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A Level Choices

Hey! I want to Do a Physics Degree once i have left college, and im wondering if these A levels are looked on favorably To universities, I'm still not 100% certain about the 4th subject, but i tried to go for things that i will enjoy. I just wanted to know if these subjects are either considered too soft or would not go well together

Maths
Physics
Government and politics
Psychology
(edited 8 years ago)
These are great choices. Maybe chemistry would be more relevant than Government and Politics or Phychology. You should definitely consider Further Maths but its not really necessary. According to Trinity College Government and Politics and Psychology are not necessarily "soft" but not recommended. Check out that link. Again i would recommend doing chemistry or FM rather. But if you dont enjoy either of them, then DON'T do it
Reply 2
Original post by ahsenrauf
These are great choices. Maybe chemistry would be more relevant than Government and Politics or Phychology. You should definitely consider Further Maths but its not really necessary. According to Trinity College Government and Politics and Psychology are not necessarily "soft" but not recommended. Check out that link. Again i would recommend doing chemistry or FM rather. But if you dont enjoy either of them, then DON'T do it



Yeah i Thought about chemistry, i do enjoy it, but i thought the workload would be too high, with the physics and maths. so i am skeptical if i can achieve high in all of them as i hear chemistry is fairly hard
Original post by (1)Quantum
Yeah i Thought about chemistry, i do enjoy it, but i thought the workload would be too high, with the physics and maths. so i am skeptical if i can achieve high in all of them as i hear chemistry is fairly hard


How good are your grades now? What are you aiming for in terms of Uni?
Reply 4
Original post by ahsenrauf
How good are your grades now? What are you aiming for in terms of Uni?


Im an A in both Physics and Chemistry, and just got an A in my Maths, all my other subjects are pretty much straight B's and i am aiming to do a masters in physics
Original post by (1)Quantum
Im an A in both Physics and Chemistry, and just got an A in my Maths, all my other subjects are pretty much straight B's and i am aiming to do a masters in physics


So i assume you are going for a straight Physics Degree, from a russel group university. If you look here these are the recommended subjects if you scroll down to the requirements for Physics. I would suggest taking chemistry or FM along with either Government and Politics or Psychology as a 4th. I think you should give it a go. It wont consume too much time if you enjoy it. If you find it too much you can drop Chemistry and still have 3 A Levels. Chemistry will help you massively in Physics because a lot of things are taken for granted in Physics that they teach you in Chemistry
Original post by ahsenrauf
So i assume you are going for a straight Physics Degree, from a russel group university. If you look here these are the recommended subjects if you scroll down to the requirements for Physics. I would suggest taking chemistry or FM along with either Government and Politics or Psychology as a 4th. I think you should give it a go. It wont consume too much time if you enjoy it. If you find it too much you can drop Chemistry and still have 3 A Levels. Chemistry will help you massively in Physics because a lot of things are taken for granted in Physics that they teach you in Chemistry


Taking chemistry is not a huge advantage for a physics degree - if I was recommending one out of the 2 I would go for further maths every time. Higher level physics is very very different to the physics you encounter at A level or GCSE, with a much much greater emphasis on applying maths, in particular calculus, so if OP knows they want to do a physics degree the most useful 3 subjects they could do would be maths fm physics
Original post by samb1234
Taking chemistry is not a huge advantage for a physics degree - if I was recommending one out of the 2 I would go for further maths every time. Higher level physics is very very different to the physics you encounter at A level or GCSE, with a much much greater emphasis on applying maths, in particular calculus, so if OP knows they want to do a physics degree the most useful 3 subjects they could do would be maths fm physics


Of course FM would be great but OP likes chemistry and i think that doing a hard subject you like over one you dont would be far better
Original post by ahsenrauf
Of course FM would be great but OP likes chemistry and i think that doing a hard subject you like over one you dont would be far better


Well he never said he didn't like maths, and if they want to do a physics degree then presumably they must enjoy maths (or haven't researched the course properly) bit if they geneuinely don't like maths then yes chemistry would be a good choice but they would have to work out if physics is really what they want to do
Reply 9
Original post by samb1234
Well he never said he didn't like maths, and if they want to do a physics degree then presumably they must enjoy maths (or haven't researched the course properly) bit if they geneuinely don't like maths then yes chemistry would be a good choice but they would have to work out if physics is really what they want to do


I do enjoy maths, but i heard that further maths is very difficult, and since im not amazing at maths, and only just scape the A grade Boundary now, im not sure i would be able to do very well in further maths
Reply 10
If you enjoy Maths and Physics and you are good at both you surely will enjoy Chemistry and FM. If you feel the workload at A2 is too much I would suggest dropping Chemistry after AS. I am a Maths + Theoretical Physics applicant and I do 5 A-Levels and if you are good at them and enjoy them and you are organised the workload is manegable.
Original post by (1)Quantum
I do enjoy maths, but i heard that further maths is very difficult, and since im not amazing at maths, and only just scape the A grade Boundary now, im not sure i would be able to do very well in further maths

Fair enough then, all the relevant material from fm would be covered as part of yiur degree anyway, fm just teaches you it earlier which can make it easier later on. Just be warned that some areas of physics can get very very mathematical at higher levels,so if you don't want that you might want to look at modules with slightly less maths in
Original post by PLM98
If you enjoy Maths and Physics and you are good at both you surely will enjoy Chemistry and FM. If you feel the workload at A2 is too much I would suggest dropping Chemistry after AS. I am a Maths + Theoretical Physics applicant and I do 5 A-Levels and if you are good at them and enjoy them and you are organised the workload is manegable.


nice course choice btw
Reply 13
Original post by samb1234
nice course choice btw


Thanks hahaha I'm really looking forward to start in September
Original post by PLM98
Thanks hahaha I'm really looking forward to start in September


What unis did you apply to?
Reply 15
Original post by samb1234
What unis did you apply to?



University of Edinburgh - Mathematical Physics (Offer AAA)
University of St Andrews - Mathematics and Theoretical Physics (Still waiting)
Imperial College London - Physics with Theoretical Physics (Still waiting)
University of Warwick - Maths & Physics (Offer A*A*A)
University of Bath - Maths & Physics (Offer A*AA)

I strongly regret not applying to Cambridge, I was lazy and didn't prepare my p.s. in the summer...
Original post by PLM98
University of Edinburgh - Mathematical Physics (Offer AAA)
University of St Andrews - Mathematics and Theoretical Physics (Still waiting)
Imperial College London - Physics with Theoretical Physics (Still waiting)
University of Warwick - Maths & Physics (Offer A*A*A)
University of Bath - Maths & Physics (Offer A*AA)

I strongly regret not applying to Cambridge, I was lazy and didn't prepare my p.s. in the summer...


Ah nice, would you have applied fir nat sci or maths at cam?
Reply 17
Original post by samb1234
Ah nice, would you have applied fir nat sci or maths at cam?


My ideal course would have been Maths with Physics year 1, go into the Physics route in year 2 and then in year 4 for part III do the Theoretical Physics modules of the maths tripos at DAMTP. However I would have applied to NatSci because in my school (i live in Spain) we do not have further maths and because I realised that I wanted to do maths along with physics at uni too late, I didn't have time to start self teaching it (realised like in December). But NatSci is cool as well, I would have picked Chem and MatSci along with Physics and Maths. I really regret not having applied, I think i would have had a good chance to get in.

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