Are these A-level choices awkward?

At university, I hope to take either geophysics, natural sciences or astrophysics. However, now, at year 10(Deciding reccomendations for year 11) , with the choices I have, it seems my available choices for A-level are fairly strange:

Maths
Physics
Geography
English

English seems really awkward to take but many unversities other than oxbride don't require more than 1 science A level. Now your probably thinking, why don't you take Chemistry or Biology instead of English. That's because I may not be recommended for either unless I get well in my mock ISA and end of year exam :afraid:

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So my question is, would those 4 A-levels work for my wanted studies at Uni? Or not?

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Reply 1

yesnaa

Oxbridge look out for candidates who have a range of skills. The three more scientific based subjects show your ability for their degree programme but taking English will show that you can do different things too.
I think it's more of an advantage because it diversifies you as a candidate and will mark you apart from the rest.

Reply 2

theblonde

They're all solid, good, "strong" a levels, and seem to match well with what you want to do later in life. You can always drop English after AS, to make them seem more cohesive. See how your ISAs and mock exams go, if you do well then maybe consider Chem or Bio, but especially with Chem you need to have a knack for it because the A Level is effing hard.

All that said, you're in Year10 so you still have the whole of year 11 to see how things go and change your mind, (I changed my choices on the first day of year 12!), so don't keep things set in stone too much, even mentally, because you might/will change your mind about what you want to do. Good luck!

*awkward turtle*

Original post by yesnaa

Interesting, and do you go to Oxbridge or know anyone who's done so?

Reply 5

CathySarah

Original post by Kutal

English seems really awkward to take but many unversities other than oxbride don't require more than 1 science A level.

I'm the opposite way round to you: I'm an English applicant, and I took English, Art, Classical Civilisation and Biology, then dropped Bio at AS. Cambridge didn't seem to mind :colondollar:

but you may want to consider dropping English at A2 if you do drop one.

Reply 6

username457532

To study physics you need maths, physics and one other subject. But I expect you'd need chem or bio to study natural sciences.

Reply 7

kerily

Original post by yesnaa

You'd be wrong, I'm afraid - it seems like intuitive advice, but it's not true. With the exception of courses like medicine where some universities (UCL) prefer a contrasting subject, and you need to demonstrate an ability to work under pressure, nobody generally cares about you being able to do anything other than your subject. If you apply to say Cambridge for maths (picked this because it's the course I know most about; the principle can be generalised) they don't give a toss about how good you are at anything other than maths; it's not relevant to your mathematical ability how good you are at writing essays or playing the banjo or anything else you may care to do, so they only want evidence that you are very good at your academic course.

If you want to do English for the last option, do it. I have read that some geology-related courses require chemistry, so it depends if you might end up wanting to do that as a spin-off from geophysics; you don't know exactly where your career plans will go. But they sound like a solid set. It might, however, also be worth looking into further maths if you want to do physics - if your school is good enough to have you picking a-level choices in Y10, I would imagine it's also good enough to offer AS or A2 FM, and it's well worth taking this if you want to do something sciency.

Reply 8

H.C. Chinaski

Original post by Kutal

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So my question is, would those 4 A-levels work for my wanted studies at Uni? Or not?

If a cam. app is a possibility then I would replace English with Further Maths; this is certainly the case if you have your eye on Phys. Nat Sci.

Reply 9

CathySarah

Original post by Kutal

So my question is, would those 4 A-levels work for my wanted studies at Uni? Or not?

I just remembered that with a (Natural) Sciences at Cambridge (and probably Oxford too), if they know that you have had the opportunity to take Further Maths, then they expect you to have.

Reply 10

llys

Given that you are considering Natural Sciences - Chemistry would be very good to have for both Physical and Geosciences and Life Sciences. For straight Physics, Further Maths would be more useful though.

Reply 11

ixxabelle

You've got maths and physics, and most places wont ask for more science than that.

You might not want to specialise too much too early, you've still got ages before you really need to think about uni and lots of people change their minds once they've been doing a levels for a while, so you may be happy to have a bit of choice.

Also, lots of people will disagree, but I think english is a lot easier than maths or physics, if that's going to help you decide.

Reply 12

CathySarah

Original post by ixxabelle

Also, lots of people will disagree, but I think english is a lot easier than maths or physics, if that's going to help you decide.

This really, really, really depends on the individual.

Reply 13

The Polar Dude

Original post by theblonde

me too, decided physics weren't for me :biggrin:

OP, you're in yr 10 so just focus on your GCSE's because success can only be achieved step by step, they're good respectable a levels but hold your horses, you could change your mind on your a levels or erven your subject choice at uni

hope it goes well for you in the ISA- they were so annoying :mad:

Reply 14

im so academic

Original post by Kutal

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So my question is, would those 4 A-levels work for my wanted studies at Uni? Or not?

Try to see if you can do Further Maths as it would really help for your university course aspirations, even if that means sacrificing Geography or English.

Reply 15

Kutal

Well here are some degree requirement details from good universities:

hhttp://www.cam.ac.uk/about/natscitripos/ps/nstprogspec.pdf
http://www.ucl.ac.uk/prospective-students/undergraduate-study/degrees/ugprogs/UBSASTSPHY05
http://courses.cardiff.ac.uk/undergraduate/course/detail/93

Seems as if most require 1 science with Cambridge asking for 2

(edited 13 years ago)

Reply 16

im so academic

Original post by SmallTownGirl

To study physics you need maths, physics and one other subject. But I expect you'd need chem or bio to study natural sciences.

No. Depends if he's more inclined to the Biological Sciences or to the Physical Sciences. Judging by his course aspirations, he would be more inclined to do the latter, this Further Maths > Biology (at the least), and arguable better than Chemistry (but one needs to recheck this).

Reply 17

yesnaa

Original post by Kutal

Interesting, and do you go to Oxbridge or know anyone who's done so?

Yes, I know someone going to Cambridge to study maths who studied History at AS level in addition to maths/science subjects.

Reply 18

yesnaa

http://russellgroup.ac.uk/uploads/Informed-Choices-final.pdf

This may be of help. English is regarded as having equal stature as Maths in this guide.

Reply 19

username457532

Original post by im so academic

I don't really know about natural science because it's not something I care about but one of my friends is studying it next year with maths, chem, bio and music. He seems to be more into the physical sciences so English may be better replaced with further maths or chemistry. Either would be acceptable. But of course, he may want a variety of subjects (or just really like English).