Maths or Chemistry A level

I'm thinking of doing Geography Biology and psychology and I need one more A-level to go with them.
I got an a* in chemistry gcses and scraped a 7 in maths
I found maths very stressful at gcses now wondering whether I should do either maths or chemistry and if they are easy to keep up with even tho I feel like I will be behind alot of people if I do maths.
Also what would be the most useful considering the subjects I'm already taking?

(edited 6 years ago)

Reply 1

username2911200

Original post by James12986

I'm thinking of doing Geography Biology and psychology.
I got an a* in chemistry gcses and scraped a 7 in maths
I found maths very stressful at gcses now wondering whether I should do either maths or chemistry and if they are easy to keep up with even tho I feel like I will be behind alot of people if I do maths.
Also what would be the most useful considering the subjects I'm already taking?

What do you want to study at university?

Reply 2

James12986

Original post by Glassapple

What do you want to study at university?

I'm not 100% sure I'm quite open between geography medicine and computing

Reply 3

username2911200

Original post by James12986

I'm not 100% sure I'm quite open between geography medicine and computing

If you want to do medicine then you must 100% take chemistry, it's a non-negotiable requirement for every single medicine degree in the country and you won't get in anywhere without it.

Reply 4

James12986

Original post by Glassapple

If you want to do medicine then you must 100% take chemistry, it's a non-negotiable requirement for every single medicine degree in the country and you won't get in anywhere without it.

will I be able to do computing without maths ?

Reply 5

Zach3

Original post by James12986

will I be able to do computing without maths ?

No, you need Chemistry to do Medicine and Maths to do Computing (the most competitive courses will also prefer Further Maths).

It would be useful to know your other subject choices.

Reply 6

artful_lounger

Universities Forum Helper

Original post by James12986

I'm not 100% sure I'm quite open between geography medicine and computing

As noted, Chemistry to at least AS level is a requirement for medicine - and the vast majority require it to full A-level (in fact Barts & the London is the only one I can think of which doesn't explicitly require A-level Chemistry).

For Computing/Computer Science, Mathematics is required by most courses - in particular, anything that isn't "applied" computing or similar will require Mathematics normally. Further Mathematics is considered helpful, and is required for Imperial and taken by the vast majority applying to Oxbridge (and possibly Warwick).

Geography has no particular subject requirements except sometimes Geography. Earth Sciences/Geology/Oceanography, however, normally require two sciences, and sometimes specify Maths either in addition to those or as one of them. In your case I would suggest taking swapping Psychology for Chemistry, as this leaves Medicine, Geography, and most Earth Sciences type courses as options - as well as any other course without specific subject requirements (for example, Psychology).

I would recommend forgetting about Computer Science - while A-level Maths is quite different, qualitatively, to GCSE, if you absolutely hate maths then that's not likely to change. If you were merely ambivalent towards it, then you'd probably find the material at A-level much more interesting and the problem solving style more engaging. As it is, it seems this isn't the case and so you shouldn't take it - and hence shouldn't consider CS further (although there may be some IT/Software Development type courses that may take you without A-level Maths, this is quite a different niche).