A level chemistry.

Biology: this is one of my favourite subjects and again I am targeted an A which I usually achieve apart from a lapse wherein I got a high B in my mocks. This is also the subject that I am feeling least nervous about because I felt that all my GCSE exams went well and I achieved 95% in my IS A. However I worry that biology does not lead to As many careers as chemistry or other subjects unless I plan to go into medicine and I don't think that I am clever enough to do that.

Maths: this is my main indecision because maths, doing maths ( past papers and such) is probably my favourite school thing to do , despite this however , while I am targeted an A , I have never achieved over a B in mock exams, however in past papers I have been getting As and A* with the last paper I did before that actual exam scoring 92 out of 100. Despite this however I think I will get a B in my final exam and this makes it unadvisable to do for A level. I also realise that you might need to do it for A level chemistry if you have any hope of achieving a decent grade.

Another A level that I am considering is A level physics . This would be good because I would want to take it onto uni but I am told that A level physics gets much harder and I don't think I would be able to get a good grade , having heard horror stories of people going from an A at GCSE to a U at A level.

I don't know what's wrong with me haha , the subjects I enjoy , I am not very good at (maths) and the subjects I sometimes find a bit boring, I do the best in (English). I am also annoyed at myself because the 'easier ' subjects such as geography that people get A* effortlessly with very little revison and then take it on to A level and will most likely get an A* there too, while I find these easy subjects more difficult.

I am not sure if I am clever enough to do A levels , you read on here of people getting all A*s or five A*s at A levels, everyone seems to be so much smarter than me and I worry that I am not going to get a good job. I want my job to be well paid , not because I am interested in the luxuries that it brings, but that I want my family and my descendants to go to a good school and have a nicer life and live comfortably.

Anyway I am sorry for the long essay and all the worrying but I do get very worried over this kind of thing.

Anyway , thank you to anyone who does offer any advice.
What type of English were you looking at? Language or Literature? Because I've just done my Literature AS this year, after having thoroughly enjoyed it at GCSE and couldnt stand it at this level. It's quite mind numbing and extremely tedious and boring but thats just my opinion.

If you want your job to be well paid then go for four subjects you enjoy, because you'll be able to do well in them easier compared to ones you already despise. If you go after job options just because they pay well, believe me, you will fail in all your best efforts to get there because it doesnt give the proper motivation needed.

So, Which subjects do you currently enjoy the most, and which one are you best at?

Edit: Also, ignore the people that say they get all A* because they're full of it. A*'s are reserved for the top 10% of grades in that subject, so the amount of people that actually achieve that is significantly less than the people on here who claim they do.
(edited 9 years ago)
Reply 2
Original post by All-rounder
What type of English were you looking at? Language or Literature? Because I've just done my Literature AS this year, after having thoroughly enjoyed it at GCSE and couldnt stand it at this level. It's quite mind numbing and extremely tedious and boring but thats just my opinion.

If you want your job to be well paid then go for four subjects you enjoy, because you'll be able to do well in them easier compared to ones you already despise. If you go after job options just because they pay well, believe me, you will fail in all your best efforts to get there because it doesnt give the proper motivation needed.

So, Which subjects do you currently enjoy the most, and which one are you best at?


Currently I enjoy maths the most , followed by physics, then chemistry. I also quite enjoy biology and french( I am in the lowest set but I have been getting higher in my exams than some people in the top set). I do quite enjoy English. Despite this however , apart from geography maths is one of my lower grading subjects. I am very indecisive about these subjects.
Hmm, okay well then you're in an odd situation. Normally it's the subjects you enjoy the most that get the best grades because you feel compelled to put more work in...
when it comes to French, you being in the bottom set but achieving higher than those in the top set doesnt matter. If there was one thing I've learnt since finishing GCSE's, it's to never judge your own intelligence off of those around you. I was attending quite a deprived high school in a bad area, so a majority of students werent bright, so when I was doing quite well (but excellently in comparison to them) I thought I was God's Gift to humanity. An ego boost I definitely didn't need haha.

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