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A LEVEL CHOICES HELP ( best combinations advice)

Helppp I am in year 11 and I need to decide on the 4 a levels that I would like to do. I don't have a particular career path in mind, so I am trying to pick some facilitating subjects. - not including the maths area too much . I'm thinking about going into environmental law or veterinary medicine.I understand that all a levels are hard and im willing to put 100% effort in no matter what I do though

Could you please advice me on which combinations go best please

1) English lit , Biology , psychology and economics

2) English lit, biology , chemistry and economics

3) English lit , biology, Geography and economics
(edited 6 years ago)

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you have to decide on what you want to do first
Original post by WorryFlurry
Helppp I am in year 11 and I need to decide on the 4 a levels that I would like to do. I don't have a particular career path in mind, so I am trying to pick some facilitating subjects. - not including the maths area too much . I'm thinking about going into environmental law or veterinary medicine.I understand that all a levels are hard and im willing to put 100% effort in no matter what I do though

Could you please advice me on which combinations go best please

1) English lit , Biology , psychology and economics

2) English lit, biology , chemistry and economics

3) English lit , biology, Geography and economics


Look at this: https://university.which.co.uk/advice/a-level-choices/what-a-levels-do-you-need-to-become-a-vet

None of those fit many vet courses -
English lit, biology, chemistry and economics opens the most doors for you in my opinion, particularly if you want to do veterinary medicine or environmental law. You need chemistry and biology for veterinary medicine. English and economics are essay-based subjects so will put you in a good position if you want to study law, plus chemistry and biology are really impressive and rigorous subjects.
2) if vet med
3) if environmental law
English Lit, Bio and Economics sound like good options if you want to keep law/veterinary sciences open. I'd say the most fitting 4th for environmental law would be Geography, but bear in mind you don't have to take four. Will it be an AS?
I take English Lit, Economics and History, hoping to go into Law at a Russell Uni. English and Economics are both really interesting but also nothing alike so you have a really varied set of options there, which is a good thing because you're not 100% set on what you want to do.
Best of luck!
Chemistry is going to open a lot of doors for you if you want to do anything science related. It's usually a requirement for a lab-based degree, and it is always required to become a vet.
Original post by dariopussolo
2,however I would suggest to change English or Economics with Law or Accounting, since this will put you in a disadvantages position.


Universities definitely prefer English literature to law or accounting for law applicants. Even economics is usually more highly favoured than law or accounting.
Original post by dariopussolo
2,however I would suggest to change English or Economics with Law or Accounting, since this will put you in a disadvantages position.


This is crap advice, universities don't consider Law or Accounting A Level as respectable subjects. English Lit or Economics would be much more sensible academic options.
Many unis don't like Law students to have studied Law at A Level beforehand because it gets a bit messy when they're studying in first year. Those who have studied A Level Law have been proven to get lower grades in the first year
Reply 9
Original post by WorryFlurry
Helppp I am in year 11 and I need to decide on the 4 a levels that I would like to do. I don't have a particular career path in mind, so I am trying to pick some facilitating subjects. - not including the maths area too much . I'm thinking about going into environmental law or veterinary medicine.I understand that all a levels are hard and im willing to put 100% effort in no matter what I do though

Could you please advice me on which combinations go best please

1) English lit , Biology , psychology and economics

2) English lit, biology , chemistry and economics

3) English lit , biology, Geography and economics


Biology and Chemistry will suffice to keep the vet med option open although it may be useful to do maths and/or physics as well. English Lit and Economics are good options if you want to broaden career prospects and will be great if you end up choosing to do environmental law in the future. I would also recommend History or another Humanities subject but English Lit will suffice if you want to do law and Economics counts as an essay-based subject. Hope this helps. :smile:
Original post by WorryFlurry
Helppp I am in year 11 and I need to decide on the 4 a levels that I would like to do. I don't have a particular career path in mind, so I am trying to pick some facilitating subjects. - not including the maths area too much . I'm thinking about going into environmental law or veterinary medicine.I understand that all a levels are hard and im willing to put 100% effort in no matter what I do though

Could you please advice me on which combinations go best please

1) English lit , Biology , psychology and economics

2) English lit, biology , chemistry and economics

3) English lit , biology, Geography and economics


English lit, biology, geography, chemistry would be good. Economics isn't needed for anything. You'll also need chemistry to practically study vet med
Original post by Kyber Ninja
English lit, biology, geography, chemistry would be good. Economics isn't needed for anything. You'll also need chemistry to practically study vet med


Thank you for the comment :smile: Don't you think that doing 4 facilitating might be too much or do you think it's perfectly doable
Original post by CoffeeAndPolitics
Biology and Chemistry will suffice to keep the vet med option open although it may be useful to do maths and/or physics as well. English Lit and Economics are good options if you want to broaden career prospects and will be great if you end up choosing to do environmental law in the future. I would also recommend History or another Humanities subject but English Lit will suffice if you want to do law and Economics counts as an essay-based subject. Hope this helps. :smile:


Thank you this was very helpful to me :biggrin:
Original post by WorryFlurry
Thank you for the comment :smile: Don't you think that doing 4 facilitating might be too much or do you think it's perfectly doable


Well I personally wouldn't do 4; it was something people would do before when A-Levels were modular, or when there were January exams to spread work apart, but now since you have to know everything at the end of two years, I wouldn't recommend it.

If you want my recommended three, I'd definitely do biology, chemistry and English. Geography isn't needed for environmental law. Neither is English, but I feel the skills you pick up from English A-level are more transferable to Law in general
Reply 14
Original post by WorryFlurry
Thank you this was very helpful to me :biggrin:


You're welcome! Good luck with your studies. :smile:
Original post by Deliciate
English lit, biology, chemistry and economics opens the most doors for you in my opinion, particularly if you want to do veterinary medicine or environmental law. You need chemistry and biology for veterinary medicine. English and economics are essay-based subjects so will put you in a good position if you want to study law, plus chemistry and biology are really impressive and rigorous subjects.


Thank you :smile: a lot of year 13s I've been talking to that do both biology and chemistry have told me that they dropped it for being 'too hard' do you have any experience with chemistry a level ??
Original post by Kyber Ninja
Well I personally wouldn't do 4; it was something people would do before when A-Levels were modular, or when there were January exams to spread work apart, but now since you have to know everything at the end of two years, I wouldn't recommend it.

If you want my recommended three, I'd definitely do biology, chemistry and English. Geography isn't needed for environmental law. Neither is English, but I feel the skills you pick up from English A-level are more transferable to Law in general


Thank you again :biggrin: my only fear with Doing chemistry is finding it too hard and dropping it (which I'm not planning on doing but it), would leave me in a bad position with just English lit , biology and , economics.
Original post by WorryFlurry
Thank you again :biggrin: my only fear with Doing chemistry is finding it too hard and dropping it (which I'm not planning on doing but it), would leave me in a bad position with just English lit , biology and , economics.


You could still do Law at top Unis with those 3, but you couldn't do vet med anywhere.

You could also study 4, then drop one during December or something if you don't like it
Original post by whoisme
English Lit, Bio and Economics sound like good options if you want to keep law/veterinary sciences open. I'd say the most fitting 4th for environmental law would be Geography, but bear in mind you don't have to take four. Will it be an AS?
I take English Lit, Economics and History, hoping to go into Law at a Russell Uni. English and Economics are both really interesting but also nothing alike so you have a really varied set of options there, which is a good thing because you're not 100% set on what you want to do.
Best of luck!


Thank you :smile: :biggrin: :biggrin:
Number 2 to keep both options open, and you can always drop one once you've decided

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