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What alevels should I pick

Hi everyone I was thinking about doing medicine at uni, but I'm not sure how much alevels I should pick (3 or 4) The alevels I want to do are chemistry biology economics. (which I'm not sure about because I know nothing about it) and one more just in case but don't know what though??!! Please helllllpp!!!!'

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I feel like maths would be a good option
Reply 2
Avatar for Rubato
Rubato
14
Those are perfectly fine.
Do maths. You're statistically more likely to do well, it opens so many doors, is the most respected a level and fits well with your other subjects, and you could do a variety of courses at uni.
Original post by richpanda
Do maths. You're statistically more likely to do well, it opens so many doors, is the most respected a level and fits well with your other subjects, and you could do a variety of courses at uni.

Stats?
Reply 5
Avatar for Rubato
Rubato
14
Original post by richpanda
Do maths. You're statistically more likely to do well, it opens so many doors, is the most respected a level and fits well with your other subjects, and you could do a variety of courses at uni.

I agree that it opens alot of doors but if OP is sure they want to go for medicine, they are fine without maths.
Reply 6
Avatar for Samdahir
Samdahir
OP
What about if I did something along the lines of core maths or sociology or physcology, would you be able to tell me a good 4 Alevel to do but is easy
Do Maths if you want to be a doc as this will actually help you more in your education and career than A Level Chem. or Bio. and also is more important when getting onto med courses (I know a medic who was involved with undergrad. admission and they confirmed to me that they look for A Level Maths, exp. and general roundedness above other things).

If you're worried about workload I would suggest going with Chem., Bio., and Maths (leaving the Eco.) and for a 4th AS I would recommend: Phycology, Sociology, an Art subject, or RE (thinking about ethics is very relevant to being a doc, not many people think of this, you will be writing essays on this later!), or even PE as long as you perform well in other subjects and seek work experience. The bottom line is unfortunately: if you can't manage the w/load of those 3 A Levels you won't cope in Med.

NB. I'm not a med student. Good luck!
(edited 8 years ago)
Original post by Samdahir
Hi everyone I was thinking about doing medicine at uni, but I'm not sure how much alevels I should pick (3 or 4) The alevels I want to do are chemistry biology economics. (which I'm not sure about because I know nothing about it) and one more just in case but don't know what though??!! Please helllllpp!!!!'


Those subjects sound pretty good.
I'd also consider maths, as although it isn't compulsory for medicine, its a useful subject to take- for medicine as well as other things.
Original post by Des_Lumières
Do Maths if you want to be a doc as this will actually help you more in your education and career than A Level Chem. or Bio. and also is more important when getting onto med courses (I know a medic who was involved with undergrad. admission and they confirmed to me that they look for A Level Maths, exp. and general roundedness above other things).

If you're worried about workload I would suggest going with Chem., Bio., and Maths (leaving the Eco.) and for a 4th AS I would recommend: Phycology, Sociology, an Art subject, or RE (thinking about ethics is very relevant to being a doc, not many people think of this, you will be writing essays on this later!), or even PE as long as you perform well in other subjects and seek work experience. The bottom line is unfortunately: if you can't manage the w/load of those 3 A Levels you won't cope in Med.

NB. I'm not a med student. Good luck!

Admission of which uni?
Reply 10
Avatar for JMBio
JMBio
1
From what I have seen, the key thing is that you have 2 sciences (biology/chem/math/physics/geog). I did Chem, bio,maths and italian at AS and when I was trying to decide whether to drop italian or maths i went to open days and asked the admissions staff. I remember one man at bristol saying to me it doesn't matter what your 3rd A level is particularly, as long as you enjoy it and you do well. Actually sometimes not having all 3 sciences can differentiate in some cases :smile:

I hope this helps. If in doubt go on uni websites and find their admission dept contact details. Just ring them up and ask them and they'll be tell you what they'd prefer

GOOD LUCK
Original post by geniequeen48
Admission of which uni?


