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English Language or Biology for A levels?

Hi, I need some urgent help!
I recently did my mock exams and got a D in my biology exam, however I want to take psychology further to uni. Some unis require biology as an A level. I have to improve by 4 grades to be accepted into bio A levels in 4 months.

Therefore im thinking of doing English Language instead (I am a lot more confident in this subject). I dont know if that will affect my future?

My current A level choices are Psychology, Philosophy, Art and Biology/English Language.

HELP!!

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Reply 1

fairplaytoyou

Hi there! I do Biology and it's very tough, very challenging and a lot of hard work. If you're not confident in it, that's okay and with hard work it's possible but I would recommend taking Eng Lang simply because you sound like you really like it and therefore I feel like you'll get a better grade (I might be wrong)

I know some universities require biology but a lot of good ones don't, my friends who've taken an English or a subject that isn't scientific have gotten in for psychology/related subjects so there's always hope :smile:

just focus on getting the best grades you can.

Good luck with everything!

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Reply 2

username987675

I take it this is for your GCSE exams? How well did the rest of your group/year do? I remember in year 11 our entire year did terrible in the chemistry mock, no one got above a C if I remember rightly, then by the end of the year there were loads of A's and A*'s. My advice would be to pick up a revision guide and just learn it... from my experience the CGP revision guide was invaluable, nothing that came up in past exams didn't get covered by it so that might be a place to start.

If you don't enjoy biology though then maybe it's best you don't choose it. Remember you'll be doing it for two years, and will be doing it a lot more often than you are now. On saying that if you know you'll need it for a certain course at uni, then there is no point in giving up so soon, think optimistically and put the work in.

I'm not sure how differently other sixth forms approach this but for most people in my year it was a case of just choosing them on the day. A lot of people were uncertain on what to choose and there was only a select few who knew exactly what they wanted to choose. We had filled in applications beforehand but a lot of people changed there mind after they received there results anyway. What you choose now isn't set in stone.

Hope this helps :smile:

(On a separate note someone in my year has an unconditional to study psychology at Uni of Birmingham, they don't even do it at A level.... so don't worry too much about your choices, as long as you enjoy them you should do fine)

(edited 9 years ago)

Reply 3

hangra97

Thank you so much for your reply. Im really relieved to hear that biology isn't a must. I just didn't want to start my A levels after summer with a massive risk of failing it. I will attempt to improve my grade by summer anyways for science overall.

Do you have any universities you can recommend for psychology studies?

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Reply 4

hangra97

I think there was a large variety of different grades and I know that I had a bad day the day i did my biology.
I can take biology to AS level and then drop it afterwards if I find it too hard, but I don't want to start my A levels after summer thinking I might fail my biology. Also, increasing by 4 grades seems impossible right now because I have so many other subjects to concentrate on...

Do you have any suggestions for universities that do psychology studies?

Thank you so much for your help

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