A-Level choices (hELp))

You know what? Great choices. I approve. If you were to go into medicine, your choices would be limited at best, but you have other plans too, so that's fine.

Hey, thanks for your quick response! Do you think I could take medicine if I don't take biology though? thanks~

Maths art and computer science sounds like a great combination to me. There's variety between the subjects, and they can all compliment each other well (maths & computer science is obvious, but I'd also argue art & computer science go well together, particularly if you're interested in videogame design or anything that involves a nice UI).

Most importantly though is taking subjects you'll find interesting, there aren't really any bad subjects, and most of your choices seem to compliment each other. You don't want a job in something you're uninterested in, and if you choose subjects you actually like then you're less likely to get sick of your subjects, which will make studying much easier and actually relevant for you.

It's probably not for everyone, but taking an EPQ could be great if you're a little unsure on what you want to do. It doesn't have to be anything too formal, it doesn't need to be something you're taking a relavant A-level for, and you can change it pretty heavily if your interests change (I literally started my EPQ working in a pair programming a pokémon fan-game, and four months later I'm making a metroidvania on my own and making the animations for it).

Take whatever you're interested in, all those subjects sound good! You'll probably get a stronger idea of what you want to do over time, and you can always study the other things later on, or less formally while you're doing your A-levels.

Thanks for your advice!!! Do you think I should be taking further maths or computer science? Because I see that a lot of universities take computer science (the course) for those who do further maths and that computer science isn't required...

Those 4 are all good subjects to choose at AS, but I would recommend dropping the subject you find to be weaker or the one you lose the most interest in after you finish AS. As universities only require 3 subjects and there really is no advantage in having 4.

Those 4 are all good subjects to choose at AS, but I would recommend dropping the subject you find to be weaker or the one you lose the most interest in after you finish AS. As universities only require 3 subjects and there really is no advantage in having 4.

I too took maths, chemistry, and art (but I had physics too, which I dropped after AS as it was too hard.)
I would only recommend choosing further maths if you REALLY like maths as it will be very hard. All my friends dropped it. But you are not them so you might find it easier who knows.

Art will be very time consuming and I totally regret choosing it, I should have taken computer science instead of as that is what I am going for haha

Ok now for the courses:
- For a medicine type course, a majority of the universities need chemistry as well as maths, physics or biology. So I suggest you take maths and chemistry.
- For computer science the top uni's require maths and the rest will have an option of maths or computer science. So you don't really need computer science, but it will help.
- For a scientist/data research, it is the same subjects for medicine/pharmaceutical courses.
- For accounting, there is no requirement, but the ones that will help are maths, accounting, economics, and business studies.
- For any art related subjects, you only need art and maybe maths if you were to go into architecture.

I really don't think you need further maths, but take it if you really want to. I would suggest maybe biology to help with medicine or something else.

Before A levels I didn't know what I wanted to do exactly too. I had a few ideas for doing animation or some type of engineering. So I took the subjects that would open the most paths for me (maths, chem, physics, and art)
But soon after I told my parents about my animation career idea, and they soon told me to let go of that idea as they said I probably won't get a job. But this is not the case, there are many opportunities. (They are Asian and think I should go with the traditional fields lol)
Then I jumped between different engineering areas such as aerospace, mechanical, civil and software. Then the time to apply for uni came out of nowhere so I chose software engineering. But changed it to computer science as it has a higher scope and I can do software engineering as a job if I want to (assuming I get the degree of course haha)
I didn't choose any of the other engineerings as physics will play a big part and physics was SOOO hard for me.

But ye now I applied for computer science and no idea what I am in for. So I suggest you find out a lot of info in the next year for each career path so you know what you want to do.
But it's still okay if you don't know what you want to do with your life as there are many 25+year-olds who are still lost. xD

You essentially want to choose the subjects you are most interested in and the ones you enjoy the most. As when it comes to revision it will be much easier. (GCSE's are nothing compared to A levels. Trust me.)

Wow this is was long haha
enjoy
and good luck

Furthermore, taking maths, futher maths and computer science all together would be horrible with the amount of memorising facts and uncreative stuff you would have to do. It would get stressful and mind-numbing.

I know someone that takes that combination. I think it probably just boils down to the person.

Thank you soooo much for your great advice! I feel like i relate to you at SO MANY LEVELS. I have asian parents too who told me to not do art as they told me it was useless and had THE SAME REACTION WHEN I SAID THAT I WANTED TO DO ANIMATION haha but i persisted since i really enjoyed it.
I want to ask, if you don't mind, what made you not want to do animation? and also what made you go into computer science?

You should get experience during the summer holidays in different areas and then choose the subjects depending on what you like and grades too. Also, look at the courses at uni and write a down a list of subject combinations and requirements. I have a weird subject combination too which made it difficult for me to choose courses at uni, as I did not have that many options. I am thinking of doing Computer Science at uni, and it was hard for me to get chosen by uni since Comp sci gives priority to people who have a good personal statement and how your subjects relate to the course you want to do and, obviously good predicted grades.
Oh yee, and in my opinion, some subjects are easy at GCSEs but very hard at A levels. Like, Biology is very hard because there's too much content to learn, while on the other hand, I find Computer Science easier. It's basically GCSEs stuffs but a bit in depth

oh, may i ask how computer science A-level is like? I haven't taken it for GCSEs and i only grew an interest for it at the start of year 11 so i practically know nothing :/

oh, may i ask how computer science A-level is like? I haven't taken it for GCSEs and i only grew an interest for it at the start of year 11 so i practically know nothing :/

I just wrote this out and realised I'm not the person you were replying to (I'm still getting used to this website lol), but I'll post this anyway, in case you're interested.

The course seems to be trying to cover a variety of bases all at once, teaching the basics of a lot of areas of computer science, while going more in-depth with object-oriented programming. I don't feel like it's a very hard course, but if you haven't done the GCSE course, you might need to catch up on assumed knowledge in quite a few topics.

I won't go through all the topics, but some examples are;
Some object-oriented programming (we do Java at my school), a little declarative programming in SQL, a little website design HTML & CSS.
Some binary arithmetic and stuff about data types.
Some internet theory, such as how packet switching and different malware work.
Some software development theory, such as different methods of development.