The Student Room Group

A-Level French or A-Level Chemistry?

Hello! I'm a Year 11 student and I have 3 weeks left to decide my A-Level subjects.
I've decided I'll be doing Maths, Further Maths, but I don't know whether I should take Chemistry or French for the last one.
I absolutely love French (predicted a 9) and I'm learning it outside of school apart from doing it for my GCSEs, but I'm also quite interested in Chemistry (predicted a 9 for Combined Science).
I completely hate English Literature so I don't know how writing about novels/films for French would go, but I also don't know if Chemistry will be as enjoyable as it seems (I find it's quite easy at GCSE).
Any help/advice/overviews of these subjects would be greatly appreciated! :smile:
Reply 1
hi so i do chemistry a level and there is quite a jump from gcse to a level as it does get a bit more complex and it takes time to get your head wrapped around some concepts. but other than that, if you truly enjoyed it at gcse i think studying it for a level would be very enjoyable. do you have any idea of what you want to study in the future in terms of career?
Reply 2
Original post by aiwiloistyping
Hello! I'm a Year 11 student and I have 3 weeks left to decide my A-Level subjects.
I've decided I'll be doing Maths, Further Maths, but I don't know whether I should take Chemistry or French for the last one.
I absolutely love French (predicted a 9) and I'm learning it outside of school apart from doing it for my GCSEs, but I'm also quite interested in Chemistry (predicted a 9 for Combined Science).
I completely hate English Literature so I don't know how writing about novels/films for French would go, but I also don't know if Chemistry will be as enjoyable as it seems (I find it's quite easy at GCSE).
Any help/advice/overviews of these subjects would be greatly appreciated! :smile:


I do chemistry so im going to vouch for why you should do that :smile:
1. Chemistry is more useful later in life. Many unis regard chemistry (along with physics and math) as the hardest A-levels, so will have a certain degree of respect for someone who achieves good grades in them. Im not trying to shame on other subjects, but its true. Especially if you might be applying to a sciencey course at uni
2. Your maths will really help you with chemistry - a lot of chemistry involves maths
3. I have found chemistry quite enjoyable and interesting, especially organic chemistry. I thought it was going to be really hard and dull in year 11, but I picked it anyway so I could apply to medicine. Turns out its probably my favourite subject now. Although I do really like bio and maths so who knows.

Id note that I only know one person in my year who managed to do a level chemistry from doing combined GCSEs science. While I do enjoy chemistry, many people find it quite hard, especially the maths. 6 people have dropped from my class which started at 21 people. If you plan on taking it, id go and learn the trilogy level chemistry, as you will need it.
Original post by iqraaaaa
hi so i do chemistry a level and there is quite a jump from gcse to a level as it does get a bit more complex and it takes time to get your head wrapped around some concepts. but other than that, if you truly enjoyed it at gcse i think studying it for a level would be very enjoyable. do you have any idea of what you want to study in the future in terms of career?

Thank you! And yes, I'm planning on doing Computer Science/Programming, although I've had thoughts of becoming an accountant or pharmacist though, hence why I'm considering taking Chemistry just in case.
Original post by CJField
I do chemistry so im going to vouch for why you should do that :smile:
1. Chemistry is more useful later in life. Many unis regard chemistry (along with physics and math) as the hardest A-levels, so will have a certain degree of respect for someone who achieves good grades in them. Im not trying to shame on other subjects, but its true. Especially if you might be applying to a sciencey course at uni
2. Your maths will really help you with chemistry - a lot of chemistry involves maths
3. I have found chemistry quite enjoyable and interesting, especially organic chemistry. I thought it was going to be really hard and dull in year 11, but I picked it anyway so I could apply to medicine. Turns out its probably my favourite subject now. Although I do really like bio and maths so who knows.

Id note that I only know one person in my year who managed to do a level chemistry from doing combined GCSEs science. While I do enjoy chemistry, many people find it quite hard, especially the maths. 6 people have dropped from my class which started at 21 people. If you plan on taking it, id go and learn the trilogy level chemistry, as you will need it.

Thank you! :smile: I've had some thoughts of (maybe?) doing pharmacy later on, which is why I considered it in the first place. I'm willing to spend some time in preparation for A Levels though so hopefully I'll manage despite only doing Combined Science. As of now I'm leaning more towards Chemistry but I think what pushed me away from it were the multiple opinions of it being too difficult.
Original post by aiwiloistyping
Thank you! And yes, I'm planning on doing Computer Science/Programming, although I've had thoughts of becoming an accountant or pharmacist though, hence why I'm considering taking Chemistry just in case.


