A-Levels Subject Choices

Basically I do not know what to pick for sixth form. In the future I want to do something with accounting, therefore for my first subject I definitely want to pick maths. The second subject that I want to pick is either A-Level Business studies or BTEC Business studies but I don't know which one to pick as I am torn between the two as there are pros and cons to both. As for my third subject, I either want to pick Art, Psychology or Computer science. I've been told to pick subject that go well with each other therefore this is why I want to pick maths and one business studies and my third choice is more of a personal interest.

Reply 1

louisayapp

5

Hi AggaD. I hope you are well and are enjoying your summer holidays! With regards to picking your remaining subject: Something to think about could be the range of skills which you want to work on before applying to uni, and using these to make you a more interesting candidate. For example, doing maths, you're going to be focusing heavily on calculations, with little writing skills and communication work. Either business course will be a mix of mathematical calculations, wordy questions and reasoning as well as awareness of current affairs etc. You might like to consider a third subject which either builds further on these skills, "complementing" them, or you might wish to look at taking something which makes you a more interesting candidate, with an even broader skillset. Art could do this for you, and will certainly be a nice alternative to exams. I considered taking art myself as I really enjoyed it at GCSE and wanted to do something other than just studying for exams and sifting through endless past papers - it gets boring after a while! Psychology could make you more interested in people's mentalities - something which could be useful when looking at becoming an accountant, dealing with why people make certain financial decisions and how to best manage this. But you'd have to be prepared to sit more exams and study hard - there's a lot of content covering a broad range of topics, not all of which you may absolutely love. And a lot of students are taking psychology a level at the moment. It's very popular - the fourth most studied a level (https://www.telegraph.co.uk/education/2016/08/18/a-level-results-2016-which-subjects-did-students-do-the-best-and/) - if you scroll down to a table of subjects, you'll see some interesting stats. So it might not make you as much of an interesting candidate. As for computing? That has a nice mix of everything. Coursework and exams in some cases. And both creative, technical and modern. Useful as an accountant too - everything seems to be managed online these days.

So I hope some of this helps! All the best, and there's not really any wrong decisions.
Good luck and enjoy your summer :smile:

Reply 2

Myrtey

10

For the business, are you better at exams or more coursework? That'll probably be your answer. Although I will say that many people say that btec is a LOT less stressful than an a level.

For your third subject, I took computer science and my advice would be that it's a subject that you REALLY have to be interested in to take. I had a mild interest in it, but my love for it was pretty much destroyed by the end of the year... Art could be good, but I know it's a lot of work. I think psychology would probably be the easiest of the three to take since most people who I knew took it said it was their easiest a level. At the end of the day though, it's all about which one you'd be willing to put the most time in since you're gonna be studying it hard for two years.

tl:dr maybe do some summer work on those three subjects and see which you enjoy most lol

Reply 3

AggaD

OP

5

Original post by Myrtey

For the business, are you better at exams or more coursework? That'll probably be your answer. Although I will say that many people say that btec is a LOT less stressful than an a level.

For your third subject, I took computer science and my advice would be that it's a subject that you REALLY have to be interested in to take. I had a mild interest in it, but my love for it was pretty much destroyed by the end of the year... Art could be good, but I know it's a lot of work. I think psychology would probably be the easiest of the three to take since most people who I knew took it said it was their easiest a level. At the end of the day though, it's all about which one you'd be willing to put the most time in since you're gonna be studying it hard for two years.

tl:dr maybe do some summer work on those three subjects and see which you enjoy most lol

I was thinking about choosing a level business because it is an a level so you would get more ucas points and also when I chose btec business in year 11, I was very relaxed and I took it easy and also took my time and each term when I had to complete a unit, I'd normally have to do most of the work on the last week of the deadline because of my mistake of taking it easy and so I feel like if I was to choose this for a level, I would repeat the same mistake because it's a coursework and it wouldn't necessarily keep me on my toes on the other hand it is easier in comparison to a level business and a level business like you said is exams based so I feel like it would push me more and force me to strive in order to achieve a high grade but it is also harder in contrast to btec business but the exams are spread over both years, 2 exams in year 12 and 1 exam in year 13 so although it is hard, it's easier that its spread like this which takes less pressure in my last year.

In addition, like you mentioned you would need to be really interested in computer science in order to take it and many people told me specifcally to avoid picking this because it's really hard and you would therefore have to spend a lot of time on this and because you would have to spend a lot of time, it's not worth it for me because I realistically won't be doing anything heavily linked with computers in the future.

As for art I'm predicted a minimum of a 7 (A) so people have pushed me to choose this subject for A-level so this has been on my mind and I do like art but I wouldn't say I pushed myself in year 11 as I found this more of a relaxing subject but if I was to choose this for a level I would indeed push myself and also the subject psychology has always fascinated me so I'm pretty much in between these two subjects for my 3rd subject choice.

Reply 4

username4903642

6

Original post by AggaD

Basically I do not know what to pick for sixth form. In the future I want to do something with accounting, therefore for my first subject I definitely want to pick maths. The second subject that I want to pick is either A-Level Business studies or BTEC Business studies but I don't know which one to pick as I am torn between the two as there are pros and cons to both. As for my third subject, I either want to pick Art, Psychology or Computer science. I've been told to pick subject that go well with each other therefore this is why I want to pick maths and one business studies and my third choice is more of a personal interest.

