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Will I get into universities if I do 2 IALs this year and do the other 2 next year?

I am planning to complete my chem and psych IALs this year with the AS being in the summer and A-levels being in the fall.
For the next year, it's Bio and another undecided subject's AS in the summer while A-levels in the fall.
I'm doing the Edexcel IAL exams btw + I'm schooled
I would like to know whether I have to do it traditionally by completing 4 AS within one year while doing the A-levels the following year or if I can use the plan above to get accepted into universities.

Ty^^
Original post by VeryBerryCherry
I am planning to complete my chem and psych IALs this year with the AS being in the summer and A-levels being in the fall.
For the next year, it's Bio and another undecided subject's AS in the summer while A-levels in the fall.
I'm doing the Edexcel IAL exams btw + I'm schooled
I would like to know whether I have to do it traditionally by completing 4 AS within one year while doing the A-levels the following year or if I can use the plan above to get accepted into universities.

Ty^^

Some universities express a preference for all your A levels (or International A levels in your case) to have been taken in the same year. Others don't care. Did you have any particular target universities in mind?
Original post by DataVenia
Some universities express a preference for all your A levels (or International A levels in your case) to have been taken in the same year. Others don't care. Did you have any particular target universities in mind?

Unfortunately, I haven't decided which university to go yet. But are there university "types" that are particular about these things that you know of?
i.e. In certain countries, IALs have to be completed according to the usual procedure, whether it's based if the uni is private or public, etc.
Original post by VeryBerryCherry
Unfortunately, I haven't decided which university to go yet. But are there university "types" that are particular about these things that you know of?
i.e. In certain countries, IALs have to be completed according to the usual procedure, whether it's based if the uni is private or public, etc.

In the UK generally medicine and dentistry courses (probably also vet med) will expect you to take your subjects all in one sitting, as will Oxford and Cambridge. LSE and UCL might have similar policies, as might some other unis (perhaps only for some courses though). At the very least the generally want to see you have taken the equivalent of 3 A-levels in one exam session (if doing IALs this would be doing 3 subjects worth of A2 exams together in the same exam session).

Taking extra subjects beyond that out of sync is not normally an issue - for example many schools in the UK will, for students offering both A-level Maths and A-level Further Maths, teach all of the A-level Maths content in one year and all of the A-level FM content in the second year - but at the end of the second year they will take their FM exams alongside the exams for their other subjects and so for the above instances would usually be expected to be taking 2 further subjects (so they end up doing 4 in total, with 3 in one exam session). Likewise taking an extra A-level in a gap year or similar is usually no issue.

Note also those kinds of courses/unis usually expect you to take a full set of 3 A-levels in the usual 2 year time frame as well (and again, taking more A-levels beyond that in a longer time frame is normally not an issue). The point of both this and the above is that unis want to see you can cope with a full academic work load and a full set of exams - since those particular courses and unis often do emphasize assessment by exam and need to know applicants can cope with the demands of their course and assessment format.

If you aren't aiming for those kinds of courses or those unis (or other ones with similar policies) then it's not a problem. But you should be aware of the above as otherwise it can make it a lot more complicated (or even impossible...) to get into your course/uni of choice.
Original post by artful_lounger
In the UK generally medicine and dentistry courses (probably also vet med) will expect you to take your subjects all in one sitting, as will Oxford and Cambridge. LSE and UCL might have similar policies, as might some other unis (perhaps only for some courses though). At the very least the generally want to see you have taken the equivalent of 3 A-levels in one exam session (if doing IALs this would be doing 3 subjects worth of A2 exams together in the same exam session).

Taking extra subjects beyond that out of sync is not normally an issue - for example many schools in the UK will, for students offering both A-level Maths and A-level Further Maths, teach all of the A-level Maths content in one year and all of the A-level FM content in the second year - but at the end of the second year they will take their FM exams alongside the exams for their other subjects and so for the above instances would usually be expected to be taking 2 further subjects (so they end up doing 4 in total, with 3 in one exam session). Likewise taking an extra A-level in a gap year or similar is usually no issue.

Note also those kinds of courses/unis usually expect you to take a full set of 3 A-levels in the usual 2 year time frame as well (and again, taking more A-levels beyond that in a longer time frame is normally not an issue). The point of both this and the above is that unis want to see you can cope with a full academic work load and a full set of exams - since those particular courses and unis often do emphasize assessment by exam and need to know applicants can cope with the demands of their course and assessment format.

If you aren't aiming for those kinds of courses or those unis (or other ones with similar policies) then it's not a problem. But you should be aware of the above as otherwise it can make it a lot more complicated (or even impossible...) to get into your course/uni of choice.


Ooh okay. Thank you so much! ur advice is really appreciated^^

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