Competition - post a photo you've taken of nature >>

Thoughts on A-level choices?

I'm currently in Year 11 and am thinking about my A-level choices. However, I have no idea whatsoever about what I want to do in university/beyond, so I want a combination of subjects which are flexible and keep my options open.

At the moment, I currently study maths, English language, English literature, biology, chemistry, physics, religious studies, art, history, French and Spanish.

I was thinking maybe maths, English lit, Spanish, biology and chemistry for a-level? But I need to cut this down to four... What combination is best?

I definitely want to carry on with both maths & a language (probably Spanish, I'm better at it) but is taking 2 sciences going to limit my options? And if I chose to do one science, which is better?

And also, any thoughts on EPQ? I would like to do it but I'm worried that the time spent on that will detract from my studying of my other four options, has this been an issue for anyone else?

Thank you, all comments are appreciated!!

Reply 1

nicolee98

I'm going to do maths, chemistry, biology and Spanish. It's a good combination in my opinion

Posted from TSR Mobile

Reply 2

Nymthae

Original post by hollmay

I did maths, biology, chemistry and Spanish.

Really, it boils down to what you think you might want to do. I picked chemistry because I thought I wanted to do a biology degree, Spanish and maths because I enjoyed them/was good at them and they're useful. In the end, I hated biology, but went on to do a chemistry degree where the maths was a very helpful thing to have.

Each science will lead you to a different path. Any ideas on the sorts of stuff you'd like to do?

maths, biology, chemistry, Spanish - no problems with any biology or chemistry routes, maths is an option, languages
maths, biology, English, Spanish - likely to be fine for almost all biology courses (but not biochemistry), English/languages
maths, chemistry, English, Spanish - good for chemistry (and biochemistry), maths an option, English/languages
biology, chemistry, English, Spanish - good for biology, fine for chemistry at most places (some req. maths, many just say a second science), English/languages

I think you can get away with keeping most of your options open. Such as chemistry will always benefit from all the sciences though as it's pretty central so you find elements of maths, physics, and biology. As an A-level though it doesn't require anything with it. Such as Oxford, Warwick, and Bristol are examples of places that prefer you to have maths with chemistry, although an AS may suffice (i.e. if you decided to do chemistry and wanted to apply there, it would mean doing an extra AS in year 13). Otherwise, Russel Group universities and similar are usually fairly happy to take chemistry + any other science because they teach more of the maths in first year.

I started with an EPQ, decided I couldn't be bothered. :tongue:

it wasn't worth anything much to me as i'd picked to do something historical which was complete irrelevant to my university application, and it's not really easy to do a proper experimental thing if you wanted to make it science related. Good soft skills still, but i'm lazy, and you can never really do enough work for languages so you'll have plenty to fill your time. You can always start the EPQ and see how it goes, you shouldn't be under any obligation to complete it if you feel it's too much.

Reply 3

Random1357

Firstly note having a chem A level is better than bio... But that's because it's a harder a level to get.

You can't go too wrong with your options as you've suggested: and don't worry sciences are facilitating so your pretty safe for having good A levels.

I'm doing (in Y12) chemistry, physics, bio and 3 maths and have found all courses enjoyable: the thing about science is if you are sufficiently good it requires little work. But chemistry takes up lots of time for some people: you have been warned!

Posted from TSR Mobile

Thoughts on A-level choices?

Quick Reply

Related discussions

Latest

Trending

Trending

Articles for you