3 A levels, 1 AS and an EPQ?

Hi, I'm currently in year 11, sitting summer 23 examinations.
I plan to do a medical degree after sixth form at a prestigious university. I have high predicted grades and a good work ethic. I plan to start A-level Biology, Chemistry & Maths in September as well as an EPQ - all at my sixth-form college. However, I have recently been considering AS computer science OCR as I have found computer science to be my easiest GCSE that I relatively enjoy and find useful. I also understand that computer skills are highly valued in the modern workplace too. However, I do not want to give up my plan of doing an EPQ as I think it will be a great expression of my other interests outside of STEM. Do you think I could possibly do all 5 in year 12? How quickly could I finish my EPQ to a 45/45 degree?

Reply 1

DedBread

8

I plan on doing the same A-levels as you and an EPQ. I was considering doing another level, similar to yours of an AS level, in Physics, however, I have thought it's better not to do so. 4 A-levels and an EPQ is a large volume of work in the span of just 2 years and even an AS level would add a lot to your schedule, so you have to keep that in mind. Also, even though it's true that computer science skills are very desirable in the modern workplace, doing just an AS in it may not be very fulfilling as you will not be learning all the content. So, universities won't view it as highly. Another thing is that A-Level CS is definitely going to be harder than the GCSE, so you're going to have to put a lot of time into it and the other subjects you want to take are very taxing. Is it really worth it to sacrifice so much time to half an A-level whilst you're putting the other 3 at risk? If you really wanted to, you could do your EPQ on computer science and use an extension of your GCSE knowledge to write it. In my opinion, an AS isn't worth taking, especially if you enjoy the subject. You might be disappointed with how limited your topics will be compared to your peers, so in the subject, you won't be able to be as competitive as you may hope.

Reply 2

StudyMind

8

Original post by BlairWaldorff27

Hi, I'm currently in year 11, sitting summer 23 examinations.
I plan to do a medical degree after sixth form at a prestigious university. I have high predicted grades and a good work ethic. I plan to start A-level Biology, Chemistry & Maths in September as well as an EPQ - all at my sixth-form college. However, I have recently been considering AS computer science OCR as I have found computer science to be my easiest GCSE that I relatively enjoy and find useful. I also understand that computer skills are highly valued in the modern workplace too. However, I do not want to give up my plan of doing an EPQ as I think it will be a great expression of my other interests outside of STEM. Do you think I could possibly do all 5 in year 12? How quickly could I finish my EPQ to a 45/45 degree?

Heya!
Stick to the 3 alvls and the EPQ. You don't need to do AS computer science - you can just do online courses using Freecodecamp, Coursera etc as an extracurricular :h:

4 alvls + EPQ is a huge amount of work and if you want to get into a competitive uni for medicine then you need to make sure you get good grades.

I hope this helps!
Milena
UCL PFE
Study Mind

3 A levels, 1 AS and an EPQ?

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