bio, chem, psychology and history a levels??
these are the options i was thinking of taking for a level (options have to be in in 2 days ahhhhhhh!) any advice on how people have found them and if they enjoy the subjects, and if a combination of these 4 will be unmanageable or too much work? thank you! 
(chemistry is ocr, rest are aqa)
(chemistry is ocr, rest are aqa)Scroll to see replies
Original post by beaaaan
these are the options i was thinking of taking for a level (options have to be in in 2 days ahhhhhhh!) any advice on how people have found them and if they enjoy the subjects, and if a combination of these 4 will be unmanageable or too much work? thank you! (chemistry is ocr, rest are aqa)
(chemistry is ocr, rest are aqa)Biology, chemistry and psychology are a very good combination, especially if you want to do something like medicine at uni.
I advise you picking only 3 A-levels since 4 would be really hard to manage and a lot of stress. But if you're up for a challenge then go for it haha. And maybe you could pick psychology instead of history since it's so much more interesting than history; you learn so much about yourself, others, and much more. Plus it's a good combo!
Original post by beaaaan
these are the options i was thinking of taking for a level (options have to be in in 2 days ahhhhhhh!) any advice on how people have found them and if they enjoy the subjects, and if a combination of these 4 will be unmanageable or too much work? thank you! (chemistry is ocr, rest are aqa)
(chemistry is ocr, rest are aqa)what do you want to do as a degree? drop psych. its a pointless subject at A level as its not a pre-requisite for the degree and 4 a levels are unnecessary.
Original post by CollectiveSoul
what do you want to do as a degree? drop psych. its a pointless subject at A level as its not a pre-requisite for the degree and 4 a levels are unnecessary.
Pointless subject? Well that's funny.
Hi!
If I'm really honest with you- I feel it would be really difficult for you if you choose the 4 alevels that you mentioned!
I feel adding History to the combination will be very stressful!
My advice to you would be to do Biology,Chemistry (if you really want to do them) and do psychology and if you REALLY want to do 4 subjects maybe pick up a BTEC subject alongside the 3 alevels
Psychology I found amazing!
From my own experience, I found Alevel Chemistry difficult and as I'm at university now doing a foundation programme; Biology Alevel has alot of difficult content too that requires some time to grasp!
Good luck
If I'm really honest with you- I feel it would be really difficult for you if you choose the 4 alevels that you mentioned!
I feel adding History to the combination will be very stressful!
My advice to you would be to do Biology,Chemistry (if you really want to do them) and do psychology and if you REALLY want to do 4 subjects maybe pick up a BTEC subject alongside the 3 alevels
Psychology I found amazing!
From my own experience, I found Alevel Chemistry difficult and as I'm at university now doing a foundation programme; Biology Alevel has alot of difficult content too that requires some time to grasp!
Good luck
Original post by gandalfhan
I advise you picking only 3 A-levels since 4 would be really hard to manage and a lot of stress. But if you're up for a challenge then go for it haha. And maybe you could pick psychology instead of history since it's so much more interesting than history; you learn so much about yourself, others, and much more. Plus it's a good combo!
thanks! i’m happy trying to do 4 but worried about wasting a year on a subject just to have to drop it! i would much rather do psychology (looks wayyyy more interesting and is something i might want to do in the future!) the only thing drawing me towards history is the wider range of subjects it gives me (opens up humanities degrees and would be my only essay based subject rather than just science, as well as being facilitating) so i didn’t know which to pick!
Original post by CollectiveSoul
what do you want to do as a degree? drop psych. its a pointless subject at A level as its not a pre-requisite for the degree and 4 a levels are unnecessary.
psychology is something that really interests me and while i’m aware you can do it as a degree without the a level, the degrees i would be intrested in (maybe marketing and advertising, criminology and law or human biology) have psychology aspects, so psych a level would be useful for them as i wouldn’t be directly taking a psychology degree but rather something related to it (if that makes sense!) but i know it isn’t facilitating like history is which was why i wanted to take all 4
Speaking as a biochemist in training that did History - this was probably one of the most useful A-levels I ever did. It was here that I really learned to critically evaluate sources. I highly recommend it. Your reports will be better for the writing style and you will find trawling through papers a lot easier as you will be able discard bogus experiments much more quickly.
Still, it depends on what you want to do.
Still, it depends on what you want to do.
Two facilitating subjects is absolutely fine for any uni, so don't choose History just because it is facilitating.
Four subjects is difficult. I would recommend you take all four and, after a couple of months, assess whether you can continue with it. It might be too much of a workload, in which case you can drop your least favourite. Check with your school to see if it would be possible! I began studying four A Levels and dropped one after two weeks, so no harm done there and it let me realise I didn't want to do Psychology that much after all.
