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Subject combinations and Entry Requirements for University.

I am an international student who hopes to attend university in the UK or a UK university at a campus abroad (currently exploring my options) . I am currently taking four A level subjects (Chemistry, Physics, Maths and Further Maths). However due to the heavy subject content (they all have tough syllabi), I plan on dropping Further Maths after I sit for AS level.

Considering the fact that I want to apply for a course in relation to Mathematics or Engineering, would it be advisable to drop this subject? Since I'm not a resident of the UK I would like to know whether eventually doing 3 subjects (and 1 only for AS level) will affect my chances at university because of the various entry requirements.
hiya, as far as i know, i think doing three a levels is enough and dropping further maths won't make a huge difference - as long as you are doing maths! @ryesky

feel free to check out courses here on ucas as an example:
maths - Search - UCAS
engineering - Search - UCAS
(edited 4 months ago)
Reply 2
Original post by ryesky
I am an international student who hopes to attend university in the UK or a UK university at a campus abroad (currently exploring my options) . I am currently taking four A level subjects (Chemistry, Physics, Maths and Further Maths). However due to the heavy subject content (they all have tough syllabi), I plan on dropping Further Maths after I sit for AS level.

Considering the fact that I want to apply for a course in relation to Mathematics or Engineering, would it be advisable to drop this subject? Since I'm not a resident of the UK I would like to know whether eventually doing 3 subjects (and 1 only for AS level) will affect my chances at university because of the various entry requirements.

Hey, i'm doing Chem, Physics and Maths and applied for Engineering this year for uni :smile:. Engineering courses usually only require maths and then usually prefer a science like physics/chem/bio so i'm sure if you drop further maths it won't cause a problem :smile: although i can't really advise for Mathematics, but I assume most will only require maths at a certain grade, there might be an odd bunch with further maths but I wouldn't worry about that :smile:

Uni's usually have requirements for 3 a levels anyways so it shouldn't affect if you drop it or not, it's always better to have 3 stronger a-levels than struggling with 4 + who know the AS qualification could always come in handy as well. Even as a non UK resident it shouldn't be an issue :smile:
For Engineering it wont affect you. For Maths some of the top universities will require Further Maths but the majority wont. It really depends on what universities you intend applying to. Look at the entry requirements of the ones you are interested in going to
Reply 4
Original post by swanseajack1
For Engineering it wont affect you. For Maths some of the top universities will require Further Maths but the majority wont. It really depends on what universities you intend applying to. Look at the entry requirements of the ones you are interested in going to

I'm not really looking at top universities due to tuition costs as an international student, so I decided to keep to 3 strong subjects for my A levels. Thank you for your insight!
Reply 5
Original post by MP_25
Hey, i'm doing Chem, Physics and Maths and applied for Engineering this year for uni :smile:. Engineering courses usually only require maths and then usually prefer a science like physics/chem/bio so i'm sure if you drop further maths it won't cause a problem :smile: although i can't really advise for Mathematics, but I assume most will only require maths at a certain grade, there might be an odd bunch with further maths but I wouldn't worry about that :smile:

Uni's usually have requirements for 3 a levels anyways so it shouldn't affect if you drop it or not, it's always better to have 3 stronger a-levels than struggling with 4 + who know the AS qualification could always come in handy as well. Even as a non UK resident it shouldn't be an issue :smile:

Our school pushes us to do 4 subjects which is difficult as a STEM student who didn't choose a soft subject. I'm probably going to stick with my decision to drop further maths; my results will probably be stronger once I can focus on my 3 A levels. Thank you for your input!
Reply 6
Original post by emm4nuella
hiya, as far as i know, i think doing three a levels is enough and dropping further maths won't make a huge difference - as long as you are doing maths! @ryesky

feel free to check out courses here on ucas as an example:
maths - Search - UCAS
engineering - Search - UCAS

Thank you for the resources, they were very helpful in determining what the entry requirements for each school are!
Reply 8

Hi! Sorry for the late response; ideally I would've kept FM and dropped Chemistry but FM keeps getting harder and I'm more interested in Chemistry. Thank you for the links to those different degrees, I didn't know I could do something that niche! My only concern is whether it will be too niche for a career in the future.

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