Is this A-Level subjects combination possible?

I wish to take the following subjects: Maths, Further Maths, Physics, Chemistry, History, Economics. Is this combination manageable? I know it's uncommon to take 6 subjects but I'm willing to put in effort. I have reasons for wanting to take all these subjects (need Maths, Physics and Chemistry because I want to do engineering, need Further because I'm participating in an Olympiad where a lot of mathematical knowledge is required, and similarly specific reasons for the other two as well).

I know top UK unis only ask for 3-4 subjects but I'm not from the UK and I'm not applying to UK unis. I'm applying to top US colleges that value rigorous academics. BTW my GCSE (O-Level) predicted grades are 12A* 2A (although I know that GCSE performance is not really indicative of A-Level performance).

So yeah, will I be able to manage this? And how hard will I have to work to maintain As/A*s? Like how many hours per day of studying? Thank you!

NO NO NO, you will die.... regarding the us uni's, if possible do an international baccalaureate

(edited 7 years ago)

Reply 21

PlayerBB

17

You're probably now convinced that doing those 6 A-levels will guarantee you a place at a top US university, however, believe me A-levels are nothing like GCSE's, the workload is much greater, the amount of time you have to put for each subject to make sure you completely have understood the concept is massive. Each A-level subject you have just chosen is a stem, you will have zero percent free time, 100% and more added pressure which will cause you to drop in performance, your brain needs some rest to function well which I guarantee you will not have with 6 subjects

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Reply 22

Abstract_Prism

20

Original post by 5audade

Hahaha thank you for your confidence in my abilities, although I assure you there's no magic involved :P

Could you elaborate on why History will be a bad choice? Some other people have also recommended against it (someone even told me it's as difficult as two subjects combined). Also, do you think it would be manageable if I drop Econ and keep History (+ the 4 others)? The reason I want History is that it's a respected essay subject and a 'pure' humanities subject to balance out my otherwise sciencey combo. Econ is not really humanities, more like social science.

Unlike where all the science subjects fit in together and compliment each other, History requires an entirely different skill set. That's why you might find History more difficult than your other subjects.

But it is true that History is a well-respected essay subject, and if you can do well in it it will really compliment your academic profile.I do think that learning the skills for History will make it one of your most difficult subjects though. Maybe you should ditch Economics and keep with History.

Just wondering, have you checked that you'll be able to fit all of these subjects in a timetable? There's only so many hours in a week, you know!

I personally think 5 will make you stand out enough, and 6 is overkill. Doing 6 my actually be to the detriment of your other subjects. Remember, if you do 6, universities will expect you do do well in all 6. That means AAAAAA. If you get, say, AAAABC, they won't let you off because you did more A-levels than normal, and you may even be in a weaker position than someone who did only 3 A-levels and got AAA. This is because their total academic record is squeaky clean, whilst while yours is larger, it is also dirtier, if you see what I mean?

I think you maybe could do 6, but you'd be pushing yourself and would probably benefit more by doing 5. I think whether you drop History or Economics depends on what you want to do at university.

Reply 23

DauntlessOne

2

Original post by 5audade

I wish to take the following subjects: Maths, Further Maths, Physics, Chemistry, History, Economics. Is this combination manageable? I know it's uncommon to take 6 subjects but I'm willing to put in effort. I have reasons for wanting to take all these subjects (need Maths, Physics and Chemistry because I want to do engineering, need Further because I'm participating in an Olympiad where a lot of mathematical knowledge is required, and similarly specific reasons for the other two as well).

I know top UK unis only ask for 3-4 subjects but I'm not from the UK and I'm not applying to UK unis. I'm applying to top US colleges that value rigorous academics. BTW my GCSE (O-Level) predicted grades are 12A* 2A (although I know that GCSE performance is not really indicative of A-Level performance).

So yeah, will I be able to manage this? And how hard will I have to work to maintain As/A*s? Like how many hours per day of studying? Thank you!

With that many subjects, you will probably have a nervous breakdown. Take a step back, think what is necessary to your desired career and just take them. How old are you out of curiosity?

Reply 24

Bulletzone

22

Your mental being shall be at stake.

Reply 25

Student403

19

You're thinking that they care more than anything about academics. They don't. That just weeds out the bad applicants. 6 subjects won't do ****. Your friend got in to Harvard because he had other pursuits.

If you do 4 subjects and get predicted all A*s, then you will actually have the time to focus on better things (ECAs) which you NEED to make a competitive application.

Reply 26

Mutmit287

22

Original post by 5audade

I wish to take the following subjects: Maths, Further Maths, Physics, Chemistry, History, Economics. Is this combination manageable? I know it's uncommon to take 6 subjects but I'm willing to put in effort. I have reasons for wanting to take all these subjects (need Maths, Physics and Chemistry because I want to do engineering, need Further because I'm participating in an Olympiad where a lot of mathematical knowledge is required, and similarly specific reasons for the other two as well).

