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Can't decide on what a levels to choose please help

Okay, so I've tried searching for websites to kind of give me a push in to what I want to do for my A-levels but haven't found anything that useful so far (If you have any links to some useful websites please link them below that would be great. )

I do have some A-levels in mind as I have an interest in those subjects but I'm confused as to what jobs they'll lead me in to in the future.
These are the A-levels I have in mind.
1.English literature and language
2. Psychology
3.Product design
4. Either law or biology however, I'm feeling quite skeptical about law as I've heard that most universities don't like the course.
Are these a good range of A-levels? Will these get me anywhere? Heeeeelp.

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Sorry you've not had any responses about this. :frown: Are you sure you’ve posted in the right place? Posting in the specific Study Help forum should help get responses. :redface:

I'm going to quote in Tank Girl now so she can move your thread to the right place if it's needed. :h: :yy:

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Original post by noor.m
Okay, so I've tried searching for websites to kind of give me a push in to what I want to do for my A-levels but haven't found anything that useful so far (If you have any links to some useful websites please link them below that would be great. )

I do have some A-levels in mind as I have an interest in those subjects but I'm confused as to what jobs they'll lead me in to in the future.
These are the A-levels I have in mind.
1.English literature and language
2. Psychology
3.Product design
4. Either law or biology however, I'm feeling quite skeptical about law as I've heard that most universities don't like the course.
Are these a good range of A-levels? Will these get me anywhere? Heeeeelp.


Definitely take biology, it is good to have at least one sciencey/mathsy subject. As for the others, take what you like! It all depends on what you actually want to apply for. I would strongly recommend taking maths because it will keep your options open! And you can always do statistics instead of mechanics modules, which are generally considered less difficult, making the whole A level much easier.
(edited 8 years ago)
I think English, Psychology and Biology are great options.

Then one from Law and Product Design.

What careers are you interested in?
Beware that Biology alone is kind of useless if you want to do a sciency degree that isnt Biology or Psychology, most science degrees like Biology & Chemistry.

Posted from TSR Mobile
I took English Literature, Biology, Maths, Further Maths, and Product Design for my initial AS choices. After a few months, I had to drop Product Design as it required so so SO much work, both inside the classroom and out. It was by far my favourite subject to begin with, but the heavy workload made me dislike it, which was a shame. If you're really interested in something to do with design, I would stick with it, but don't do what I did - don't pick it as a non-academic outlet, because it only adds more stress. Having said that, taking five AS's definitely contributed to the stress. English is a great subject, which I would recommend to anyone. It's extremely respectable, and universities will love the fact that it shows you are literate. Biology is a good science subject to compliment your others, but, like iscribbletoomuch said, Maths would be good to have alongside it. Unless you don't like Maths, in which case you'll hate it.

The short story is that you should take the subjects you enjoy. That's what I did, and I got good results (after dropping Product Design). You'll work hard at the things you enjoy. I think your options are good though! Psychology and Law are both quite niche and unless you're looking to go into either of those fields, they are quite limiting. It would be better to replace Psychology with Biology, and Law with Maths. I only suggest that because you are unsure what you want to go into, so keeping your options wide will enable you to do a lot of things at uni. Good luck, and don't stress! You can change them halfway into the year.
Reply 6
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Original post by gaygrapes
I took English Literature, Biology, Maths, Further Maths, and Product Design for my initial AS choices. After a few months, I had to drop Product Design as it required so so SO much work, both inside the classroom and out. It was by far my favourite subject to begin with, but the heavy workload made me dislike it, which was a shame. If you're really interested in something to do with design, I would stick with it, but don't do what I did - don't pick it as a non-academic outlet, because it only adds more stress. Having said that, taking five AS's definitely contributed to the stress. English is a great subject, which I would recommend to anyone. It's extremely respectable, and universities will love the fact that it shows you are literate. Biology is a good science subject to compliment your others, but, like iscribbletoomuch said, Maths would be good to have alongside it. Unless you don't like Maths, in which case you'll hate it.

The short story is that you should take the subjects you enjoy. That's what I did, and I got good results (after dropping Product Design). You'll work hard at the things you enjoy. I think your options are good though! Psychology and Law are both quite niche and unless you're looking to go into either of those fields, they are quite limiting. It would be better to replace Psychology with Biology, and Law with Maths. I only suggest that because you are unsure what you want to go into, so keeping your options wide will enable you to do a lot of things at uni. Good luck, and don't stress! You can change them halfway into the year.


Thank you so so much you really have helped me a lot! You should definitely have more reps! I am very passionate about graphics and although I do wish to do something in the future related to design I'm not 100% certain that it's the career path that I want to take. I am quite good at maths, I mean I'm taking the higher paper and get high grades in the subject but It's definitely something that I won't enjoy. Psychology is a niche subject? Really? I thought that it wasn't a very concentrated subject (if that makes sense) and could get you in to a lot of jobs. If I were to take psychology do you think I could only get in to jobs that are based around that subject? And I thought that Psychology went well with biology?
Thank you again X
Original post by noor.m
Thank you so so much you really have helped me a lot! You should definitely have more reps! I am very passionate about graphics and although I do wish to do something in the future related to design I'm not 100% certain that it's the career path that I want to take. I am quite good at maths, I mean I'm taking the higher paper and get high grades in the subject but It's definitely something that I won't enjoy. Psychology is a niche subject? Really? I thought that it wasn't a very concentrated subject (if that makes sense) and could get you in to a lot of jobs. If I were to take psychology do you think I could only get in to jobs that are based around that subject? And I thought that Psychology went well with biology?
Thank you again X


No, Psychology is valued by Universities - ones like Cardiff class it as a 'relevant science A2'. I take Psychology and have applied to University to do Politics so that is definitely not true. I've loved studying Psychology and yes, it does go with Biology very well :smile:
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Original post by Ben4
Beware that Biology alone is kind of useless if you want to do a sciency degree that isnt Biology or Psychology, most science degrees like Biology & Chemistry.

Posted from TSR Mobile


Thank you for your reply, and are you sure? Is it really important that I do biology and chemistry if I want to go in to something say.. Medicine based? Could you give me some links?
Thank you x
Reply 9
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chocochip_
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Original post by kiera28
I think English, Psychology and Biology are great options.

Then one from Law and Product Design.

What careers are you interested in?


There aren't any specific careers that I'm certain I want to do yet although I do know I want to go in to either design, medicine or law (I may not even go with any of them in the end!) All I really know is that I like those subjects
Thank you for your reply x
Original post by emiloujess
No, Psychology is valued by Universities - ones like Cardiff class it as a 'relevant science A2'. I take Psychology and have applied to University to do Politics so that is definitely not true. I've loved studying Psychology and yes, it does go with Biology very well :smile:


Thank you so much! You don't know how glad I am to hear that :smile:
Original post by noor.m
Thank you so much! You don't know how glad I am to hear that :smile:


No problem :smile: It is hard though, just to warn you... Especially A2 which I'm studying now haha :biggrin: But yeah Physiological Psychology and Biology cross over very well, and research methods is common to both as well :smile:
Original post by emiloujess
No problem :smile: It is hard though, just to warn you... Especially A2 which I'm studying now haha :biggrin: But yeah Physiological Psychology and Biology cross over very well, and research methods is common to both as well :smile:


Aren't all A-levels hard? haha. Thank you again! X
Use the 3+1 rule.

So 3 Sciences and a Humanity / Vocational subject.

Or the other way around.
You should really choose what you enjoy at this stage. Then start thinking of jobs, and alter your options accordingly, but only if you are certain that something is a path you would really fancy doing, or a certain area you would enjoy doing, it is not imperative to know what you want to go into at this stage.

Also, never take a subject because you think it will be easy. I'm certain you haven't done this, but you definitely see it with Biology, so go into subjects you like, even if you think it will be difficult.

From your options, they seem to be quite good, but as people have said, biology is not the best science to have on its own if there is a possibility that you will want to go into a science/medical area, but if you know you won't want to do that, biology is a great subject to take on its own, since it is so interesting, although quite difficult. It also goes well with Psychology, which is another really interesting subject, and English Combined is great if you enjoy the subject.
Original post by Gogregg
You should really choose what you enjoy at this stage. Then start thinking of jobs, and alter your options accordingly, but only if you are certain that something is a path you would really fancy doing, or a certain area you would enjoy doing, it is not imperative to know what you want to go into at this stage.

Also, never take a subject because you think it will be easy. I'm certain you haven't done this, but you definitely see it with Biology, so go into subjects you like, even if you think it will be difficult.

From your options, they seem to be quite good, but as people have said, biology is not the best science to have on its own if there is a possibility that you will want to go into a science/medical area, but if you know you won't want to do that, biology is a great subject to take on its own, since it is so interesting, although quite difficult. It also goes well with Psychology, which is another really interesting subject, and English Combined is great if you enjoy the subject.


Thank you so so much for your reply! Yeah my Dad told me not to pick the easy subjects either so these choices are solely based on me being interested in them
Original post by noor.m
Thank you for your reply, and are you sure? Is it really important that I do biology and chemistry if I want to go in to something say.. Medicine based? Could you give me some links?
Thank you x


Well, I do Biology without Chemistry and I have found that if I wanted to study a degree like Medicine or Biomedical science I would be at a big disadvantage. It is just my personal opinion, so I have no links as I haven't researched into sciencey degrees sorry.
Original post by noor.m

4. Either law or biology however, I'm feeling quite skeptical about law as I've heard that most universities don't like the course.
Are these a good range of A-levels? Will these get me anywhere? Heeeeelp.


From my experience with friends who study Law, it's a really tough subject. It's all essay writing and remembering names and dates of people from throughout history. Depends how good your memory is. A lot of my friends dropped it at A2.
Original post by noor.m
There aren't any specific careers that I'm certain I want to do yet although I do know I want to go in to either design, medicine or law (I may not even go with any of them in the end!) All I really know is that I like those subjects
Thank you for your reply x


Well you'll need to take both Chemistry and Biology (and preferably maths) in order to go into medicine.

You'll need to do an essay subject for law, so English is all good.

To go into design, product design or art are obviously the best options.

So to keep all these options open maybe you should replace Psychology with Chemistry as you can't go into medicine without chemistry, and you can go into psychology with traditional sciences.

then you would have Biology, Chemistry, English and Design?
Original post by noor.m
Thank you so much! You don't know how glad I am to hear that :smile:


I'd just like to clarify my earlier point (I'm glad it was helpful!) because I feel I may have been mistaken. I'm applying to study Psychology at university (including Cardiff, as has been mentioned by someone), so I have done a fair bit of research around this subject.

Psychology is niche, in the sense that it is not wide-ranging and broad like Biology is. If you are interesting in anything scientific, such as Psychology in the future, then you will be better off taking Biology for the course. However, if you will enjoy Psychology more then it is far better to get a higher grade in Psych, than a lower grade in Biology. You need to weigh everything against: is it respectable/suitable, and will I enjoy it? If your answer to both those questions is yes, then put it down!

From what you've said, you sound very enthusiastic about Psychology and Product Design, and are not keen at all on Maths. I think Biology and English would compliment these two really well, and would give you a lot to talk about in your UCAS application.

It's a shame that you have to consider where the A Levels will get you, and it certainly is important that you do, BUT you have to enjoy them personally. Otherwise you'd start to really dislike school and your grades will slip.

I hope I've helped a little more! x

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