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Help me with my A-levels someone...???

I’m so unsure about what to choose for my a levels. When I’m older I either want to be an English teacher or a doctor. Yes I know totally get totally two different careers. I was thinking of taking
A level English lit
A level biology
A level chemistry
And was told that would be a good combination as I’ve got what I need for both careers and having a subject like English lit would help me when applying for medicine degrees as I can show ive got a range of skills. I am wondering though am I taking on too much in terms of my subjects. I was on track to achieve a 9 in english and an 88 in combined science. My science teachers have said they would not have any hesitation in recommending me for a science course at college or uni but I’m just wondering if doing combined would put me at a disadvantage. Of course over these next few months I would learn the triple content but I don’t know if I’m making too much of a jump from GCSE. Should I take subjects like English lit, history that I was on track to achieve 9’s in and that I feel comfortable with or should I challenge myself with chemistry and biology and keep to what I originally decided on.
Can anyone tell me how hard biology and chemistry actually are???
Original post by Hannah Benson
I’m so unsure about what to choose for my a levels. When I’m older I either want to be an English teacher or a doctor. Yes I know totally get totally two different careers. I was thinking of taking
A level English lit
A level biology
A level chemistry
And was told that would be a good combination as I’ve got what I need for both careers and having a subject like English lit would help me when applying for medicine degrees as I can show ive got a range of skills. I am wondering though am I taking on too much in terms of my subjects. I was on track to achieve a 9 in english and an 88 in combined science. My science teachers have said they would not have any hesitation in recommending me for a science course at college or uni but I’m just wondering if doing combined would put me at a disadvantage. Of course over these next few months I would learn the triple content but I don’t know if I’m making too much of a jump from GCSE. Should I take subjects like English lit, history that I was on track to achieve 9’s in and that I feel comfortable with or should I challenge myself with chemistry and biology and keep to what I originally decided on.
Can anyone tell me how hard biology and chemistry actually are???


I take Maths, Further Maths, Physics and Economics so can’t comment on the difficulty of Biology and Chemistry myself, but the people I know who do them, find them okay - there’s quite a lot of memorisation and time/effort required, but from what I’ve heard they’re not really any harder than any other A Level. You’ll need to be a decent mathematician for them, as biology has stats and chemistry has calculations, but if you’re on track for an 8/9 in GCSE maths you probably don’t need an A Level.

My advice is to take the subjects you’re best at, and that you enjoy. Realistically, if you want to do Medicine, you’ll need at least 3As if not higher - do you think you’d enjoy biology and chemistry enough to work hard and get that? I’d maybe say, could you start with biology, chemistry, english and history to begin and then drop one once you’ve gotten a feel for them? Subjects at A Level are quite different than they are at GCSE.

Also, maybe try and get some medical work experience once this virus stuff has blown over, as you should quite quickly get a feel for whether medicine is the career for you - it’s very hard work and quite high stress, and so you really must love it and genuinely care about it to get through a 6 year degree and then a 30-40 year career.

I would guess that if you wanted to keep your options open, the three you’ve chosen right now seem sensible.

Good luck!
Original post by Hannah Benson
I’m so unsure about what to choose for my a levels. When I’m older I either want to be an English teacher or a doctor. Yes I know totally get totally two different careers. I was thinking of taking
A level English lit
A level biology
A level chemistry
And was told that would be a good combination as I’ve got what I need for both careers and having a subject like English lit would help me when applying for medicine degrees as I can show ive got a range of skills. I am wondering though am I taking on too much in terms of my subjects. I was on track to achieve a 9 in english and an 88 in combined science. My science teachers have said they would not have any hesitation in recommending me for a science course at college or uni but I’m just wondering if doing combined would put me at a disadvantage. Of course over these next few months I would learn the triple content but I don’t know if I’m making too much of a jump from GCSE. Should I take subjects like English lit, history that I was on track to achieve 9’s in and that I feel comfortable with or should I challenge myself with chemistry and biology and keep to what I originally decided on.
Can anyone tell me how hard biology and chemistry actually are???

Biology and Chemistry AS is not too big of a jump from GCSE. The real pain, however, comes from A2 Chemistry but if you have a strong interest in Chemistry you may find it easier since it is more to application rather than memorizing. Biology is fine all the way through. Never done eng lit so cant comment on that.

Anyways I do Biology, Chemistry, Maths and FM.
Doing chemistry, biology and English is a good choice if those are the degrees you are trying to decide between. Btw when it comes to chemistry lots of people will tell you not to it saying it is the most difficult a level, however speaking as someone who just finished a level chemistry the new GCSEs really do prepare you for a level chemistry. There is no longer a massive jump between GCSE and a level. I did maths chemsitry and biology and I would say chemistry was the easiest overall. I struggled with biology more, but with biology if you do lots of exam questions you will be fine.
Original post by Hannah Benson
I’m so unsure about what to choose for my a levels. When I’m older I either want to be an English teacher or a doctor. Yes I know totally get totally two different careers. I was thinking of taking
A level English lit
A level biology
A level chemistry
And was told that would be a good combination as I’ve got what I need for both careers and having a subject like English lit would help me when applying for medicine degrees as I can show ive got a range of skills. I am wondering though am I taking on too much in terms of my subjects. I was on track to achieve a 9 in english and an 88 in combined science. My science teachers have said they would not have any hesitation in recommending me for a science course at college or uni but I’m just wondering if doing combined would put me at a disadvantage. Of course over these next few months I would learn the triple content but I don’t know if I’m making too much of a jump from GCSE. Should I take subjects like English lit, history that I was on track to achieve 9’s in and that I feel comfortable with or should I challenge myself with chemistry and biology and keep to what I originally decided on.
Can anyone tell me how hard biology and chemistry actually are???

I do biology, chemistry and maths and honestly two sciences is qite a lot of work, time and effort. I enjoy maths and don't struggle with it too much so it's easier to focus time on my sciences. If that's how you feel with english then definitely go for it. As for combined, I don't know many universities or colleges that put you at a disadvantage for taking combined instead of triple, mainly because if you do it as an A-level, you have to have some level of intelligence, regardless. Going from combined to A-level science can be a bit tricky at first. It just means you have to put in the time but generally, it's not that bad. I know a lot of people who do bio and chem and only did combined GCSE, and they don't find it too difiicult.

Overall, it's just about how much effort and time you want to put in. Hope that helped and good luck for the future!
Original post by Jack-a-Jelly
I do biology, chemistry and maths and honestly two sciences is qite a lot of work, time and effort. I enjoy maths and don't struggle with it too much so it's easier to focus time on my sciences. If that's how you feel with english then definitely go for it. As for combined, I don't know many universities or colleges that put you at a disadvantage for taking combined instead of triple, mainly because if you do it as an A-level, you have to have some level of intelligence, regardless. Going from combined to A-level science can be a bit tricky at first. It just means you have to put in the time but generally, it's not that bad. I know a lot of people who do bio and chem and only did combined GCSE, and they don't find it too difiicult.

Overall, it's just about how much effort and time you want to put in. Hope that helped and good luck for the future!

Adding onto this I did triple science GCSE and I got to say it gave me very little/no advantages over everyone else. There will be many people in your class who didn't do triple so the teacher will go over it in enough detail for everyone to understand.
Original post by Hannah Benson
I’m so unsure about what to choose for my a levels. When I’m older I either want to be an English teacher or a doctor. Yes I know totally get totally two different careers. I was thinking of taking
A level English lit
A level biology
A level chemistry
And was told that would be a good combination as I’ve got what I need for both careers and having a subject like English lit would help me when applying for medicine degrees as I can show ive got a range of skills. I am wondering though am I taking on too much in terms of my subjects. I was on track to achieve a 9 in english and an 88 in combined science. My science teachers have said they would not have any hesitation in recommending me for a science course at college or uni but I’m just wondering if doing combined would put me at a disadvantage. Of course over these next few months I would learn the triple content but I don’t know if I’m making too much of a jump from GCSE. Should I take subjects like English lit, history that I was on track to achieve 9’s in and that I feel comfortable with or should I challenge myself with chemistry and biology and keep to what I originally decided on.
Can anyone tell me how hard biology and chemistry actually are???

Hi Hannah :hello:

I would recommend doing the subjects you feel confident in and that you feel you would enjoy. If you enjoy a subject, you are more likely to be able to study more effectively. I would also say to keep in mind your career options (which you already seem to be doing).

I hope this helps! If you have any more questions, feel free to ask.

Melissa :biggrin:
Reply 7
I started with bio, chem and history and dropped both sciences after two months.
I was just like you, as I was undecided between medicine and law, but after starting the courses, my passion definitely lay in humanities rather than science.
Are you more inclined academically toward science or humanities? I also got 8/9 in all my subjects so couldn't use it as a deciding factor, but if you enjoy one more than the other I would stick with that.
I now do history, english lit and french :smile:
Reply 8
I enjoy them all, but definitely finding French the most difficult out of the three, especially with lockdown

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