choosing a levels
its my dream to do medicine at oxbridge and I wanted to do bio chem and English at alevel as well as one other. was thinking either psychology French or philosophy and ethics. starting to think I should consider maths. does any one have any useful advice, would be much appreciated.
Original post by user123432
its my dream to do medicine at oxbridge and I wanted to do bio chem and English at alevel as well as one other. was thinking either psychology French or philosophy and ethics. starting to think I should consider maths. does any one have any useful advice, would be much appreciated.
Very ambitious for a levels but if you want to follow your dreams and enroll onto the course that you want then you should do it
Hi there! medicine is obviously a competitive course, at Oxbridge no less. You are on the right idea with biology and chemistry. As it is a competitive course maths would probably be your best option, however those 3 a-levels together will be very intense, so if maths isn't your thing then I would advise psychology. I also strongly recommend you take no more than 3, 4 subjects will be too hard with your options and Oxbridge (or any other uni) never ask for more than 3. Having 4 will mean you just score lower in all despite not needing a 4th when you will do much better with only 3 (you are underestimating the intensity of a-levels).
http://www.ox.ac.uk/admissions/undergraduate/courses-listing/medicine
https://www.undergraduate.study.cam.ac.uk/courses/medicine
That is the Oxford and Cambridge links for their undergraduate medicine courses. You will get more information from there, as you can see Oxford ask for A*AA and Cambridge A*A*A, although realistically you should be aiming for A*A*A* or A*A*A to even stand a chance. Also in recent years they value work Expereince highly, I would look at medical volunteering (e.g Thailand disabled children's centre like I did) or doing a medical placement.
Good luck!
http://www.ox.ac.uk/admissions/undergraduate/courses-listing/medicine
https://www.undergraduate.study.cam.ac.uk/courses/medicine
That is the Oxford and Cambridge links for their undergraduate medicine courses. You will get more information from there, as you can see Oxford ask for A*AA and Cambridge A*A*A, although realistically you should be aiming for A*A*A* or A*A*A to even stand a chance. Also in recent years they value work Expereince highly, I would look at medical volunteering (e.g Thailand disabled children's centre like I did) or doing a medical placement.
Good luck!
One of my friends got an offer for medicine from Cambridge today! And she takes 4 a levels but her offer is simply just A*A*A to include chemistry as one of those, so there’s really no point doing 4 when doing only 3 will give you a better chance at reaching A*s x
Thank you so much very helpful
Original post by user123432
its my dream to do medicine at oxbridge and I wanted to do bio chem and English at alevel as well as one other. was thinking either psychology French or philosophy and ethics. starting to think I should consider maths. does any one have any useful advice, would be much appreciated.
Bio, chem and English is fine. Maths correlates with a better BMAT but not a better chance of getting into med school.
Original post by TheOnlyIzzy
Hi there! medicine is obviously a competitive course, at Oxbridge no less. You are on the right idea with biology and chemistry. As it is a competitive course maths would probably be your best option, however those 3 a-levels together will be very intense, so if maths isn't your thing then I would advise psychology.
Why psychology? No med school asks for it and, whilst its only a correlation, psychology does not correlate well with a chance of an offer at all. https://www.thestudentroom.co.uk/showthread.php?t=6278886&p=86505252#post86505252
Original post by nexttime
Bio, chem and English is fine. Maths correlates with a better BMAT but not a better chance of getting into med school.
Why psychology? No med school asks for it and, whilst its only a correlation, psychology does not correlate well with a chance of an offer at all. https://www.thestudentroom.co.uk/showthread.php?t=6278886&p=86505252#post86505252
Why psychology? No med school asks for it and, whilst its only a correlation, psychology does not correlate well with a chance of an offer at all. https://www.thestudentroom.co.uk/showthread.php?t=6278886&p=86505252#post86505252
I say psychology because it is technically counted as a science by universities, albeit not a very great one, it is more of a science than French or philosophy and ethics and a large portion of the syllabus covers biology and the brain, (the brain in more depth than biology a-level does), medical brain scanning methods, their advantages and disadvantages, the ability to design a falsifiable experiment using variables and control (very useful in science and medicine) and finally a lot of physiological health issues that are caused by psychology. It is more relevant to medicine than the other options. Does that make sense why I would suggest this over philosophy or French?
Original post by TheOnlyIzzy
I say psychology because it is technically counted as a science by universities, albeit not a very great one, it is more of a science than French or philosophy and ethics and a large portion of the syllabus covers biology and the brain, (the brain in more depth than biology a-level does), medical brain scanning methods, their advantages and disadvantages, the ability to design a falsifiable experiment using variables and control (very useful in science and medicine) and finally a lot of physiological health issues that are caused by psychology. It is more relevant to medicine than the other options. Does that make sense why I would suggest this over philosophy or French?
thanks
Original post by TheOnlyIzzy
I say psychology because it is technically counted as a science by universities, albeit not a very great one, it is more of a science than French or philosophy and ethics and a large portion of the syllabus covers biology and the brain, (the brain in more depth than biology a-level does), medical brain scanning methods, their advantages and disadvantages, the ability to design a falsifiable experiment using variables and control (very useful in science and medicine) and finally a lot of physiological health issues that are caused by psychology. It is more relevant to medicine than the other options. Does that make sense why I would suggest this over philosophy or French?
Almost all unis do not accept it as a science.
You will learn everything you need at med school. No med school asks for psychology. And like I say, people who take French are more successful at getting offers than those who take psychology. I don't know why that is, but it is.
Original post by nexttime
Almost all unis do not accept it as a science.
You will learn everything you need at med school. No med school asks for psychology. And like I say, people who take French are more successful at getting offers than those who take psychology. I don't know why that is, but it is.
You will learn everything you need at med school. No med school asks for psychology. And like I say, people who take French are more successful at getting offers than those who take psychology. I don't know why that is, but it is.
I think its counted as a pseudo-science, but I dont know much about entrance statistics so your probably right! it was just my experience from psychology and biology that they overlap a lot and much of content in psychology seemed relevant to med school, just an opinion!
Original post by TheOnlyIzzy
I think its counted as a pseudo-science...
That's, erm, not generally said as a complement!
I'm not against psychology at all - just trying to point out that there aren't any convincing reasons to actively take it either. Unless you just enjoy it and/or are good at it! It certainly sounds like an interesting A-level.
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