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5th A Level

So originally I wanted to do French German Maths and Classical Civilisation with Economics as a back up for my A levels. Unfortunately, Maths and CC clash, so I either just do 3 (CC, French and German) or I can do 4 by doing Economics instead of CC.
I still would prefer to have a maths A Level, however, so would I be able to teach myself maths either as a 4th or 5th subject?
I have just done further maths at GCSE level so AS level isn't supposed to be too big a jump up from that. Is it advisable though?
Original post by hannahly
So originally I wanted to do French German Maths and Classical Civilisation with Economics as a back up for my A levels. Unfortunately, Maths and CC clash, so I either just do 3 (CC, French and German) or I can do 4 by doing Economics instead of CC.
I still would prefer to have a maths A Level, however, so would I be able to teach myself maths either as a 4th or 5th subject?
I have just done further maths at GCSE level so AS level isn't supposed to be too big a jump up from that. Is it advisable though?


You crazy boy.
4 is what I did at AS and then dropping one at AS and taking 3 onto full A2. It's really up to you but I'd say you'd have to be pretty good at time management to be able to study maths yourself along with 4 others :colondollar:
If I was in your situation I'd take Maths, Economics, French and German.
(edited 7 years ago)
You could try to teach yourself tbf the year 12 material for maths isn't too hard, but C3 and C4 are a huge jump. If you have a maths teacher who is willing to help you in the second year and stuff you will be fine. If you've done further maths GCSE a lot of stuff will be familiar in C1 and C2.
Beware of the workload, I did 5 AS-levels and am planning to do 5 A-levels (if my results are good fingers crossed) and it is a LOT of work especially as I also taught myself the 5th one.
Reply 4
Original post by 07cdominic
You could try to teach yourself tbf the year 12 material for maths isn't too hard, but C3 and C4 are a huge jump. If you have a maths teacher who is willing to help you in the second year and stuff you will be fine. If you've done further maths GCSE a lot of stuff will be familiar in C1 and C2.
Beware of the workload, I did 5 AS-levels and am planning to do 5 A-levels (if my results are good fingers crossed) and it is a LOT of work especially as I also taught myself the 5th one.


Wow! What subjects, out of interest? And thanks for the advice - how much time at home did you spend on the extra subject?
Original post by hannahly
Wow! What subjects, out of interest? And thanks for the advice - how much time at home did you spend on the extra subject?


So I did bio, Chem, physics and maths in school. And spent 5 hours a week teaching myself sociology which was the 5th subject. It wasn't teaching myself that was the huge workload - it was doing it on top of all the schoolwork I had to do, and extra-curriculars - so if you're a busy person, it's a hassle! Personally, I found that I was a lot more insecure about the subject that I taught myself and spent wayyy too much time revising for it compared to my other subjects that actually mattered more!
Taking 5 A levels just isn't worth it for most people, I think you'd get more out of performing better in 4 than over committing and spreading your bets across 5. GCSE can really lull you into a false sense of security and A levels are extremely time consuming in comparison.
Original post by hannahly

I have just done further maths at GCSE level so AS level isn't supposed to be too big a jump up from that.


Not sure where you've heard this, but this isn't true at all. Further Maths at GCSE is basically a small part of AS level Core 1 Maths, which is the easiest module anyways. AS Maths isn't terribly hard at AS level as long as you put the work in but it is quite a step up from GCSE.

What courses are you looking into to do at university, if you know yet? I'll be able to help you more from there.
Reply 8
Original post by DarkEnergy
Not sure where you've heard this, but this isn't true at all. Further Maths at GCSE is basically a small part of AS level Core 1 Maths, which is the easiest module anyways. AS Maths isn't terribly hard at AS level as long as you put the work in but it is quite a step up from GCSE.

What courses are you looking into to do at university, if you know yet? I'll be able to help you more from there.


These are what I'm thinking of:
St Andrew's:
French with German and Italian
or
Edinburgh:
French with German
French and Classics
(edited 7 years ago)
Reply 9
AS maths isn't a step up from GCSE FM??! Haha oh if this was true I wouldn't be sh**ing my pants about whether I passed AS or not 😂
You have learnt like maybe half of C1 and that is it.

