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Taking on another AS instead of dropping one?

Hi,

Last year I did mathematics a level (full in the year), biology, chemistry, physics and general studies AS levels. Next year I am planning on continuing all of them on to A2 (and Maths will be full further maths A Level). Last year I often found myself with a lot of free time (even after my job, volunteering, homework, etc) so I was wondering if anyone knew if you could take on another AS, such as Philosophy and Ethics? I know that having 7 AS levels and 6 A2 levels won't make any difference (given that most only look at 3) but the subjects all interest me and why not?

Furthermore, is it possible to self teach philosophy and ethics? I spoke to a friend who said it was a lot of debating, but does this necessarily need to be in a classroom?

Thanks!
Reply 1
Personally I think you should go for it if you think it won't impact your grades. Compulsory education isn't just about further study, also the fun of learning about things that interest you (whilst it's still free)
Original post by ThatPerson2
Hi,

Last year I did mathematics a level (full in the year), biology, chemistry, physics and general studies AS levels. Next year I am planning on continuing all of them on to A2 (and Maths will be full further maths A Level). Last year I often found myself with a lot of free time (even after my job, volunteering, homework, etc) so I was wondering if anyone knew if you could take on another AS, such as Philosophy and Ethics? I know that having 7 AS levels and 6 A2 levels won't make any difference (given that most only look at 3) but the subjects all interest me and why not?

Furthermore, is it possible to self teach philosophy and ethics? I spoke to a friend who said it was a lot of debating, but does this necessarily need to be in a classroom?

Thanks!

Drop general studies, it's essentially useless, and if you're doing Maths, FM, and triple science, any university you apply it (if you do choose to) is highly likely to disregard it.
Reply 3
Original post by Asurat
Personally I think you should go for it if you think it won't impact your grades. Compulsory education isn't just about further study, also the fun of learning about things that interest you (whilst it's still free)


That's what I was thinking, at the end of the day it is a bit of free education which gets a qualification which could be useful for something in the future.

Original post by H0PEL3SS
Drop general studies, it's essentially useless, and if you're doing Maths, FM, and triple science, any university you apply it (if you do choose to) is highly likely to disregard it.
Unfortunately my school won't let us drop general studies (cough cough extra government money for doing more courses or something like that). I might see if I can sort of trade in the A2 General Studies bit for the AS Philosophy and Ethics (so I self teach the Philosophy and Ethics in General Studies lessons) as it would probably be more useful.
Original post by ThatPerson2
That's what I was thinking, at the end of the day it is a bit of free education which gets a qualification which could be useful for something in the future.

Unfortunately my school won't let us drop general studies (cough cough extra government money for doing more courses or something like that). I might see if I can sort of trade in the A2 General Studies bit for the AS Philosophy and Ethics (so I self teach the Philosophy and Ethics in General Studies lessons) as it would probably be more useful.


At worst, you could always just give it no time outside of lessons (still time wasted, but there isn't much else you can do, save for going to your head of sixth form or whoever does the timetabling. Students doing 6 A2's are very rare, and often Oxbridge applicants, which can, in some schools, generate some special treatment)
and use that time for P&E.
However, given structure of the subject, I wouldn't try to self teach it; writing essays that you couldn't improve on would be incredibly difficult without teacher feedback to guide you, even if you got all the content down.
Reply 5
Original post by H0PEL3SS
At worst, you could always just give it no time outside of lessons (still time wasted, but there isn't much else you can do, save for going to your head of sixth form or whoever does the timetabling. Students doing 6 A2's are very rare, and often Oxbridge applicants, which can, in some schools, generate some special treatment)
and use that time for P&E.
However, given structure of the subject, I wouldn't try to self teach it; writing essays that you couldn't improve on would be incredibly difficult without teacher feedback to guide you, even if you got all the content down.


My plan was that I could self teach it in free periods but still do it as part of the philosophy and ethics class in the 6th form, as I believe that they are good at sending the powerpoints and things to the class and then they would still be able to check over essays and things but I could teach it using the materials in my own time. That way I would hopefully have the best of both worlds as I could carry all of them on and still have teacher feedback (depends what the philosophy and ethics teacher says I suppose). Thanks for the advice. Would you say that philosophy and ethics has a lot of content to be learnt, or is it made up of a lot of debating and justifying viewpoints (which would be a bit harder to do outside of lessons?).

Thanks!
What's the point?
Despite having the extra time at AS, it will be much harder at A2, so by putting yourself in the best possible position to achieve is more beneficial than an extra AS that your uni will not care about. Use all those extra free time to really hone in on your A2 subjects in more detail
Don't add extra stress - keep things simple
Original post by ThatPerson2
My plan was that I could self teach it in free periods but still do it as part of the philosophy and ethics class in the 6th form, as I believe that they are good at sending the powerpoints and things to the class and then they would still be able to check over essays and things but I could teach it using the materials in my own time. That way I would hopefully have the best of both worlds as I could carry all of them on and still have teacher feedback (depends what the philosophy and ethics teacher says I suppose). Thanks for the advice. Would you say that philosophy and ethics has a lot of content to be learnt, or is it made up of a lot of debating and justifying viewpoints (which would be a bit harder to do outside of lessons?).

Thanks!


Don't know, I never took the subject. However, I do agree with the above poster. Don't bother with it and do better at the other 5.
Reply 8
Original post by H0PEL3SS
Don't know, I never took the subject. However, I do agree with the above poster. Don't bother with it and do better at the other 5.


Original post by tcameron
What's the point?Despite having the extra time at AS, it will be much harder at A2, so by putting yourself in the best possible position to achieve is more beneficial than an extra AS that your uni will not care about. Use all those extra free time to really hone in on your A2 subjects in more detailDon't add extra stress - keep things simple



Not really sure if I will now, I suppose it depends how I feel on results day (and how well it goes) and whether or not the school will let me. Thanks for the help.

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