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Changing A levels?

I'm torn between choosing chemistry or Spanish for a level!
I'm set on doing maths and biology, but I've no idea if chemistry is for me. I found it alright at GCSE, some of it was hard, but if I put in the extra effort I could understand it. I feel like the chemistry exams went pretty well. And I don't hate it, but I like Spanish more, and I found Spanish was definitely easier than chem.. But I'm not that great at essays. Eng lit was always a bit hard for me, like i didn't really have a natural tendency for it?
I'm thinking of doing something in stem later on, so Spanish isn't really that useful. but what if I change my mind 😭 , also chemistry would be great alongside biology....... Help
Original post by Sssyy
I'm torn between choosing chemistry or Spanish for a level!
I'm set on doing maths and biology, but I've no idea if chemistry is for me. I found it alright at GCSE, some of it was hard, but if I put in the extra effort I could understand it. I feel like the chemistry exams went pretty well. And I don't hate it, but I like Spanish more, and I found Spanish was definitely easier than chem.. But I'm not that great at essays. Eng lit was always a bit hard for me, like i didn't really have a natural tendency for it?
I'm thinking of doing something in stem later on, so Spanish isn't really that useful. but what if I change my mind 😭 , also chemistry would be great alongside biology....... Help


I didn't do spanish but I did chem. Personally I didn't really like chemistry at high school but decided to pick it bc like you I was doing biology and thought that they'd be great together. At the start of college I absolutely hated chemistry so much that I decided to change to economics, then to english literature but then I ended up going back to chemistry and I actually ended up enjoying it throughout my 2 years. Don't worry about your options right now at all, you're allowed to trial out however many subjects you like and then choose what you like best. You said that spanish wouldn't be useful for stem but I think it would make you stand out. I knew quite a few people in my college who did a language, maths and biology and found it challenging so its definitely not regarded as a soft subject. I think all the people I knew applied for something is stem and were all given an offer so its clear that unis actually do like the combination. But definitely the best advice is not to worry about your subjects right now and wait until you get to college as the trial period is usually around 1-2 months so if you change your mind its completely fine. :smile:.
Original post by Sssyy
I'm torn between choosing chemistry or Spanish for a level!
I'm set on doing maths and biology, but I've no idea if chemistry is for me. I found it alright at GCSE, some of it was hard, but if I put in the extra effort I could understand it. I feel like the chemistry exams went pretty well. And I don't hate it, but I like Spanish more, and I found Spanish was definitely easier than chem.. But I'm not that great at essays. Eng lit was always a bit hard for me, like i didn't really have a natural tendency for it?
I'm thinking of doing something in stem later on, so Spanish isn't really that useful. but what if I change my mind 😭 , also chemistry would be great alongside biology....... Help

Go for Chemistry - it is genuinely a really interesting subject and tbh not that hard once you get to grips with some of the concepts.
Original post by Sssyy
I'm torn between choosing chemistry or Spanish for a level!
I'm set on doing maths and biology, but I've no idea if chemistry is for me. I found it alright at GCSE, some of it was hard, but if I put in the extra effort I could understand it. I feel like the chemistry exams went pretty well. And I don't hate it, but I like Spanish more, and I found Spanish was definitely easier than chem.. But I'm not that great at essays. Eng lit was always a bit hard for me, like i didn't really have a natural tendency for it?
I'm thinking of doing something in stem later on, so Spanish isn't really that useful. but what if I change my mind 😭 , also chemistry would be great alongside biology....... Help

Do you know what sort of STEM you want to do? For a lot of courses they require 2 sciences and biology and maths would count as sciences. I think you should do the one you are likely to enjoy more and do better again.
Reply 4
Original post by flowersinmyhair
Do you know what sort of STEM you want to do? For a lot of courses they require 2 sciences and biology and maths would count as sciences. I think you should do the one you are likely to enjoy more and do better again.

I agree.Check some entry requirements for courses at unis you are interested in If biology and maths suffice do what you are good at.You are more likely to get a good grade.
Reply 5
Original post by dadadeedadada
I didn't do spanish but I did chem. Personally I didn't really like chemistry at high school but decided to pick it bc like you I was doing biology and thought that they'd be great together. At the start of college I absolutely hated chemistry so much that I decided to change to economics, then to english literature but then I ended up going back to chemistry and I actually ended up enjoying it throughout my 2 years. Don't worry about your options right now at all, you're allowed to trial out however many subjects you like and then choose what you like best. You said that spanish wouldn't be useful for stem but I think it would make you stand out. I knew quite a few people in my college who did a language, maths and biology and found it challenging so its definitely not regarded as a soft subject. I think all the people I knew applied for something is stem and were all given an offer so its clear that unis actually do like the combination. But definitely the best advice is not to worry about your subjects right now and wait until you get to college as the trial period is usually around 1-2 months so if you change your mind its completely fine. :smile:.


thank you for your reply:smile: that's a good idea, if they let me, I could try all 4 subjects for the first few weeks and see whether I like chemistry or Spanish more.. to be honest, I think both will have their difficulties
Reply 6
Original post by flowersinmyhair
Do you know what sort of STEM you want to do? For a lot of courses they require 2 sciences and biology and maths would count as sciences. I think you should do the one you are likely to enjoy more and do better again.


I'm not thinking of doing medicine, so I don't need to choose chemistry for that.. but chemical engineering seems interesting. To be honest I did an AS level in a foreign language and it was quite difficult, mostly because of the essay writing parts... so I don't know how well I would do writing essays in Spanish
Original post by Sssyy
thank you for your reply:smile: that's a good idea, if they let me, I could try all 4 subjects for the first few weeks and see whether I like chemistry or Spanish more.. to be honest, I think both will have their difficulties

They 100% will let you, so don't worry about it. Good luck!! :smile:

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