Helppp alevel choices

I'm struggling to decide between Physics and Economics. My concern with economics is that it isn't useful unless you are going to do econ/finance/business etc. My concern with Physics is that there aren't AS's any more and therefore if i struggle with it, or don't like it I will be stuck with it for the whole year. I like most of the GCSE physics topics but the spec and people that I've talked too give me the impression that it's pretty difficult. I don't want to do engineering but physics opens up the doors regardless. Physics is often regarded as the hardest or one of the hardest a levels and since i'm doing 4 i will already have a lot on my plate. Physics is more respected but i could get a lower grade in it. I am already taking Bio, Maths, Geo. Physics complements Maths and Econ complements Geography. I am already taking 3 facilitating subjects so the fact that Econ isn't one doesn't really matter to me.
Sorry for the long paragraph but some people are convinced i should take econ and others physics and although they don't mean to are giving me really biased advice. Econ is the safe option... I'm not sure if it is worth taking the risk when my future is at stake.

I would appreciate any responses. Thanks xx

I'm struggling to decide between Physics and Economics. My concern with economics is that it isn't useful unless you are going to do econ/finance/business etc. My concern with Physics is that there aren't AS's any more and therefore if i struggle with it, or don't like it I will be stuck with it for the whole year. I like most of the GCSE physics topics but the spec and people that I've talked too give me the impression that it's pretty difficult. I don't want to do engineering but physics opens up the doors regardless. Physics is often regarded as the hardest or one of the hardest a levels and since i'm doing 4 i will already have a lot on my plate. Physics is more respected but i could get a lower grade in it. I am already taking Bio, Maths, Geo. Physics complements Maths and Econ complements Geography. I am already taking 3 facilitating subjects so the fact that Econ isn't one doesn't really matter to me.
Sorry for the long paragraph but some people are convinced i should take econ and others physics and although they don't mean to are giving me really biased advice. Econ is the safe option... I'm not sure if it is worth taking the risk when my future is at stake.

I would appreciate any responses. Thanks xx

I'm struggling to decide between Physics and Economics. My concern with economics is that it isn't useful unless you are going to do econ/finance/business etc. My concern with Physics is that there aren't AS's any more and therefore if i struggle with it, or don't like it I will be stuck with it for the whole year. I like most of the GCSE physics topics but the spec and people that I've talked too give me the impression that it's pretty difficult. I don't want to do engineering but physics opens up the doors regardless. Physics is often regarded as the hardest or one of the hardest a levels and since i'm doing 4 i will already have a lot on my plate. Physics is more respected but i could get a lower grade in it. I am already taking Bio, Maths, Geo. Physics complements Maths and Econ complements Geography. I am already taking 3 facilitating subjects so the fact that Econ isn't one doesn't really matter to me.
Sorry for the long paragraph but some people are convinced i should take econ and others physics and although they don't mean to are giving me really biased advice. Econ is the safe option... I'm not sure if it is worth taking the risk when my future is at stake.

I would appreciate any responses. Thanks xx

Sounds like a difficult dilemma! I've just made my a-level choices, and I'm doing bio, chem, maths and physics with the view that if the workload is too much I can always drop physics and still do biochem at uni (luckily in Wales AS levels are still a thing). If I were you, I'd do physics just because a lot of what's in economics is probably covered in mats (although I haven't seen the spec) and physics will open up lots of career paths. Definitely depends on your long term plans, though. Equally, the most important thing is that you enjoy your next two years, so if economics is the one which makes you happier then 100% go with that. At the end of the day, just go for the one you like best because it'll make you want to revise more. Good luck deciding, it's so hard! x

I've gone through high school, university, have worked in a graduate job and have come back to university and I can tell you that your A level subjects don't really matter unless you specifically need them to get into a course at university.

If you want to do Physics at uni, you'll need Physics A level. If you want to do Geography at university, you can choose either Econ or Physics - universities really don't care as long as you get good grades.

Do the subject that interests you the most and the one that'll get you the best grade. Universities care about grades and not whether one is considered more useful or not.

Do you know if you want to go to university? If you do want to go, do you know what you want to study? Do you need either Economics or Physics for what you want to study at university?


Remember - it doesn't matter what you study at A level as long as you get the best possible grades you can and you don't need a specific subject for a degree course.

I originally did French and Spanish at the University of Edinburgh and my only prerequisite was that I had the equivalent of A level French. That's it. I could've done A level French, Maths, Physics and Chemistry and I still would've gotten in to do French and Spanish at Edinburgh. My friend did A level Maths, Physics and Art with an AS in Spanish and got in for Japanese at university.
My other friend wanted to do Medicine. The only prerequisite he had was to have the equivalent of A level Chemistry and Bio. Apart from those two, he could've done whatever he wanted to. I think he even did P.E.

To be honest, if you're already doing 3 and not particularly interested in a career with Physics or Economics, it doesn't really matter. You'll NEED physics if you want to take a physics or engineering course at uni, but if not there's no particular reason to take it as a 4th.
The same pretty much goes for economics, except you could probably get away with just having maths if you want to do something economics-related at uni or in the future.

You could always start with Physics, and if you find it too difficult or not worth it, your sixth form would probably let you swap to economics in the first few months. That's pretty much the only way to really find out if you'll handle it well.

unless you planning on doing engineering you dont need Physics. You only need 3 A levels anyway. If you want to take Economics in case you decide to drop a subject fine otherwise dont bother.

Some of the sixth forms i'm applying to require 4 alevels and there are also many courses (not engineering) that i'm interested in that require physics. Sorry if i didn't give you the full picture

what courses require Physics

For example geophsyics

I can’t speak for economics but I can for physics. When I first decided to do physics everyone on TSR was literally trying to put me off saying it was super hard, but me being me I picked it anyway and I can tell you now it is not the hardest a level, in fact I find it the easiest of the subjects I do. Plus I’ve found that the topics you study at A level are so much more interesting that what was covered at GCSE. But believe me don’t be put off by people saying it’s hard, it’s not (and this is coming from someone who isn’t particularly strong at maths)
If you can’t decide you can always take both and then decide which one you like better and drop one after the first few weeks 🙂

In that case you will have no choice but to take Physics

What are the other subjects you do
I can't take both because then i would be doing 5 subjects but thanks anyway

Yeah but then you can temporarily take 5 and drop the ones you struggle with later on and end up with 3 .
I take physics, chemistry and biology

My school doesn't allow that

Thanks for your help, but I think i've decided to take economics