The Student Room Group

urgent!! confused about a level choices

hi, i am currently in year 11 and have to pick my a level choices in a few days (i know it’s last minute, but i have been thinking about my decision for a long time and i just can’t make up my mind). i’ve been torn between taking an engineering/finance combo like physics, chem maths and further maths, or taking a med combo (maths, chem, bio). i would like to study medicine, but at the same time i absolutely love physics. if i decided to study medicine i would not be able to take physics a level and i couldn’t imagine not taking physics after gcse. i have considered taking maths chemistry physics and biology but i have been told this combination may be too stressful and end up in me getting lower grades (i would want all A* if i was aiming for med school). also, if i took the engineering route, my a level choices would open a lot of doors for me, however if i took the med a level combo i think the only other options i would have apart from med would be a biochem degree/biomed engineering which i am not interested in, i am considering this heavily as I have heard that medicine is extremely hard to get into and that even some people with a full set of A*, an excellent personal statement and lots of work experience end up getting rejected from every med degree (would appreciate if someone could confirm or deny this?) any advice on what I should do? sorry this was so long 😭
Reply 1
I believe you only need biology and chemistry to study medicine so you could do bio chem and physics ( and not do maths so you only have 3 subjects)
If you enjoy all your subjects then don’t worry about it being ‘too stressful’ because other people’s experiences might not be the same as yours.
However do if you choose not to take maths then your engineering route might be limited

I would recommend choking out this website which lets you see what uni courses you can do with your alevel subject choices
https://www.informedchoices.ac.uk/start
Reply 2
Original post by usernotfound_
hi, i am currently in year 11 and have to pick my a level choices in a few days (i know it’s last minute, but i have been thinking about my decision for a long time and i just can’t make up my mind). i’ve been torn between taking an engineering/finance combo like physics, chem maths and further maths, or taking a med combo (maths, chem, bio). i would like to study medicine, but at the same time i absolutely love physics. if i decided to study medicine i would not be able to take physics a level and i couldn’t imagine not taking physics after gcse. i have considered taking maths chemistry physics and biology but i have been told this combination may be too stressful and end up in me getting lower grades (i would want all A* if i was aiming for med school). also, if i took the engineering route, my a level choices would open a lot of doors for me, however if i took the med a level combo i think the only other options i would have apart from med would be a biochem degree/biomed engineering which i am not interested in, i am considering this heavily as I have heard that medicine is extremely hard to get into and that even some people with a full set of A*, an excellent personal statement and lots of work experience end up getting rejected from every med degree (would appreciate if someone could confirm or deny this?) any advice on what I should do? sorry this was so long 😭

depends on where you want to study Bio and Chem are a must and math is a strong third choice
Reply 3
Original post by usernotfound_
hi, i am currently in year 11 and have to pick my a level choices in a few days (i know it’s last minute, but i have been thinking about my decision for a long time and i just can’t make up my mind). i’ve been torn between taking an engineering/finance combo like physics, chem maths and further maths, or taking a med combo (maths, chem, bio). i would like to study medicine, but at the same time i absolutely love physics. if i decided to study medicine i would not be able to take physics a level and i couldn’t imagine not taking physics after gcse. i have considered taking maths chemistry physics and biology but i have been told this combination may be too stressful and end up in me getting lower grades (i would want all A* if i was aiming for med school). also, if i took the engineering route, my a level choices would open a lot of doors for me, however if i took the med a level combo i think the only other options i would have apart from med would be a biochem degree/biomed engineering which i am not interested in, i am considering this heavily as I have heard that medicine is extremely hard to get into and that even some people with a full set of A*, an excellent personal statement and lots of work experience end up getting rejected from every med degree (would appreciate if someone could confirm or deny this?) any advice on what I should do? sorry this was so long 😭

I take bio chem maths fm - I want to go into medicine but I was torn between Maths/Engineering and Medicine. If you get all A*s in a levels, good ucat score and do well in interview/ps it'd be hard not to get a place in med school. Especially if you spread out your options (like if you apply to Oxford also apply to a less competitive school too to even out chances a bit).

If you can take 4 I'd go bio chem maths phys/fm, most unis for engineering want either phys or fm. I think the combos are doable, the sciences and maths all kind of tie into each other so it's not ridiculous. And then if you are worried about workload you can drop one after AS when you have more of an idea of what you want to do.
Reply 4
Original post by study23!
I take bio chem maths fm - I want to go into medicine but I was torn between Maths/Engineering and Medicine. If you get all A*s in a levels, good ucat score and do well in interview/ps it'd be hard not to get a place in med school. Especially if you spread out your options (like if you apply to Oxford also apply to a less competitive school too to even out chances a bit).

If you can take 4 I'd go bio chem maths phys/fm, most unis for engineering want either phys or fm. I think the combos are doable, the sciences and maths all kind of tie into each other so it's not ridiculous. And then if you are worried about workload you can drop one after AS when you have more of an idea of what you want to do.

thank you so much 🙂 i hadn’t been able to find anyone else who had been confused between medicine and maths/eng, it’s nice to know ppl can relate lol
Reply 5
Look at Natural Sciences - its an interdisciplinary science degree program where you study a variety of science subjects, and the connections between them. Its a great degree for anyone who 'loves sciences' and can't decide which specific subject or area to follow. Each course will have a different choice of science subjects depending on what their own specialisms are at that Uni, and you can often tack-on units in other areas like education and management etc.

Examples :
Bath - Natural Sciences courses (bath.ac.uk) and 5 reasons to study natural sciences at Bath
Lancaster - Natural Sciences - Lancaster University
Welcome to Natural Sciences - The University of Nottingham
Reply 6
Also, if you're aiming at all A*s anyway, it would be worth checking out Cambridge's natural sciences course too - as they allow you to pick physical/biological and also specialise later on too.

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