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Help! A-level choices

I seriously need help choosing my A-level choices! Or more particularly , my fourth A-level choice

The first three are definitely Maths, further maths and physics

I don’t know to decide between History, Comp Sci, Psychology, bio or Chem for the fourth one (which I know is a lot of choices)

To be honest, the subject I enjoy the most of these is history, my third fave subject after physics and maths probably, but the reason I’m not 100% taking it is because I’m not great at it in general, as in writing essays . I managed to get 8 A*s for mocks and an A in history so it might be foolish for me not to take the subjects I’m better at

I think comp Sci is important but I’ve never taken it before
Also, I find psychology , bio and Chem rlly easy for GCSEs so there’s probably a way higher chance of me getting a better grade should I take any of these subjects

Furthermore , I know I want to take physics when in Uni and I’m hoping to apply for Oxford so I had better take the subjects I’m better at

But I’m just so conflicted ?? Haha
Do people just all of a sudden click when it comes to subjects if they rlly enjoy them? Or does anyone have any tips when it comes to studying a level / pre u history?
Original post by bmovan
I seriously need help choosing my A-level choices! Or more particularly , my fourth A-level choice

The first three are definitely Maths, further maths and physics

I don’t know to decide between History, Comp Sci, Psychology, bio or Chem for the fourth one (which I know is a lot of choices)

To be honest, the subject I enjoy the most of these is history, my third fave subject after physics and maths probably, but the reason I’m not 100% taking it is because I’m not great at it in general, as in writing essays . I managed to get 8 A*s for mocks and an A in history so it might be foolish for me not to take the subjects I’m better at

I think comp Sci is important but I’ve never taken it before
Also, I find psychology , bio and Chem rlly easy for GCSEs so there’s probably a way higher chance of me getting a better grade should I take any of these subjects

Furthermore , I know I want to take physics when in Uni and I’m hoping to apply for Oxford so I had better take the subjects I’m better at

But I’m just so conflicted ?? Haha
Do people just all of a sudden click when it comes to subjects if they rlly enjoy them? Or does anyone have any tips when it comes to studying a level / pre u history?


Hi there! I took the exact same options for my AS levels : History, Physics, Maths and Further Maths so I hope I can give you some good advice on history! :smile:

The biggest thing, in my opinion, is to check what topics your school will be covering. E.g. mine did Tudors and Russian Revolution. I'll be honest with you, Tudors made life so dull, and I just couldn't handle it anymore, so I had to drop it. So you have to make sure that the topics you are doing interest you, since trust me, you will be having to read a looot of stuff, not just the textbook.

Secondly, history took up the most revision time by far. It has a very different style to revising than Physics and Maths, and that reflected in how long it took to revise. You have to read around the textbook, find out facts and figures yourself, plus ace your essay structure. It's definitely the most work for me.

BUT, so that this doesn't all sound so negative, I loved the Russian Revolution side of the course, and this was definitely great, since in a way it was a nice kind of break from doing just maths constantly. It was nice to be able to write some essays about a topic I really really loved, so that is also another good thing about taking history with those subjects.

All in all though, my advice for you, is to take a subject that you really really love. Trust me, just because you are good at history right now, doesn't mean you will excel with it at A level, you really need to have a passion for it, a passion for researching about things outside of the textbook and a passion to write, write and write.

(also, with regards to Comp Sci, the A level is designed to me taken without the GCSE prior, since a lot of schools don't offer it as a GCSE, so if that is what is worrying you, don't be put off by that! :smile: )
Do what you enjoy because you'll be stuck doing them for 2 years. I'd say go for history because am A is still an EXCELLENT mark so you're clearly very intelligent. Also your other three subjects are quite similar so history might give you a nice break and let you do something else. Might become your favourite subject

I had the same problem like a month ago

Good luck
Tell me what you pick x
Reply 3
Thanks so much for your advice! It’s really really helpful :smile: . My sixth form college does pre u history , and they have 3 different courses u can take but the odd thing is you can’t choose which course? The first two courses are mainly medieval Britain and 17th-91tj century which I don’t think I’ll find very interesting at all. I’m going to try to get into the 20th century history course i think, and if not then I Guess I’ll try something else
Also, do you have any links / resources which helped with your history essay writing techniques ?
Reply 4
Original post by SlashaRussia
Hi there! I took the exact same options for my AS levels : History, Physics, Maths and Further Maths so I hope I can give you some good advice on history! :smile:

The biggest thing, in my opinion, is to check what topics your school will be covering. E.g. mine did Tudors and Russian Revolution. I'll be honest with you, Tudors made life so dull, and I just couldn't handle it anymore, so I had to drop it. So you have to make sure that the topics you are doing interest you, since trust me, you will be having to read a looot of stuff, not just the textbook.

