Physics for A-Levels?

My mistake, it's not blacklisted, but it's still not useful for a physics degree. It's not that it's a bad subject, but if you want to do economics at uni, you'll need maths first and foremost, and economics will be quite useful. This list tells you what Trinity (and pretty much all Oxbridge colleges) like to see. Economics isn't on the sciences list - it's OK for arts students, but you can see that for science they really just want science and maths. If you have those, you've as good a chance as anyone. Having extras like economics won't make you any better as a science student and so don't really set you apart from the crowd. All you are going to do is harm your other studies, in reality. You're definitely better off with A*AAA than AAAAA, seeing as Cambridge look at module scores and want at least 1 A* (Bear in mind I have one A* and if I get an offer, they will want at least another one effectively giving me a minimum offer of A*A*AA)

For your other question, it depends what you mean but physics related. Engineering, physics and chemistry will probably always be funded under the current government, so places are unlikely to go disappearing in the near future. Getting into those sorts of degrees will be fine as long as your maths is good - I took AS and A level maths in the first year (rather than doing FM and maths in parallel) so I have my A level in maths already which has made applying easy work. It really highlights that if you're good at maths, you shouldn't have much trouble going for a degree like physics or chemistry. Which is precisely why I would advise against doing economics.

If you've got any questions about the whole process, I'll try and help seeing as I'm going through it now

Wow, that is some brilliant advice! Thank you so much Right now, I'm trying to understand the concept of String Theory. I was watching this on Youtube :

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4BRhjntvGoE&feature=related

That's the ninth part but there are others. What are your thoughts about it?


Well the area that most interests me is particle physics. What about you? Have you done a Physics degree? If yes, then where did you do it?

I'll PM you if I need more information. Right now I'm going through the Physics AS book in advance and I just finished Unit One : Mechanics. I managed to score 88 % on a test my teacher gave me in advance for the unit. I'm finding it OK... I also managed to complete the first four chapters of C1 and again I scored 90 % + in all of them. If I manage to get straight A*'s at A-Levels (hopefully). How many people applying to Cambridge or Oxford have these kind of grades?

I'm not sure if it's worth your time going through AS topics early, if I'm honest, although your scores are promising. Still, getting 90% in AS modules doesn't mean you'll get an A* either, because A2 questions are certainly more challenging. Do you know the criteria for getting an A*?

And... I'd guess that maybe 1/3 to 1/2 of Cambridge applicants have predictions of A*A*A*(A*), from people at my college.

Well in the future I will either go into Science or Economics. In Science I would like study something to do with Physics in the future. I don't want to take Business Studies as an AS/A-Level because I heard it's blacklisted and regarded as a weak subject by most universities. The only reason I want English as an AS/A-Level is because I want to improve on the language further so it will help me communicate well and also help me with coursework on other subjects. Would it be okay if I did AS English then dropped it and went on to do 5 A-Levels : Physics, Chemistry, Maths, Further Maths and Economics.

All right, so grades isn't everything. I'm planning on reading into depth of some of the sciences I will be choosing. I'm accumulating a list of good books and will buy them soon. Thanks for the reply!

although your smarter than me, I believe your deprived of a social life.

regardless, physics and maths are the best degrees possible for going into employment. I do wonder why people aren't more interested in these subjects.

I'm currently in year 12 - you will find that once you get to Sixth Form (assuming yours is similar to mine) you'll start thinking about university even more than you have been pretty quickly. In year 11, it felt like I had all the time in the world before university but now it seems ominously close. I found myself doing a lot of research in to universities from almost the start of the academic year so I've got the beginnings of a plan now.

You only need to take a brief look through some more advanced physics textbooks (undergraduate level) or watch some university lectures to see the difference between the physics you'll be doing at university to what you do at GCSE and A-level.

In the UK, I'm pretty sure that I'll apply to Cambridge and Imperial and then three more modest choices - I'll need to attend some open days before making decisions on these. I am also considering applying to some universities in the USA; MIT and Caltech both have excellent physics faculties but taking SAT tests and filling in all of the forms seems like quite a big effort, especially considering that international students' chances of getting in to MIT are very slim at best. Still, it's probably better to give it a go that to never know.

My AS-level options were physics, chemistry, maths and further maths. The way further maths is timetabled at my school means that I can carry all four on to A2 level.

Being as you're considering similar options to me, I might as well tell you a little bit about them. They all seem to compliment each other really well. As I said before though, physics so far has been rather trivial and looking through the AQA textbook, it doesn't look like it will be getting much more interesting anytime soon. Mechanics modules from maths should help you with some of your physics. Not many people seem to find statistics too hard but S1 (OCR) isn't terribly interesting.

