The Student Room Group

Should I swap alevel further maths for physics?

I am going into year 12 and am 97% sure that I would like to study medicine. I am currently taking Chemistry, Biology, maths and further maths and was wondering whether to change from further maths to physics.

Reasons for each subject as follows:
Further Maths
- better teachers with further maths
- easier to drop / less content (from teacher advise)
- more problem based than theoretical ?
- supposedly easier than physics
- despise some physics topics (electricity)

Physics
- opens more doors (if I don’t get a good grade in other subjects)
- recently got an 8 in further maths and a 9 in physics
- some very interesting topics (nuclear and space)

Any advice would be greatly appreciated!
Original post by Erudite2021
I am going into year 12 and am 97% sure that I would like to study medicine. I am currently taking Chemistry, Biology, maths and further maths and was wondering whether to change from further maths to physics.

Reasons for each subject as follows:
Further Maths
- better teachers with further maths
- easier to drop / less content (from teacher advise)
- more problem based than theoretical ?
- supposedly easier than physics
- despise some physics topics (electricity)

Physics
- opens more doors (if I don’t get a good grade in other subjects)
- recently got an 8 in further maths and a 9 in physics
- some very interesting topics (nuclear and space)

Any advice would be greatly appreciated!


i think u should be very careful about taking 4 a-levels--it adds a lot more stress and means u have less time to get better grades in each subject and a person form oxbridge came to my school about med and he was like they dont acre about u doing 4 as they only look at ur 3 best---im pretty sure all unis do, so although it means if u got A A A B , u could just use ur first 3 grades , if u hadn't done 4 u may have got A* A A which is more competitive for med and all of these subjects are hard and u also have to make sure u have time for work experience--volunteering etc-- i guess if ur finding it easy u coudld just leave the further math but u dont need it for med tbh--its clear as lots of ppl have done med with only gcse maths and no university makes math a requirement----in terms of switching physics would be even harder and like u said when it comes to dropping would make things harder for uuu---i mean i think bio and chem u should keep as they will allow u into every med school ....just my opinion and i hope u make an informed decision thats right for u...as for med i would say most univeristies want A* A A or AAA so i wouldnt want to jeopardize my chances of meeting the requirements by adding extra uneeded tbh work load-------:smile:
Reply 2
Pick the one you enjoy more but if you believe physics will open more doors for you then I recommend it. Just know that physics is widely considered the hardest A Level and be prepared!!
Reply 3
Original post by Chickenunicorn17
i think u should be very careful about taking 4 a-levels--it adds a lot more stress and means u have less time to get better grades in each subject and a person form oxbridge came to my school about med and he was like they dont acre about u doing 4 as they only look at ur 3 best---im pretty sure all unis do, so although it means if u got A A A B , u could just use ur first 3 grades , if u hadn't done 4 u may have got A* A A which is more competitive for med and all of these subjects are hard and u also have to make sure u have time for work experience--volunteering etc-- i guess if ur finding it easy u coudld just leave the further math but u dont need it for med tbh--its clear as lots of ppl have done med with only gcse maths and no university makes math a requirement----in terms of switching physics would be even harder and like u said when it comes to dropping would make things harder for uuu---i mean i think bio and chem u should keep as they will allow u into every med school ....just my opinion and i hope u make an informed decision thats right for u...as for med i would say most univeristies want A* A A or AAA so i wouldnt want to jeopardize my chances of meeting the requirements by adding extra uneeded tbh work load-------:smile:

Thanks for the response! My school makes us take four and then most people drop one in year 13!
Original post by Erudite2021
Thanks for the response! My school makes us take four and then most people drop one in year 13!


oh..ive seen some schools that do that-----in that case pick whichever one you would enjoy the most -choose by talking to ppl , watching vis and looking at the syllabus...and then the one u most struggle with drop later and ur welcomeee
Reply 5
In no way to deter you from physics as i find it very interesting, it is very difficult. ik a lot of people in my school got a 9 in gcse physics and for their end of year 12 exams got a C. Electricity as a topic at a level isn’t bad, i also struggled with it at gcse, it doesn’t really change much apart from more application. I’m also wanting to do med and i think it has helped with bmat prep but again maths will help with bmat. From what i’ve heard maths is very straight forward if you take further maths and it’s similar to doing 3 a levels because the content overlaps so much. If you have any questions let me know, i’m in year 12 and take bio, chem and physics :smile:
(edited 8 months ago)
BMAT is not gonna happen anymore from nxt yr---im pretty sure all of them are being replaced by UCAT-so if u are going to applying from 2024 onwards u dont need to worry about that. And even if u are applying this year most unis ask for UCAT
Reply 7
If you must do 4 make sure one of them is further maths.
Reply 8
Original post by Yas101
In no way to deter you from physics as i find it very interesting, it is very difficult. ik a lot of people in my school got a 9 in gcse physics and for their end of year 12 exams got a C. Electricity as a topic at a level isn’t bad, i also struggled with it at gcse, it doesn’t really change much apart from more application. I’m also wanting to do med and i think it has helped with bmat prep but again maths will help with bmat. From what i’ve heard maths is very straight forward if you take further maths and it’s similar to doing 3 a levels because the content overlaps so much. If you have any questions let me know, i’m in year 12 and take bio, chem and physics :smile:

The content in further maths doesn't really overlap at all. Especially in year 12. It takes a lot of time and effort and is just like another a level. So it really isn't like doing 3 a levels.

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