3 a level offer with 4 a levels????

Original post by HRowdn

im applying for maths at Oxford, durham and Warwick (so far) an im doing four a levels. would these universities give me a 3 a lvl offer despite me doing four?? in which case would be hugely beneficial as I could drop one and remove the risk of it affecting my other grades. I just think it will be hard and pointless to carry on with 4 when I could be doing 3
many thanks

Yes they will make an offer based on 3A levels just check you meet their specific entry requirements re subjects on their respective websites.

Reply 2

OP

Original post by Scotney

Yes they will make an offer based on 3A levels just check you meet their specific entry requirements re subjects on their respective websites.

thanks for the reply. would this mean after receiving a 3 a level offer I could drop a subject ?

Reply 3

Scotney

Original post by HRowdn

thanks for the reply. would this mean after receiving a 3 a level offer I could drop a subject ?

To be honest you could drop it now. What subjects are you doing?

Reply 4

cheesecakelove

Original post by HRowdn

im applying for maths at Oxford, durham and Warwick (so far) an im doing four a levels. would these universities give me a 3 a lvl offer despite me doing four?? in which case would be hugely beneficial as I could drop one and remove the risk of it affecting my other grades. I just think it will be hard and pointless to carry on with 4 when I could be doing 3
many thanks

Many universities only require 3 A Levels so you could drop the subject you need/enjoy the least if you think it is harming the rest of your grades.

Reply 5

I was talking 4 subjects and applied for maths physics and philosophy (natural sciences) at Durham and got a 3 a level offer that even specifically excluded my fourth subject (chemistry, offer was for maths fm and physics) so yeah not worth taking 4 as almost all offers these days are on 3

Original post by HRowdn

im applying for maths at Oxford, durham and Warwick (so far) an im doing four a levels. would these universities give me a 3 a lvl offer despite me doing four?? in which case would be hugely beneficial as I could drop one and remove the risk of it affecting my other grades. I just think it will be hard and pointless to carry on with 4 when I could be doing 3
many thanks

No Warwick will make one of the possible grade combinations (off the top of my head A*A*A* or A*A*A with a 1 in any STEP or A*A*AA. I know people who did STEP and got in with A*AA though.) dependent on four A-levels. This is however just one of the routes available.

Reply 7

OP

Original post by Scotney

To be honest you could drop it now. What subjects are you doing?

biology, chemistry, maths and further maths. it would be biology that I drop as it requires a lot more work than chemistry in my opinion, and I kinda don't wanna drop it now because I don't do an epq so if I apply with 4 heavy a lvls it would look better if that makes sense

Reply 8

OP

Original post by RhynieChert

I was talking 4 subjects and applied for maths physics and philosophy (natural sciences) at Durham and got a 3 a level offer that even specifically excluded my fourth subject (chemistry, offer was for maths fm and physics) so yeah not worth taking 4 as almost all offers these days are on 3

wow. did you end up dropping chem ?

Reply 9

Quick-use

Original post by HRowdn

biology, chemistry, maths and further maths. it would be biology that I drop as it requires a lot more work than chemistry in my opinion, and I kinda don't wanna drop it now because I don't do an epq so if I apply with 4 heavy a lvls it would look better if that makes sense

Just drop it. Universities don't care about extra A levels and will simply ignore it.

Reply 10

Original post by HRowdn

wow. did you end up dropping chem ?

no I got an offer for Cambridge for natural sciences which did require all 4 but that's a bit unique bc all subjects were directly relevant and I don't know of many unis/subjects apart from Cambridge natsci that regularly give 4 a level offers, Oxford maths certainly doesn't

(edited 4 years ago)

Original post by Quick-use

Just drop it. Universities don't care about extra A levels and will simply ignore it.

this is not true of warwick maths, one acceptable grade combination given will include 4 a-levels. cam natsci as above is another that routinely offers based on 4.

Reply 12

OP

Original post by RhynieChert

no I got an offer for Cambridge for natural sciences which did require all 4 but that's a bit unique bc all subjects were directly relevant and I don't know of many unis/subjects apart from Cambridge natsci that regularly give 4 a level offers, Oxford maths certainly doesn't

would you think that applying to universities (Oxford) with 4 a levels would look better? I preferably would like a 3 a level offer if its pointless doing the fourth tho

Reply 13

conclusion here i think should be: Oxford and Durham yes are very likely to only give 3 A level offers while Warwick more routinely gives 4 A level offers if you're taking them. my personal recommendation would be to drop one now to reduce your workload and make it more likely that you'll have time for the MAT, Oxford interview prep, STEP for Warwick and getting the A level grades in your top three

Reply 14

Sir Cumference2

Original post by _gcx

this is not true of warwick maths, one acceptable grade combination given will include 4 a-levels. cam natsci as above is another that routinely offers based on 4.

I really don't like the Warwick maths offer of 4 A Levels. Every other uni/course in the country (aside from natsci as mentioned) only requires 3 A Levels so Warwick doing this just creates confusion in my opinion. Plus two A grades at A Level is clearly not equivalent to an A plus an 1 in STEP for a maths course. I don't think they should be encouraging students to take an extra A Level that could interfere with their maths/FM/STEP prep.

Original post by Sir Cumference

I really don't like the Warwick maths offer of 4 A Levels. Every other uni/course in the country (aside from natsci as mentioned) only requires 3 A Levels so Warwick doing this just creates confusion in my opinion. Plus two A grades at A Level is clearly not equivalent to an A plus an 1 in STEP for a maths course. I don't think they should be encouraging students to take an extra A Level that could interfere with their maths/FM/STEP prep.

I think it's their way of encouraging candidates to do STEP by setting a tough non-STEP offer.

Reply 16

Original post by HRowdn

would you think that applying to universities (Oxford) with 4 a levels would look better? I preferably would like a 3 a level offer if its pointless doing the fourth tho

honestly don't think it makes a significant difference, 4 a levels shows the ability to cope with a heavy work load but at the end of the day all they care about is your maths skills MAT and interview. I recommend taking just three

Reply 17

Sir Cumference2

Original post by _gcx

I think it's their way of encouraging candidates to do STEP by setting a tough non-STEP offer.

Their non-Step offer of 3 A*s is already damn hard so a 4 A Level offer seems pointless.

Reply 18

Original post by Sir Cumference

I really don't like the Warwick maths offer of 4 A Levels. Every other uni/course in the country (aside from natsci as mentioned) only requires 3 A Levels so Warwick doing this just creates confusion in my opinion. Plus two A grades at A Level is clearly not equivalent to an A plus an 1 in STEP for a maths course. I don't think they should be encouraging students to take an extra A Level that could interfere with their maths/FM/STEP prep.

agree with this, it's a weird incentive that can have a damaging effect on other parts of the application. even Cambridge phys natsci doesn't exclusively give 4 a level offers even to those taking them and I know multiple people with 3

(edited 4 years ago)

Reply 19

Scotney