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Picking my A-levels

I recently received my GCSE results and I recieved 8A*s 2As and 1B. I am unsure what to take as my last option for A-level. I have decided to take biology, chemistry and spanish but i cant decide between psychology and physics.
I have always enjoyed physics but i'm not taking maths- I got an A at GCSE and a B in further maths gcse but I don't know if i should take it or not.
Psychology sounds interesting but I am not sure if i would enjoy it.
In the future I would love to study medicine at university so i would really like some advice on which last subject to take.
Also, i am likely to drop psychology/physics at as level.

Reply 1

Joinedup

Original post by DanielleC98

really you need to be looking at the entry requirements of medical schools, these are summarised as follows in the russell group informed choices leaflet...

ESSENTIAL ADVANCED LEVEL QUALIFICATIONS
If you do Chemistry, Biology and one from Mathematics or Physics you will
keep all the medical schools open to you. If you do Chemistry and Biology
you will keep open the vast majority. If you do Chemistry and one from
Mathematics and Physics you will limit your range of choices much more.
USEFUL ADVANCED LEVEL QUALIFICATIONS
Further Mathematics or a contrasting (non-science) subject, Computing/
Computer Science.

I've had a look at BMAT past papers and imho studying physics would probably help a bit with some of the questions - less so with UKCAT but this is just my unqualified feeling about it fwliw.

Reply 2

Protoxylic

Original post by DanielleC98

If you are planning to take Medicine, then it is imperative that you take an additional science i.e take Physics, or take Maths. Spanish, although you may enjoy it, will make no addition to your application for Medicine (unless you take it abroad). Make your decisions wisely.

Reply 3

lerjj

Original post by DanielleC98

If you are a native speaker of Spanish, I would ask what benefit an A level is going to add. If you are not native, then I think med schools are quite happy for you to take it.
TBH, I'd take maths rather than physics as your fourth, but seeing as you haven't put that down I guess there's a reason you don't want to do it? I'm not really too sure about psychology though...

Reply 4

DanielleC98

Original post by lerjj

I'm not a native Spanish speaker. I definitely don't want to take maths as i don't feel confident in it and I don't enjoy it as much as physics. For most of the unis i have looked at I need Chemistry and then Biology/Physics + an extra subject. I've been told its unwise to take physics without taking maths but I did get an A* in physics at GCSE. I just don't know what the syllabus for physics/psychology is.
Thank you for your advice.

Reply 5

lerjj

Original post by DanielleC98

I think it's doable to take physics w/o maths A level- but you'd probably have to ask the people in your physics class to teach you any relevant maths- for As it shouldn't be too much of a difficulty (you said you were probably going to drop it?)

If you are not a native speaker then A level languages is quite a high level and probably shows a medical school that you can learn a variety of things and handle a large workload- exactly what they're looking for. I really don't think they care that much about subject choice for medicine (beyond chem + bio).