The Student Room Group
Uni students - Complete our survey >>
Uni students - Complete our survey >>
Uni students - Complete our survey >>

Are 4 A-levels worth it for a medicine application?

Hello guys

I got my AS results today and I'm very happy with them (4 A's). I really like all the subjects I'm taking - bio, chem, phys & maths - but my head of year is advising me to drop physics so I can focus on the grades of the other three subjects at A2. I want to apply to Oxford but don't really know how much difference there is having 4 A-levels to offer compared to 3. Is anyone else in a similar position? Should I perhaps consider dropping physics and then taking up an AS (maybe further maths)? Or is the risk of the workload of 4 too high? Thanks!
I don't think 4 would give much advantage, if any. Unis may give you an offer conditional on 4 subjects, though. It depends on how confident you are about getting the grades next year... I imagine that as you're thinking of Oxford, you achieved high As, i.e not borderline A/B, and if so you could probably manage doing 4 if you really wanted to. However, if they weren't strong As, you might struggle and it'd be a shame to compromise the 3 grades you really need.
Original post by GMQ
Hello guys

I got my AS results today and I'm very happy with them (4 A's). I really like all the subjects I'm taking - bio, chem, phys & maths - but my head of year is advising me to drop physics so I can focus on the grades of the other three subjects at A2. I want to apply to Oxford but don't really know how much difference there is having 4 A-levels to offer compared to 3. Is anyone else in a similar position? Should I perhaps consider dropping physics and then taking up an AS (maybe further maths)? Or is the risk of the workload of 4 too high? Thanks!


Unless you want to apply to Barts there is very little point of doing four. Your offer will still be based on 3 subjects and as going_to_california says, you run the risk of doing worse by doing more.
Reply 3
Avatar for GMQ
GMQ
OP
13
Original post by Going_To_California
I don't think 4 would give much advantage, if any. Unis may give you an offer conditional on 4 subjects, though. It depends on how confident you are about getting the grades next year... I imagine that as you're thinking of Oxford, you achieved high As, i.e not borderline A/B, and if so you could probably manage doing 4 if you really wanted to. However, if they weren't strong As, you might struggle and it'd be a shame to compromise the 3 grades you really need.


Original post by ForestCat
Unless you want to apply to Barts there is very little point of doing four. Your offer will still be based on 3 subjects and as going_to_california says, you run the risk of doing worse by doing more.


Thanks for your replies. How much more difficult is A2 compared to AS? If I'm honest, I think I could have done a lot more revision, despite getting strong A's in all my subjects. Do you think it will be much harder for me next year? Of course the level of understanding needed and the actual content will have increased, but will I need to, say, double revision to get the same grades?
Thanks again :biggrin:

Quick Reply

Related discussions

Latest

Trending

Trending

Articles for you