5 A-levels... yes or no?

No need to apologize, I'm happy to receive any feedback I can get. I think taking 5 A-levels is a big risk and challenge and maybe taking it on wouldn't be the ideal choice. I'll keep in mind a back-up plan, I've known people that have changed their ambitions of becoming doctors to becoming politicians
Thank you

(...) When I first made the decision I was thrilled and excited to get GCSE's over and done with but now I feel like I've made the wrong choice and possibly underestimated a-levels? (...)

Bro are u stupid or something my mates doing 9 I'm doing 7, 5 alevels is nothing

Well 4 is deffo needed for chem eng at Imperial or Cambridge. Everyone I know who got offers from Cambrige and Imperial have had 4 A-levels, would be difficult to get an offer with just 3. 5 A-levels is a waste of time though, the universities wont care

Chemistry is the most difficult one you've got there, but you want to do a chemistry-related degree...

Hypothetical scenario What if... You apply to say Cambridge for instance and they say that you need an A* in your weakest subject? What would you do then?

Hypothetically, I'd be screwed. I would honestly just end up applying to a different Uni, it's not all about Cambridge for me, it's just an extremely ambitious target.
If I was to take 5 A-levels I would have already noticed which subjects I was struggling with before AS exam season and obviously dropped it if it wasn't compulsory/required for Chemical Engineering e.g. Philosophy
Let's just hope I don't end up find something like maths really difficult otherwise that would be a complete disaster

Oh you're going to drop one when you finish AS, I thought you were going to do all five to and including A level. I suppose it depends on whether or not you find the step up from GCSE greater than you anticipated or not. Can you try out the subjects at home before you start or do you have too much going on like GCSEs?

I guess I could start looking over very briefly what each subject would contain but I'll probably give myself a head start when the summer holidays begin

I would look at it to see if you like that sort of thing at least with philosophy anyway. The amount of people on TSR who take philosophy and psychology in particular and then find its nothing like they thought it would be is unreal.

I guess I could start looking over very briefly what each subject would contain but I'll probably give myself a head start when the summer holidays begin

A good start would be to read Sophie's World. It's a novel which offers a gentle introduction to philosophical ideas. Can be done as light reading but tbh I wouldn't advise reading it just before bed. It kept me up with questions. Rather good first introduction to the ideas.

After that, The Great Conversation is a fantastic book. You can read Russell's History of Philosophy if you like but I prefer the former. The idea is that you should do a run-through of how philosophical ideas have changed throughout history. Without understanding the 'run-through' and what philosophers have said before each other, it's a struggle to understand what philosophers meant to say, since a lot of the time their ideas work on the ideas of those before them.

From there, you can study basically anything you want - A particular philosopher or time or topic - and have the general grasp to go deeper. I like Stanford's Encyclopaedia of Philosophy when particular topics are of interest. By far the best free resource on the web.

I find reading philosophy and thinking about it in my spare time and being forced to write philosophical arguments very different. The former is fulfilling and the later a task in pedantic semantics. But when we did an Oxford Insight Day at my school, I found the lecture and essays very interesting compared to what our A level philosophy department offered which was incredibly facile in comparison.

I've read both those books and I highly recommend them as well. Sophie's World is a brilliant story and Bertrand Russell is a genius.

A good start would be to read Sophie's World. It's a novel which offers a gentle introduction to philosophical ideas. Can be done as light reading but tbh I wouldn't advise reading it just before bed. It kept me up with questions. Rather good first introduction to the ideas.

After that, The Great Conversation is a fantastic book. You can read Russell's History of Philosophy if you like but I prefer the former. The idea is that you should do a run-through of how philosophical ideas have changed throughout history. Without understanding the 'run-through' and what philosophers have said before each other, it's a struggle to understand what philosophers meant to say, since a lot of the time their ideas work on the ideas of those before them.

From there, you can study basically anything you want - A particular philosopher or time or topic - and have the general grasp to go deeper. I like Stanford's Encyclopaedia of Philosophy when particular topics are of interest. By far the best free resource on the web.

Like Thomb hints at, I find reading philosophy and thinking about it in my spare time and being forced to write philosophical arguments very different. The former is fulfilling and the later a task in pedantic semantics. But when we did an Oxford Insight Day at my school, I found the lecture and essays very interesting compared to what our A level philosophy department offered which was incredibly facile and boring in comparison.

Don't do 5 please.
It is so unnecessary are requires way too much effort.

Thank you for the recommendations, I'm on amazon right now about to order some of those books
I might even start doing some research into Bertrand Russell, he seems like a very respected Philosopher as well as other things

Hey

I've chosen my A level subjects and was thinking of taking the following:
Maths
Chemistry
Physics
Further maths
Philosophy
I might end up doing an EPQ in Computer Science

I am an aspiring Chemical Engineer and have high hopes for myself to study at either Cambridge or Imperial
I will be dropping further maths and philosophy at A2.

Is the workload of 5 AS subjects too much to cope with?
Will I have a lot of free periods, if any at all?
Will I have time for a social life?

I understand there's this whole concept of "it's better to achieve 4A's than 2A's and 3B's" but I know I can do well. I plan on going over briefly all of my subjects during the summer holidays and doing revision regularly (not just because I'll have to but genuinely because I really like learning). When I first made the decision I was thrilled and excited to get GCSE's over and done with but now I feel like I've made the wrong choice and possibly underestimated a-levels? It'd be great to hear some stories of how well people have coped/coping with 5 a-levels or with any of the subjects I've chosen above.

Thanks in advance