Univ. of Sheff
Original post by Des_Lumières
Univ. of Sheff

https://www.sheffield.ac.uk/medicine/prospective_ug/applying/acad_a100
Doesn't say anything about preferring/looking for applicants with A level maths. "Our offer for subjects taken at A Level is AAA to include Chemistry and one other science (Maths, Physics, Biology or Psychology)."

OP, if you don't like a level maths or don't feel committed to do it, don't do it, as long as you have at least chemistry and biology then you should be fine.
Reply 13
Avatar for Samdahir
Samdahir
OP
So is core maths not a good subject to pick (as it is level3) and I think Alevel maths would be too hard because I think GCSE maths it already getting hard.
Original post by Samdahir
So is core maths not a good subject to pick (as it is level3) and I think Alevel maths would be too hard because I think GCSE maths it already getting hard.


Hmm, if you really want to do it, you could try it out when you start year 12 and if you find it too hard/don't want to do it, you can drop it or change to another a level in the first two weeks I think. To be honest I think your A level choices are perfectly fine. If you look at my recent thread called "I'm not convinced" you'll see medical students themselves saying how there isn't a lot of maths in medicine.
Original post by geniequeen48
https://www.sheffield.ac.uk/medicine/prospective_ug/applying/acad_a100
Doesn't say anything about preferring/looking for applicants with A level maths. "Our offer for subjects taken at A Level is AAA to include Chemistry and one other science (Maths, Physics, Biology or Psychology)."

OP, if you don't like a level maths or don't feel committed to do it, don't do it, as long as you have at least chemistry and biology then you should be fine.


Medicine's competitive and Math's is considered more challenging than Bio. (and is of more use to med students) so actually, even if they don't say on their website, that's what the're really looking for. Take it or leave it - that's inside info (besides, Ithought this was fairly common knowledge amongst teachers in schools, surprised). (Haven't you ever noticed that recommend subjects are usually much less than they actually take based on across the board?) What I basically recommend is ringing the places you might want to study and finding out from them!

If you want to make a competitive medicine application then it's important to stand out enough academically as well as in other respects!
(edited 8 years ago)
Original post by Des_Lumières
Medicine's competitive and Math's is considered more challenging than Bio. (and is of more use to med students) so actually, even if they don't say on their website, that's what the're really looking for. Take it or leave it - that's inside info (besides, Ithought this was fairly common knowledge amongst teachers in schools, surprised). (Haven't you ever noticed that recommend subjects are usually much less than they actually take based on across the board?) What I basically recommend is ringing the places you might want to study and finding out from them!

If you want to make a competitive medicine application then it's important to stand out enough academically as well as in other respects!


But I have spoken to medical students themselves saying how there isn't a lot of maths in medicine so what's the point of doing it to A level? English literature for example is considered more challenging that bio, I'm sure they'd like to see a student who can write and communicate well.

Thanks for enlightening me on this, I'll try ring some unis up.
Original post by Samdahir
Hi everyone I was thinking about doing medicine at uni, but I'm not sure how much alevels I should pick (3 or 4) The alevels I want to do are chemistry biology economics. (which I'm not sure about because I know nothing about it) and one more just in case but don't know what though??!! Please helllllpp!!!!'


You don't need Maths! I'm hoping to do medicine, although I don't know if I'm academically cut out for it yet so GCSE results will tell me. I'm also doing 3 A Levels next year (Bio, Chem and Geography) and I'll do the EPQ on something health care related (worth an AS).

What are you aiming for at GCSE?
Reply 18
Avatar for vn2410
vn2410
8
Maths - Biology - Chemistry - Physics (for medicine chemistry is compulsory and you must choose 2 others minimum from the list above )


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Maths Bio and chem defo! Chemistry is the main one but lots of unis require Maths and Bio to do medicine. Your fourth subject can be anything so you can do maths, bio, chem and economics if you want :smile:


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