A-Level Dilemma!

I really need some help with picking my A Levels! I don't know what I want to be when I'm older. I change my mind everyday. One day, I want to become a physicist and study space. The next, I want to go into chemistry and research there. Then there's the engineering route as there are some really cool apprenticeships. I just can't decide!

I know I want to take maths and further maths. I love maths and I'm fairly good at it so I guess it would be stupid not to. But then, I'm left with 2 options. Chemistry, physics or engineering? All five? Or is that just stupid? I really enjoy physics and engineering but I find them really challenging to get my head around and I'm not sure if they'd be too intense at A Level.

Please someone help! I have no idea what to do

Don't worry! As long as you do science A-levels, you'll be fine, as these leave almost every door open apart from languages.

Don't do engineering A-level, as it is similar to prospective law applicants doing law at A-level - an unnecessary waste of time. I would advise maths, further maths, chemistry and physics and possibly biology added on the end as a fifth, although this is not necessary for engineering and is probably just me being biased, but it would keep the extra door of medicine open.

Chemistry and physics complement each other and can be applied to engineering if you want later or give you options for almost anything sciencey. I've no idea what engineering involves so I can't advise on that one.

Physics is a mind-bending but should be Ok with your maths background - I took it with chemistry, biology and law and it's a challenge but incredibly interesting when you go deep - GCSE just doesn't show you how good it really is!
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Okay, thank you. Not doing engineering. Do you do chemistry or physics? How hard are they compared to other subjects?

Not as hard as further maths based on what I've heard from people doing it! They're not too bad for me but miles harder than say law, plus taking one makes the other easier.

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Okay, thank you. Not doing engineering. Do you do chemistry or physics? How hard are they compared to other subjects?

I'm in year 12 and I'm doing chemistry, physics, maths and further maths and have done biology and geology to A2 in year 11.

I think in order of favourite to least favourite:
Biology
Chemistry (nearly on par with biology)
Maths
Further maths (nearly on par with maths)
Geology
Physics

Chemistry is by far my favourite so far at AS. In unit 1, you learn about how everything you did at GCSE is wrong or over-simplified (don't worry, it's very interesting) and unit 2 extends the GCSE ideas of energetics, kinetics, equilibria, redox to a higher level and a fair bit of organic mechanisms at the end, with the organic being my favourite.

If your school structures it how mine structures it (AS maths and AS further maths in year 12), pure maths in my opinion is great as it is either peasy or really interesting. C1 and C2 should be a doddle after GCSE and should be units where you are not aiming for an A, but for close to full UMS. FP1 is slightly harder, but you do loads of new interesting stuff, such as complex numbers, matrices, graphs/inequalities, properties of polynomial roots and some stuff on proof and series. Mechanics is the hardest part in my opinion, as if you make one error, the whole thing goes pear-shaped, but just requires plenty of practice. Statistics is dull in places, but has its interesting bits and isn't particularly difficult.

Physics has its fascinating parts and its dreadful, dire, mind-numbingly boring parts - a real mixture in my opinion. Electricity is awful and shockingly dull, mechanics is dreadful (like an over-simplified version of maths M1 where you have to try to rote-learn equations for different situations, but FM helps with this), materials is so-so, particles and quantum phenomena are VERY interesting and waves are interesting.

I think to answer your question more directly, it really depends on the individual as to their difficulty - it depends quite a lot on how interesting you find them, but my brain is quite memory/explanation/process-orientated, so this situation may be different for you.

Hope this helps

That's helped so much. I can imagine finding the same things boring to be honest! It's really helpful that you gave me an actual answer to my question. Teachers just go around it and then end it with 'yeah, you'll probably enjoy it'
Thank you so much!
You must be really smart to have already done some of your A levels! Wow

You're welcome, I hope you find it helpful - again, a lot of it is dependent on how much you enjoy it.

I did biology early because I loved it - I wanted to do chemistry at the same time as well but my school told me no . Basically I did biology self-study, and due to me finishing early GCSEs the head asked me to speak to him and I said I wanted to do chemistry early (pleaded in fact) but he refused and put me forward for geology, saying it is better to do chemistry in year 12/13. At the time I was really pissed off, but now, looking back on it, see that he was right in a way.