Secondly, history took up the most revision time by far. It has a very different style to revising than Physics and Maths, and that reflected in how long it took to revise. You have to read around the textbook, find out facts and figures yourself, plus ace your essay structure. It's definitely the most work for me.

BUT, so that this doesn't all sound so negative, I loved the Russian Revolution side of the course, and this was definitely great, since in a way it was a nice kind of break from doing just maths constantly. It was nice to be able to write some essays about a topic I really really loved, so that is also another good thing about taking history with those subjects.

All in all though, my advice for you, is to take a subject that you really really love. Trust me, just because you are good at history right now, doesn't mean you will excel with it at A level, you really need to have a passion for it, a passion for researching about things outside of the textbook and a passion to write, write and write.

(also, with regards to Comp Sci, the A level is designed to me taken without the GCSE prior, since a lot of schools don't offer it as a GCSE, so if that is what is worrying you, don't be put off by that! :smile: )


Thanks so much for your advice! It’s really really helpful :smile: . My sixth form college does pre u history , and they have 3 different courses u can take but the odd thing is you can’t choose which course? The first two courses are mainly medieval Britain and 17th-91tj century which I don’t think I’ll find very interesting at all. I’m going to try to get into the 20th century history course i think, and if not then I Guess I’ll try something else
Also, do you have any links / resources which helped with your history essay writing techniques ?
Reply 5
Original post by tesskins123
Do what you enjoy because you'll be stuck doing them for 2 years. I'd say go for history because am A is still an EXCELLENT mark so you're clearly very intelligent. Also your other three subjects are quite similar so history might give you a nice break and let you do something else. Might become your favourite subject

I had the same problem like a month ago

Good luck
Tell me what you pick x


Thanks for your advice . Youre right about choosing what you like rather than what you’re just good at. If you like it well enough I’m sure you’ll eventually get better at it , I hope hahah.
Tell me about the subjects you picked ! How’s it going so far ?

Thanks :smile:
Original post by bmovan
Thanks for your advice . Youre right about choosing what you like rather than what you’re just good at. If you like it well enough I’m sure you’ll eventually get better at it , I hope hahah.
Tell me about the subjects you picked ! How’s it going so far ?

Thanks :smile:


You're welcome

I have picked biology, chemistry, food science and health and social care so hopefully my GCSE's go well
Reply 7
Original post by tesskins123
You're welcome

I have picked biology, chemistry, food science and health and social care so hopefully my GCSE's go well


Nice! Sounds rlly interesting ! Good luck on your GCSEs and for your a levels!
Original post by bmovan
Nice! Sounds rlly interesting ! Good luck on your GCSEs and for your a levels!


Thank you same to you
Original post by bmovan
Thanks so much for your advice! It’s really really helpful :smile: . My sixth form college does pre u history , and they have 3 different courses u can take but the odd thing is you can’t choose which course? The first two courses are mainly medieval Britain and 17th-91tj century which I don’t think I’ll find very interesting at all. I’m going to try to get into the 20th century history course i think, and if not then I Guess I’ll try something else
Also, do you have any links / resources which helped with your history essay writing techniques ?


I think the way that I practised with my history essay writing was just through writing lots of essays and handing them into my teacher to mark and listening to any feed back, and next time writing the essay, I would make sure to include what I lacked before. I know this sounds a bit obvious, but that was what I did.

I don't now if there are any resources or websites though, sorry!!

Also, for the topics, have a look at some documentaries, books, e.t.c. about those topics to see if there's something you find really interesting about them, because trust me if you find a topic in history very dull, it will show in your essays (speaking from experience :frown: )
Reply 10
Original post by SlashaRussia
I think the way that I practised with my history essay writing was just through writing lots of essays and handing them into my teacher to mark and listening to any feed back, and next time writing the essay, I would make sure to include what I lacked before. I know this sounds a bit obvious, but that was what I did.

I don't now if there are any resources or websites though, sorry!!

Also, for the topics, have a look at some documentaries, books, e.t.c. about those topics to see if there's something you find really interesting about them, because trust me if you find a topic in history very dull, it will show in your essays (speaking from experience :frown: )


Ok! Sounds great! Thank u again so much

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