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Chemistry or Latin A-level?

Hi,
I'm choosing my A-levels in 2 weeks time, and am trying to decide between Chemistry and Latin for my 4th subject!
I'm definitely doing;
Maths
Physics
History ('passion subject')
But can't decide for my last one. I want to do either History, Economics or (Astro)Physics/Engineering as an undergraduate. And then Finance as postgrad (I know - looking very far into the future!)
I enjoy both subjects equally, and find them both 'low maintenance' - naturally scoring A*/mid 90% (only at GCSE level though) without revision for my mocks.
Neither of them I think would affect what Uni corse I could do much, but which one compliments my other choices better? Or if anyone is doing either/ both - is the leap from GCSE to A-level for one particularly bad?
Thankyou in advance!
Reply 1
Original post by koala789
Hi,
I'm choosing my A-levels in 2 weeks time, and am trying to decide between Chemistry and Latin for my 4th subject!
I'm definitely doing;
Maths
Physics
History ('passion subject':wink:
But can't decide for my last one. I want to do either History, Economics or (Astro)Physics/Engineering as an undergraduate. And then Finance as postgrad (I know - looking very far into the future!)
I enjoy both subjects equally, and find them both 'low maintenance' - naturally scoring A*/mid 90% (only at GCSE level though) without revision for my mocks.
Neither of them I think would affect what Uni corse I could do much, but which one compliments my other choices better? Or if anyone is doing either/ both - is the leap from GCSE to A-level for one particularly bad?
Thankyou in advance!

Chemistry is meant to be very academically challenging whereas Latin is a LOT of work in terms of learning. So whatever you feel more comfortable doing
Reply 2
Chemistry
Reply 3
Original post by koala789
Hi,
I'm choosing my A-levels in 2 weeks time, and am trying to decide between Chemistry and Latin for my 4th subject!
I'm definitely doing;
Maths
Physics
History ('passion subject')
But can't decide for my last one. I want to do either History, Economics or (Astro)Physics/Engineering as an undergraduate. And then Finance as postgrad (I know - looking very far into the future!)
I enjoy both subjects equally, and find them both 'low maintenance' - naturally scoring A*/mid 90% (only at GCSE level though) without revision for my mocks.
Neither of them I think would affect what Uni corse I could do much, but which one compliments my other choices better? Or if anyone is doing either/ both - is the leap from GCSE to A-level for one particularly bad?
Thankyou in advance!


Hi, I do chemistry (OCR) as I want to do medicine, it's quite difficult I have to say you definitely need to revise for it. I'm on an A now but it's an incredibly big leap from GCSE definitely and I was like you too who thought I didn't need to revise. Boiii I was wrong. Don't do Latin but for chemistry as you want to do physics and Maths it should help you a lot. But do some more research and see what you need for your future courses,hope I helped😁


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Reply 4
Original post by kaffeka
Hi, I do chemistry (OCR) as I want to do medicine, it's quite difficult I have to say you definitely need to revise for it. I'm on an A now but it's an incredibly big leap from GCSE definitely and I was like you too who thought I didn't need to revise. Boiii I was wrong. Don't do Latin but for chemistry as you want to do physics and Maths it should help you a lot. But do some more research and see what you need for your future courses,hope I helped😁


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Thanks for the perspective - I've heard It's a HUGE leap and in the first lesson you get told everything at GCSE was a lie basically or something on the lines of that? lol
Think I'm going to have to do more reaserch because I'm so indecisive :/
Good luck with your A-levels and thankyou!
Reply 5
Original post by pindama
Chemistry is meant to be very academically challenging whereas Latin is a LOT of work in terms of learning. So whatever you feel more comfortable doing


Yeah; I think chemistry is more 'applied' and advanced at A level so will be a bigger leap. My Latin teacher has offered to help me try an A level paper to see what it would be like.
Thank you
Reply 6
Original post by koala789
Thanks for the perspective - I've heard It's a HUGE leap and in the first lesson you get told everything at GCSE was a lie basically or something on the lines of that? lol
Think I'm going to have to do more reaserch because I'm so indecisive :/
Good luck with your A-levels and thankyou!


Yup the first lesson our teacher told us to forget everything we learnt at GCSE everything😂😂 and good luck you to


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Reply 7
Hebrew.
I would say choose the one that you think might help more for your degree once you're surer on which of those options you think you'll want to go on to study. My school rarely gets a viable number to run an A-Level Latin group (1 or 2 students a year at best would like to take it), so I offer the AS course spread over two years to do, meeting with the student(s) once or twice a week in their free lessons. It's a lot of work, but it's manageable over the course of two years if you're committed to it. You might want to look into whether your school would be prepared to do something similar.
Hey there :smile: I actually do both A-levels and for Latin AS, the leap from GCSE to A-level is very small, there's only a bit more vocab and grammar you need to learn. I'd say if you enjoy Latin and you think you're very good and it then take it, and you'll have no problem getting an A at AS. Chemistry on the other hand is a lot more difficult and not much like GCSE at all. If you don't want much work, then I'd say take Latin. The only thing that might put you off is the set text learning that is quite time-consuming. But Chemistry, like you said is more applied so after learning the knowledge you have to show understanding making it a lot harder than Latin.



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(edited 7 years ago)
Reply 10
I'd strongly recommend Latin! I'm doing it now, and I'm loving it far, far more than GCSE, which was a little to easy for me, while A Level is a delightful challenge. The new grammar is relishing, filling in the gaps of verb tenses and the such, which means you get to study Latin from original authors (though slightly adapted) as opposed to modern passages, which is much more entertaining, but then it's not too big a step up. While the lack of a defined vocab list for the full A Level is almost worrying, you are given the obscure words in the exam like before, and you build up a store of new words from reading the authors from which the unseens are taken (the spec will tell you that, for OCR it's Livy and Ovid) in Latin, which is thrilling, to read literature in another language. The literature itself for the set texts is indeed harder, and they are individually longer, and there are 4 to learn (provided you don't take the AS, in which case it is half that), but they are, at least for me, far, far more entertaining than the god awful Pliny I had to deal with at GCSE (damn Pliny the Elder's daily life! it's dull!). Aside from the superiority of the A Level to the GCSE, it's quite a unique qualification to possess, which attracts the attention of universities and employers alike.

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