Four subjects is difficult. I would recommend you take all four and, after a couple of months, assess whether you can continue with it. It might be too much of a workload, in which case you can drop your least favourite. Check with your school to see if it would be possible! I began studying four A Levels and dropped one after two weeks, so no harm done there and it let me realise I didn't want to do Psychology that much after all.
Original post by Alisha999
Hi!
If I'm really honest with you- I feel it would be really difficult for you if you choose the 4 alevels that you mentioned!
I feel adding History to the combination will be very stressful!
My advice to you would be to do Biology,Chemistry (if you really want to do them) and do psychology and if you REALLY want to do 4 subjects maybe pick up a BTEC subject alongside the 3 alevels
Psychology I found amazing!
From my own experience, I found Alevel Chemistry difficult and as I'm at university now doing a foundation programme; Biology Alevel has alot of difficult content too that requires some time to grasp!
Good luck
If I'm really honest with you- I feel it would be really difficult for you if you choose the 4 alevels that you mentioned!
I feel adding History to the combination will be very stressful!
My advice to you would be to do Biology,Chemistry (if you really want to do them) and do psychology and if you REALLY want to do 4 subjects maybe pick up a BTEC subject alongside the 3 alevels
Psychology I found amazing!
From my own experience, I found Alevel Chemistry difficult and as I'm at university now doing a foundation programme; Biology Alevel has alot of difficult content too that requires some time to grasp!
Good luck
thank you so much!
i know 4 would be very difficult but i was torn between psych and history (psychology is something i enjoy and am interested in, while history is facilitaing and would open more doors and degrees due to the essay nature!) which was why i was wondering about the 4 of them together, plus all my teachers told me to do 4! i just don’t know whether to risk doing all of them and potentially end up having to drop one (probably history- not something i particularly enjoy and i’m not as good at essay subjects) leaving me with 3 a levels or ensure 3 and a half by taking either history or psych and change the other one to AS maths just for the first year, allowing me to focus on the other 3 for the second year! i was originally going to do the 3 and a half, but couldn’t decide between history or psychology which was why i was tempted to do 4, but after reading this psych seems more appealing!
Original post by Dannyboy2015
Speaking as a biochemist in training that did History - this was probably one of the most useful A-levels I ever did. It was here that I really learned to critically evaluate sources. I highly recommend it. Your reports will be better for the writing style and you will find trawling through papers a lot easier as you will be able discard bogus experiments much more quickly.
Still, it depends on what you want to do.
Still, it depends on what you want to do.
hi!
i know that in all degrees history is valuable for the essay skills you gain like you’ve said, which was why i put it among my options! my only worry is i find essay based subjects harder than more logical subjects like science, and particularly with the longer history essay questions, i feel like i won’t achieve a grade as high as if i did another science subject like psychology! still i know how many doors it would open so i was torn about which to pick!
Original post by beaaaan
hi!
i know that in all degrees history is valuable for the essay skills you gain like you’ve said, which was why i put it among my options! my only worry is i find essay based subjects harder than more logical subjects like science, and particularly with the longer history essay questions, i feel like i won’t achieve a grade as high as if i did another science subject like psychology! still i know how many doors it would open so i was torn about which to pick!
i know that in all degrees history is valuable for the essay skills you gain like you’ve said, which was why i put it among my options! my only worry is i find essay based subjects harder than more logical subjects like science, and particularly with the longer history essay questions, i feel like i won’t achieve a grade as high as if i did another science subject like psychology! still i know how many doors it would open so i was torn about which to pick!
If you have the right history teachers it can be a very logical subject.
e.g. there are (at least in AS), 3 main components to most exam questions including a mix of social/economic/political/war and then each of those have a few points to either back or disagree with the Q. You use those points with statistics to back up what you are saying whilst recognising the other side of the argument and explaining why you think it is wrong.
That and analysing the date a source was made in order to say whether or not the historian was influenced by events at the time/etc make History a very logical thinking field imo.
Original post by beaaaan
thank you so much!
i know 4 would be very difficult but i was torn between psych and history (psychology is something i enjoy and am interested in, while history is facilitaing and would open more doors and degrees due to the essay nature!) which was why i was wondering about the 4 of them together, plus all my teachers told me to do 4! i just don’t know whether to risk doing all of them and potentially end up having to drop one (probably history- not something i particularly enjoy and i’m not as good at essay subjects) leaving me with 3 a levels or ensure 3 and a half by taking either history or psych and change the other one to AS maths just for the first year, allowing me to focus on the other 3 for the second year! i was originally going to do the 3 and a half, but couldn’t decide between history or psychology which was why i was tempted to do 4, but after reading this psych seems more appealing!
i know 4 would be very difficult but i was torn between psych and history (psychology is something i enjoy and am interested in, while history is facilitaing and would open more doors and degrees due to the essay nature!) which was why i was wondering about the 4 of them together, plus all my teachers told me to do 4! i just don’t know whether to risk doing all of them and potentially end up having to drop one (probably history- not something i particularly enjoy and i’m not as good at essay subjects) leaving me with 3 a levels or ensure 3 and a half by taking either history or psych and change the other one to AS maths just for the first year, allowing me to focus on the other 3 for the second year! i was originally going to do the 3 and a half, but couldn’t decide between history or psychology which was why i was tempted to do 4, but after reading this psych seems more appealing!
