Best A-Levels For (Petroleum) Engineer

Now if you don't know what a Petroleum Engineer is, it's a field of Engineering to do with exploration, production etc of Oil and Gas, hence the name.

My initial options for a level were

Mathematics
Further Mathematics
Geology - study of the physical structure of the earth's history present and further
French/ Physics.
I'm thinking more french because having another language in your back pocket will be useful, I think

Obviously, I'vet bought about this because as you can see, I didn't choose Politics or History as an a level. But I'm stuck whether to do French or Pysics

If you were to do A levels, which one would you choose?

Reply 1

Spelly456

2

I think that maths and physics would be essential and further maths very useful. If you wanted to choose the ultimate combination I would throw in chemistry aswell. Although I think french would also be OK ( I'm still deciding my A Levels aswell)

As much maths and physics as you can. Why on earth would somebody aiming for engineering even be considered choosing French over physics?

Reply 3

ihateocr

12

Original post by JAIYEKO

Now if you don't know what a Petroleum Engineer is, it's a field of Engineering to do with exploration, production etc of Oil and Gas, hence the name.

My initial options for a level were

Mathematics
Further Mathematics
Geology - study of the physical structure of the earth's history present and further
French/ Physics.
I'm thinking more french because having another language in your back pocket will be useful, I think

Obviously, I'vet bought about this because as you can see, I didn't choose Politics or History as an a level. But I'm stuck whether to do French or Pysics

If you were to do A levels, which one would you choose?

As a second year geology student who is hopefully going soon going to study petroleum geoscience as a Masters (MSc), I would suggest taking an A level that relates to the Earth (Geography/Geology), One which shows definite numeracy (Physics) and possibly also maths.
However these will be very difficult and put a lot of stress on you. What a lot of people don't realise is that it is better to do a Masters/Phd which specialises in a specific topic (i.e. Petroleum engineering) and instead do a more broad Undergrad. This allows you the opportunity do demonstrate wider knowledge as well, as if you decide that this path of career isn't for you later on you can change direction.
In my case, I know lots of people who did 4 maths/science A levels (Maths/Physics/Chemistry/Geology/Geography/Biology/Further maths) but only needed 2
so it hasn't benefited them in the long run, as you'll realise after your first year of undergrad as A levels are near irrelevant.
I refer you to the Imperial College Petroleum Geophysics course which only asks for a 2:1 in an "Upper Second Class Honours degree (2:1) in either a physical science or engineering from a UK university, or its equivalent." Despite being one of the best universities in the world and there also for geology/exploration.
http://www3.imperial.ac.uk/pgprospectus/facultiesanddepartments/earthscienceengineering/postgraduatecourses/petroleumgeophysics

Hint; Do a bit of research of your own looking at jobs/postgrad study and see what subject they require for their engineering courses. (UCAS maybe also?)