More A Levels or Extra Curriculars

Hey,

I've got the decision next year of either taking Four A-Levels plus General Studies and possibly critical thinking or just doing three a-levels and general studies and then doing something else instead with the free time, starting a business or more extra curricular activities etc.

Which is more worthwhile with regards to Uni applications, or should I just go all out and do five A-Levels?

Reply 1

βored

14

As long as you have at least 3 A2's and 1AS you'll be fine.

Reply 2

Paulwhy

13

GS and Critical Thinking will not impressive anybody very much. So don't do critical thinking!
In terms of 4 or 3 it depends alot on your situation:
i) What ASs are you doing and what are your predictions?
ii) What course are you thinking of? e.g. look at some league tables and that will give you an idea of what UCAS points successful candidates have on average.

Reply 3

affinity89

17

Even if you do the standard 3 A Levels and 1 AS you won't have that much free time, especially if you are at a college like mine. But, doing the standard shouldn't put you at a disadvantage. I wouldn't bother doing General Studies and Criticial Thinking though - doing one is enough for what they are worth.

=D

Reply 4

Queen Alice

10

If you plan on applying to top universities, general studies and critical thinking are pretty pointless. They don't even offer them at my school :s-smilie:

Perhaps email the unversities you are considering, and ask their oppinion on whether it would improve your chances.

Also, extra curriculars are not that important either!

Focus on amazing grades in your 3 alevels, and do wider reading/work experience/attend lectures of the subject you want to do at university. This will be much more benefical.

Reply 5

Carlos92

OP

The A-Levels I'm looking at are:
English Lang + Lit
Economics
Classical Civilization
Biology

Any improvements/suggestions on those?

Reply 6

Titch89

14

Does lang + Lit count as one subject where you are?

Reply 7

SouthernFreerider

12

affinity89

Even if you do the standard 3 A Levels and 1 AS you won't have that much free time, especially if you are at a college like mine. But, doing the standard shouldn't put you at a disadvantage. I wouldn't bother doing General Studies and Criticial Thinking though - doing one is enough for what they are worth.

=D

at my college ill be doing 5 A2 next year and still have 6h of free periods each week lol. and leave at 4.15 which is hardly late.

Reply 8

Paulwhy

13

Carlos92

The A-Levels I'm looking at are:
English Lang + Lit
Economics
Classical Civilization
Biology

Any improvements/suggestions on those?

Am I correct in guessing you have not started your AS-levels yet?

Bit of a strangle list:
i) English Language is not rated highly
ii) If you were thinking of doing Economics at university then Maths is pretty essential in terms of getting an offer. Further and more generally doing Maths A-level would help you understand the maths in economics A-level.

Any idea of what you want to do post A-levels?

Reply 9

moody28028

2

SouthernFreerider

at my college ill be doing 5 A2 next year and still have 6h of free periods each week lol. and leave at 4.15 which is hardly late.

How many hours per week per subject do you have, out of interest.

Reply 10

angelmxxx

14

Maybe Eng Lit instead of combined as this is much more highly regarded? But if you really love the syllabus of Lang&Lit go for it! Otherwise I agree with Paulwhy, if you want to do economics at uni you might need maths (not everywhere though), if you're just doing it because you find it interested in it then I like your subject mix, great for studying loads of subjects at uni...is law a possibility for you OP?

Reply 11

SouthernFreerider

12

moody28028

How many hours per week per subject do you have, out of interest.

4.5h per subject.

more than enough.

Reply 12

moody28028

2

We only get 4 hours per subject.

Reply 13

affinity89

17

SouthernFreerider

at my college ill be doing 5 A2 next year and still have 6h of free periods each week lol. and leave at 4.15 which is hardly late.

Then you are lucky. I have 3 free periods a week (each an hour long). I wasn't talking about college anyway - I was talking about the quantity of work you have to do on top, such as essays, wider reading/research, presentation preparation etc. For each of my subjects, I get roughly 2 essays a week (although that has increased to around 5 a week in the last term) plus research tasks so I have the course notes for the exam. So if you want time to actually enjoy yourself, you have to manage your time very carefully, especially if the OP wants to do more than your standard number of A2s.

Reply 14

Carlos92

OP

As someone guessed, yes i'm considering Law at Uni. Basically needed the broad range of subjects.

As far as English Lit goes... I don't like studying Shakespeare and that is one of the set texts next year. :frown:

Reply 15

Minerva

17

While it's important to take into account your possible degree subject choices, at the same time you need to make sure your AS/A2 subjects interest you. English Lang is - for some reason - not as well regarded as the joint Lang and Lit or the Lang, so you do need to take that into account if you are aiming high: Law is very competitive. I would also check out Classical Civilisation as I'm not sure if that's on any one's "less well regarded" list (I have LSE and Cambridge in mind particularly here).

Reply 16

Queen Alice

10

Carlos92

As someone guessed, yes i'm considering Law at Uni. Basically needed the broad range of subjects.

As far as English Lit goes... I don't like studying Shakespeare and that is one of the set texts next year. :frown:

Well change what school you go to :wink:

You may not like it.. but are you still good at it?

For Law, you need good subjects... and economics/english language
are not very respected. If you want to go to the very best universities, please reconsider your subjects.
Law is very word based (obviously), so english lit/history/geography are good pics. Pure science/maths not as useful, but still well respected.

Reply 17

angelmxxx

14

I think Economics would be OK for law? As long as you've got the english, classics and biology. I think classics is a respected subject, but obviously check that out. I've got friends doing very similar combinations to you who want to do law at top unis (one's doing eng lit, history, biology and psychology) - I think psychology and economics are both equally respected social sciences? So should be all good! If you've got any particular unis in mind check their requirements, otherwise it can't hurt to check the requirements for the most selective unis (cambridge, oxford, lse)?

Reply 18

angelmxxx

14

And you have to study shakespeare for Eng Lit wherever you study and whichever exam board you use! But it's really not that bad, it's barely 1/3rd of the course - only one play - and it's actually fairly easy because the language is so easy to analyse so you get loads of analytical marks really easily! I hated Shakespeare at GCSE but really like it at AS :smile:

Reply 19

Jump

18

Obviously 3 will be enough for uni's. But I would go with 4+GS because your extra curriculars will be minimal in the 4-5hrs you get extra and the fact is they won't matter a bit in a couple of years. Your A Levels will stay on your CV for years and nowadays alot more people seem to get AAA-AAB so having AABB,AAAB or AAAA can make you a little more competitive in the job market.

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