The Student Room Group

I don't know what A-level subjects to choose

Results day is really soon, but I have no idea what subjects I want to do next year. I've currently got no idea what I want to study at uni, so I want to make sure I am not limiting any possible options. I quite liked all of my gcse subjects, but none of them stood out to me. I've been thinking about potentially choosing from,maths chemistrygeographybiologypolitics economics I ideally would like to study maths and chemistry but have been told they are both really hard. I was never naturally great at maths, but managed to pull myself together in year 11, and improved my grade.I'm also open to pretty much any other subjects. What would you recommend?
why don’t you read up a little bit about the content for each subject on your college page? i think there are usually descriptions and the title of topics you’ll be studying!! you might be surprised what you take an interest to, might be useful to speak to any past students as well who have studied the courses you are interested in to hear their feedback. also if you want to go for maths and chem absolutely go for it, believe in yourself and if you enjoy them what is there to lose :smile:
I'd wait for Results Day. You might be in for surprises. Once that's done, here's what I'd do:

- List down your most to least favourite subjects (work-wise, exclude factors like teachers, seating plans etc).
- Also list down your best results to see if there's a correlation.
- Pick three subjects, go to www.theuniguide.co.uk/a-level-explorer, look at what courses interest you the most, research more about them (including whether they're actually good, useful degrees) and narrow your choices down.

I'd strongly recommend looking at your fourth best/favourite subject and seeing how that changes things in case you don't meet tbe requirements to study whatever you want at College.
Original post by abbi rooprah
Results day is really soon, but I have no idea what subjects I want to do next year. I've currently got no idea what I want to study at uni, so I want to make sure I am not limiting any possible options. I quite liked all of my gcse subjects, but none of them stood out to me. I've been thinking about potentially choosing from,maths chemistrygeographybiologypolitics economics I ideally would like to study maths and chemistry but have been told they are both really hard. I was never naturally great at maths, but managed to pull myself together in year 11, and improved my grade.I'm also open to pretty much any other subjects. What would you recommend?

Haven't you had to choose subjects already as part of the application?
Reply 4
Original post by abbi rooprah
Results day is really soon, but I have no idea what subjects I want to do next year. I've currently got no idea what I want to study at uni, so I want to make sure I am not limiting any possible options. I quite liked all of my gcse subjects, but none of them stood out to me. I've been thinking about potentially choosing from,maths chemistrygeographybiologypolitics economics I ideally would like to study maths and chemistry but have been told they are both really hard. I was never naturally great at maths, but managed to pull myself together in year 11, and improved my grade.I'm also open to pretty much any other subjects. What would you recommend?

You are at that stage where you have to ask, what do you want to do in life? How are you going to get there? Do you want to get a job as a lawyer eventually? A teacher? A doctor? Customer service rep? The prospects are many, and, unfortunately, there's no easy answer.
The internet is a great place to start your search if you aren't ready to ask precise questions. There are online career quizzes out there that can help guide you in the correct direction and give you ideas of what you may want to consider. These will ask you various questions to assess your personality, talents and other characteristics related to varied career paths.
They can also help confirm the right way. Here are some you could try!
SchoolFinder
ThoughtCo
Open Colleges
There are others too.

Good luck...
If you like Chemistry and Maths (+Further if you want) then just do it.
Its way easier to study for a subject you actually like rather than an "easy" subject.
I took Biology, Chemistry, Maths and Geography. Geography was by far the easiest subject for me but I found it really boring and couldn't study for it at all so I ended up dropping it.
Also I was told the exact same thing that Maths and Chemistry are hard A levels but if you put in the work you will be fine. You have to remember these are A levels so the content is going to be hard but not so over the top that you won't be able to understand it at all, you will be able to understand nearly everything if you just put time into it.
Original post by anton31
You are at that stage where you have to ask, what do you want to do in life? How are you going to get there? Do you want to get a job as a lawyer eventually? A teacher? A doctor? Customer service rep? The prospects are many, and, unfortunately, there's no easy answer.
The internet is a great place to start your search if you aren't ready to ask precise questions. There are online career quizzes out there that can help guide you in the correct direction and give you ideas of what you may want to consider. These will ask you various questions to assess your personality, talents and other characteristics related to varied career paths.
They can also help confirm the right way. Here are some you could try!
SchoolFinder
ThoughtCo
Open Colleges
There are others too.
Good luck...

thanks a million!
Original post by What The Cluck
If you like Chemistry and Maths (+Further if you want) then just do it.
Its way easier to study for a subject you actually like rather than an "easy" subject.
I took Biology, Chemistry, Maths and Geography. Geography was by far the easiest subject for me but I found it really boring and couldn't study for it at all so I ended up dropping it.
Also I was told the exact same thing that Maths and Chemistry are hard A levels but if you put in the work you will be fine. You have to remember these are A levels so the content is going to be hard but not so over the top that you won't be able to understand it at all, you will be able to understand nearly everything if you just put time into

Thank you so much for your help, would you say that you should be very strong in those subjects at gcse, in order to find them manageable at a level?
Original post by Muttley79
Haven't you had to choose subjects already as part of the application?

yeah, but we've been told were can switch up our choices as we might change our mind over that time period.
Original post by strezzedstudent
why don’t you read up a little bit about the content for each subject on your college page? i think there are usually descriptions and the title of topics you’ll be studying!! you might be surprised what you take an interest to, might be useful to speak to any past students as well who have studied the courses you are interested in to hear their feedback. also if you want to go for maths and chem absolutely go for it, believe in yourself and if you enjoy them what is there to lose :smile:

thanks so much for your help, I will defo speak to some more people, especially those who've had a positive experience with those subjects (might make me feel slightly more confident)
Original post by urlocalinmate
I'd wait for Results Day. You might be in for surprises. Once that's done, here's what I'd do:

- List down your most to least favourite subjects (work-wise, exclude factors like teachers, seating plans etc).
- Also list down your best results to see if there's a correlation.
- Pick three subjects, go to www.theuniguide.co.uk/a-level-explorer, look at what courses interest you the most, research more about them (including whether they're actually good, useful degrees) and narrow your choices down.

I'd strongly recommend looking at your fourth best/favourite subject and seeing how that changes things in case you don't meet tbe requirements to study whatever you want at College.

thank you, the website you've linked is insanely helpful
Original post by abbi rooprah
Thank you so much for your help, would you say that you should be very strong in those subjects at gcse, in order to find them manageable at a level?

Of course it would help if you are strong in those subjects at GCSE but its not necessary.
To be honest just be prepared to take lessons seriously and work hard at times. Don't rely on cramming!
I know a few people who got straight 9's at GCSE but who were super lazy and they have not been doing as well...
I was actually told myself that I would struggle in Chemistry because of my GCSE mark but I ended up really enjoying the subject and ended up doing quite well.
Original post by abbi rooprah
yeah, but we've been told were can switch up our choices as we might change our mind over that time period.


Only if there are spaces in the subjects you want to change to ...most schools have a max class size.
Original post by Muttley79
Only if there are spaces in the subjects you want to change to ...most schools have a max class size.

at my new school most people are choosing chem and biology, and maths, so they have multiple classes,so I'm guessing quite flexible. they encouraged us to try out as many new subjects as possible
Original post by abbi rooprah
at my new school most people are choosing chem and biology, and maths, so they have multiple classes,so I'm guessing quite flexible. they encouraged us to try out as many new subjects as possible

I'm just saying - we have multiple groups too but I know there's no places [even with three groups] in some subjects.
I guess we can only hope then
If they gave you a book about what’s included in each subject , like a little introduction make sure to read it , (biology is like the devils subject at times , soooooo specific )

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