The Student Room Group

A-Level Choices

I'm in Year 11, and I've narrowed my A-Level options down to 6. These are Maths, English Literature, Geography, Economics, Psychology and Sociology. My question is which 4 of these A-Levels go well together? I'm not too sure what I want to do at university so I want a slightly broad range of subjects. Thank you for the help.
Do you have any options that you are thinking of doing at uni?

If you are entirely lost, then it'd probably best to do at least one or two faciliatating subjects (like maths or english literature) and a subject that you'd enjoy.

Hope this helps!
Reply 2
Original post by ThePositivePanda
I'm in Year 11, and I've narrowed my A-Level options down to 6. These are Maths, English Literature, Geography, Economics, Psychology and Sociology. My question is which 4 of these A-Levels go well together? I'm not too sure what I want to do at university so I want a slightly broad range of subjects. Thank you for the help.

hi, im also in year 11 so my advice may not be helpful or solicited but i thought i would tell you what i know so far, as i have had countless talks from my school/teachers about it! From that selection, i would say perhaps maths, econ,psychology and geography, hope thats helpful xxx
Reply 3
If you want to keep your options open, choose one essay subject with two sciences, or one science and two essay subjects.
Original post by _Mia101
Do you have any options that you are thinking of doing at uni?

If you are entirely lost, then it'd probably best to do at least one or two faciliatating subjects (like maths or english literature) and a subject that you'd enjoy.

Hope this helps!


I'm not entirely sure, but I'd quite like to do English or something that to do with social sciences (maybe even Psychology but I'm not too keen on the Biology aspect of it).
Reply 5
The only time you should do a 4th A-level is if it's further maths (or a language you're fluent in, I guess). If you're planning on taking 4 full A-levels, don't. If you're taking 4 AS subjects and then dropping one, fine.

If you want to do something finance-related or economics-related, maths is a must. You could even do computer science at uni as long as you have maths A-level.
Psychology and sociology are more niche and uncommon subjects - it would not affect you if you did not have these A-levels and wanted to take them at university.

But the important thing is that you choose three subjects that you are actually interested in enough to learn about for two years.
Original post by maha0230
hi, im also in year 11 so my advice may not be helpful or solicited but i thought i would tell you what i know so far, as i have had countless talks from my school/teachers about it! From that selection, i would say perhaps maths, econ,psychology and geography, hope thats helpful xxx


Thank you - very helpful
Original post by Sinnoh
The only time you should do a 4th A-level is if it's further maths (or a language you're fluent in, I guess). If you're planning on taking 4 full A-levels, don't. If you're taking 4 AS subjects and then dropping one, fine.

If you want to do something finance-related or economics-related, maths is a must. You could even do computer science at uni as long as you have maths A-level.
Psychology and sociology are more niche and uncommon subjects - it would not affect you if you did not have these A-levels and wanted to take them at university.

But the important thing is that you choose three subjects that you are actually interested in enough to learn about for two years.


Thank you. I'm planning on doing 4 AS and dropping my worst/the one I don't enjoy.
Original post by Daisy02
If you want to keep your options open, choose one essay subject with two sciences, or one science and two essay subjects.


Thank you for the advice
Original post by ThePositivePanda
I'm not entirely sure, but I'd quite like to do English or something that to do with social sciences (maybe even Psychology but I'm not too keen on the Biology aspect of it).

Like @Sinnoh said, if you want to do psychology at uni, doing it A-level isn't necessary.

But, a number of unis like to see two sciences and a third subject.

If you want to do English then you'd probably be better of with English and another essay based subjects.

Since you said you're doing four AS, you might want two take two essay based subjects and two sciences to keep your options open. But, just make sure that you are doing something you like.
If you're interested in English/Psychology at uni then definitely do those, and then I would say two of Geography, Econ and Maths (I personally wouldn't do Psychology and Sociology unless I wanted to do a broader 'Social Science' degree at uni, but that's just me. If you want to do Sociology, do)! But I would just suggest looking at all the different uni courses you might be interested in and the requirements for those, and after that seriously just pick what you enjoy, because at the end of the day that will get you to where you will want to be:smile:

Quick Reply