Is taking 4 A levels hard?
I'm in year 11 and predicted to get 9 in maths and 7/8 in everything else. I want to take computer science, psychology, maths and further maths for A level but I need to keep a constant good record throughout the year to keep my academic scholarship that I have. Will it be too hard to do 4 A levels and get pretty much A/A* for all of them and should I drop further maths? I don't need it for a computer science degree but it's helpful and I quite enjoy maths.
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If you want to do computer science, you would be better off with Computing, Maths and Further Maths
I would say it depends on what you academics were like prior. So if you enjoyed 4 of the subjects at GCSE level and want to learnt at A Level it would make sense.
Can you cope with the workload/pressures is another question you should ask yourself.
There isn't much point taking 4 because universities require 3 (even Oxford etc)
Oxbridge would rather A*AA than AABB.
Can you cope with the workload/pressures is another question you should ask yourself.
There isn't much point taking 4 because universities require 3 (even Oxford etc)
Oxbridge would rather A*AA than AABB.
Original post by GVqwWHJC1GRTm43
If you want to do computer science, you would be better off with Computing, Maths and Further Maths
Yeah thats what I was originally doing but the school I'm going to only offers Further maths as a fourth because apparently some universities count maths and further maths as 1 A level (which I really don't get).
I think you would be more than capable of doing it, I have chosen Maths further Maths chemistry and physics for next year and it is just understanding that you will need to work a lot harder but with them predicted grades, you will probably be used to that anyway. Best of luck
Original post by charhepenstal
Yeah thats what I was originally doing but the school I'm going to only offers Further maths as a fourth because apparently some universities count maths and further maths as 1 A level (which I really don't get).
I'll be doing maths, further maths and physics at A-level, only 3, even though further maths is only offered as a 4th A-level. All I had to do was keep e-mailing the college, phoning the college and talk to the vice-principle arguing why I'm only going to do maths, further maths and physics and threaten to:
go to a different college if I can't
or
refuse to attend the lessons of my 4th subject.
It worked.
Original post by Baza2002
I'll be doing maths, further maths and physics at A-level, only 3, even though further maths is only offered as a 4th A-level. All I had to do was keep e-mailing the college, phoning the college and talk to the vice-principle arguing why I'm only going to do maths, further maths and physics and threaten to:
go to a different college if I can't
or
refuse to attend the lessons of my 4th subject.
It worked.
go to a different college if I can't
or
refuse to attend the lessons of my 4th subject.
It worked.
Hahahaha I love your determination and honestly I would love to do the same but I don't want to risk losing my scholarship by arguing with the school.
Original post by Interea
I’m currently doing maths, further maths, chemistry and Latin, and I’m managing to maintain A*/A pretty consistently, having come from GCSEs similar to your predictions.
I think it would depend on how your school/college structures the further maths - at my school we get 10 lessons a fortnight per subject, and doing further maths means we get an extra 4 maths lessons a fortnight. This year (Yr12) we have mainly just done maths, and next year we’ll do further maths (sitting both at the end of next year), so it means we have completed the maths syllabus significantly faster than the other, non-further maths sets will. Given your strong maths predicted grade, I don’t expect that would be an issue, so if your school also just works through maths quicker you should be fine.
There’s nothing wrong with starting with 4, and if, for whatever reason, you find the workload too much, you can drop a subject once you’ve settled in to A levels. As you said, further maths is helpful and fun, so I would definitely recommend trying it if you can.
Good luck in your GCSEs!
I think it would depend on how your school/college structures the further maths - at my school we get 10 lessons a fortnight per subject, and doing further maths means we get an extra 4 maths lessons a fortnight. This year (Yr12) we have mainly just done maths, and next year we’ll do further maths (sitting both at the end of next year), so it means we have completed the maths syllabus significantly faster than the other, non-further maths sets will. Given your strong maths predicted grade, I don’t expect that would be an issue, so if your school also just works through maths quicker you should be fine.
There’s nothing wrong with starting with 4, and if, for whatever reason, you find the workload too much, you can drop a subject once you’ve settled in to A levels. As you said, further maths is helpful and fun, so I would definitely recommend trying it if you can.
Good luck in your GCSEs!
Thank you! Yeah I would really like to finish the whole course with 4 and I'll feel so defeated if I have to drop 1 so I'm really reluctant to do so but I don't want average grades by the end of it.
Original post by charhepenstal
Hahahaha I love your determination and honestly I would love to do the same but I don't want to risk losing my scholarship by arguing with the school.
I'm doing my GCSEs now and I wish I'd chosen Spanish instead of history - if I'd have done Spanish I would have taken 5 A-levels (maths, further maths, physic, french and spanish) instead of 3 (maths, further maths and physics).
