The Student Room Group

Are my options too narrow?

I chose my A Level choices back in October and now that I'm getting closer to leaving school, I've begun to wonder if they're too limiting. I've chosen to do English Literature, English Language, Film Studies, Drama and theatre studies. I'm planning into doing a joint honours degree later on in Creative Writing and Film and Television studies, and for this course I need to do English L:iterature.

I want to do English Language as that is the more enjoyable side of English for more (I love creative writing and the study of the language itself, it seems interesting). I've read somewhere not to do subjects at A Level you'll do at degree level, unless it's a required one (like you need A Level Biology to do it at degree level) but I also want to be able to have a taste as to what the study of film is like, so that if it doesn't end up interesting me, I can drop it. As for Drama, I've been considering dropping this and changing it for psychology simply because people interest me, but then I also enjoy doing drama. But is there too much of a overlap between literature and drama? I know the theory side of Drama involves studying how lights are used on stage, sounds etc, but then don't you analyse these in play texts in literature?

Been thinking about talking to the careers advisor in college about this, but I'm still not sure if psychology is right for me. I don't currently enjoy science as none of it really makes sense to me, but I do get A/B grades in all 3 (I take triple). But then, it isn't exactly like the other sciences either.

So I don't know. Does anyone have any suggestions?
Reply 1
Honestly for the course you are doing your A levels are completely fine. Stick with what you enjoy and don't pick a science subject which will cause you lots of stress. Whoever told you that you shouldn't pick the a level subject you are doing at Uni was wrong as it's completely fine..
My advice is always to choose an idea end point, e.g. "What would be your dream job?" then see what company's or jobs there are that are as close to that idea job. See what Degree's they ask for / qualifications, then look at university's offering the degree. Look at the entry requirements for a range of university's, try to spot common themes in the requirements e.g. what Courses do they require? what grade's do you need? Are the requirements based on UCAS points or conventional grades. Then you can use this information to help guide your choice of subject. Sometimes you need to bite a hard bullet with your A-Level choices. For me I wanted to do robotics but needed physics and maths, two subjects i really didn't enjoy. But once the first term of my a levels was over I started to enjoy them.
Reply 3
Dream job is definitely film director, but hoping to go at this from a more screenplay sort of route. Its a sort of job that doesn't ask for anything but experince, and its based on competition. After uni, im planning on going to a film school in London to give me the desired experience.

I've so far found two unis that do the course I want, and Aberystwyth has the highest entry requirements, asking for an A in English Literature and 300 UCAS points. The other university didnt ask for English Literature, and instead asked for 290 UCAS points.
Okay that's awesome that you know what sort of ball park your aiming for. So because your university asks for UCAS points you can play around with the system a bit. You basically have loads of different ways of achieving your entry requirements, here are a few ideas:

(Im assuming you would like for example, 300 UCAS and A in Eng Lit)

Option 1: Start with 4 A-Levels and then drop one after the First year so you end up with 1 AS and 3 A levels. That way you can see what your best and worst subjects are and drop the worst.

Option 2: Do 3 A-Levels hard core mode, because your only doing 3 during your first year you have a better chance at getting better grades, and possible combinations that would get 300 UCAS is ABC or BBB or AAD although i am assuming you want to get the A in Eng lit.

Option 3: If you don't have the confidence to hardcore 3 a-levels you can add in a Extended project qualification, Its worth about the same UCAS as a AS Level. The great thing about the EPQ is that it doesn't take too much time away from your main A-Levels as you can do almost all the work over the summer between your first and second year. Also it can be on anything you want, Its basically your chance to make up your own subject and teach it to yourself, looks great on CV'S and Personal statements (I think about 1/3 of my personal statement was about my EPQ). Although make sure you check with your university's to see if they accept the extended project qualification. Most do, but some don't so try not to be caught out.

