Finished Yr12 with 4 subjects, no idea what to do now

I just finished my first year at college with Classical Civilisation, Ancient History, History, and English Literature. I'm looking at either an A or a B in Classics and Ancient (they have AS exams) and I got one mark below an A* in History and an A in the (marked as if an AS) English mock.

The obvious thing to do is drop either Ancient History or Classics for next year as I already have an AS, and if I were to do that I should probably drop Classics because I want to apply for Ancient and Modern History degrees. However, my initial plan was to drop English because I had six teachers this year and I've hated it all year. I was convinced I would get a C/D in the mock but I was nearly top of the class.

As far as I can see it, I have 3 options:
1) Keep all four subjects, miss out on doing EPQ (unless I could convince them to let me do an EPQ too because I really want to)
2) Drop one of my AS subjects, risking hating English
3) Drop English, getting absolutely nothing for it, effectively wasting a year's work

For both options 2 and 3 I would do an EPQ centred around modern political history. Does anyone have any advice? My mind keeps going round in circles about it.

Reply 1

tamanna___

18

Okay well, if you do 4 subjects, universities will only look at your three best grades, and they wont consider the fourth at all.

If you drop one, your more likely to get better grades in the other three + doing an EPQ will set you aside from other applicants.

I went to a university open day yesterday ad they were talking about how they like diversity in their courses , they like students who are doing different courses etc so I think doing an EPQ will make you stand out

Reply 2

Gerry-Atricks

22

Original post by tamanna___

Okay well, if you do 4 subjects, universities will only look at your three best grades, and they wont consider the fourth at all.

If you drop one, your more likely to get better grades in the other three + doing an EPQ will set you aside from other applicants.

I went to a university open day yesterday ad they were talking about how they like diversity in their courses , they like students who are doing different courses etc so I think doing an EPQ will make you stand out

Okay well, if you do 4 subjects, universities will only look at your three best grades, and they wont consider the fourth at all.
Not true, some top unis make 4 A level offers if you do take 4 like oxbridge or imperial and a few others, but its true that most wont for most courses so OP should check.

Reply 3

StevetheIcecube

OP

18

Original post by glad-he-ate-her

Okay well, if you do 4 subjects, universities will only look at your three best grades, and they wont consider the fourth at all.
Not true, some top unis make 4 A level offers if you do take 4 like oxbridge or imperial and a few others, but its true that most wont for most courses so OP should check.

Nowhere I'm applying to, including Oxford, makes four a level offers for Ancient and Modern History. Really, I want to drop one, but that involves making a choice where there's no one right answer.

Reply 4

username3280668

12

Original post by glad-he-ate-her

Okay well, if you do 4 subjects, universities will only look at your three best grades, and they wont consider the fourth at all.
Not true, some top unis make 4 A level offers if you do take 4 like oxbridge or imperial and a few others, but its true that most wont for most courses so OP should check.

Even with the top universities like Oxbridge they accept 3 A Levels, don't they? Well from what I've seen from their websites anyway.

Reply 5

Gerry-Atricks

22

Original post by StevetheIcecube

Nowhere I'm applying to, including Oxford, makes four a level offers for Ancient and Modern History. Really, I want to drop one, but that involves making a choice where there's no one right answer.

They dont usually advertise it because that would be seen as advertising that they want students to do 4 A levels but if you do they can offer you 4 A level offers, indeed most successful oxbridge applicants have 4 A levels i think, usually achieving full A*s or very near to that. (dont quote me on that, im very uncertain on it and dont remember where i heard it). I know some oxbridge offer holders with 4 A level offers