My college doesn't let anyone do 5 AS because they day there is no point, if unis are making offers based on 3A2's then why do loads of extra work and risk getting lower grades?

If I were you I'd do the 4AS and not do CC because it's considered a more "weak" subject
Original post by hannahly
These are what I'm thinking of:
St Andrew's:
French with German and Italian
or
Edinburgh:
French with German
French and Classics


First off, good selection of unis there! I'll be applying to them both for Physics (2017 entry).
Both of those unis only require the language A-levels as part of 3 A-levels for each of those courses.

5 A-levels is definitely not advisable. I know this is an anecdote, but a friend of mine who achieved 10A* (and an A^ in Further Maths) at GCSE started off doing 5 A-levels (Maths, Further Maths, Chemistry, Physics, Biology) and couldn't even handle it after 1 month. He ended up dropping Further Maths. Literally nowhere requires 5 A-levels. All you really need is 4 AS levels completed in year 12, and 3 A-levels in year 13.

So to answer your question, I think you should do French, German, Classics, and Econ in year 12 then drop either Classics or Econ in year 13.
Original post by hannahly
So originally I wanted to do French German Maths and Classical Civilisation with Economics as a back up for my A levels. Unfortunately, Maths and CC clash, so I either just do 3 (CC, French and German) or I can do 4 by doing Economics instead of CC.
I still would prefer to have a maths A Level, however, so would I be able to teach myself maths either as a 4th or 5th subject?
I have just done further maths at GCSE level so AS level isn't supposed to be too big a jump up from that. Is it advisable though?


Take 3 A Levels like everyone else. This is a precipice for a possible catastrophe.


Posted from TSR Mobile
Take 4, Economics, French, German and Mathematics. Great subjects.

If you could pursue classical civilisation as the 5th (perhaps not examined) also so you can enjoy the arts, then all the better.

Would be interesting to do an exchange year that has a semester in France and a semester in Germany, if that was possible. If you get good grades in your languages then you could do a study exchange to one country and an industrial placement in the other, if you studied B.Sc. (Econ) Economics, Statistics and Mathematics at Queen Mary, University of London you could be studying mathematics for one year at ENSAI Ecole Nationale de la Statistique et de l'Analyse de L'Information near Rennes in France, summer associate at Deutsche Bank in Paris and then an industrial placement at Deutsche Bank in Frankfurt, or the other way round.. at Technische Universitaet Brunsweig in Germany, summer in Germany and placement year in Paris, graduate after returning to the UK, start working in London and then go off to New York! That's if you want a career in investment banking of course.

Start a studying twitter account and follow everything to do with economics in french and german, and everything to do with mathematics in french and german and with 2 years at a-level, gap year (which I recommend you do), another year at uni, that's 4 years to get you ready to study and work in europe, which is plenty of time to get competent and be confident.

Rabbling on but could get you far if you take hold of it now and get going with it!
Original post by hannahly
So originally I wanted to do French German Maths and Classical Civilisation with Economics as a back up for my A levels. Unfortunately, Maths and CC clash, so I either just do 3 (CC, French and German) or I can do 4 by doing Economics instead of CC.
I still would prefer to have a maths A Level, however, so would I be able to teach myself maths either as a 4th or 5th subject?
I have just done further maths at GCSE level so AS level isn't supposed to be too big a jump up from that. Is it advisable though?


Hey, I did 6 AS-levels and got 6As (Bio, Chem, Physics, Maths, Further Maths and Critical Thinking) then I dropped down to 4 A2s.(Bio, Chem, Physics, Maths). I will say that it was a lot of work and that you really need to be on top of your game to make sure it all goes to plan. I wanted to continue Further Maths to A2, but because of interviews and admissions tests it simply wasn't possible to do it. If you're doing it because of the possibility that it'll give you an edge for uni applications I'd say it's not worth it,

All the medical schools I applied to weren't interested in my "extra" qualifications.

In terms of whether Maths is self-teachable I would say it's very possible (if you willing to work very hard that is) especially for C1. C2 and S1 (I dunno if Maths A-level has changed).

But bear in mind all these subjects will leave you little time to chill out and have fun.
(edited 7 years ago)

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