Take our quiz to find out what your revision personality is! >>

suitability of A levels and degree subjects

Hello everyone,

I am studying abroad and I was wondering whether it is possible to do A levels in something and then apply for a course in an entirely different subject. Below is a list about Cambridge soft/hard subjects.

If I did A levels from List A1, would I be rejected outright for applying to read History/ English/ any other Humanities subject? (and vice versa?)
(Even if you had 4 As from List A1, but still wanted to do History?) Just interested.. though they would probably question your enthusiasm if you did do that?!

Also as far as I know most countries do not allow you to pick and choose, but there are some compulsory subjects that everyone has to do in their school leaving exams, both Maths and History for instance! though you don't necessarily have to study both in Britain!?

LIST A1
Generally Suitable Science A-levels
Biology
Chemistry
Mathematics
Further Mathematics
Physics

LIST A2
Generally Suitable Arts A-levels
Art History
Chinese
Classical Civilisation
Economics
English Literature
French
Geography
German
Greek
History
Irish
Italian
Japanese
Latin
Music
Philosophy
Religious Studies
Russian
Spanish
Welsh

Reply 1

moody28028

There are no compulsory subjects in England. History wise, the university will highly recommend you do it at A level. Most degrees require specific subjects, so just because you have highly respected subjects at A level, doesn't mean you will get into a completely unrelated degree.

Reply 2

milliondollarcorpse

Where is that list from?

Reply 3

Good bloke

other one

Also as far as I know most countries do not allow you to pick and choose, but there are some compulsory subjects that everyone has to do in their school leaving exams, both Maths and History for instance! though you don't necessarily have to study both in Britain!?

The UK also has compulsory subjects (such as maths and English) at school-leaving level, but that is GCSE, not A level.

Universities will have specific requirements for individual courses, which you should research, as well as general requirements. A whole raft of humanities qualifications will be of no use in gaining admission to a physics or maths degree, for instance.