Original post by Baza2002
I'm doing my GCSEs now and I wish I'd chosen Spanish instead of history - if I'd have done Spanish I would have taken 5 A-levels (maths, further maths, physic, french and spanish) instead of 3 (maths, further maths and physics).
JEEEZZZZ 5?!! God I wish I could handle that good luck for GCSE's and A levels
I was an all A student at GCSE and am struggling with 3 Alevels. But I think if you are dedicated to work and will 100% work as hard as possible then you will be fine with four. My problem is my mental health has made me completely lose all motivation but you should be fine!!
Original post by charhepenstal
I'm in year 11 and predicted to get 9 in maths and 7/8 in everything else. I want to take computer science, psychology, maths and further maths for A level but I need to keep a constant good record throughout the year to keep my academic scholarship that I have. Will it be too hard to do 4 A levels and get pretty much A/A* for all of them and should I drop further maths? I don't need it for a computer science degree but it's helpful and I quite enjoy maths.
It's recommended to only do 3. A-Levels are so much more work than GCSEs, more than most people expect. It would be better for you to get 3 A*s than 4 As, especially with your scholarship. Work hard on 3 and get amazing results, as it'll feel better than doing 4 and getting worse than you wanted.
Original post by charhepenstal
JEEEZZZZ 5?!! God I wish I could handle that good luck for GCSE's and A levels
I'm only going to be doing 3 though because I didn't choose Spanish - I thought it would only be worth taking a language if I was going to take 2 languages, but I'm only doing french at gcse and not french and spanish.
are you doing ocr computer science. that paper yesterday was a sh*t tonne easier than the mock exams and sample papers.
Original post by charhepenstal
I'm in year 11 and predicted to get 9 in maths and 7/8 in everything else. I want to take computer science, psychology, maths and further maths for A level but I need to keep a constant good record throughout the year to keep my academic scholarship that I have. Will it be too hard to do 4 A levels and get pretty much A/A* for all of them and should I drop further maths? I don't need it for a computer science degree but it's helpful and I quite enjoy maths.
Honestly I find that 4 a levels is fine, especially considering how much maths and further maths are obviously related. I still have plenty of frees, enough that I get bored and should probably be more productive in them. I could easily get all my work done in school but I prefer working at home, and now I’m obviously doing more work revising since it’s exam season.
The people at my school who do 3 a levels have so many frees I wouldn’t know what to do with myself. 8 frees a week is enough for me (they have 12)
Although my opinion may be slightly skewed as I dropped down to 4 a levels from 5 in year 12 (dropped tech due to department issues and how bad my timetable for year 13 was - all my frees over for the week by Tuesday lunch!)
i take 5 a levels
Original post by Baza2002
I'm only going to be doing 3 though because I didn't choose Spanish - I thought it would only be worth taking a language if I was going to take 2 languages, but I'm only doing french at gcse and not french and spanish.
are you doing ocr computer science. that paper yesterday was a sh*t tonne easier than the mock exams and sample papers.
are you doing ocr computer science. that paper yesterday was a sh*t tonne easier than the mock exams and sample papers.
Yeah I'm doing OCR and yeah I found the paper pretty much alright I'm fully bricking it for paper 2 though I've been binge-watching the Computer Science Tutor on youtube haha algorithms just love to f*ck me over like when we had a 6 marker for 3 bloody lines of psuedocode like what????
Original post by charhepenstal
Yeah I'm doing OCR and yeah I found the paper pretty much alright I'm fully bricking it for paper 2 though I've been binge-watching the Computer Science Tutor on youtube haha algorithms just love to f*ck me over like when we had a 6 marker for 3 bloody lines of psuedocode like what????
I was hoping paper 1 would be really hard because I'm really good at paper 1 because you just need to memorize the content, you don't even need to understand any of it - I could have got ahead of most people with paper 1 but because it was so easy it is harder to create that gap between myself (aiming for a 7 or an 8) and the, what to say... , lower ability people. I hate paper 2 and will probably get somewhere between 45% and 55%.
100 people on an island = the easiest 8 mark ethics question there has ever been
Original post by Baza2002
I was hoping paper 1 would be really hard because I'm really good at paper 1 because you just need to memorize the content, you don't even need to understand any of it - I could have got ahead of most people with paper 1 but because it was so easy it is harder to create that gap between myself (aiming for a 7 or an 8) and the, what to say... , lower ability people. I hate paper 2 and will probably get somewhere between 45% and 55%.
100 people on an island = the easiest 8 mark ethics question there has ever been
100 people on an island = the easiest 8 mark ethics question there has ever been
I think everyone hates paper 2 and I agree I'm aiming for 7/8 and paper 1 was really going to be where I was going to get more marks than others but the whole paper was generally common sense - I didn't learn any of the licensing stuff though and that was a 5 marker I wanted to die but I guessed and when people checked in the revision guide I wasn't far off so I definitly picked up a few marks there
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