Confused High Achiever

Hello everyone,
So here is the thing, I’m going to start Sixth Form soon. For all of my primary and secondary life I’ve been known as gifted/clever. I’ve never really took this seriously and have always gone with the flow, never done anything different to anyone else at my state school. I revised normally for GCSEs, and somehow I got all 9s and an 8 in eng lit.
I have no idea what I want to do in life. Some people know they want to be a doctor, or enjoy maths etc, but I just have so far done everything without much preference. I guess the subject I enjoyed the most was probably Geography but I don’t want to do it at A Level.
I have expectations to do something prestige in life like medicine or economics or law, but I don’t know what to actually do.
I feel like I won’t be good enough for maths at top unis for econ because I’ve never seen it as like a hobby / don’t find it fun, just seemed that GCSE was a bit of learning methods. Thats why I don’t want to do further maths a level. Yet I find the ‘humanities’ side to econ interesting.
Don’t feel like I’ve always wanted to be a doctor, but I guess I wouldn’t mind it... I find science and stuff kind of interesting...
And as for Law, I just don’t know a lot about it.
University wise, Oxbridge is out the equation for me - I want a good social life balance where there will be a lot of diversity. Being an asian from one of the countries worst state schools, I couldn’t deal with an elitist uni.
My A Level choices RN are economics, maths, chemistry and biology AS.

I might drop biology or economics after a year.

Now I don’t know when I’m going to have a turning point where I decide what to do.
Can someone help me with some advice, are these subject choices doable together?
Should I do chem maths biology even If I don’t end up going into science - or is too much science and no essay subjects undesirable by top unis.
Thanks in advance

Hello everyone,
So here is the thing, I’m going to start Sixth Form soon. For all of my primary and secondary life I’ve been known as gifted/clever. I’ve never really took this seriously and have always gone with the flow, never done anything different to anyone else at my state school. I revised normally for GCSEs, and somehow I got all 9s and an 8 in eng lit.
I have no idea what I want to do in life. Some people know they want to be a doctor, or enjoy maths etc, but I just have so far done everything without much preference. I guess the subject I enjoyed the most was probably Geography but I don’t want to do it at A Level.
I have expectations to do something prestige in life like medicine or economics or law, but I don’t know what to actually do.
I feel like I won’t be good enough for maths at top unis for econ because I’ve never seen it as like a hobby / don’t find it fun, just seemed that GCSE was a bit of learning methods. Thats why I don’t want to do further maths a level. Yet I find the ‘humanities’ side to econ interesting.
Don’t feel like I’ve always wanted to be a doctor, but I guess I wouldn’t mind it... I find science and stuff kind of interesting...
And as for Law, I just don’t know a lot about it.
University wise, Oxbridge is out the equation for me - I want a good social life balance where there will be a lot of diversity. Being an asian from one of the countries worst state schools, I couldn’t deal with an elitist uni.
My A Level choices RN are economics, maths, chemistry and biology AS.

I might drop biology or economics after a year.

Now I don’t know when I’m going to have a turning point where I decide what to do.
Can someone help me with some advice, are these subject choices doable together?
Should I do chem maths biology even If I don’t end up going into science - or is too much science and no essay subjects undesirable by top unis.
Thanks in advance

Congratulations on such great grades! I was also an all rounder at school. I get the impression that areas of study and work all rounders seem to enjoy and do well with include economics, IT,medicine and data type jobs. Your A levels look like good choices to me.

I think those are good subject choices. However I may be a bit bias as I'm also starting sixth form and I'm taking maths chemistry physics + econ. If you want to take a science related degree then maths bio and chem will be good to take for the top unis. But you still have time to decide what you want to do and which ones you want to take to A2. A level is in a lot more depth and you might find that you really like economics and want to do a degree related to that. In that case economics would be good to take to A2. (Then again you don't need economics a level to take an economics degree)

Sorry if that advice didn't really help I guess I'm also in the same position as you. Good luck in sixth form! And congrats in your gcse's those are amazing results.

Thanks (: The only doubt I am having is if I should swap bio with further maths as you need further maths for some econ places (LSE) or if I should just rule out LSE for that reason.

I don't know. If you want to do medical/ biosciences related courses biology is very useful (and might be essential). If you might want to do maths or some type of engineering or economics further maths is more useful - and might be essential for some places.

It depends a bit if you want to do 4 or 3. 3 is the normal advice unless one is FM (and a few other possible exceptions). By the way, as you mention LSE are you particularly bothered about being in London for university?

I mean I don’t really mind, but I feel for Econ in particular, London unis seem to be the most ‘useful’ in relation to future careers, right??
If I was to do Medicine, I don’t care where I do that, because all Med degrees give you the same outcome.

