just joined.. need advice on a levels for medicine

hi, just joined because im really confused as to what a levels to take and cant find any useful advice. i am currently in year 11 taking my gcses in the summer im not sure what a levels to take, i want to study medicine at university.. so far i've decided i want to take biology, chemistry and german i can't decide on my final option- whether to take french or psychology? i currently study french and german and enjoy them both and im doing well in them both also- the only thing putting me off is ive been told 2 languages at a level is even harder? i liked the idea of psychology but recently the year above have had bad results i dont know whether this is because of the course or not? i dont know what to take? any advice please? :s-smilie:

Reply 1

chiny94

8

Original post by wink21

hi, just joined because im really confused as to what a levels to take and cant find any useful advice. i am currently in year 11 taking my gcses in the summer im not sure what a levels to take, i want to study medicine at university.. so far i've decided i want to take biology, chemistry and german i can't decide on my final option- whether to take french or psychology? i currently study french and german and enjoy them both and im doing well in them both also- the only thing putting me off is ive been told 2 languages at a level is even harder? i liked the idea of psychology but recently the year above have had bad results i dont know whether this is because of the course or not? i dont know what to take? any advice please? :s-smilie:

Hi i've applied for medicine for 2013 cycle and am doing a2 in chemistry, maths and psychology. For me i was never THAT great languages but you seem to enjoy it so my advice is go for the subjects that you'll enjoy more since you are more likely to get good results in this way. I was always interested in psychology thus i found AS psychology quite easy (tbh i think as long as you are good at memorising things it will not be too difficult for you) :smile:

so i think you should go for two languages if you think you'll enjoy it more and get good grades on it, but i have heard that it is difficult :L !

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Reply 2

tengentoppa

18

I do two languages at AS but I find that it's actually easier because the themes and exam styles are similar. Your ideas for your German Oral for instance, can be transferred to your French Oral. If you enjoy both I see no reason as to why you shouldn't do both.

Reply 3

Ronove

18

Original post by tengentoppa

I do two languages at AS but I find that it's actually easier because the themes and exam styles are similar. Your ideas for your German Oral for instance, can be transferred to your French Oral. If you enjoy both I see no reason as to why you shouldn't do both.

Exactly what this person says.

Way back in 2004-2006 I did French and German as two of my A-levels and then in 6 months during my A2 year I also self-taught AS and A2 Spanish and crammed the exams in in that year. Doing more than one language is not hard if you're good at them, there's so much overlap in the topics and methods.

Reply 4

wink21

OP

Thanks for the advice, do you think bio, chem, French and German would be sufficient for me to do medicine? I did think about doing maths but although I'm grade A at the moment I don't particularly enjoy it. Also for psychology.. Is this useful at all for medicine? :/ I just want to make sure ill be able to get to study medicine at uni :/

Reply 5

zach18

Find out what subjects universities want possibly look Russell group as this will give you a clear idea

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Reply 6

chiny94

8

Original post by wink21

Thanks for the advice, do you think bio, chem, French and German would be sufficient for me to do medicine? I did think about doing maths but although I'm grade A at the moment I don't particularly enjoy it. Also for psychology.. Is this useful at all for medicine? :/ I just want to make sure ill be able to get to study medicine at uni :/

Maths isn't essential and unis don't mind psychology. Psychology isn't necessarily useful for medicine but the spec that i'm doing covers clinical psychology which is a lot medicine directed so it's just interesting to learn really :smile:

Just make sure you take bio and chem to A2 since they like to see you do at least 2 sciences for A2 (apart from cambridge where they like students that do all science not sure if oxford is the same). I did bio up to AS then dropped it so for me, my two sciences would be chemistry and maths.

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Reply 7

Ronove

18

Original post by wink21

Thanks for the advice, do you think bio, chem, French and German would be sufficient for me to do medicine? I did think about doing maths but although I'm grade A at the moment I don't particularly enjoy it. Also for psychology.. Is this useful at all for medicine? :/ I just want to make sure ill be able to get to study medicine at uni :/

Maths isn't necessary. It won't give you an advantage if you do it either. Only Cambridge (and maybe Oxford) has colleges that require you to do three sciences (from Chem, Bio, Phys and Maths).

Most (~all) unis require Chemistry at A2, many(~most) also require Biology at A2 but there are some that will take A2 Chem with AS Bio, A2 Bio with AS Chem, A2 Chem on its own as a science subject, etc. You just need to check the universities' sites. There is also a wiki on here with all of this stuff helpfully laid out for you, with tables of what each uni wants etc. Just have a look for posts at the top of the subforum, there should be a link somewhere.