Once you have learned at least the basics of calculus, you will find that a whole new world of physics has been opened up to you - a lot of the interesting stuff requires some knowledge of calculus, however small. This puts it out of reach for a lot of year 11 pupils. Particle physics is a good thing to be interested in; not only can it take you right to the cutting edge of physics but it doesn't have to be too mathematically intensive until you want it to be. As for M-Theory and a lot of modern physics, I wouldn't believe anyone who said they fully understood it. Down at that level, everying is so small it's practically impossible to visualise it, making it difficult to understand. Of course, that is part of the beauty of the forefront of physics as well. I personally don't think M-theory is quite "there" yet but something similar or a development of it certainly has the potential to sort out a lot of our theoretical problems.

I have just finished reading Einstein's "Relativity - The Special and The General Theory" and I will probably continue looking at relativity for a couple of weeks before looking at quantum mechanics again (I have just ordered a copy of Paul Dirac's lectures on quantum mechanics from Amazon).

After you have started AS maths and physics, I would recommend that you try to find a cheap copy of Resnick and Halliday's "Fundamentals of Physics" or even just the problem supplement to it in addition to your board-specific textbook. Whilst it is criticised by serious physicists for being too basic, it seems to tie in well with the AS physics and the mechanics modules for maths. You can solve a lot of the problems just with the knowledge you will gain in school, they just require a bit more thought. Some will require you to do some further reading so it represents a good balance between accessibility and a challenging level of difficulty for AS students interested in physics.

Sorry for the essay of a post

**** 6, do Maths, Further maths, Physics, Chemistry upto A2. ... if you can handle that.
A level is so much harder than GCSE even if your 'predicted' 11A*'s it's still mickey mouse. If your really clever aim for four A's in them subjects, maybe even and A* in one or two.

Yes, except for English, this is certainly the best combination for either Physics or Economics at uni; again I reiterate that Philosophy can be insightful and can improve your writing skills too if you wish to switch Chemistry out. I don't suggest taking English at all simply because you'll get so many more essays, you'll have more "irrelevant" books to read and you'll have coursework. You could be reading about your preferred subjects instead. Philosophy > English imo ... :3

Physics, Maths, Further Maths and Economics is actually enough for either subject to enter into uni.

Chances at Cambridge will be maximised with A* grades in Maths and/or FM (requirement for Economics is A*AA, A* in maths preferred I think). Chances at Oxford are less dependent on grades imo (AAA will be more than enough) and more on your personal statement and interview.

Physics of the Impossible by Michio Kaku is an awesome book if you like physics. Some of the content may seem bonkers, but the reality is that it could very well be possible. Stephen Hawking has written some great books too.

Btw, I read somewhere that if you think you understand string theory, or M theory, then you don't understand it at all, so if you're trying to understand string theory, and you think you have some understanding, then chances are you don't get string theory at all. :P
Its great you're interested in these topics though.

Oh, and don't bother with English or Economics. Take the top 4 you listed in the OP, and concentrate on getting some awesome module scores (preferrably in the the 90-100% range), if you think you're capable enough. Then you should be predicted A*s, so if you do apply Oxbridge, then you should get interviewed. This where you really have to show the university your passion for physics, and hopefully, genuine intelligence.

Would you even have space in your timetable for 6 AS subjects? Pretty pointless if you ask me. Either do 5 AS levels (which is still a lot), or more commonly, carry on doing 4 of your AS levels to A level instead of just 3. Look at it this way, it is better to get A*s and As in fewer subjects than getting As and Bs in more... that's how it works when applying to uni anyway.

Physics, Maths, FM, Chemistry are all good subjects to apply with for Physics at uni. Not really sure about English/Economics though... depends what you want to do later in life I suppose.

6AS' isn't going to differentiate your application in the way I think you think it's going to, extra subjects don't seem to do a lot for an application when you're going to be asked for 3.5 Alevels in most cases, they won't be expecting more than 4 or 5 subjects and you really don't need any more than that, it's just going to make your life a lot more difficult. If you'd had the 'I like all these different subjects and don't really mind so much what they do for me' approach then maybe 6 subjects would have been a good idea, but better grades boost applications more than extra subjects.

Think I'm so academic's point makes a lot of sense, if you really want to do extra things later on it'll probably be more beneficial to you in the long run to do some more maths, but I'd start with the 2 Math A levels and see how that works out for you

How about Biology as well? The Natural Sciences course at Cambridge teaches all three so wouldn't it be a good idea to do all three?

Hold on are you planning to do Biology, Physics, Natural Sciences or Economics lol

It's going to be Physics or Economics. I'm edging towards Physics. There's a course in Cambridge called Natural Sciences. It requires all three sciences