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A-level choices URGENT

hiya im choosing my options soon, and i would like a bit of feedback on whether they would be beneficial or not, i am leaning towards a medical field.
im thinking Biology Chemistry physics (i am a a* gcse maths, but i dont enjoy it) and Spanish.
But next year they are taking out as and a2 so all the exams are at the end and cannot drop any of them.
Am a making any bad choices (esp spanish and physics)

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Reply 1
Original post by Shraya Amin
hiya im choosing my options soon, and i would like a bit of feedback on whether they would be beneficial or not, i am leaning towards a medical field.
im thinking Biology Chemistry physics (i am a a* gcse maths, but i dont enjoy it) and Spanish.
But next year they are taking out as and a2 so all the exams are at the end and cannot drop any of them.
Am a making any bad choices (esp spanish and physics)


Physics is great. :smile:
I think you might like maths in there. I know you might not enjoy it, but for many science related fields it's good to have. It lets you keep your options open instead of applying to a restricting course.
Reply 3
Original post by Student403
I think you might like maths in there. I know you might not enjoy it, but for many science related fields it's good to have. It lets you keep your options open instead of applying to a restricting course.

But is it not basically in physics?
Original post by Shraya Amin
But is it not basically in physics?

I can't really answer that because I don't know :/ I think though that if you're only leaning toward medicine and not fully certain, maths keeps your options open.

Definitely look at other people's answers who know more about science careers as a whole. If possible, talk to your careers advisor
Reply 5
Should I do Spanish at a level
Reply 6
Original post by Shraya Amin
hiya im choosing my options soon, and i would like a bit of feedback on whether they would be beneficial or not, i am leaning towards a medical field.
im thinking Biology Chemistry physics (i am a a* gcse maths, but i dont enjoy it) and Spanish.
But next year they are taking out as and a2 so all the exams are at the end and cannot drop any of them.
Am a making any bad choices (esp spanish and physics)


If you're not allowed to drop your subjects, your sixth form/college would only be letting you do three. You will most likely do your AS exams and then your A2/A-level exams, dropping the AS subject you want to.

If you want to do medicine - do Maths, Biology, Chemistry and Physics or Maths, Biology, Chemistry and Spanish.
Maths is a really good A-Level to have and it goes well especially with science subjects,personally I find it easy to switch to other subjects in terms of revision when they're similar and something you learn in one subject you will learn the same thing in a different subject at another time.For example in AS maths we learnt about logarithms and logarithms are used in A2 chemistry for the acids,bases and buffer solutions and because we learnt it already in maths it just speeds up the whole learning process.it also keeps all your options open .
Reply 8
Original post by jamestg
If you're not allowed to drop your subjects, your sixth form/college would only be letting you do three. You will most likely do your AS exams and then your A2/A-level exams, dropping the AS subject you want to.

If you want to do medicine - do Maths, Biology, Chemistry and Physics or Maths, Biology, Chemistry and Spanish.


Thank you but can I not have maths and just physics as it it still has maths and is more beneficial with medicine,radiography, X-rays.....
Reply 9
Original post by Shraya Amin
Thank you but can I not have maths and just physics as it it still has maths and is more beneficial with medicine,radiography, X-rays.....


If you really, really want to do Physics go for it. But honestly Maths (even just as an AS) will be more beneficial!
Original post by Shraya Amin
Thank you but can I not have maths and just physics as it it still has maths and is more beneficial with medicine,radiography, X-rays.....

Physics isn't really maths. You'll use maths, yes, but I don't think it teaches you anything new concepts apart from exponential functions/vectors.
Original post by jamestg
If you really, really want to do Physics go for it. But honestly Maths (even just as an AS) will be more beneficial!


We don't have as and a2 next year the exams are at the end of the two year course!
Original post by ombtom
Physics is great. :smile:


But if the OP doesn't enjoy Maths, wouldn't she detest the maths-related elements in Physics?

For Medicine, Biology and Chemistry would suffice as science options.
At the minimum, you can just take Biology, Chemistry and Physics. You could take AS Spanish and not A2 if you want, as few university (If you want to go to uni) seem to like 4x AS Levels and 3x A2 Levels as a qualification. 4x A2 Levels is not really required to any university.
Reply 14
What grade do you think you'll get for Spanish?

My friend did Spanish at AS and she dropped it 3 months after taking it up because it was too difficult. Everyone in her class was fluent in Spanish but my friend got a good GCSE grade for it but didn't use Spanish outside class.
Reply 15
Original post by Scopeowner
But if the OP doesn't enjoy Maths, wouldn't she detest the maths-related elements in Physics?

For Medicine, Biology and Chemistry would suffice as science options.


From what I remember, AS-level Physics only has GCSE level mathematics. A2 has some logarithms, but it's really not much. I have heard that Chemistry involves a lot of maths.
Original post by Shraya Amin
We don't have as and a2 next year the exams are at the end of the two year course!


It depends on the subjects.

Biology, Physics and Chemistry are the new A-levels.

However Maths A-level is still in the modular format, your year is the last year for modular A-level maths. The new A-levels still have AS exams, just they're not compulsory and don't count towards the overall A-level grade.
Original post by ombtom
From what I remember, AS-level Physics only has GCSE level mathematics. A2 has some logarithms, but it's really not much. I have heard that Chemistry involves a lot of maths.


I have studied AS Physics and the maths-related elements included link directly to C1 AS Maths, however the complexity of the subject may differ amongst exam boards.
Reply 18
Original post by Scopeowner
I have studied AS Physics and the maths-related elements included link directly to C1 AS Maths, however the complexity of the subject may differ amongst exam boards.


Really? What topics? :unsure:
Reply 19
Maths is not Physics.

Also Maths is still a fully modular A-level, so you can sit 3 modules in Y12 and 3 in Y13.

Maths > Physics for pretty much any degree including medicine (except for BSc Physics obv...)

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