A Level Choices

I am in year 11 and my school has just recently had a sixth form open evening, which I went. So now I am thinking about what A Levels I want to study next year. I also recently got my predicted grades if this helps with replying:
English Lang. and Lit - A*, A*
Maths - A
Biology - A
Chemistry - A*
Physics - A
French - A*
Geography - A
History - A

I have chosen to take biology and chemistry at AS and am pretty sure about taking French. As a fourth I think I might take geography, but I do not know much about what the course invloves? Can anyone tell me please? :confused:

I am thinking about perhaps doing medicine at university, so I also thought about doing maths/physics, but I do not like maths very much. Is it preferred to have 3 sciences at A level for medicine? I thought about taking physics/maths as a 5th, but I'm not sure if that would be too much work or not! What are people's experiences with doing 5 AS subject? :confused:

Thank you for any help I receive! :smile:

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Reply 1

twiga

ChaoticCharlie

Thank you for any help I receive! :smile:

Heya

They were my choices last year!!! And whatever a-levels you do it will be a hell of a lot of work. I'll run through each subject as to how I found it:

Biology - hard work, biochemistry was really difficult as it was so abstract! As long as you work hard and put in the effort you should be ok.

Chemistry - do the background reading or you'll be stuffed. The course was, again, difficult because it is such a huge leap from GCSE, do some reading over the summer to make sure you know what you're letting yourself in for.

French - great fun, lots of vocab and you tend to cover more key issues such as homelessness, the education system, you get a much better idea of how the country works. Prepare your oral exam piece in time and learn it thoroughly.

Geography - not the doss it was at GCSE :smile:

theres a lot of science in it when it comes to the physical stuff... if you like that sort of thing ...

Hopefully thats answered your questions, if you need to know any more then give me a shout!

Reply 2

trev

If you want to study medicine in uni, I suggest take math along with your other 3 subjects.

Reply 3

kellywood_5

First off, congrats on your predicted grades and good luck in getting them! :biggrin:

The only subject I do out of those is French, so I can tell you it's great. The topics are a lot more in-depth and interesting and you do a lot more speaking in class. Beware of the listening though- they speak sooooo fast :eek:

but at least you get to control the tape yourself. It's a huge gap from GCSE, but you get used to it quickly and it's very satisfying being able to speak a language other than your native one at that level.

As for medicine, biology and chemistry are essential, so it's good that you want to take both of them, and as for maths and physics, I think they do prefer you to have one of those at least at AS.

I do 4 subjects and find that a lot of work, but I do all arts subjects, whereas yours would be 3/4 sciences (is geography a science?) and 1/2 arts.I'm not saying sciences are less work or anything, but they probably take less time in the sense that you don't have to learn enormous amounts of vocab or write endless essays. If you want to take 5 subjects, I'd say go for it and you can always drop one if you find it too much work. It's a lot easier to drop a subject than to pick one up, and with your fantastic predicted grades, you certainly have the ability. You wouldn't want to regret not taking 5 later on. On the other hand, if you do want to take just 4, you could either just choose one out of maths/physics and geography, or do both of them to AS but one in Year 12 and one in Year 13.

Good luck whatever you decide.

Reply 4

CharleeB

Biology and chemistry are great at alevel, a challenge but i think that they are very rewarding. i think that it is useful for me to have maths with my sciences, but do physics as well (where it helps out most), and i don't think it is essential for the two sciences you are taking. i also take eng, because i think that it is useful to have an essay subject. do you like eng lit?

Reply 5

Harv616

ermmmmmmm does EVERYBODY on this bord get As and Bs?......

just a question :smile:

and im taking 4 A/S subjects and it does take up alot of your time

Reply 6

ChaoticCharlie

Wow, thanks a lot for your help everyone! And no, am not too keen on English Lit. despite the fact I am predicted A* for it! I will have to have a look at the physics/maths AS syllabuses before I make a choice I think!

Reply 7

thinktwice

ChaoticCharlie

Thank you for any help I receive! :smile:

Chemistry, Biology, Maths, Physics and French will be perfect.

Reply 8

MadNatSci

I did biology, chemistry, maths and french and I really enjoyed my A levels. Maths is a bit tough sometimes but I really do recommend it if you want to do medicine - you'll need it for most of the good medical schools I think. It's also nothing like GCSE maths! It IS a challenge but it's very rewarding when you manage to do questions :smile:

Having moaned about maths for years I kind of miss it now :redface:

Reply 9

ChaoticCharlie

I think I have more or less decided on doing chemistry, biology, French and geography. Also, possibly physics to AS. I just do not think maths is for me and there is no point forcing myself to do it just because it will be useful...

I know those subjects are traditional and respected, except geography that I'm not too sure about. This is probably due to GCSE geogrpahy being too easy (basically just general knowlege). What is the view on geography?

I was just wondering what options these subjects would give me for uni? As I said before I am thinking about medicine, but I am also thinking about other science courses and possibly languages, but I think that me doing languages at uni would be unlikely really. I like languages but I would probably just study them on my own/abroad in the future. Also, can anyone explain to me what a degree in natural sciences involves?

