need some career ideas!!

Hello everybody,

I'm starting my A levels in September and at the moment I am taking Maths, Further Maths, Physics and Psychology. I got an A* in GCSE maths, physics and chemistry and these have always been my strongest subjects. I do enjoy maths and some areas of physics like radioactivity and space although I don't enjoy chemistry as much and that was my reasoning behind not continuing it at A level.

I'm having second thoughts though about doing further maths. I do really enjoy maths and have always been good at it, but I have no idea as to what I want to do for a career, even what I want to study at uni, and so I thought it might be better if I chose something else to widen my options.

What I'm looking for really is for someone who would be able to give me some ideas as to what sort of career area I could get into with my skills. I don't want to be a teacher and I've thought about the idea of becoming some sort of scientist, but I'm not really sure what scientists do on a day to day basis??

Thanks,
Jordan

Reply 1

Booyah

Original post by Jordan97

Scientists drink tonnes of caffeine and smoke cigarettes all day. On a serious note they do research into new drugs, create new materials, create theories, equate equations and so on and so forth.

There is just so much to science, the best thing you can do is read some prospectuses and find out for yourself. You chose subjects that seem to point towards engineering either chemical or mechanical. You could work for some F1 engine designing group or create some bad ass super bikes if you went for mechanical engineering. Or you could do architecture if you would consider doing a foundation degree in art.

Reply 2

giella

I'd give consideration to a fifth subject if you're taking further maths. Sounds silly but if you end up disliking psychology you will not be able to drop it easily as a lot of universities do not actually accept three A levels that are inclusive of further maths for their courses. A lot of people end up disliking psychology and it has a high drop off rate at A2. I ended up stuck with it 11 years ago because I was taking three A levels and two AS levels as two year courses which meant I couldn't drop psychology and come out with three A levels. Ironically I ended up doing a postgraduate qualification in it but still...! I didn't do it for the love of the subject believe me. Basically, if Psychology A level was a financial product it would have its own compensation fund by now for mis-selling!

Reply 3

Jordan97

Researching into new drugs is something that I think could appeal to me. Would I need biology for this though? Biology is my weakest science and I really don't enjoy it.

I really liked the sound of psychology and I thoroughly enjoyed the taster session I did for it. I even thought about using psychology and being a scientist studying human behaviour or something like that.

I don't think designing things is really where I want to be. And I am the least artistic person you will ever meet.

(edited 9 years ago)

Reply 4

giella

I liked the sound of it too. I had a taster session that I loved too. It's very often nothing like the subject you tasted. In terms of study it's a lot of research studies to remember and evaluate, as well as some quite complex theories that are more often than not counter-intuitive.

I like psychology in terms of understanding how people function and it is an interesting subject. Trouble is, it's got quite a patchy reputation in terms of teaching. The best psychology tutors are the ones who have done field work and higher degrees. The majority of psychology teachers don't have either of these on their CVs. I tutor psychology and the biggest complaint I see from students about their teachers is the death by powerpoint and worksheet aspect of their subject. Psychology teachers have a tendency to just hand out worksheets that require filling in, but often never check to see that they are. The content in the worksheets is often distilled down to the point of being virtually useless, but they don't provide or recommend textbooks to students to use either. It often results in a very confused time come the exam period in which people are struggling to put together a meaningful set of revision notes. It's a subject you really do have to stay on top of. It is by no means a mickey mouse subject.

Do go into it with your eyes wide open. There are very few degrees for which psychology A level is actually a prerequisite subject for entry. I wouldn't say this necessarily if you weren't doing further maths as your fourth but it's something I feel I need to say as you may end up stuck with a subject you become disillusioned with very quickly.

Reply 5

Jordan97

The main psychology teacher at my sixth form actually used to work in a psychiatric ward helping people after traumatic experiences and things like that so I guess that's pretty good experience!

Are you saying that universities won't accept further maths as an A level?

Reply 6

giella

A lot of courses specify that they will only consider it as a fourth A level not as one of three taken to A2.

Psychology is something I'll admit I'm biased on as I tend to meet a lot of people who need extra help with because they're stuck doing it. It's not to say that it can't be interesting but it can be a shock to the system and it is often not taught well. Sounds like in your case that last point won't necessarily be an issue but if you find it's not something you want to do – and at this stage you can't really know because you haven't done it before – it's worth erring on the side of caution and picking a fifth AS if possible so that if you don't like it you're not lumped with it. Further maths is often not given a full timetable anyway so it wouldn't necessarily be impossible to do. You could even just try a fifth AS level for a few weeks alongside psychology to see which one you like better and maybe drop one if the workload is too much for you. It's just a precaution that you need to take with a new subject. I taught someone last year who took on psychology, economics, English language and RS, dropped the RS in the middle of the year because the teacher left and wasn't replaced and was left doing essentially three brand new subjects that she hated and didn't entirely understand – English language being very different at A level to GCSE – and was completely stuck doing them because she couldn't drop another at the end of the year. She had no leeway and no comfort zone. She's gone on to do a liberal arts degree because she was essentially prepared to do nothing that she actually wanted to do and didn't want to risk doing another completely new subject. Not to say that's not a good degree for her as it's mixed and she gets a lot of choice in it but she was very boxed in. I've been in that situation myself and it is a tough one. Just be careful.