The Student Room Group

Would an early A level benefit a medicine application?

Hiya, I was fortunate enough to take my maths GCSE 2 years early, and am hoping to do a Maths a level at the end of my GCSE year in its place (Currently in year 11). Providing I got a good result, would this show any relevance to a medicine application. I've heard a few various opinions on this. Some say that a university would discount any A levels that are taken early, and even that they may discount the GCSE I took early. Others say the contrary.
depends on which uni you wanna apply for. imo, there’s no point doing it early. if you really want, learn the content to make it easier for yourself but sit the exam when you’re ‘supposed’ to.
Original post by CrumpledCupcake
Hiya, I was fortunate enough to take my maths GCSE 2 years early, and am hoping to do a Maths a level at the end of my GCSE year in its place (Currently in year 11). Providing I got a good result, would this show any relevance to a medicine application. I've heard a few various opinions on this. Some say that a university would discount any A levels that are taken early, and even that they may discount the GCSE I took early. Others say the contrary.

Generally speaking, there are no advantages to doing this. I am not aware of any med school which attaches any value to this.

The downsides are possibly getting a worse result (sometimes a much worse result) and possibly not having the A-level recognised at all.

So, go figure.
Original post by CrumpledCupcake
Hiya, I was fortunate enough to take my maths GCSE 2 years early, and am hoping to do a Maths a level at the end of my GCSE year in its place (Currently in year 11). Providing I got a good result, would this show any relevance to a medicine application. I've heard a few various opinions on this. Some say that a university would discount any A levels that are taken early, and even that they may discount the GCSE I took early. Others say the contrary.

So, three things:

1. Universities such as Oxford generally expect you to get a set of 7+ results at one time in GCSEs, but provided you had those, any taken early wouldn't hurt.

2. Oxford has an 'Age and Stage' policy, specifically on their website, which implies they do value successful subjects taken early.

3. I don't think it would matter too much, but an A* in Maths will always help.
If you do well in it, and especially you aren’t doing AS exams, then it could potentially help. Predicted grades aren’t always very reliable, so I definite grade might be helpful. The best person to answer this question would be an admissions tutor, could you go to an open day and ask them? Or even just email?
You would almost definitely still be expected to do 3 a levels in sixth form though.
Universities want you to achieve your a levels in the same sitting (ie all three in the same two years). So even if you got A* it wouldn’t count. Just sit it in sixth form and focus on GCSEs

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