I know top UK unis only ask for 3-4 subjects but I'm not from the UK and I'm not applying to UK unis. I'm applying to top US colleges that value rigorous academics. BTW my GCSE (O-Level) predicted grades are 12A* 2A (although I know that GCSE performance is not really indicative of A-Level performance).

So yeah, will I be able to manage this? And how hard will I have to work to maintain As/A*s? Like how many hours per day of studying? Thank you!

GCSE performance is predictive of Alevel performance if you continue the same work ethic and worked hard at GCSE, thats why universities and colleges use them as a guide for predicted grades, most of the time providiing the individual didnt slack off for either GCSE or Alevel they tend to be pretty indicative of eachother, so higher GCSEs means higher Alevels in the most part.

I personally would not take 6 Alevels, Maths and further maths are subjects which require a lot of practice to become A* worthy, Physics and Chemistry increase in difficulty exponentially from GCSE to AS and then again from AS to A2, even the brightest people I know found that chemistry and physics paired with maths took up a lot of their time to perfect it. Adding economics and history on top, both of which are very content heavy subjects will not play well for you and will mean you will have no social life and your grades for other subjects will suffer.

You surely understand that AAAA in 4 subjects is better than AABBBB in 6, this happens because you spread yourself to thinly between to many subjects and you perform worse in exams due to stress and lack of wider deeper knowledge, I really wouldnt reccomend it.

My best advice for engineering is to take 4 Alevels, maths, further maths, chemistry and physics, and forget about economics and history, if you want to get into a top US uni then getting higher grades is more important than doing more subjects, and remember during this you will need to spend time revising for ACT and SAT test subjects, which in their own right are difficult considering we have not gone through the US education system.

Also most people will agree that academics are just a part of a US application, you need to have extra curriculars to show you have a social life and have leadership and teamwork qualities about you, I know this is incredibly important and is one of the ways they weed out candidates, so make sure you have time for that.

All in all my advice is do 4, doing 5/6 will not gain you anything other than stress and will have a detrimental effect on your social life and is likely to pull down your grades because you have spread yourself to thin.

(edited 7 years ago)

Reply 27

Apolexian

12

Original post by 5audade

I wish to take the following subjects: Maths, Further Maths, Physics, Chemistry, History, Economics. Is this combination manageable? I know it's uncommon to take 6 subjects but I'm willing to put in effort. I have reasons for wanting to take all these subjects (need Maths, Physics and Chemistry because I want to do engineering, need Further because I'm participating in an Olympiad where a lot of mathematical knowledge is required, and similarly specific reasons for the other two as well).

I know top UK unis only ask for 3-4 subjects but I'm not from the UK and I'm not applying to UK unis. I'm applying to top US colleges that value rigorous academics. BTW my GCSE (O-Level) predicted grades are 12A* 2A (although I know that GCSE performance is not really indicative of A-Level performance).

So yeah, will I be able to manage this? And how hard will I have to work to maintain As/A*s? Like how many hours per day of studying? Thank you!

Further Maths is a TON of work depending on your module choices. History is also a huge amount of work in terms of coursework. I would never recommend this combination, you will probably just end up failing most of them. And anway, you would never need that many, decide what you want to do, why would you take physics, chemistry and economics together? Economical gene engeneering? And just randomly add History?..If you want to do a essay based course in uni, dont take physics and chemistry, i would also suggest not taking further, but thats your choice. If you want to do maths in univeristy dont bother with history,economics and chemistry as you will likely have to do STEP on top of A-levels. If you want to do engeneering why bother with economics and history? It sounds like you just dont know what you want

(edited 7 years ago)

Reply 28

username1230881

18

Don't do 6 A levels - you won't be at any advantage for doing more than 4; it will only disadvantage you. The most I've known anyone to take is 5, and that was only because the person was rather extraordinary, and even then their schedule was packed and they had countless exams. A levels are completely different to GCSEs - getting good grades in 6 is essentially impossible. You need to choose the four that are most relevant.

Reply 29

Zacken

22

Original post by Apolexian

Further Maths is a TON of work depending on your module choices.

This depends on the person. For most of the people I know, Further Maths is a free A* that requires very little time.

Reply 30

Apolexian

12

Original post by Zacken

This depends on the person. For most of the people I know, Further Maths is a free A* that requires very little time.

Goodluck with that easy A* considering you are doing 6 math modules a year.. including at least on "3" module, be it FP3,S3 or M3..Easy maybe, but 100% it requires work.

Reply 31

Apolexian

12

Original post by Zacken

This depends on the person. For most of the people I know, Further Maths is a free A* that requires very little time.

