Hi!I've been seeing a lot of threads lately about A-level options, and as a current Year 12 who was pretty stuck myself this time last year, I thought I'd put together a few tips on how you might like to go about making these all-important choices. Don't hesitate to ask whatever questions you'd like to below, or PM me! I eventually settled on maths, further maths, English literature, French and Latin, in case you have questions about what it's like to study those particular subjects.
1) Choose subjects you love.You probably hear this a lot from your teachers, but it is without a doubt the most important piece of advice you could receive. If you choose subjects you're not that interested in, having many more hours per week than you're used to of those subjects is going to make your school day pretty tiresome. This is why it's
really important to make sure you can see yourself going into much more depth in the subject areas you choose! Even if you're not particularly passionate about anything, if certain topics or skills within a subject interest you or you don't think you'd mind studying that subject for several hours per week, it might be a good idea to choose it.
2) Make sure your subjects complement each other.That doesn't mean they all have to be sciences or all have to be humanities, but studying subjects which help with each other or which show a varied but complementary set of skills will look good and also make your life easier. For example, if you're interested in politics, choosing multiple essay subjects like history and English will show that you have the skill set you need and give you lots of opportunity to practise those skills, but you might want to show that you're more versatile by picking something like maths alongside your essay subjects. Generally, only one A-level should be contrasting so that you don't lose focus, unless you want to go into quite a diverse field (you could do psychology with biology, chemistry, history and English for instance). Also, since the sciences (inc. maths) are so interlinked, choosing just one science probably isn't the best option.
3) Think about careers and uni.You certainly don't need to be 100% set on a degree and career at this point, but having an idea of what areas interest you and what skills you might need to pursue degrees or jobs in these areas will help. Many university courses will list recommended A-levels on their requirements pages, so it might be useful to browse through course catalogues on university websites and check which A-levels are required or recommended for any courses which sound attractive. Equally, it's important to bear in mind that
most jobs do not require specific degree subjects, let alone specific A-levels, so don't feel obliged to choose A-level economics just because you think you might want to go into finance, for example. The skills you learn from your A-levels are, in many cases, more important than the actual content.
4) Do your research.This doesn't just have to involve looking up the A-level specifications and content of the subjects you're interested in, although this is a good thing to do. It could mean talking to students who are studying or have studied a subject you're considering, talking to your subject teachers about the course content, even sitting in on lessons and borrowing textbooks if your teachers let you. If you can't decide, narrowing your choices down to a list of possibilities, thinking about which combinations of these possibilities would complement each other and finding out as much about them as you possibly can will certainly help (lists of pros and cons are also extremely useful!).
5) Interested in too much?So was I! To give you an idea of just how confused I was, my list of possibilities at the start of year 11 was maths, further maths, physics, chemistry, French, German, Latin, English literature and philosophy. I ended up hurriedly changing German to Latin two months after the options deadline and having a huge physics vs. English dilemma for several months - and it all worked out in the end! If you like too many subjects, try to work out what you like about each one and make sure your final choices include all of those aspects so that you don't end up missing a dropped subject too much. Don't be afraid to change your choices later if you have a sudden realisation; usually, schools and colleges will be quite accommodating.
6) If all else fails...Here are some versatile, well-regarded subjects to mix and match if you really have no idea!
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Maths - goes with absolutely everything.
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English literature - a core subject like maths, particularly useful in combination with humanities but also a good contrasting subject for science students.
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A "traditional" science: biology, chemistry or physics. These should be taken with at least one other science (traditional or otherwise) and/or maths.
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A foreign language (ancient or modern); these are useful and go with any other subject combination, but they are a lot of work!
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A "traditional" humanities subject: history or geography. History is a good subject for people taking English, languages or other essay subjects, while geography complements the sciences and economics quite well; both work well as contrasting subjects.