accounting and finance degree with no a level maths/business

hey guys I hope you guys can help me out here, I am wanting to do an accounting and finance degree at university next year, the universities I am wanting to apply to have no specific a level subject requirements and require GCSE maths at a 4/5. I did a level biology, psychology and sociology achieving a ABB with a 6 in GCSE maths, I am really anxious about applying because a lot of students tend to have taken business, economics or maths at a level, do you guys know anyone who has got onto an accounting/finance course without these a levels? I have work experience of doing my family business' accounts and a day shadowing an accountant at work, please help me out 🤕

Reply 1

MindMax2000

Universities Forum Helper

21

Original post by siahateskwl

hey guys I hope you guys can help me out here, I am wanting to do an accounting and finance degree at university next year, the universities I am wanting to apply to have no specific a level subject requirements and require GCSE maths at a 4/5. I did a level biology, psychology and sociology achieving a ABB with a 6 in GCSE maths, I am really anxious about applying because a lot of students tend to have taken business, economics or maths at a level, do you guys know anyone who has got onto an accounting/finance course without these a levels? I have work experience of doing my family business' accounts and a day shadowing an accountant at work, please help me out 🤕

the universities I am wanting to apply to have no specific a level subject requirements and require GCSE maths at a 4/5
Then the sort of degrees you want to do aren't that quantitative i.e. you should be fine if you work hard. Most of the maths in the degree would be laughable if you did A Level Maths i.e. you're looking at mostly arithmetic or a bit of AS Level stats.

I am really anxious about applying because a lot of students tend to have taken business, economics or maths at a level
Yeah, those advantages would be very short lived. Economics would only be somewhat relevant for the economics module, and then the content of the module is often a lot more basic that the A Level. Business would be useful if you are picking management based modules, and a lot of the material would be repeat of A Level Business. Maths would be a complete overkill considering the above (unless you want to really torture yourself and pick all of the difficult finance modules e.g. quantitative finance, financial engineering, or financial mathematics).

do you guys know anyone who has got onto an accounting/finance course without these a levels?
Yeah, plenty of people who did an accounting degree at some of the unis that I went to. The finance degree was different though because they specifically requested people to have a quantitative background and the stats was a bit challenging.

I have work experience of doing my family business' accounts and a day shadowing an accountant at work, please help me out
Whilst it would sure help you get an accounting job, it probably won't mean much beyond Year 1 in financial accounting (one module).

My question to you is, why not go straight into an accounting job and study a professional accounting qualification as opposed to doing an accounting and finance degree? You will qualify quicker through the job (assuming you pass all papers the first time round) as well as not incur the sort of debt you would get with the degree. The professional accounting qualification is usually what counts and that's typically not that quantitative (CIMA is probably the most quantitative accounting qualification, and even then AS Level Maths is overkill to study it).

Reply 2

siahateskwl

OP

11

Original post by MindMax2000

the universities I am wanting to apply to have no specific a level subject requirements and require GCSE maths at a 4/5
Then the sort of degrees you want to do aren't that quantitative i.e. you should be fine if you work hard. Most of the maths in the degree would be laughable if you did A Level Maths i.e. you're looking at mostly arithmetic or a bit of AS Level stats.

I am really anxious about applying because a lot of students tend to have taken business, economics or maths at a level
Yeah, those advantages would be very short lived. Economics would only be somewhat relevant for the economics module, and then the content of the module is often a lot more basic that the A Level. Business would be useful if you are picking management based modules, and a lot of the material would be repeat of A Level Business. Maths would be a complete overkill considering the above (unless you want to really torture yourself and pick all of the difficult finance modules e.g. quantitative finance, financial engineering, or financial mathematics).

do you guys know anyone who has got onto an accounting/finance course without these a levels?
Yeah, plenty of people who did an accounting degree at some of the unis that I went to. The finance degree was different though because they specifically requested people to have a quantitative background and the stats was a bit challenging.

I have work experience of doing my family business' accounts and a day shadowing an accountant at work, please help me out
Whilst it would sure help you get an accounting job, it probably won't mean much beyond Year 1 in financial accounting (one module).

My question to you is, why not go straight into an accounting job and study a professional accounting qualification as opposed to doing an accounting and finance degree? You will qualify quicker through the job (assuming you pass all papers the first time round) as well as not incur the sort of debt you would get with the degree. The professional accounting qualification is usually what counts and that's typically not that quantitative (CIMA is probably the most quantitative accounting qualification, and even then AS Level Maths is overkill to study it).

Thank you so much for replying I really appreciate it a lot! I know that it’s much better to qualify without university since you build up a lot of experience along those years you study which is extremely useful and it takes 3-4 years compared to 7 years including university. However, I think I would like to go university for the extra support and it’s something I’ve always wanted to experience since I was a child (even though some people say it’s a bit like high school again)