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Returning to A levels

Hi all! Sorry for the cross-posting but I didn't get any response from the main A levels thread.... trying my luck here. :P

Hi all! A bit long-winded but please bear with me! I've decided to return to studies but am now agonising over which A level subjects to choose from. Read through some other threads and have gleaned quite a bit from those, but I am wondering, for those who study languages in uni, how most of these degrees are structured? Do all the degrees assume students are starting the language from scratch?

A little background... I'm from Singapore and would consider myself a native speaker of both English and Mandarin Chinese (it varies from Singaporean to Singaporean), and am currently starting in Italian. This is still quite a long way from now but browsing through the courses at some universities, it seems that most university courses involving language (the joint Italian and Chinese language degree, and Italian and Linguistics) assume students would be beginners in their chosen langauge(s). I understand that some universities do cater to more advanced students but does this mean taking an A level in Chinese or Italian would be pointless (unless I take a language other than these two in uni)?

I guess I find it confusing because it is after all normal for a native speaker of English from an English-speaking country to take a degree in English Language and in that course, you hardly start from scratch. I will be taking the A levels as a private candidate and while I can 'mix' the subjects from different boards (e.g., CIE, Edexcel) this means my choices are limited to whether the exam centre can provide an examiner for oral exams and if they can accept the coursework, etc. My options would probably be all considered quite 'soft', unfortunately. However, I am still going to have to choose.... besides English Language, the following are the ones that I am quite certain will be available at the exam centre: Classical Studies, Chinese, Economics, Psychology, Sociology, History and Italian.

I am quite interested in Economics (because looking at the questions I feel like these are things I should know, lol) but am terribly worried that my poor math skills will do me in if I took that subject.

Here is an example:4 The workers in a factory currently earn $240 for a 40-hour week. The management offers them achoice between either a 10 per cent wage increase or an increase in the weekly wage to $260along with a reduction from 40 to 39 hours.Disregarding the value of leisure time, what is the opportunity cost to each worker of opting forthe 39-hour week?
A $4 B $6 C $20 D $24

This is probably chicken poop to many of you, and I know this isn't math per se, but for me, just seeing the numbers without reading the question makes my brain almost shut down, lol. Advice and suggestions?

(edited 9 years ago)

Reply 1

TheWaffle

Original post by grivoise

Hi all! A bit long-winded but please bear with me! I've decided to return to studies but am now agonising over which A level subjects to choose from. Read through some other threads and have gleaned quite a bit from those, but I am wondering, for those who study languages in uni, how most of these degrees are structured? Do all the degrees assume students are starting the language from scratch?

A little background... I'm from Singapore and would consider myself a native speaker of both English and Mandarin Chinese (it varies from Singaporean to Singaporean), and am currently starting in Italian. This is still quite a long way from now but browsing through the courses at some universities, it seems that most university courses involving language (the joint Italian and Chinese language degree, and Italian and Linguistics) assume students would be beginners in their chosen langauge(s). I understand that some universities do cater to more advanced students but does this mean taking an A level in Chinese or Italian would be pointless (unless I take a language other than these two in uni)?

I guess I find it confusing because it is after all normal for a native speaker of English from an English-speaking country to take a degree in English Language and in that course, you hardly start from scratch. I will be taking the A levels as a private candidate and while I can 'mix' the subjects from different boards (e.g., CIE, Edexcel) this means my choices are limited to whether the exam centre can provide an examiner for oral exams and if they can accept the coursework, etc. My options would probably be all considered quite 'soft', unfortunately. However, I am still going to have to choose.... besides English Language, the following are the ones that I am quite certain will be available at the exam centre: Classical Studies, Chinese, Economics, Psychology, Sociology, History and Italian.

I am quite interested in Economics (because looking at the questions I feel like these are things I should know, lol) but am terribly worried that my poor math skills will do me in if I took that subject.

Here is an example:4 The workers in a factory currently earn $240 for a 40-hour week. The management offers them achoice between either a 10 per cent wage increase or an increase in the weekly wage to $260along with a reduction from 40 to 39 hours.Disregarding the value of leisure time, what is the opportunity cost to each worker of opting forthe 39-hour week?
A $4 B $6 C $20 D $24

This is probably chicken poop to many of you, and I know this isn't math per se, but for me, just seeing the numbers without reading the question makes my brain almost shut down, lol. Advice and suggestions?

No most degrees don't assume you're studying a foreign language from scratch. They normally ask for an A Level in the subject. Sometimes you can study two languages and learn the second one from stratch. Foreign language courses are normally a mix of grammar, oral, literature and culture/ history modules.

Reply 2

grivoise

Hey, thanks for your response, Waffle...

I looked at University of Edinburgh's Chinese degree course and it stated that it was not a course suitable for native or near native speakers of the language. Trinity College Dublin's Italian course requires you to have a grade in Italian or in a language other than English. So that kinda means the first year is from scratch, no?