My A-Level Choices - Your Opinion?

I'm currently in Year 11 and looking to go to Sixth Form next year. From what I'm interested in, I currently enjoy ICT and I am looking for a career that is related.

So far the subjects I have seen that are appealing to me are ICT, Business Studies and Psychology. The other optional subjects I am thinking about are Sociology, Film Studies and English Language.

I was just wondering whether anybody could give me any feedback as to what any of these subjects are like. The problem is, I have heard that Film Studies is frowned upon, and because I don't have any core subjects such as Maths or any of the three Sciences, it is a disadvantage.

Any opinions would be great thanks :smile:

Reply 1

Stillreading

That's a good combination, but my concern would be the lack of facilitating subjects. If you are looking to go to uni (and a good one, at that), then I would suggest taking one.

Computing is generally seen as stronger than ICT, economics more so than business and Eng Lit more so than Language. However, you should definitely pick what you enjoy over what is seen as 'strong' (IMO- I did Chem and Econ instead of Art, which I knew I would have enjoyed more!).

I strongly suggest you to have a look at university courses, and see what the subject requirements are for the ones you are interested in (that's if you wanna go to uni). Or if you're happy with your combination, then go ahead. My friend who does Film loves it, and says it is like English Lit (as in analysing), except from you watch films and write scripts.

Reply 2

Chlorophile

Not having any of the more 'facilitating' subjects could be a problem, depending on what universities you apply to. If you're really interested in IT, I would definitely recommend taking Maths because there can be quite a bit of Maths (and logic).

Reply 3

Aeuronautics

Take maths, its very important, highly valued (especially by top or decent universities) and ofcourse by employers. Maths also goes well with ICT and Business Studies, it can accompany pretty much any a-level. Modules such as decision maths and statistics may help you in ICT and Business Studies.

Do you know what you want to do at üniversity and have you searched degree courses?. If so then ensure the courses you choose are not only relevant to the field, but also meet the general entry requirements.

Reply 4

username1042689

From my personal experience:
-Psychology's a cool subject, though you have to learn a ****load.
-DON'T. TOUCH. BUSINESS. WITH. A. BARGEPOLE.
-DON'T. TOUCH. ICT. WITH. A. BARGEPOLE.

That's just my experience, though.

My advice? If you want to go to a good uni, don't sacrifice what you love, but I'd recommend having some facilitating subjects in there.

-For ICT, Computing is much, much more respected than ICT A level, though I appreciate not everywhere offers it.
-The big subject for ICT degrees is Maths. Physics and the other sciences are more helpful, but you will find more universities requiring Maths than you will Computing/ICT.
-You'll want to remain mostly focused on sciences, but you can have some arts in there too.
-If someone wanted to do CompSci at Oxbridge, they'd be doing Maths, Further Maths, Physics, Computing (ideally - obviously a lot don't do this)
-A good idea would be to do something like this:
Maths, Computing (or ICT if Computing isn't offered), *insert facilitating subject here, though any one you want*, *insert any subject you want to do here*
-Business Studies, Sociology and ICT are not very respected subjects but that doesn't matter if they're absolutely what you love. Just keep it in mind. Psychology and English Language are kind of 'in the middle.'
-If you want to know which subjects are considered facilitating, the Trinity College 'blacklist' will give you good guidelines.

Hope that helps :smile:

(edited 10 years ago)

Reply 5

Rap

UPDATE

Thanks for your opinions guys. After looking into it more I have decided I want to go ahead and do English Literature, Biology, Psychology and Business Studies.

Again, thanks for the help.

:smile: