Bio,Chem,History and Geog a level- too much work??

As the title says, will this combo be too much work, especially now AS is gone?? All my teachers have encouraged me to take 4 and say I could handle it (predicted all 9’s at GCSE) but I don’t want to risk taking 4 and have to drop one for nothing because it was too much. Should I try these 4 a levels and potentially end up with 3 or do AS maths (which my school still offers) and deffo come out with 3 and a half a levels?? Any experience with these subjects and whether together it will be too much to complete to A2 or opinions would be appreciated, thanks! :smile:

(edited 4 years ago)

Reply 1

username1539513

21

If you think doing a fourth a-level will negatively impact your achievement in your main 3 then I’d suggest you to drop it after AS. Judging by your a-level choices and GCSE grades I can assume that you will be applying to medicine, only the grades of three a-levels are considered important so it’s paramount you achieve those grades, although this applies to any university course

Reply 2

cosmicsunfleur

17

Original post by beaaaan

As the title says, will this combo be too much work, especially now AS is gone?? All my teachers have encouraged me to take 4 and say I could handle it (predicted all 9’s at GCSE) but I don’t want to risk taking 4 and have to drop one for nothing because it was too much. Should I try these 4 a levels and potentially end up with 3 or do AS maths (which my school still offers) and deffo come out with 3 and a half a levels?? Any experience with these subjects and whether together it will be too much to complete to A2 or opinions would be appreciated, thanks! :smile:

What would you like to do at uni?

Reply 3

Random_Student

17

I did bio, Chem and geography then an EPQ in second year. There were times where bio and Chem would be more prioritised and geo wouldn’t get much attention (which was most of the time) but I ended up doing better in geo than in the other two. It basically depends on what you think you can handle. It’s normal to worry, but if you have doubt about it, think about it a little more. What are your future plans with those subjects? Is it medicine? If so, I think do three with an AS maths or something and just give it your all to try and get the best grades possible. I think A levels are really hard, harder than uni and I personally think GCSEs prediction or achieved aren’t great predictions for what you’d get at A-level for some. Anyways, whatever you choose to do, all the best :smile:

Reply 4

beaaaan

OP

8

Original post by livelyrao

What would you like to do at uni?

Honestly not sure which was why I wanted to keep my options open with a range of subjects. Medicine and Biochemistry, Crime and Law or Business and Marketing (Random selection I know aha) would be the main things i’m Interested in, but because they are all so different, I wasn’t sure on which a levels would be best to pick, hence the range to keep all open :smile:

Reply 5

beaaaan

OP

8

Original post by Random_Student

I did bio, Chem and geography then an EPQ in second year. There were times where bio and Chem would be more prioritised and geo wouldn’t get much attention (which was most of the time) but I ended up doing better in geo than in the other two. It basically depends on what you think you can handle. It’s normal to worry, but if you have doubt about it, think about it a little more. What are your future plans with those subjects? Is it medicine? If so, I think do three with an AS maths or something and just give it your all to try and get the best grades possible. I think A levels are really hard, harder than uni and I personally think GCSEs prediction or achieved aren’t great predictions for what you’d get at A-level for some. Anyways, whatever you choose to do, all the best :smile:

Thanks! As said below, I’m very unsure about what I want to do, hence why I’m trying to keep all options open, but medicine or law are definitely main interests. I just don’t want to play it “safer” by picking 3 and an AS, then feel like I could have ultimately managed 4 after finishing maths in the second year. Biology and chemistry are my main priorities as they are my favourite subjects, but thought I would need some humanities/essay subjects for law, hence geography and history. I know history would be better for law, but prefer the geography course, which is why I settled on those 4 as unsure which I would change to maths out of Geog and Hist. As I’m not entirely sure I want to do medicine, I didn’t want to narrow myself down with mostly science subjects if I did maths, only to change my mind later and not have the essay skills I needed for a course such as law at uni, having not taken ,for example, history, but realistically know 3 and a maths AS is the smarter option. Sorry for the ramble, just very unsure aha, but thank you so much for the advice!

Reply 6

cosmicsunfleur

17

Original post by beaaaan

Honestly not sure which was why I wanted to keep my options open with a range of subjects. Medicine and Biochemistry, Crime and Law or Business and Marketing (Random selection I know aha) would be the main things i’m Interested in, but because they are all so different, I wasn’t sure on which a levels would be best to pick, hence the range to keep all open :smile:

That's a clever idea! I'm starting year 12 this september as well aha, I'm not really at place to give good advices but you could ask year12s/13s who are doing 4 subjects? Or on the University of Southampton, you can message graduates who are doing courses you might be interested in and you can ask them about doing 4 alevels: https://www.southampton.ac.uk/uni-life/choose-southampton/ask-our-students.page
I hope this helps and good luck for your GCSE results (:

Reply 7

meghanh07

4

I did History at A Level and can honestly say there was so much work involved and was probably my hardest A level. History is like 2 subjects due to you doing 2 different time periods so you kind of have to put in so much more time compared to some other A Levels

Reply 8

beaaaan

OP

8

Original post by livelyrao

That's a clever idea! I'm starting year 12 this september as well aha, I'm not really at place to give good advices but you could ask year12s/13s who are doing 4 subjects? Or on the University of Southampton, you can message graduates who are doing courses you might be interested in and you can ask them about doing 4 alevels: https://www.southampton.ac.uk/uni-life/choose-southampton/ask-our-students.page
I hope this helps and good luck for your GCSE results (: