A Level Choice

Hi,

For A Level, which of the three sciences, in order, are:

Hardest
Most respected
Number of exams
Most enjoyable

Thanks a much!


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Hardest: Definitely Chemistry. Always has the lowest grade boundaries for an A (reflecting on difficulty of papers)

Most respected: Both Physics and Chemistry are well respected, probably more than Biology which is still at AS more about memorising stuff than thinking.

Number of exams: Depends on your board, usually there is no difference for written exams (2 papers), although in Chemistry there are usually more assessed practicals , but again depends on exam boards.

Most enjoyable: Really dependant on yourself, and it's probably more important to base your potential enjoyment on your school's own departments - some people in other classes are hating physics with a new teacher, though I have a really eccentric physics teacher and everyone loves his lessons - it's really the teacher that makes it enjoyable.

Really you can't go wrong choosing any of the three sciences. You might find Physics more challenging if you're not so keen on maths (I knew someone who got a D in physics AS after choosing it over maths... she dropped it at A2 and managed to get into medicine in the end though), but then you need to put in quite a lot of effort to do well in Biology, as it's very heavy on content. Chemistry is kind of the middle child, you need to do quite a lot of learning when going onto organic mechanisms and remembering chemical tests for stuff... but then there's quite a lot of calculations as well, especially at A2 with the Arrhenius equation, pHs etc. which is why so many people find it hard. And of course you're a lot more likely to kill yourself in chemistry if you mess up practicals in handling carcinogenic organic compounds in practicals..... . In all seriousness you'll probably get annoyed at doing assessed practicals, as mark schemes are so anal and obsessive - OCR is the worst culprit.

Wow, that's really helpful! Thank you!

I love the teacher Ihave for all 3 sciences now, who teaches Biology at a Level. I like maths but I still find Physics very hard. I guess when it comes to choosing for final, I'll base it on:

GCSE Grade
Enjoyment through GCSE
Teacher
Etc.

This sound good?

Thank you so much for your reply!


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