I guess what would make sense is If I did Maths, Bio, Chem and further maths, but that seems wayy to difficult and I would kind of miss an essay subject or an ‘easier’ subject. Urghh so difficult lol

Not my area of expertise but UCL and LSE along with Warwick seem to be top places to study heavily quantitative economics. All are hard to get into regardless of subject choices and grades. There are plenty of other good universities. It might also be worth looking at MORSE courses (particularly Warwick) to see if thats something that might interest you.

Agreed - its a difficult and pretty horrible choice. A levels are far too limited in number.

That MORSE sounds interesting, will have a look at that. Thanks for your help btw, really appreciate it (:

Hello everyone,
So here is the thing, I’m going to start Sixth Form soon. For all of my primary and secondary life I’ve been known as gifted/clever. I’ve never really took this seriously and have always gone with the flow, never done anything different to anyone else at my state school. I revised normally for GCSEs, and somehow I got all 9s and an 8 in eng lit.
I have no idea what I want to do in life. Some people know they want to be a doctor, or enjoy maths etc, but I just have so far done everything without much preference. I guess the subject I enjoyed the most was probably Geography but I don’t want to do it at A Level.
I have expectations to do something prestige in life like medicine or economics or law, but I don’t know what to actually do.
I feel like I won’t be good enough for maths at top unis for econ because I’ve never seen it as like a hobby / don’t find it fun, just seemed that GCSE was a bit of learning methods. Thats why I don’t want to do further maths a level. Yet I find the ‘humanities’ side to econ interesting.
Don’t feel like I’ve always wanted to be a doctor, but I guess I wouldn’t mind it... I find science and stuff kind of interesting...
And as for Law, I just don’t know a lot about it.
University wise, Oxbridge is out the equation for me - I want a good social life balance where there will be a lot of diversity. Being an asian from one of the countries worst state schools, I couldn’t deal with an elitist uni.
My A Level choices RN are economics, maths, chemistry and biology AS.

I might drop biology or economics after a year.

Now I don’t know when I’m going to have a turning point where I decide what to do.
Can someone help me with some advice, are these subject choices doable together?
Should I do chem maths biology even If I don’t end up going into science - or is too much science and no essay subjects undesirable by top unis.
Thanks in advance

For all of my primary and secondary life I’ve been known as gifted/clever. I’ve never really took this seriously

I have no idea what I want to do in life. Some people know they want to be a doctor, or enjoy maths etc, but I just have so far done everything without much preference. I guess the subject I enjoyed the most was probably Geography but I don’t want to do it at A Level.
I have expectations to do something prestige in life like medicine or economics or law, but I don’t know what to actually do.

Don’t feel like I’ve always wanted to be a doctor, but I guess I wouldn’t mind it... I find science and stuff kind of interesting...

I feel like I won’t be good enough for maths at top unis for econ because I’ve never seen it as like a hobby / don’t find it fun, just seemed that GCSE was a bit of learning methods. Thats why I don’t want to do further maths a level. Yet I find the ‘humanities’ side to econ interesting.

University wise, Oxbridge is out the equation for me - I want a good social life balance where there will be a lot of diversity.

Being an asian from one of the countries worst state schools, I couldn’t deal with an elitist uni.

Should I do chem maths biology even If I don’t end up going into science - or is too much science and no essay subjects undesirable by top unis.

Those A levels are fine for most universities.

i am 3 years older than you, due to go to university in a few weeks and still having doubts. You have ages to decide, don't panic

That is calming to hear. I might be overthinking it with trying to find exact uni courses to do :/ Which A Levels did you do?

That's a great approach.



Medicine is a massive investment of time and money. Don't do it unless you're passionate about it.


'A' level is quite different from GCSE, and you get a chance to really get into a subject.


You should visit. You will get anmnoying rich kids at any university (although far fewer than you seem to imagine) - it's your choice of whether you want the thick ones.

Pick the best university and course combination for you. There's a far broader range of people at Oxbridge than you seem to think.


What concerns you? Didn't you get (accademically) 'elitist' GCSE grades?

It appears that you have a stereotypical view of Oxbridge. It wasn't right even 30 years ago when I went (from a state comprehensive). IMO, Oxbridge makes massive efforts and allowances to get candidates from as wide a range of backgrounds as possible, but they can't admit them if they don't apply! If you think that there's a problem, be part of the solution.


An essay subject would help if you decide to pursue Law. Go with what you enjoy most though.

Yeah you are lol, I wish I was back in your position.

Maths, Chem, Bio

What’s a great approach?

And yeah I guess I am being a bit stereotypical with Oxbridge. I feel like the thing is for me is that I do want a big part of the social city uni experience

I did visit Oxford in year 11, and had an unbiased approach when I went there. Some people in my class enjoyed it, but I just didn’t know if I could see myself there. I do know some people that have gone there from state schools, and they have done well, but I wouldn’t say they enjoyed it.