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Which a level should I swap biology for?

Ok so I’m still not 100% sure I want to drop biology but it’s so dull and I’m definitely not enjoying biological molecules currently any advice from anyone who experienced something similar with bio? I just don’t want to 6 months down the line be hating it and struggling because I’ll regret it and if I don’t enjoy then I won’t do well although I found gcse biology great and super easy a level is on another level (also heard it’s mostly memorisation and learning markschemes)

So here’s my GCSEs for context
9-8 science
8 maths
9 citizenship
9 English lit
9 English Lang
6 food
Currently doing bio, chem and maths
So I’m really enjoying maths and chemistry so far and finding them both quite easy so maybe I’m thinking doing chem at uni? Or something similar I’ll probably change my mind. The deadline for changing a levels is on Wednesday so I need to decide like right now.
A levels I’m considering:

Economics
Further maths (having to do the entire a level maths in one year is putting me off because I’m not like that amazing/genius at maths although I’m enjoying it rn and it’s easy so far)
Computer science (I had a rubbish teacher back when I did gcse at my old school in year 10 so I didn’t enjoy it but I’m told a level is different)
English literature (got a grade 9 which was surprising for me but I think I’m good at it?? and I think this is the one I’m most likely to do)

So yeah I think that’s it but I’m welcome to any other suggestions and any advice on if I should drop bio and which subject I should do instead.
(edited 4 years ago)
Bump
Original post by Unknown829919228
Ok so I’m still not 100% sure I want to drop biology but it’s so dull and I’m definitely not enjoying biological molecules currently any advice from anyone who experienced something similar with bio? I just don’t want to 6 months down the line be hating it and struggling because I’ll regret it and if I don’t enjoy then I won’t do well although I found gcse biology great and super easy a level is on another level (also heard it’s mostly memorisation and learning markschemes)

So here’s my GCSEs for context
9-8 science
8 maths
9 citizenship
9 English lit
9 English Lang
6 food
Currently doing bio, chem and maths
So I’m really enjoying maths and chemistry so far and finding them both quite easy so maybe I’m thinking doing chem at uni? Or something similar I’ll probably change my mind. The deadline for changing a levels is on Wednesday so I need to decide like right now.
A levels I’m considering:

Economics
Further maths (having to do the entire a level maths in one year is putting me off because I’m not like that amazing/genius at maths although I’m enjoying it rn and it’s easy so far)
Computer science (I had a rubbish teacher back when I did gcse at my old school in year 10 so I didn’t enjoy it but I’m told a level is different)
English literature (got a grade 9 which was surprising for me but I think I’m good at it??)

So yeah I think that’s it but I’m welcome to any other suggestions and any advice on if I should drop bio and which subject I should do instead.

Ah, I remember when I was considering swapping out English Lit for a new subject, as I found it really difficult in the beginning and wasn't really enjoying as much as I thought I would. After much deliberation I decided to just stick with it and see how it goes and luckily it has paid off for me, I'm now enjoying the subject and doing a lot better in it. But of course, this isn't to say that you shouldn't switch. I would just ask you this, are you wanting to switch because you're finding it hard, which as a result makes you dislike the subject? Or do you genuinely find it boring - keeping in mind that biological molecules aren't the most exciting topic in the world (currently studying biology too)?
If it's the first then I would say try to stick at it and possibly switched up your revision game. Or it's the latter then knowing what you want to do in the future would be handy in choosing which subject to switch to. So, it might be worth having a look at quite a few courses, that your interested in studying at uni, e.g. chemistry and see what they have to say about their entry criteria. However, I suspect that since your already doing 2 hard sciences you would be already eligible to apply for any science-related degree, so it might be nice to go with something completely unrelated to science but this, of course, is completely up to you.
Original post by Mckailer
Ah, I remember when I was considering swapping out English Lit for a new subject, as I found it really difficult in the beginning and wasn't really enjoying as much as I thought I would. After much deliberation I decided to just stick with it and see how it goes and luckily it has paid off for me, I'm now enjoying the subject and doing a lot better in it. But of course, this isn't to say that you shouldn't switch. I would just ask you this, are you wanting to switch because you're finding it hard, which as a result makes you dislike the subject? Or do you genuinely find it boring - keeping in mind that biological molecules aren't the most exciting topic in the world (currently studying biology too)?
If it's the first then I would say try to stick at it and possibly switched up your revision game. Or it's the latter then knowing what you want to do in the future would be handy in choosing which subject to switch to. So, it might be worth having a look at quite a few courses, that your interested in studying at uni, e.g. chemistry and see what they have to say about their entry criteria. However, I suspect that since your already doing 2 hard sciences you would be already eligible to apply for any science-related degree, so it might be nice to go with something completely unrelated to science but this, of course, is completely up to you.

I’m finding biological molecules both boring and very difficult and what puts me off a lot is the fact that i am constantly feeling dumb and I’ve never experienced this before as gcse bio was a breeze. Everyone in my class is so smart and I seem to be the only one who’s struggling which makes me wonder if it’s right for me. I wish I had longer to decide because I want to make the right decision before Wednesday so I don’t regret it. Does a level biology get more interesting and realistically do you think I could enjoy it later on? Also all the unis I’ve looked at require chem and maths for chemistry and I’ve not seen any unis want bio because I assume people do physics/further m. I’m not sure what career I want to be honest but i doubt I’ll go into biology/med or anything similar purely because it’s not for me but who knows it might change. What would you advice me to do?
Bump
Original post by Unknown829919228
I’m finding biological molecules both boring and very difficult and what puts me off a lot is the fact that i am constantly feeling dumb and I’ve never experienced this before as gcse bio was a breeze. Everyone in my class is so smart and I seem to be the only one who’s struggling which makes me wonder if it’s right for me. I wish I had longer to decide because I want to make the right decision before Wednesday so I don’t regret it. Does a level biology get more interesting and realistically do you think I could enjoy it later on? Also all the unis I’ve looked at require chem and maths for chemistry and I’ve not seen any unis want bio because I assume people do physics/further m. I’m not sure what career I want to be honest but i doubt I’ll go into biology/med or anything similar purely because it’s not for me but who knows it might change. What would you advice me to do?

The exciting stuff (plants, human biology, ecology only really come in later on in the year/Y13) as you have to learn the basics before you can start going into detail and thats pretty much Y12 in a nut-shell. In terms of its difficulty its only ever going to get harder as A-Level Biology is all about application rather than memorisation as you are constantly applying the things you have learnt from one topic to the next. For example, biological molecules are applied throughout transport, e.g. in diffusion and osmosis and how insects transport O2 around their body etc. So it can be hard to constantly know the specification and be able to apply it correctly in a range of settings. There are also a lot more graphs and tables that you have to be able to analyse in questions too.

I feel likes its normal for everyone to feel dumb within their first few weeks, as most people were top of their class during GCSE's so when your put into an environment where everyone's smart and good it's normal to not be exactly where you were in Highschool, this makes it harder to feel as though your doing brill. Have you maybe tried talking to your tutors about this and asked their opinion on where you are in terms of grading, you could also ask them more course-related things, especially about the syllabus and your concerns for how exciting it will get in the future.

It might also be worth talking to someone at college about possibly picking up a temporary 4th subject until you are sure whether or not you want to drop biology, as it can be hard going back to a subject once you've dropped it for a while.

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