should i do maths physics and chem a level

should i do these 3 or am i just asking for a horrible experience. anyone who’s done these three tell me how bad they were please

should i do these 3 or am i just asking for a horrible experience. anyone who’s done these three tell me how bad they were please

Depends on what you plan on doing post-A level.

I did all three subjects (with further maths in my gap year) and enjoyed all three. I’m now doing a chemistry degree, but my A level options left hundreds of options available besides just a chemistry degree.

I personally found chemistry very straightforward at A level, as I enjoyed it a lot and thus found the motivation to study aspects of it well in advance. I also found a wealth of brilliant resources for it (I can recommend some if you know which exam board you are with) and thus covering the content outside of school and was very managable.

Maths was more challenging l, but I enjoyed it and found it very interesting. Statistics was a pain in the arse, but with practice I got the hang of it. Pure maths and mechanics though were really interesting and the abundance of resources online for maths made it quite manageable to self-teach.

Physics was by far the hardest subject. Being with the OCR B board, which is very different to all the others and lacking in resources didn’t help me much. It was nonetheless enjoyable and rewarding in equal measure, but exceptionally challenging.

I did all three and I enjoyed them all. I did edexcel for all of them so I can't comment on different exam boards and I was the first post-covid year so take my advice with a grain of salt as my experience was markedly different to the current a level experience.
Maths was enjoyable enough - my school had a lot of teacher absence so a lot of self teaching but I enjoyed it. I also did the AS FM course in the summer of year 12 which really helped my a level maths.
Chemistry was my favourite but I found the amount of content quite challenging (synthetic pathways were the bane of my life haha). However, the content was interesting and the practicals fun so I enjoyed it.
Physics was the hardest for me (I also struggled with mech in math so there's a pattern haha). I did get screwed over by advanced info so it was my lowest scoring A-Level but it was still enjoyable with the content and practicals.
I initially had offers for Chemical Engineering but swapped to Maths before starting uni but there were so many other options - my brother did the same options and he's now studying medicine for example.
It's a lot of work but if you like the challenge you'll find it enjoyable and rewarding!

i was thinking of going into possibly optometry or pharmacy?? physics here is as an extra subject since they only require chem or one of (maths ,biology, physics)
i was thinking to do maths chem and psychology but then i realised that maybe i do enjoy physics ??
thank you for the advice!! i don’t think i’ll be doing physics from all the questions i’ve asked people 😅 but it was nice knowing ur experience!!

I see.

I would imagine chemistry is a non-negotiable here and really you would be better off with at least one other STEM subject (check the pages on the relevant courses on the university websites for exact entry requirements and preferred subjects) so chemistry, maths and physics or chemistry, maths and psychology could work nicely.

I guess it depends on whether you’d enjoy psychology or physics more and that therefore leads me to suggest looking at the specifications for each (you should be able to find the exam board you will be with in your sixth form prospectus) and deciding which subject has the material you would find more interesting.

Have a look at the relevant course work / text books for each subject if you can - is it what you thought it would be about, interesting look topics, or not? Talk to relevant teachers too - science teachers are all used to students combining three sciences and they are the best people to tell you if its all manageable.

Taking three sciences does make sense - they are interconnected and that sort of subject combination would leave many different Uni subjects and career pathways open to you. This is especially important as the further you get into A levels, you interests may change slightly as a result of what you are actually studying.

It also might be worth finding our more about the two career areas you are already thinking about - again, are they really what you thought they would be like, not just the degrees but also the work/careers they lead to.
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