I'd always always be an advocate for Psychology purely because I fell in love with it this year whilst in Year 12, I picked Bio/Chem/Psych so really I found it to be the most relaxing subject and also the most interesting because of how broad it can be. If you're looking into accounting, I'd say definitely stick with Maths, but consider the amount of stress you'd be willing to undertake when picking between A-Level/BTEC Business Studies (also, if you're thinking of potential universities yet, look at what they ask for - most that I've seen don't distinguish between BTEC and A-Level anyway. As for the 3rd subject, from what I just read you're really good at Art and it seems to destress you (I took Fine Art at GCSE to enjoy after picking French, Geo and Triple Science) so that might be your best option, but as I say.. Psychology's amazing and could give you a better insight into the mentality of your clients, also CompSci is probably going to be useful in terms of accounting as things in the future I would imagine would be largely automated (but there's a difference between CompSci and IT, I'd say IT would be more helpful but that's just my opinion and I don't know if that's available, CompSci's a lot to do with coding and website-building from what my friend's implied).

Reply 5

AggaD

OP

5

Original post by louisayapp

Hi AggaD. I hope you are well and are enjoying your summer holidays! With regards to picking your remaining subject: Something to think about could be the range of skills which you want to work on before applying to uni, and using these to make you a more interesting candidate. For example, doing maths, you're going to be focusing heavily on calculations, with little writing skills and communication work. Either business course will be a mix of mathematical calculations, wordy questions and reasoning as well as awareness of current affairs etc. You might like to consider a third subject which either builds further on these skills, "complementing" them, or you might wish to look at taking something which makes you a more interesting candidate, with an even broader skillset. Art could do this for you, and will certainly be a nice alternative to exams. I considered taking art myself as I really enjoyed it at GCSE and wanted to do something other than just studying for exams and sifting through endless past papers - it gets boring after a while! Psychology could make you more interested in people's mentalities - something which could be useful when looking at becoming an accountant, dealing with why people make certain financial decisions and how to best manage this. But you'd have to be prepared to sit more exams and study hard - there's a lot of content covering a broad range of topics, not all of which you may absolutely love. And a lot of students are taking psychology a level at the moment. It's very popular - the fourth most studied a level (https://www.telegraph.co.uk/education/2016/08/18/a-level-results-2016-which-subjects-did-students-do-the-best-and/) - if you scroll down to a table of subjects, you'll see some interesting stats. So it might not make you as much of an interesting candidate. As for computing? That has a nice mix of everything. Coursework and exams in some cases. And both creative, technical and modern. Useful as an accountant too - everything seems to be managed online these days.

So I hope some of this helps! All the best, and there's not really any wrong decisions.
Good luck and enjoy your summer :smile:

Hi louisayapp. I'm doing really well thank you and I am indeed enjoying my very long summer. For uni I was thinking about picking the accountancy and finance course and having a qualification in maths and business seems desirable, there is also economics but that isn't an option at my school since there aren't many students who choose this subject, so my 3rd choice is mainly just my personal choice. And realistically for my 3rd choice I won't necessarily push subjects like art and psychology in the future, therefore this is why I'm picking it at A level. I was thinking about choosing art because both maths and either a level business or btec business are seen has hard subjects, it would make sense to pick a relatively easy and relaxing subject like Art and many people have told me that if I were to choose art, I would be seen as a candidate who has a creative mindset so picking art does intrigue me but then there is also psychology and this subject is really interesting as you would look into how a human mind works and how people act they way they do and as you have also said this would be useful so this does excite me but I'm not sure I would be able to fully use my knowledge in psychology in the future. And if I were go choose art instead of psychology I feel as though if I was to regret this decision (not to sound big headed) but I could possibly teach myself this subject in the future by reading books etc but then on the other hand this does contradict with my choice in picking art as I don't necessarily need a qualification in art to show I have an interest in drawing etc but you do get taught how to investigate and pick apart a drawing and see why the artist drew this specific drawing and the meaning behind it, and I did choose art for GCSE and I am predicted a minimum of a 7 (A) so I could go far within this subject and hopefully achieve a high grade. Hence in the end I'm not really sure in what to pick for my third choice.

Thank you for the link, I found it very helpful and I too wish you are having a good summer.

Reply 6

AggaD

OP

5

Original post by psychstudent1209

I'd always always be an advocate for Psychology purely because I fell in love with it this year whilst in Year 12, I picked Bio/Chem/Psych so really I found it to be the most relaxing subject and also the most interesting because of how broad it can be. If you're looking into accounting, I'd say definitely stick with Maths, but consider the amount of stress you'd be willing to undertake when picking between A-Level/BTEC Business Studies (also, if you're thinking of potential universities yet, look at what they ask for - most that I've seen don't distinguish between BTEC and A-Level anyway. As for the 3rd subject, from what I just read you're really good at Art and it seems to destress you (I took Fine Art at GCSE to enjoy after picking French, Geo and Triple Science) so that might be your best option, but as I say.. Psychology's amazing and could give you a better insight into the mentality of your clients, also CompSci is probably going to be useful in terms of accounting as things in the future I would imagine would be largely automated (but there's a difference between CompSci and IT, I'd say IT would be more helpful but that's just my opinion and I don't know if that's available, CompSci's a lot to do with coding and website-building from what my friend's implied).

Hi, sorry for the late reply I've just been really busy over the last week and I have been told by a number of people to pick Psychology because it's really interesting but I've also been told it's a very hard subject and especially for me if I'm considering picking Maths and A-level or BTEC Business studies. Yet I don't mind in having a hard time if Psychology is worth it. But I don't know cause I hear how amazing psychology is and I feel like l'll regret it if I don't choose it but then again I'm predicted a high grade in Art and I do enjoy art and find it relaxing as it doesn't really put a strain on your brain and I feel like I'm capable of taking my abilities in Art to another level so I also feel like if I don't choose Art I'll also regret it. It just seems the more that I think about it, the harder the choice seems. The idea of having 4 subjects has come across my mind but I'm not exactly sure if I can handle it. Also I've decided to drop Computer science as I feel like I don't have as much interest in this subject as I do in Art and Psychology.

A-Levels Subject Choices

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