Hopefully this helps, let me know if there are any more questions :smile:
Original post by xEmilyxx
I want to do English Language as that is the more enjoyable side of English for more (I love creative writing and the study of the language itself, it seems interesting)

I thought the exact same as you. I started my A levels back in September. I then found out that you no longer do any creative writing in Language, so I changed it to Literature two weeks in. Language was so boring, just analysing newspaper adverts and over-zealously categorising words.
Reply 6
I remember college mentioning to me in the EPQ, which mine does alongside a program that includes uni visits and workshops designed to encourage students to take on higher education. I was definitely going to do this, mainly for my CV but if it does help with getting into university, then bonus and I'll be sure to check if its applicable, either way, at least it's a great skill to have.

So what exactly is it's use in terms of UCAS? I remember reading somewhere that different grades in it carry certain amounts of points, so I assume that if you fall slightly on a subject the UCAS points can help provide the points to bump up your total amount to the total that you want.

Those are definitely solutions i havent thought of before. I was going to try hard for As and Bs, but I suppose a C is a somewhat good solution too. Thanks very much
Original post by xEmilyxx
I chose my A Level choices back in October and now that I'm getting closer to leaving school, I've begun to wonder if they're too limiting. I've chosen to do English Literature, English Language, Film Studies, Drama and theatre studies. I'm planning into doing a joint honours degree later on in Creative Writing and Film and Television studies, and for this course I need to do English L:iterature.

I want to do English Language as that is the more enjoyable side of English for more (I love creative writing and the study of the language itself, it seems interesting). I've read somewhere not to do subjects at A Level you'll do at degree level, unless it's a required one (like you need A Level Biology to do it at degree level) but I also want to be able to have a taste as to what the study of film is like, so that if it doesn't end up interesting me, I can drop it. As for Drama, I've been considering dropping this and changing it for psychology simply because people interest me, but then I also enjoy doing drama. But is there too much of a overlap between literature and drama? I know the theory side of Drama involves studying how lights are used on stage, sounds etc, but then don't you analyse these in play texts in literature?

Been thinking about talking to the careers advisor in college about this, but I'm still not sure if psychology is right for me. I don't currently enjoy science as none of it really makes sense to me, but I do get A/B grades in all 3 (I take triple). But then, it isn't exactly like the other sciences either.

So I don't know. Does anyone have any suggestions?


fine imo
Reply 8
Original post by Abstract_Prism
I thought the exact same as you. I started my A levels back in September. I then found out that you no longer do any creative writing in Language, so I changed it to Literature two weeks in. Language was so boring, just analysing newspaper adverts and over-zealously categorising words.

My college lists my syllabus on the website and they state that you do a spoken language study, dialect study, children learning to speak study and crestive writing as well as some odd bits of analysing. Maybe you hadn't got to that part yet? I've heard that they start off by going over skills in GCSE so maybe that's what they were doing?
Original post by xEmilyxx
My college lists my syllabus on the website and they state that you do a spoken language study, dialect study, children learning to speak study and crestive writing as well as some odd bits of analysing. Maybe you hadn't got to that part yet? I've heard that they start off by going over skills in GCSE so maybe that's what they were doing?

Could be. Regardless, the main reason that I swapped it to Lit was that I only found out after I started the course that Language was not considered a 'facilitating' subject.
The table is available on the UCAS website here: https://www.ucas.com/ucas/undergraduate/getting-started/entry-requirements/tariff/tariff-tables/1271

So as you can see, it really does make achieving 300 UCAS points seem like a walk in the park. Although two big tips if you do opt for the EPQ, Step 1: Make it FUN. If its not fun you will get bored and fail, the project is entirely self motivated. Step 2: Make sure you are able to work just under your own command, your supervisor will guide you but definitely won't push you along.

Usually the first tip helps the second one. For example I built a robot, because I like to hit things with hammers and make sparks fly instead of write thousands of words. But you can do anything you want really. Its also a good way to start networking/ getting in contact with people at the universitys you are applying for. I emailed lecturers (one of which was also the admissions tutor) at university's i was applying for and not only did i get responses I also put myself on their radar. So yeah, EPQ is awesome, but its your responsibility to make it awesome.

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