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Urgent Help A Level Subject Selection

I have opted to take on for AS/A Level:

Maths, Further Maths, Physics, ICT and business studies.

Has anyone got any advice or opinions about the subjects.

Can anyone tell me how hard the subjects are and what GCSE grade in the same subject would indicate whether i would do well or not.

All advice is welcome,

Thanks in advance,

Jason Sion Bartlett

Reply 1

NickiM

How hard a subject is is subjective, it depends on lots of different factors, like the teaching, a person's strengths/weaknesses, motivation, how much they enjoy the course. GCSEs, also don't really indicate how well you do - although a good GCSE grade will hint you could do well at AS, it depends how much work you put in, how much you read around the subject, listen in class, how good the teachers are.

Sorry - that might not help, and afraid I can't give you any input into any of those subjects.

Reply 2

mom1

If you are taking 5AS are you thinking of Oxbridge or other top unis? If so bear in mind that your choices are a bit iffey. Both business studies and ICT are on Cambridge's 'don't rate em' list
and the maths/further maths is also looked down upon!
see Word documentCollective response to an enquiry regarding the number of A level subjects studied February 2006.

Thus all your hard work and coursework will not be fully recognised. May be worth visiting a few websites of courses you fancy and seeing what the entrance requirements are.

Reply 3

mom1

oops

links didn't go in...
http://www.cam.ac.uk/admissions/undergraduate/requirements/

http://www.cam.ac.uk/admissions/undergraduate/responses/index.html

Reply 4

zrancis

I was in a similar situation when I started my AS levels, i didn't take 5 because I wasn't really used to working hard at high school and I didn't really want to take too much on.

In my first year I did business studies, economics, maths and further maths. basically, maths took over!

This was simply due to the quite high workload. If you managed an a or a* at gcse, then you should manage with the 1st year maths and further maths no problem, it's then you can decide what you want to do, i.e. is it too much to carry on with at a2, that sort of thing.

Business studies is very easy to leave behind, I assume that you are quite intelligent and as a result you shouldn't find it poses you any problems intellectually but it is quite a picky subject. Don't fall into a false sense of security with it, keep on top of the formulas and make sure you can do a good bit of evaluation. Most marks are lost in exams because people don't use application, i.e. applying arguments for and against specifically to the question.

Further maths is possibly the "hardest" subject at A Level but it's a poor way to look at it. Yes, if you were given an A Level paper when you were doing your gcse's you'd probably cry :smile:

but it's all about progression, as it is with all A Levels, they build up in difficulty, some moreso than others, so be prepared to work at them and dont fall behind.

I would agree that 5 AS Levels may not be entirely neccessary, personally, I would do 4 then look to carry them all on in your second year if you want 4 A Levels, but do be warned, it is a lot of work, especially at the rate you will fly through further maths and some uni's i.e. oxbridge may give you an offer based on all 4 e.g AAAA when others only get offers of AAA as they haven't done 4. so it can be a disadvantage in that respect.

All in all they are a good set of choices, try to keep Maths, Further Maths and Physics in your second year at the least. I would possibly recommend another science instead of ICT or Economics instead of Business if that is availaible as they are more traditional and regarded as more prestigious, but the choice is yours.

Hope this helped.

Reply 5

Red Thunder

U can pop out further maths, and add to it chem or eng litt.

Also, intead of ICT, I would prefer the more traditional COMPUTING....it isnt frowned upon by unis.

Reply 6

Harry_2008

Ouch, looks like you picked some of the hardest subjects to study. :biggrin:

Reply 7

kellywood_5

All I know is that 5 AS levels would be a lot of work and isn't at all necessary. I know 5 subjects doesn't seem like a lot when you're probably taking at least twice that number of GCSEs, but AS levels are a huge step up, which is why most people only take 4. ICT has lots of coursework as well and would eat up a lot of your time. If I were you, I'd drop either ICT or business studies because, as others have said, they're blacklisted by top unis anyway. It's fine to have one, but two might put you at a disadvantage if you apply to the likes of Oxbridge and LSE.

Reply 8

Xrypto

Why is Maths/F.Maths frowned upon as like the are crying for people to take up Maths post-GCSE?

Reply 9

*River

^'Frowned upon' isn't the best way of putting it - basically, it's perceived as too much maths if you don't want to read something sciency or maths at university.

Reply 10

kellywood_5

heninacoop

^'Frowned upon' isn't the best way of putting it - basically, it's perceived as too much maths if you don't want to read something sciency or maths at university.

If you apply for anything other than maths (or perhaps physics, engineering etc) some unis won't count maths and further maths as 2 separate A-levels, so most students taking those take 2 other subjects as well.