Stay and do Chemistry or leave and do CS?
Hi 😊. I’ve been accepted to 3 sixth forms including my school’s sixth form and can’t decide where to go/which subjects to do. For context, I got all 9s in my mocks so all 3 sixth forms told me to start with 4 A levels. I’m going to do Maths, FM, and Physics. For my 4th I’ll either do Computer Science or Chemistry. My school is (according to an external careers advisor) the best in my area for A level maths and FM. For the last couple of years, I’ve had the idea that I want to do a CS degree but I’m not sure.
If I stay, I’ll do chemistry because my school has a very bad CS department (last year 2 people did CS A level, one got a D and the other an E). I know my chemistry teachers would be good, and I have so far found it to be easy so hopefully with hard work I could continue to do well. I don’t necessarily have a passion for chemistry, but I don’t find it boring. Considering this, will there be any point since it’s such a hard subject? How much more would the workload be than CS?
If I leave, I’ll probably do CS because looking at the grades they published, the other 2 Sixth Forms have good results in it. However, is there much point in doing CS if I’m not 100% sure I want to do it at uni, since it isn’t really required anywhere, and chemistry keeps more options open?
One more point: my school does maths and FM concurrently and does AS exams for all subjects. The other sixth forms do all of Maths in one year and all of FM in year 13. Does anyone have any experience on which is better? I really wouldn’t be looking to drop FM at the end of year 12.
Thanks for reading this since it was very long, and any help is much appreciated 😊.
If I stay, I’ll do chemistry because my school has a very bad CS department (last year 2 people did CS A level, one got a D and the other an E). I know my chemistry teachers would be good, and I have so far found it to be easy so hopefully with hard work I could continue to do well. I don’t necessarily have a passion for chemistry, but I don’t find it boring. Considering this, will there be any point since it’s such a hard subject? How much more would the workload be than CS?
If I leave, I’ll probably do CS because looking at the grades they published, the other 2 Sixth Forms have good results in it. However, is there much point in doing CS if I’m not 100% sure I want to do it at uni, since it isn’t really required anywhere, and chemistry keeps more options open?
One more point: my school does maths and FM concurrently and does AS exams for all subjects. The other sixth forms do all of Maths in one year and all of FM in year 13. Does anyone have any experience on which is better? I really wouldn’t be looking to drop FM at the end of year 12.
Thanks for reading this since it was very long, and any help is much appreciated 😊.
Sorry you've not had any responses about this. 
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Here's a link to our subject forum which should help get you more responses if you post there. 
Are you sure you've posted in the right place? Here's a link to our subject forum which should help get you more responses if you post there. The schools you've applied to, are they grammars? If they arent, i would seriously consider looking at a college or grammar and comparing all the previous results, as my experience of states is they couldnt care less about actually helping you chase grades. I started a levels with 4 subjects (chem bio maths german) and chem was by far the hardest initially. However i now really enjoy chem and maths is the hardest, but i have friends who do maths and fm who find they complement each other well. If you want to do cs, possibly the best thing would be to get out of school. Having chem will only keep certain options open regarding stem but a career in cs or anything related wont be as easily accessible without cs a level specifically
A-level CS isn't even required for a CS degree (at most unis anyway) so there's really no particular reason to take it unless you are interested in it and think you can do well.
(edited 4 weeks ago)
Original post by HBeetle
The schools you've applied to, are they grammars? If they arent, i would seriously consider looking at a college or grammar and comparing all the previous results, as my experience of states is they couldnt care less about actually helping you chase grades. I started a levels with 4 subjects (chem bio maths german) and chem was by far the hardest initially. However i now really enjoy chem and maths is the hardest, but i have friends who do maths and fm who find they complement each other well. If you want to do cs, possibly the best thing would be to get out of school. Having chem will only keep certain options open regarding stem but a career in cs or anything related wont be as easily accessible without cs a level specifically
No, there aren't any grammars close to me so these were the best states in my area. I thought about applying to grammars but my parents said it wouldn't be worth the hour plus journey. I'll definitely look into doing CS outside of school. Thanks for the advice 🙂
Original post by artful_lounger
A-level CS isn't even required for a CS degree (at most unis anyway) so there's really no particular reason to take it unless you are interested in it and think you can do well.
Thank you 🙂 . Initially I wanted to do CS because I thought it would be an 'easier' subject but now I realise it might be more of a challenge for me than chemistry.
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