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Is it worth it?

Hi I'm currently in Year 12 studying my A Levels, and I'm hoping to apply for NatSci at Cambridge or Medicine. My current A Levels are Maths, Further Maths, Chemistry and Biology - and my gcse's were 7A*s 4As - (A*s in Maths, Further Maths, Physics, Chemistry, Biology, English Language, English Literature) (A's in History, French, German and Product Design).

Would it be better if I dropped to Maths, Chemistry, Biology - or keep Further Maths and do 4 A Levels? Any advice would be really helpful thanks :smile:
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LRxS
20
You should contact Cambridge & find out if further maths gives you an advantage. If it doesn’t, or it’s only small, it’s better to drop it as you’ll most likely score higher in your other 3. My friend is doing Chem, Bio and Maths and has an AS in Geog and he’s got a natsci offer from one of Oxford/Cambridge (I can’t remember which!!)
I know things are different with the new A levels, people at my school have been advised to take 3 from the start whereas we were advised to take 4 and drop one after AS level but it's changed since people don't really do AS levels anymore.
I don't know loads about the admissions process so don't take my word for gospel, there will be people who know better than me, but in my experience you should keep all 4. I'm doing my final A2 exams this year, I kept all four and my Cambridge offer is on the basis of 4 a levels meaning they do want me to do all 4 of them (I do physics, chemistry, maths and further maths and have an offer for physical natsci).
However, I do also have a friend who got an offer for biological natsci and she's doing 4 a levels (biology, chemistry, maths and physics) and her offer is for 3 a levels excluding physics. (Although we can't know if she would still have got the offer if she wasn't predicted 4A*s.)
Also, with less people doing 4 a levels they may have to make more offers to people with 3.
However I do believe having 4 gives you a significant advantage over having 3 as they want people who can handle that kind of workload.
I'd advise maybe emailing admissions and looking on the website to find out whether further maths is desired and relevant or whether your application would be as strong with just the other 3.
Also, you listed your GCSEs as if you were wondering if they're good enough? They are. I was told the average number of GCSE A*s at Cambridge is 6. They're much more interested in your a levels anyway though.
(edited 6 years ago)

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