About to start an economics degree with no economics A-level

I am (I imagine) in a fairly unique circumstance - I was originally going to study Modern Languages at Birmingham but have recently switched my degree to Economics with Spanish. I won't bore you with all the reasons that led to this decision but it kind of felt 'meant to be' as although I didn't chose Birmingham for its economics course, I have since looked around and its modules appeal to me far more than other universities, plus it is one of the only RG unis that allow you to do economics without a maths A-level.

But I'm a bit worried about being behind as I imagine I may well be the only person without an A-level in economics - or at least in a very small minority. It's not like I know nothing about economics (obviously I have enough of an interest that I chose to study it) - I did history A-level, I am very interested in politics, keep up with current affairs and I have read books relating to economics. However, I'm not sure if this knowledge will match the knowledge everyone else has, especially as my interests have tended to lean towards more 'unconventional' economics.

So I was wondering what any current/past economics students think I should do in preparation - should I try to familiarise myself with the basics of the A-level syllabus (I was considering watching the youtube videos of Econplusdal) or just continue following my interests and hope for the best? Has anyone else been in or knows anyone who has been in the same position as me?

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But I'm a bit worried about being behind as I imagine I may well be the only person without an A-level in economics - or at least in a very small minority...

Did you do maths as or a level out of interest?

I did it at AS level and got a B but then (ironically) dropped it as it was the subject least relevant to what I then wanted to pursue. So I have a rather unusual subject combination for economics - english lit, spanish and history

You shouldn't worry, Economics courses (or basically any course) always start completely from scratch because of different backgrounds of people... you might need to do more work in the first term when A-level stuff is recovered, but after that you'll know exactly the same as everyone else, if not more because you're probably more motivated to do more work so you're not behind. You'll also realise how little there actually is in A-level when you start doing uni work.

Thanks that makes me feel much better! I was just worried that although that's the official line they would throw in terminology etc I'd be unfamiliar with but I guess they can't really do that.

You will be fine with the maths content but usually people without AS maths they ahve to take some compulsory maths modules which might give you less choice when it comes to your optional modules.

The only A level that any university asks for Econ is Maths. Economics is not necessary at A level, so most unis tend to cover the basics or most A level content in the first few weeks.
If you wanted to get a better idea of what Economics is about, read a few beginner's books, like The Undercover Economist by Tim Harford

You'll essentially never need to use any of the maths taught at A2 in an economics degree - the only vaguely relevant things might have been the stats modules but their fairly terrible in A level maths anyway. The only reason I guess most Economics degrees ask for maths is because it's a good a-level, and people won't be scared whenever they see an equation written down.

Also I'm sure thegreengirl is mistaken that "no university requires it" - the Cambridge Economics course definitely requires Maths, and often ask for Further Maths / STEP, but the content of their economics degree is more like an "Applied Statistics" course and is very mathematical, unlike most other Economics courses.

I was talking about economics A-level not maths, sorry if that was unclear!

This might be a difficult question to give a general answer to but Cambridge and other mathematically-orientated economics courses aside, how would you say the difficulty of the maths in an economics degree compares to A-level? Is it basically just learning how to do certain things and being able to apply them or is there also a lot problem-solving and intuition-type involved? I'm not quite sure what to expect

My bad... anyway I don't have that much knowledge of the content other than skimming university sites / past papers, and the person I know who does Economics at Warwick is very mathsy and did Further Maths at A-level, so he didn't find it difficult at all. It appears that the required maths would be learning methods which you can apply rather than problem solving type maths.. .though the shared maths/economics courses later on like Game Theory would be more intuitive.

I know that no university requires it, I was just thinking that since the vast majority of those who go on to study economics do have it, that might lead to an expectation for everyone to know certain things. But from what people have said, I should be alright!
I've read 'The Logic of Life' by Tim Harford as that was what the library had in, thanks for the advice

I was talking about economics A-level not maths, sorry if that was unclear!

This might be a difficult question to give a general answer to but Cambridge and other mathematically-orientated economics courses aside, how would you say the difficulty of the maths in an economics degree compares to A-level? Is it basically just learning how to do certain things and being able to apply them or is there also a lot problem-solving and intuition-type involved? I'm not quite sure what to expect

So I was wondering what any current/past economics students think I should do in preparation - should I try to familiarise myself with the basics of the A-level syllabus (I was considering watching the youtube videos of Econplusdal) or just continue following my interests and hope for the best? Has anyone else been in or knows anyone who has been in the same position as me?

.....