What A-level should I drop????

I'm currently in year 12 doing psychology, economics, maths and biology. As a career, I was originally thinking of something on the psychology-bio side but since I have realised that maybe it's not the easiest thing to go into, get a high paying salary after working hard and obviously find a job. I also think I'm beginning to be more interested in the accounting-maths-statistical-finance side. Psychology alevel is a little boring, we're doing research methods which is pretty awful and classes are mostly messing around but there's SO MUCH CONTENT it's so stressful, there seems to be not much structure. I got a B in my first test, probably because I got confused with experimental design and experiment TYPE. But I got an A in bio. Should I drop psych then? Or does it get more interesting? What if I redecide my career path/regret dropping? Or am I just struggling in psychology because I've never done this subject before? 4 Alevels are becoming a little bit stressful, it would be nice to have more frees, I fear I will get burnt out as I have full days most days. I feel as though the only reason I don't absolutely dread psychology lessons right now is because my friend is in that class but I know that's not a reason to unnecessarily stay in that class.
Thank you!!!

Hi @distressing-arch,

Choosing which a-level to drop sounds very tricky.

For some context, I am a final year Psychology student at university so I am happy to answer any questions regarding Psychology at university level. I also studied it for A-level.

As much as I would love to persuade you to continue to study Psychology, you need to pick the right option for you. Do you have any advice service at your school to discuss options after A-levels? Are you able to talk to your Psychology and other subject teachers about the same thing?

I would say choose the subjects you enjoy the most at a-level. Usually, unless you are doing a specific course like medicine, you do not need certain a-levels and after University the subjects you took are not really looked at. You also have the option of doing foundation courses if you drop Psychology but would like to pursue it at university level. Doing subjects you enjoy will likely help in the long term especially with motivation to work and revise for them. I would not drop anything till you are certain but it can be tempting to drop a subject quickly to free up time as you may be finding it hard to juggle all of them.

To answer your question about whether Psychology gets more interesting, I would advise talking to your teachers to see if you can look at what gets covered in year 13. I remember with my exam board there were different options of topics that the school would pick to teach us so they did not cover everything they could have.

I hope this helps!

Alia
University of Kent Student Rep

Hi @distressing-arch,

Choosing which a-level to drop sounds very tricky.

For some context, I am a final year Psychology student at university so I am happy to answer any questions regarding Psychology at university level. I also studied it for A-level.

As much as I would love to persuade you to continue to study Psychology, you need to pick the right option for you. Do you have any advice service at your school to discuss options after A-levels? Are you able to talk to your Psychology and other subject teachers about the same thing?

I would say choose the subjects you enjoy the most at a-level. Usually, unless you are doing a specific course like medicine, you do not need certain a-levels and after University the subjects you took are not really looked at. You also have the option of doing foundation courses if you drop Psychology but would like to pursue it at university level. Doing subjects you enjoy will likely help in the long term especially with motivation to work and revise for them. I would not drop anything till you are certain but it can be tempting to drop a subject quickly to free up time as you may be finding it hard to juggle all of them.

To answer your question about whether Psychology gets more interesting, I would advise talking to your teachers to see if you can look at what gets covered in year 13. I remember with my exam board there were different options of topics that the school would pick to teach us so they did not cover everything they could have.

I hope this helps!

Alia
University of Kent Student Rep

Thank you so much! I will be talking to my teachers soon and I am going to look more into certain careers to figure out what I need!

As you mentioned that you also studied the subject for alevel, I was perhaps wondering if you happen to have any quick study tips you could share with me? I highly appreciate your support, thank you so much for helping me☺️

Hey @distressing-arch,

Yes of course I can share some tips that helped me! I will write these in short(ish) bullet points:

* Try not to get too bogged down with remembering dates and names of researchers who did studies but focus on what they did and how they did it. Getting a general just of studies makes it easier to remember.

* This one is a bit harder to do at a-level but try link concepts and ideas together to help you form a deeper understanding of the topic.

* The specification/learning outcomes are your best friend! They tell you what you need to know and get out of the topic.

* Where possible, do some extra reading around the topic, to help with understanding the area. You could do this for ones you are naturally more interested in.

* I used to struggle with 16 mark questions a lot so every week or two I would take one from my textbook, which gave example ones for all topics, and either make a plan for it or ac tally write it. I also got my teacher to mark these.

If I think of any more I will be sure to share these on here!

I hope this helps.

Alia
University of Kent

I'm currently in year 12 doing psychology, economics, maths and biology. As a career, I was originally thinking of something on the psychology-bio side but since I have realised that maybe it's not the easiest thing to go into, get a high paying salary after working hard and obviously find a job. I also think I'm beginning to be more interested in the accounting-maths-statistical-finance side. Psychology alevel is a little boring, we're doing research methods which is pretty awful and classes are mostly messing around but there's SO MUCH CONTENT it's so stressful, there seems to be not much structure. I got a B in my first test, probably because I got confused with experimental design and experiment TYPE. But I got an A in bio. Should I drop psych then? Or does it get more interesting? What if I redecide my career path/regret dropping? Or am I just struggling in psychology because I've never done this subject before? 4 Alevels are becoming a little bit stressful, it would be nice to have more frees, I fear I will get burnt out as I have full days most days. I feel as though the only reason I don't absolutely dread psychology lessons right now is because my friend is in that class but I know that's not a reason to unnecessarily stay in that class.
Thank you!!!

I'm currently in year 12 doing psychology, economics, maths and biology. As a career, I was originally thinking of something on the psychology-bio side but since I have realised that maybe it's not the easiest thing to go into, get a high paying salary after working hard and obviously find a job. I also think I'm beginning to be more interested in the accounting-maths-statistical-finance side. Psychology alevel is a little boring, we're doing research methods which is pretty awful and classes are mostly messing around but there's SO MUCH CONTENT it's so stressful, there seems to be not much structure. I got a B in my first test, probably because I got confused with experimental design and experiment TYPE. But I got an A in bio. Should I drop psych then? Or does it get more interesting? What if I redecide my career path/regret dropping? Or am I just struggling in psychology because I've never done this subject before? 4 Alevels are becoming a little bit stressful, it would be nice to have more frees, I fear I will get burnt out as I have full days most days. I feel as though the only reason I don't absolutely dread psychology lessons right now is because my friend is in that class but I know that's not a reason to unnecessarily stay in that class.
Thank you!!!