A-levels

Hi! I'm wondering about my A-levels, I'm in Year 10 and will be applying for college in 6 months roughly. But I have a few questions about my A- levels. Firstly, how many can you take? I want to take 5, and I know it is possible in some cases, so how would I go about asking about that at the places I'm looking at. Secondly, I'd like some opinions on the courses I want to study. I'm not sure exactly what I want to do, but I'm looking at law or business things; I'm especially interested and forensic psychology and detective/crime scene work. I'm considering: Further Maths, Law, Business, Psychology, Chemistry. What is the work load like? I'm predicted and working at all Grade 9's at GCSE's and I do English, Maths, Triple Science, Spanish, History, Art and photography (I wasn't given the options of business or pyschology at GCSE level otherwise I would've taken them). My dad barely made it through college and my mum dropped out so they aren't much help in this department, and I'm the oldest in my family of my "generation". I'm so confused and I would really like opinions please!!!

There's absolutely no need to do 5 a levels- it will be so much work and you won't do as well as you should if you had just focused on 3 or 4. Just choose what you like at the moment You should also probably consider doing IB instead of A levels as it would give you more options if you are an all rounder.

Hi! I'm wondering about my A-levels, I'm in Year 10 and will be applying for college in 6 months roughly. But I have a few questions about my A- levels. Firstly, how many can you take? I want to take 5, and I know it is possible in some cases, so how would I go about asking about that at the places I'm looking at. Secondly, I'd like some opinions on the courses I want to study. I'm not sure exactly what I want to do, but I'm looking at law or business things; I'm especially interested and forensic psychology and detective/crime scene work. I'm considering: Further Maths, Law, Business, Psychology, Chemistry. What is the work load like? I'm predicted and working at all Grade 9's at GCSE's and I do English, Maths, Triple Science, Spanish, History, Art and photography (I wasn't given the options of business or pyschology at GCSE level otherwise I would've taken them). My dad barely made it through college and my mum dropped out so they aren't much help in this department, and I'm the oldest in my family of my "generation". I'm so confused and I would really like opinions please!!!

Hi! I'm wondering about my A-levels, I'm in Year 10 and will be applying for college in 6 months roughly. But I have a few questions about my A- levels. Firstly, how many can you take? I want to take 5, and I know it is possible in some cases, so how would I go about asking about that at the places I'm looking at. Secondly, I'd like some opinions on the courses I want to study. I'm not sure exactly what I want to do, but I'm looking at law or business things; I'm especially interested and forensic psychology and detective/crime scene work. I'm considering: Further Maths, Law, Business, Psychology, Chemistry. What is the work load like? I'm predicted and working at all Grade 9's at GCSE's and I do English, Maths, Triple Science, Spanish, History, Art and photography (I wasn't given the options of business or pyschology at GCSE level otherwise I would've taken them). My dad barely made it through college and my mum dropped out so they aren't much help in this department, and I'm the oldest in my family of my "generation". I'm so confused and I would really like opinions please!!!

Honestly If I could go back I would have pushed to take a fifth, if only for the bragging rights later.

Hello! I've just finished my a levels and I studied RS, English lang and psychology, so I can help you with your workload question when it comes to psychology but nothing else I'm afraid. Psychology is mainly essay based and it involves a lot of learning facts and then applying the knowledge to a question/scenario given to you in the exam. Because you don't know what specific details you need, it really is a lot to learn and it took up a lot of my time (before my exams were cancelled obviously). In terms of your 5 a levels question, in my personal experience, I've only ever heard of people doing 4 a levels at the most, and the majority of people that started with 4 ended up dropping one, because even one more is just so much extra work and stress. Personally, I think that if you're really set on doing more than three a levels, take them to start with but make sure you understand that a levels are a lot and it's okay to do one less to be able to dedicate more of your time to getting good grades in each one. Hope this helps, and sorry I rambled a little 😬😂

How difficult were 4 a-levels? I honeslt really want to do 5 but I want to make sure I'm able to manage it as I'm a proud person and would never drop a subject. Also, if you don't mind me asking, which A-levels did you do?

There's absolutely no need to do 5 a levels- it will be so much work and you won't do as well as you should if you had just focused on 3 or 4. Just choose what you like at the moment You should also probably consider doing IB instead of A levels as it would give you more options if you are an all rounder.

Why are you taking Further Maths and not Maths?
Law and Business are not necessary for their respective degrees, so I would drop those and take Maths.
I would also suggest not taking 5 A-Levels as it's not beneficial.
Lastly, are you starting year 10 or finishing year 10? It's way too early to be thinking about A-Levels. Wait till year 11. You might change your mind.

I do Chemistry and Psychology so I can offer some advice on those A-Levels if you would like it!

I did Maths, Further Maths (both Old spec) Physics and Literature (Both new spec.) If I'd not been misled about how hard 5 were I would have done 5.

This is rather tinged by the fact that Maths and Further Maths is more like 1.5 A Levels than 2. Also, I picked up Maths and Further Maths easily (in maths I ended up self studying it as the classes moved too slow.) So in essence I was kinda doing 3. You can't really know how you'll take the A Level workload until you get there. I would talk to the sixth form about your idea to take 5, and would come prepared with evidence as to why you think you could handle 5 (grades and things.) Be prepared that your combination may not fit with their scheduling.

And don't be too proud to drop one if you feel you can't handle it! This was something I wish I'd learned because last term I ended up studying a whole unit (Projective Geometry for any mathmos reading) that was far too difficult and awful. Everyone else dropped quickly, but I didn't out of pride. I now wish I had and had done something else instead.

I'm quite confused about a-levels in general. How does the maths and further maths work? Do you have to take maths to do further maths and are they two seperate courses? The advice on law and business is really helpful, I assumed to do them as a degree, it required an a-level. Definitely something to consider thank you! Also, I'm just going into year 11, so I'll be applying for colleges at the end of the year/start of next year and I still have no clue what I should do. Thank you for the advice!

In order to take Further Maths, you will need Maths. Most students who take 4 A-Levels, one is Further Maths as their 4th option so they can drop it if they aren't coping.

You mentioned you are interested in Law/Business. The great thing is, is that Law does not require any specific subjects but it would be good to have an essay subject. You also mentioned you like Psychology.

How about you take Maths, Further Maths, Psychology and another A-Level. This is just my advice for options. Please do not feel forced to take them

Hope this helped, let me know if you have any more questions.

Hi! I'm wondering about my A-levels, I'm in Year 10 and will be applying for college in 6 months roughly. But I have a few questions about my A- levels. Firstly, how many can you take? I want to take 5, and I know it is possible in some cases, so how would I go about asking about that at the places I'm looking at. Secondly, I'd like some opinions on the courses I want to study. I'm not sure exactly what I want to do, but I'm looking at law or business things; I'm especially interested and forensic psychology and detective/crime scene work. I'm considering: Further Maths, Law, Business, Psychology, Chemistry. What is the work load like? I'm predicted and working at all Grade 9's at GCSE's and I do English, Maths, Triple Science, Spanish, History, Art and photography (I wasn't given the options of business or pyschology at GCSE level otherwise I would've taken them). My dad barely made it through college and my mum dropped out so they aren't much help in this department, and I'm the oldest in my family of my "generation". I'm so confused and I would really like opinions please!!!

Hi @Amberlouise1012!

So I personally really don't recommend taking 5 A-Levels as it is really unnecessary and all Unis only really expect 3 (maybe 4). For forensic psychology, Psychology Chemistry (maybe Biology) and maths are definitely needed. For law, I don't believe there are set subject requirements, same for business (although maths might help). I really recommend looking at all of these courses on a range of Uni websites and seeing what the entry requirements are (so what subjects you need to take). Just remember that you might want to narrow down on what course you want to take at Uni as having 3 completely different ones will be kind of hard to write a personal statement for.
Don't panic about not having business or psychology GCSE as this shouldn't affect anything. I took psychology and economics a-level without a GCSE in psychology, economics, or business.
As for work loads, sciences and maths are definitely heavy but just what matters the most is your work ethic and determination. I took Psychology and it was a lot of memorising and learning how to answer the exams properly but that is normally the kind of exam I preform best in so it was okay for me.

Please let me know if you have any more questions!

Erin - Official Student Rep

I'm quite confused about a-levels in general. How does the maths and further maths work? Do you have to take maths to do further maths and are they two seperate courses? The advice on law and business is really helpful, I assumed to do them as a degree, it required an a-level. Definitely something to consider thank you! Also, I'm just going into year 11, so I'll be applying for colleges at the end of the year/start of next year and I still have no clue what I should do. Thank you for the advice!