Psychology is definitely more interesting!
And no problem
Original post by Conniestitution
Two facilitating subjects is absolutely fine for any uni, so don't choose History just because it is facilitating.
Four subjects is difficult. I would recommend you take all four and, after a couple of months, assess whether you can continue with it. It might be too much of a workload, in which case you can drop your least favourite. Check with your school to see if it would be possible! I began studying four A Levels and dropped one after two weeks, so no harm done there and it let me realise I didn't want to do Psychology that much after all.
Four subjects is difficult. I would recommend you take all four and, after a couple of months, assess whether you can continue with it. It might be too much of a workload, in which case you can drop your least favourite. Check with your school to see if it would be possible! I began studying four A Levels and dropped one after two weeks, so no harm done there and it let me realise I didn't want to do Psychology that much after all.
thanks!
although history is facilitating, i was thinking about taking it more because it would be my only essay subject and as i’m not sure what to do, i feel something other than a science subject would be valuable! my only worry with taking all 4 and dropping one is that i don’t know whether it’s better to do that and see which subjct i prefer by taking both of them so i have 3 a levels in the end or to pick either history ir psych before i start and do AS maths instead of the other one so i have definitely 3 and a half a levels (if that makes sense!) i just don’t want to waste time doing a subject i’m just going to drop!
I understand this perfectly, the subject I dropped I was originally planning on doing for two years but TRUST me when I say the workload changes your mind. Also, make sure your school offers AS Levels - most don't anymore because the content in AS Level is slightly different and they no longer count towards an A2. Double also - many consider Psychology an essay based subject, you write a lot of reports.
Getting an extra AS Level doesn't really change your application too much, there's no major benefit to doing an extra subject. (I know it feels like it will make a big difference but, nah, honestly not. It's also likely your grades could drop when doing four subjects because there's a lot of extra work.) However, a lot of Universities like EPQs, which are extended projects that can be specific to the course you want to study at degree level - they're worth half an A Level.
Getting an extra AS Level doesn't really change your application too much, there's no major benefit to doing an extra subject. (I know it feels like it will make a big difference but, nah, honestly not. It's also likely your grades could drop when doing four subjects because there's a lot of extra work.) However, a lot of Universities like EPQs, which are extended projects that can be specific to the course you want to study at degree level - they're worth half an A Level.
Original post by beaaaan
thanks!
although history is facilitating, i was thinking about taking it more because it would be my only essay subject and as i’m not sure what to do, i feel something other than a science subject would be valuable! my only worry with taking all 4 and dropping one is that i don’t know whether it’s better to do that and see which subjct i prefer by taking both of them so i have 3 a levels in the end or to pick either history ir psych before i start and do AS maths instead of the other one so i have definitely 3 and a half a levels (if that makes sense!) i just don’t want to waste time doing a subject i’m just going to drop!
although history is facilitating, i was thinking about taking it more because it would be my only essay subject and as i’m not sure what to do, i feel something other than a science subject would be valuable! my only worry with taking all 4 and dropping one is that i don’t know whether it’s better to do that and see which subjct i prefer by taking both of them so i have 3 a levels in the end or to pick either history ir psych before i start and do AS maths instead of the other one so i have definitely 3 and a half a levels (if that makes sense!) i just don’t want to waste time doing a subject i’m just going to drop!
Original post by beaaaan
thanks! i’m happy trying to do 4 but worried about wasting a year on a subject just to have to drop it! i would much rather do psychology (looks wayyyy more interesting and is something i might want to do in the future!) the only thing drawing me towards history is the wider range of subjects it gives me (opens up humanities degrees and would be my only essay based subject rather than just science, as well as being facilitating) so i didn’t know which to pick!
Psychology is an essay subject too! Plus psychology, chemistry and biology open a lot of careers for you. For example, you could be a doctor, psychiatrist, forensic psychologist (dark side of psychology), clinical psychologist, biochemical engineer, pharmacist, and much more.
do chem/bio/psych if you wanna go into the science root/medicine
do chem/bio/history if you think you may wanna also study humanities in the future - you can also study science/medicine too
i'm in y13 and do chem/bio/english lit and i was honestly gonna do history instead of english but dropped it last minute. history is v time consuming and the most difficult humanities subject imo. i don't think it works particularly well as a contrasting subject like english, geography or psych do (they are arguably less complex/ time consuming)... history works really well with other humanities subjects. since history/psych is gonna be ur third subject i'd urge you to take the subject that you know you're gonna get an A/A* in (to an extent as A-levels can be a drastic change from GCSEs). but if youre passionate about history and ready for a challenge then defo take it.
i remember being in your position in y11 and disregarding certain subjects because they were not 'facilitating'. but honestly with chem/bio your subject combination will be highly regarded by unis regardless of the third subject
do chem/bio/history if you think you may wanna also study humanities in the future - you can also study science/medicine too
i'm in y13 and do chem/bio/english lit and i was honestly gonna do history instead of english but dropped it last minute. history is v time consuming and the most difficult humanities subject imo. i don't think it works particularly well as a contrasting subject like english, geography or psych do (they are arguably less complex/ time consuming)... history works really well with other humanities subjects. since history/psych is gonna be ur third subject i'd urge you to take the subject that you know you're gonna get an A/A* in (to an extent as A-levels can be a drastic change from GCSEs). but if youre passionate about history and ready for a challenge then defo take it.
i remember being in your position in y11 and disregarding certain subjects because they were not 'facilitating'. but honestly with chem/bio your subject combination will be highly regarded by unis regardless of the third subject
Original post by Deliciate
do chem/bio/psych if you wanna go into the science root/medicine
do chem/bio/history if you think you may wanna also study humanities in the future - you can also study science/medicine too
do chem/bio/history if you think you may wanna also study humanities in the future - you can also study science/medicine too
To those saying that psychology is better for science related degrees... Ummmm, no.
Can we get over the idea that History is not a good subject if you want to study the sciences? It is one of the best, universities like the fact that you have taken a subject where you are able to critically evaluate a source and write solid reports, backed by evidence.
That is what you learn in history, and is 90% of what a science related degree is. It is undeniably useful - coming from someone just over a year away from having their masters in Biochemistry (bearing in mind, when it comes to CW I am always achieving 70-85% at uni). --> This is also known by universities
Psychology, although I'm sure is useful, is very over-subscribed at every level and does not make you stand out. It is also not seen as a science by most universities when it comes to needing an extra science subject for medicine.
Original post by Dannyboy2015
To those saying that psychology is better for science related degrees... Ummmm, no.
Can we get over the idea that History is not a good subject if you want to study the sciences? It is one of the best, universities like the fact that you have taken a subject where you are able to critically evaluate a source and write solid reports, backed by evidence.
That is what you learn in history, and is 90% of what a science related degree is. It is undeniably useful - coming from someone just over a year away from having their masters in Biochemistry (bearing in mind, when it comes to CW I am always achieving 70-85% at uni). --> This is also known by universities
Psychology, although I'm sure is useful, is very over-subscribed at every level and does not make you stand out. It is also not seen as a science by most universities when it comes to needing an extra science subject for medicine.
Can we get over the idea that History is not a good subject if you want to study the sciences? It is one of the best, universities like the fact that you have taken a subject where you are able to critically evaluate a source and write solid reports, backed by evidence.
That is what you learn in history, and is 90% of what a science related degree is. It is undeniably useful - coming from someone just over a year away from having their masters in Biochemistry (bearing in mind, when it comes to CW I am always achieving 70-85% at uni). --> This is also known by universities
Psychology, although I'm sure is useful, is very over-subscribed at every level and does not make you stand out. It is also not seen as a science by most universities when it comes to needing an extra science subject for medicine.
no, no, no i never said history isn't a good subject if u wanna study science in the future. it's obviously very useful. i just said it's a challenging subject to take when coupled with the sciences - doesn't mean its not useful?
btw unis don't care whether your third subject makes you stand out. you could take bio, chem, history and youre predicted AAC or take bio, chem, psych and youre predicted AAA... unis will prefer the latter.
i also never said psychology was considered as a science, ofc its not. i'm saying that it complements the sciences more due to the overlap between psychology and biology. also i'm sure psychology develops ones essay writing skills, perhaps not the the extent history does, but you're not going into science just to write essays - the essence of science is developing knowledge through experimentation and observation.
as i stated, chem/bio/history opens more doors to study humanities as well as sciences depending on your preference. i never said that psychology is 'better' for science related courses. if anything i said it closes more doors if you wanna do a humanities based course. taking chem/bio/psych will give you the exact same opportunities to study science/med in uni as bio/chem/history does.
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