Oh, its the olaf dude .. no point in arguing about anything to do with maths being even a bit difficult

Reply 32

SalazarSlytherin

19

Unless you want to do chemical engineering, don't do chem

Reply 33

beautifulbigmacs

19

Original post by 5audade

I wish to take the following subjects: Maths, Further Maths, Physics, Chemistry, History, Economics. Is this combination manageable? I know it's uncommon to take 6 subjects but I'm willing to put in effort. I have reasons for wanting to take all these subjects (need Maths, Physics and Chemistry because I want to do engineering, need Further because I'm participating in an Olympiad where a lot of mathematical knowledge is required, and similarly specific reasons for the other two as well).

I know top UK unis only ask for 3-4 subjects but I'm not from the UK and I'm not applying to UK unis. I'm applying to top US colleges that value rigorous academics. BTW my GCSE (O-Level) predicted grades are 12A* 2A (although I know that GCSE performance is not really indicative of A-Level performance).

So yeah, will I be able to manage this? And how hard will I have to work to maintain As/A*s? Like how many hours per day of studying? Thank you!

proper respect :smile:

I did three A levels, two AS levels and two BTEC National Awards in the two years. This kind of thing is possible but stressful. I can imagine that it would be more stressful with maths and science subjects.

I'm not saying don't do six A levels, I'm saying that it's a lot of stress and I'd urge you to weigh up how you feel about that.

I love learning but the thing with A levels are that they are qualifications where you have to jump through very rigid hoops so the room for error can be limited if you want the top grades.

Reply 34

Zacken

22

Original post by Apolexian

Goodluck with that easy A* considering you are doing 6 math modules a year.. including at least on "3" module, be it FP3,S3 or M3..Easy maybe, but 100% it requires work.

Eh? Like I said, it depends on the person. It might require a lot of work for you, but that doesn't hold true for everybody. Indeed, some of the people I know would learn a module the night before the exam.

Reply 35

rxns_00

15

Original post by Zacken

This depends on the person. For most of the people I know, Further Maths is a free A* that requires very little time.

That's probably because people who do further maths A level are likely to be doing maths at uni... Hence find it easy. I hope you appreciate people of average mathematical ability will find the further modules challenging?

Reply 36

Student403

19

Original post by Apolexian

Goodluck with that easy A* considering you are doing 6 math modules a year.. including at least on "3" module, be it FP3,S3 or M3..Easy maybe, but 100% it requires work.

It depends on the person.

Original post by rxns_00

That's probably because people who do further maths A level are likely to be doing maths at uni... Hence find it easy. I hope you appreciate people of average mathematical ability will find the further modules challenging?

Of course they will. But then again people of "average" ability don't usually take FM

Reply 37

Midgeymoo17

13

Original post by 5audade

I wish to take the following subjects: Maths, Further Maths, Physics, Chemistry, History, Economics. Is this combination manageable? I know it's uncommon to take 6 subjects but I'm willing to put in effort. I have reasons for wanting to take all these subjects (need Maths, Physics and Chemistry because I want to do engineering, need Further because I'm participating in an Olympiad where a lot of mathematical knowledge is required, and similarly specific reasons for the other two as well).

I know top UK unis only ask for 3-4 subjects but I'm not from the UK and I'm not applying to UK unis. I'm applying to top US colleges that value rigorous academics. BTW my GCSE (O-Level) predicted grades are 12A* 2A (although I know that GCSE performance is not really indicative of A-Level performance).

So yeah, will I be able to manage this? And how hard will I have to work to maintain As/A*s? Like how many hours per day of studying? Thank you!

Think very strongly about this the time commitment will be beyond difficult. You could expect the time commitment to look something like:

Contact Hours: 6x5=30
Self Study hours: 6x5x1.5=45
Total:75 hours per week minimum. That is nearly twice a full time job.

However this said I am lazy and got ABB with no work outside of class in Maths, Physics and Chemistry and contact hours less than 5. Again got an A at as history and really did like virtually no work outside class. So doable it is but to to rally ensure that you do you will have to be doing sort of 75 hours per week which will leave no time for anything else. As I said doable as a girl at my school got 8 A* at A level in Maths, Further Maths, Additional Further Maths, Physics, Chemistry History, English and General Studies.

Reply 38

Midgeymoo17

13

Original post by Apolexian

Goodluck with that easy A* considering you are doing 6 math modules a year.. including at least on "3" module, be it FP3,S3 or M3..Easy maybe, but 100% it requires work.

No 3 module required.The following is a perfectly acceptable combination:

Maths: C1,C2,C3,C4,S1,D1
Further Maths: FP1, FP2, M1,M2,S2,D2

Reply 39

tanyapotter

20

Maths, Further Maths and Physics is 100% manageable. Add Chemistry and it becomes more difficult, but still possible. Add History and you are seriously spreading yourself too thin. Add Economics and it's extremely, extremely unlikely that you will have enough time for each subject in a way that ensures you get the top grade in them all.

Is this A-Level subjects combination possible?

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