Thanks! :biggrin:

Reply 10

sweet_anjali

Maths is a bit tough sometimes but I really do recommend it if you want to do medicine - you'll need it for most of the good medical schools

dat aint tru as long as u got bio n chem dey wont care bout maths....das wot i had bin told n coz i h8ed it im doin economics instead of maths

i fought gcse geo was quite hard spent da most time revisin all dose case studies 4 it i fink AS level is jusd da same...doss in lessonz but spent hours revisin 4 da exam jus memorisin fingz is wat it mainly involves

Reply 11

MRLX69

I's say Maths is the hardest A level but they made it easier now with the 'CORE' syllabus......

I found Biology, Chemistry, and most of Physics just basically uploading information in your brain then downloading it onto the exam papers. Maths is the one which you have to actually practise a lot. But maths is the best by far in my opinion. It never gets boring.

Reply 12

twiga

Geography is not a doss! I found it really hard (but thats possibly because of a lack of enthusiasm for the subject...) I've seen it classed as a science in some uni prospectuses and from what I was told at medlink, your third subject doesn't matter as long as it's more than 60% theoretical content. It's more important that you enjoy the subject rather than anything else.

Reply 13

trev

tiger_babe

Geography in AS is straight forward, while the A2 part of the course is kind of difficult.

Yeah, some uni's class that geography as a science, as some of the stuff in geography have environmental stuff in it, biology type stuff, etc... Most uni's have geography as one the 3rd subject as a choice for some reason.

Reply 14

khil

Natural Science is just a degree where you study a range of sciences from Biology to Physics/Chemistry in the first year, then gradually as you go upwards you start to narrow down your choices and finally, if you so wish, specialise in your third year. It's a highly popular course.

I've applied for Natural Science at Cambridge and that one you choose three sciences and a compulsory maths in the first year, then you choose three out of around 20-odd sciences in the second year. In the third year you pick one to specialise into. Fingers crossed I'm still waiting to hear if I got in or not! - probably rejected :frown:

However I picked it cus I didn't know whether I wanted to do Neuroscience or Pharmacology, or indeed Genetics and Pathology (PG) or Biochemistry!!! And they're all available to choose from in the Cambridge course, hence I opted for it :smile:

and of course that Pathology is actually available as an option for undergrads within the NatSci course cus you can't do a degree in Path as an undergrad. I'm only talking about Cambridge here, though, cus I didn't like the look of any other NatSci courses so I've applied for specialist fields for the other 5 of my choices :smile:

NatSci is basically for those who don't know what they wanna specialise in yet but loves science in general, or for those who don't wanna specialise at all. And btw if you're even considering Cambridge at all, a third science/maths would be of great advantage to you.

Reply 15

ChaoticCharlie

I have just looked at the Natural Sciences course on Cambridge's website and I have to say it looks very appealing! Do Oxford offer a course like this? I couldn't find anything, but I'm sure I've heard it mentioned before. This has made me consider AS physics a lot more seriously.

I also see that you have to study maths for the first year. Hopefully it wouldn't be too bad as I'm not the best maths person! Also, does this course offer any opportunities abroad? That would be really great and I see that Bath offer a year abroad with natural sciences and Oxford with biological sciences.

I realise this is far too early to be making university choices, but if I have a rough idea it will help me greatly with my A Level choices! Thanks.

Reply 16

maverick_87

I've just started doing AS pysics this year, didnt think i was findig it hard till i got to the mock exam last week... and got 17 out of 47. I really should be revising for the real thing now actually...

Just a point i had on your GCSE grades though, do you take all the sciences seperately, or do you get predicted grades within one exam for all 3 sciences (which my school did) I never got predicted grades on Biology, pysics ect, just an overall one for science.

Reply 17

ChaoticCharlie

Ah yeah, physics is my least favourite science. The thing is there are some topics in it I love like astronomy and some I hate like electricity and circuits.
Good luck with your physics anyway!

Yeah I do separate science, so each one has a separate grade. My school offers both separate and double and I chose separate because I've always liked science. :cool:

Reply 18

khil

Nah don't think Cambridge offers a year abroad. Yeh I'd say take Physics for you cus it seems like you're heading down the science path anyway, in which case three sciences is always good, and you got your French to prove that you're well-rounded :wink:

Plus Physics is probably more respected than Geography is.

And also if you head for Medicine I know Cambridge requires three sciences/maths so taking Physics keeps that path open too!

Nah it's good that you're looking into unis this early cus then you can make sure you make the right choices in your A-Levels!

Reply 19

Sasuke!

i am doing math, biology, chemistry and economics, and its a very good idea that you are finding about other subjects early, i seriously regret what i did, my advice is you find out as muct as possible before you make the decisions, i took up chemistry about 2 weeks ago and i need to do the module in january, i had a lot of work to catch up but i think that chemistry is pretty fasinating!!!
good luck whatever you do