DId I make the right choice for A levels?

Go for the ones you enjoy, I do enjoy all my subjects but was maybe swayed a bit by the fact i thought my History and Spanish exams had gone terribly.

I was going to Maths, Further Maths, Chemistry and Physics and I could have done those all since I am good at the, but I have decided to go for physics maths, spanish and business so I dont kill myself lol

Hello, I'm pretty sure everyone's fed up with posts like these but this is my first post on TSR, so I hope it doesn't get put into the wrong forum x_x

Im in y11 and I've almost finished my GCSE's. For A levels I hope to do:
Maths to A2
Physics to A2
Biology to A2
French to AS

I would consider myself to be good at all these subjects whilst being predicted all A/A*s so I haven't been able to decide just from ability. For university, I'm interested in the natural sciences/computer science/physics - so I definitely want to do physics and maths to A2. I just dont know about biology and french but I enjoy learning all these subjects and have already done biology in y10 (got an A).

A lot of people have recommended that I take either further maths or chemistry instead but I have a few doubts about choosing these two. First of all, although I can currently do GCSE chemistry well, I don't have a particular interest or passion for it, so I don't think it would be a good choice to do a subject that I wouldn't put 100% in to. It will also be a huge step up from GCSE making it seem even less like a subject that I'd be interested in.

When it comes to further maths, I don't think I'll be able to handle it since I'm not very intuitive - I can do GCSE maths very well but A level maths is a big jump from GCSE, so I don't want to go into FM with a naive mindset. I'm not very intuitive, however once I understand how to work out something - I can implement it correctly to even the 'harder' questions. What I'm trying to say is that I'm good at maths but not crazy brilliant to the point where I see patterns in questions straight away..

French is the one I'm most worried about taking because although I really did love the GCSE course, I'm not sure if it will be the right choice for me at A level. I really do love the French language and I'm prepared to work hard to catch up even if I'm miles behind - but wouldn't hinder my desirability for the degrees I want to do at Uni?

The subjects wanted for those degrees are generally: maths, and another science and some find FM highly desirable. Did I make the right choice by choosing to go on with the subjects I enjoyed the most?

(sorry for the extremely long post but I wanted to make it as detailed as possible so you could understand why I'm having difficulty deciding..Any input would be appreciated!)

I also think that would be best - but maybe the one's you enjoy aren't the ones that are needed for your chosen degree - would you still carry them on or go with a subject you'll be thankful for having later on rather than considering it to be interesting?


Ahh what you were initially going to do was what I was going to do as well but I didn't want all that stress in one go xD
With those subjects what were you thinking of doing in the future?

From the sounds of it you could easily do further maths, go for it. You do NOT have to be intuitive to further maths, this is not a maths degree or a STEP paper, there you do have to be intuitive.

Ooo, from what people have told me, you had to be very intuitive for further maths - nice to know that isnt the case!
Although, I'm not really sure how I'll find maths which is why I'm not sure if it's a good idea to leap into choosing FM when I don't even know if I'll be able to grasp the fundamentals of A level maths. I think it may be a good idea if I try to learn maths ahead of September and see how I cope with it and then make a decision as to whether I would like to do FM.

Lots of people in my school put it off for the same reasons as you thinking it would be ungodly hard (this is a top 20 school). Many of them seriously regret that decision, a large number took AS further maths in Y13 to boost their engineering applications/physics application to places like Imperial and UCL because they were disadvantaged against other candidates. Honestly, further maths AS is not that much harder than maths AS, further maths A2 is a lot harder than maths A2 but it is definitely doable if you put in the work, trust me. You do not want to regret picking further maths, especially if you are considering any hard science to apply for.

Oh, that's very true.. So would taking it only to AS still be better than not taking at all? Also, do you think I should swap it for French or Biology?

I want to do physics at uni and I think I am going to study in spain cuz itc cheaper, joking! I am obsessed with languages so that's why I picked Spanish, I will probably do something with that physics.

I am taking business because its considered a light(er) subject.
Unfortunately, chemistry is still written on my option choice and I have to wait till results day to change it

Taking it to AS is better than not taking it at all, and if you decide you really like it, you can take it A2 and be a very desirable applicant for universities. Many universities if you are applying for a science related subject may give reduced grade requirements for those who are taking further maths, at least that was the case with my Computer Science friend. I think your 4th A level should be whatever you would enjoy the most, M, FM and Phys are enough to take you anywhere in the hard sciences apart from Chemistry (so engineering, maths, comp sci etc.) so pick the 4th based on what you enjoy the most.

I'm leaning towards M, FM, Pys and French now and I actually feel satisfied with these choices - I think I may have chosen Biology just because I had already done the GCSE so that may have tainted my decision to choose it. But I guess I'll have to deliberate it on my own slightly longer to make sure I'm certain.
Thank you very much for your advice, it really helped!