Anxiety about A-Levels

Hi there!

I have just finished my A-levels and they are quite similar to what you are thinking about so I might be able to give you a different opinion to think about.

I took As Art, History, English Literature, and philosophy. (A2 Art, English, Philosophy and As Sculpture).

Personally I found there was a lot of work with these 4 a-levels. From my time at college, having Art as an a-level meant that you have a constant stream of work which, at least for me, took up most of my time! To do well in English literature my teacher always told us that we need to keep reading our texts which obviously takes time too.

Most of my friends did Biology and constantly described the huge amount of work and time it takes!

Given this, your thoughts about dropping biology and swapping ICT for photography sounds like a good idea to me because of the amount of time your original choice of a-levels may take up! Personally I am biased towards the art path (I am just about to start an art foundation course!), and from the sounds of your post and your focus on art, considering to re-look at your a-level choices is a good idea

Photography and Art go really well together; its more work that you will be constantly working on but it will help to develop your art pathways for the future. The fact that you will have more work for your portfolio which you will need to continue down the art route is also a great thing! I found literature is a great course choice with art. To a university/future employer/etc having art/photography shows your creative side, and English and History are excellent indicators of strong writing capabilities. With these four, in my opinion, you have an good range to do what you wish to in the future, even if you have a change of heart of which direction you want to head to!

I hope that helped give you some more food for thought That is a great set of GCSEs; lots of luck for your results!

Thank you so much for the reply!

I agree that photography would be useful with art, and that along with my other options, biology doesn't seem to fit in, however I suffer from the horrible 'I'm not good enough to get a career in art' thoughts, so I keep switching between determination and hesitation, and wanting to keep all options open, including science. Plus, my parents are bent on me doing biology as science is a ""smart"" subject and they care more about that than art.

Regarding photography and ICT swapping, I was planning on dropping one at AS-Level and picking up the other at AS-Level in Year 13, so I could get half an A-Level in both, though I've heard universities only really care about full A-Levels.
Plus, I've never tried photography so I don't know how good I would be at it, whereas with ICT although the course looks extremely boring :/ I'm at least good at it. ICT would also be beneficial to me being an animator, or photographer, or writer, as it teaches basic ICT skills at least.
I just wish the ICT AS-Level course taught something other than Microsoft skills!

Regarding my art skills, my art is here:
http://plastic-bullets.tumblr.com/

Once again, thank you for the reply! I'm seriously worried about what to do about these options. My sister suggested taking photography as an online course or as a big hobby and try to get myself known online instead of swapping ICT for it, which might be a good idea.

I don't suppose you would have the option of taking a graphics As/a-level? I know my college offered it but I don't know if all normally do... Your work looks really good with a great illustrative style! If you could take it, graphics would mean you are working with the computer and also expanding your portfolio/ creative skills too!

Thinking about ICT/Photography as As courses, the advice my college gave was to have 3 full a-levels and then the As are extra evidence of your interests/working levels etc. Maybe if you take ICT first, you might find you really enjoy it and decide to take it further into A2, or equally you could drop it and take photography as an As in your second year.

Or, if you were to take photography first, see how you find it in the first couple of weeks and then decided if you want to swap to ICT, talk to your college.

You could also consider this option for IBiology if you decide that art really is the route for you at the end of your first year, and then you would have it as an As, and an As in one of the other more creative courses (like Photography). English Literature and History are both considered very highly by Universities as two traditional "smart subjects", but I understand wanting to keep your options as fully open as you can!

Just remember that when you come to deciding about University and courses, as long as you have a subject that relates and the grades, your personal statement is considered highly on whether or not you get an offer. With this in mind, also, if you decide you want to do something down the creative line most top universities want students to have taken an art foundation course. This means that, if lets say you don't take photography but do ICT/Biology, it isn't that important because you will try out photography and lots of other arty-techniques (including graphic work) there instead.

It is SO difficult making these choices! I went through a similar struggle to you which is why I am trying to splurge out as many different ideas/options for you to consider! Try to keep in mind after you have made your choices, usually colleges are still willing to move you about if you are really not feeling a subject after the first couple of weeks of teaching. Best of luck!

Simple.. Pick subjects you have a genuine passion or interest in, those are the subjects will do well at

Thank you for the reply! I'm having a hard time doing that because 1. I'm concerned about making the right decisions now for what I want to be in life, but at the same time, I'm very unsure about what I actually want to be
and 2. I enjoy a lot of subjects, some would lead to difficult and low-paying careers (like art) that my parents don't want me to go for, and I can only do 4/5 A-levels so I can't decide.

If you listen to what other people recommend forever you will end up in a boring job that you hate.

Choose subjects you love, including Art, because if you enjoy it you will put in the work and get the grades. If you do a subject you don't like you will just scrape through it and get an average grade after 2 years.. Remember at a-level you're meant to put 5 hour in outside class per subject so it's alot of commitment to a subject you'll hate.

I was like you, I have no idea career wise. I just picked subjects i was interested in.. Im interested in current affairs so picked Politics.. Im interested in film so picked Film Studies.. Im interested in the past so I picked History - I got A's in all these subjects because I enjoyed them..

I also picked English Lit, which i hated. Ended up getting a C at AS.

My advice is pick four subject you enjoy and are passionate about because you need to be committed to studying them in and out of school for alot of hours.

If you love Art pick art!! Follow your passions

If you've taken five subjects you enjoy, then there's nothing wrong with your options.
Five subjects is a lot of work, especially as you've got a job on the side. However, I personally started the year with five subjects, and it took me two lessons to realise the four I wanted to do (I dropped French, one of the first subjects I decided on). So you could start with the five, and then choose to drop one in September.
But don't panic about your A-levels! There are always options for you, whether it's dropping or switching subjects, taking subjects at different times, or retaking a year in an extreme case.

I realise that taking subjects you enjoy is important, however I can't help but worry about my future, such as what university courses I can access with certain options, what careers I could get into with my options, and how much money I would take in.
I feel pressured to take a ""smart"" path, such as engineering or medicine, as everyone else seems to be doing it and you get a lot of money for it.

I think I'll keep my 5 options open and wait until the first week of term and see how I go with keeping up with the work, or how much I enjoy the lessons.
I got my GCSE results back today and got an A in each of the sciences, so I can definitely do biology. I just hope my parents don't try to pressure me into taking chemistry and physics now too! v.v

Thank you for the advice, it's comforting to be reminded that other people go through similar tough decisions and that my life isn't necessarily ruined if I choose the wrong subjects!

I took Art and Biology in AS, (also carrying both on to A2). I ended up basing my artwork on biology. The question was "closely observing" and i managed to twist it around to "closely observing the body". I painted the brain in many creative ways, as we as the heart, and i was informative as well as creative. The heart is a huge component of AS Biology, (BY2) so i helped myself by focusing on Biology and Art at the same time hehe. Got 190/200 in my Art, which is A, and i got a B in Biology (3 marks from an A ) but definately, i loved both subjects.


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As well as the heart*


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