Unsure about what A levels to take - Possible PPE applicant

Hi.

I had my A level open evening earlier on, and I went there thinking that I would definately take Geography, Maths, Physics and Economics.

I know for PPE its really good to have maths and History, but I just thought that history wouldn't matter so much. Then I totally changed my mind when I saw the spec for history that my school was offering. The topics looked way better than I expected.

So now I really really want to take history, the department is good, great results etc. But I really don't want to drop geography in favour of it, because I know the department so well, its probably my strongest subject, and I find it very interesting and I'm almost certain i'd love it.

So then I start thinking of what else I could drop. Maths? Obviously theres no way I'd drop that. It's the most essential I'd say. Economics? The course looked again, amazing, and relevant to the course I want to study at uni. Physics? If I drop this, I won't have any sciences (other than maths, of course).

And I have been told by various people that it's good to have a mix of essay and science subjects, which I would have if I had physics and maths as sciences, and econ and history/geography for essay subjects. So getting rid of physics might not be a good move, even though its the least relevant to what I want to do. Like I said, I really love geography and its one of my current strongest subjects, and so is physics. History might be a bit more difficult but I know its quite important, so I'm not sure.

I'm just really not sure to be honest, though I know I'll need maths so I'm hanging on tight to that. Do you think that these subjects would be suitable? Which one should I drop?

Thanks for reading.

Suggestions?

Hi!

I'm doing PPE at Oxford and I did Maths, Economics, History and German.

I really really really would say to do Maths. It is scientific enough... and it is definitely useful! In reality Economics at A Level doesn't help a lot for uni. They don't expect you to do it before, but it does mean you get a great feel for the subject and you can see if you'll enjoy it as a degree!

Personally I would drop Physics. All your options are really strong as individual subjects, and are also a great combination.

There's really no right or wrong combination of strong subjects for PPE. Maths and History are preferred by Oxford, but they're not necessary. Out of the people doing PPE at my college, we all did at least AS Maths but not all of use did Economics.

Edit: I'm not saying drop Geography because you seem to really enjoy it, and have faith in the department. Really you need to be doing the A Levels you can do the best in, but also enjoy!

x