In that case I think chemistry would be more useful.
You can still do your learning French on the side, which you can talk about in your personal statement.
Reply 6
Original post by aiwiloistyping
Thank you! :smile: I've had some thoughts of (maybe?) doing pharmacy later on, which is why I considered it in the first place. I'm willing to spend some time in preparation for A Levels though so hopefully I'll manage despite only doing Combined Science. As of now I'm leaning more towards Chemistry but I think what pushed me away from it were the multiple opinions of it being too difficult.

well all A-levels are hard. I think chemistry is just one of those subjects you can't do if your not 1. interested in it 2. good at maths.... If your doing pharmacy, or anything related, you will most likely need to be doing chemistry to apply
Reply 7
Original post by aiwiloistyping
Hello! I'm a Year 11 student and I have 3 weeks left to decide my A-Level subjects.
I've decided I'll be doing Maths, Further Maths, but I don't know whether I should take Chemistry or French for the last one.
I absolutely love French (predicted a 9) and I'm learning it outside of school apart from doing it for my GCSEs, but I'm also quite interested in Chemistry (predicted a 9 for Combined Science).
I completely hate English Literature so I don't know how writing about novels/films for French would go, but I also don't know if Chemistry will be as enjoyable as it seems (I find it's quite easy at GCSE).
Any help/advice/overviews of these subjects would be greatly appreciated! :smile:


I do French and Italian (got an A in italian last year, predicted A in French this year) and the Language A-Level courses are so worth it. A grade of B/A/A* at A-Level means you're fluent and could be plopped in the country of the language and speak at a near native level within a month. Really, it depends on your Uni degree. If you want to do something that doesn't require either like Law or Economics, pick French because it will be much more useful in daily life than bloody Chemistry. My French teachers say that atA-Level, you learn 95% of the French grammar (the only tenses you don't learn are stylistic ones like Past Historic that are serve no real function) that is spoken in France.

As for essays, they're really not a big worry. The topics are much easier to write about than English GCSE and will come naturally. Note that English was my worst subject (I got 789s in everything apart from english where i got a 5 and a 6) and I'm telling you the essays are no biggy; at the end of the day they're testing your French not your analysis.

Of course, if you wanna do sciences then you kind of have to do Chem, but if not, think of your USP. So many people do Maths, Further Maths, and Chem. Not many people do French.

Also, these people saying you can "learn French on the side" are having a laugh. Learning a language outside the classroom is so incredibly hard that it's not worth your time. Trust me, I have a Czech stepmother and learning Czech on my own with Duolingo was impossible.

When I was choosing my A-Levels, I nearly picked Chemistry but I decided against it in the end as I wanted to follow a social science path for Uni. French is more useful if you're going to do something unrelated to either subject, but at the end of the day, if you have to a science to get into the degree you want, you should follow that path.
Original post by jnss.7
I do French and Italian (got an A in italian last year, predicted A in French this year) and the Language A-Level courses are so worth it. A grade of B/A/A* at A-Level means you're fluent and could be plopped in the country of the language and speak at a near native level within a month. Really, it depends on your Uni degree. If you want to do something that doesn't require either like Law or Economics, pick French because it will be much more useful in daily life than bloody Chemistry. My French teachers say that atA-Level, you learn 95% of the French grammar (the only tenses you don't learn are stylistic ones like Past Historic that are serve no real function) that is spoken in France.

As for essays, they're really not a big worry. The topics are much easier to write about than English GCSE and will come naturally. Note that English was my worst subject (I got 789s in everything apart from english where i got a 5 and a 6) and I'm telling you the essays are no biggy; at the end of the day they're testing your French not your analysis.

Of course, if you wanna do sciences then you kind of have to do Chem, but if not, think of your USP. So many people do Maths, Further Maths, and Chem. Not many people do French.

Also, these people saying you can "learn French on the side" are having a laugh. Learning a language outside the classroom is so incredibly hard that it's not worth your time. Trust me, I have a Czech stepmother and learning Czech on my own with Duolingo was impossible.

When I was choosing my A-Levels, I nearly picked Chemistry but I decided against it in the end as I wanted to follow a social science path for Uni. French is more useful if you're going to do something unrelated to either subject, but at the end of the day, if you have to a science to get into the degree you want, you should follow that path.

Thank you so much! At the moment English is kind of my worst subject too, which is why I was a bit worried about the written essays in French. I also thought of doing it for A Levels because as you mentioned learning a language at home is completely different, especially if you want to reach an intermediate or nearly fluent level and still to keep up with school work at the same time. I'll be deciding soon but I still didn't have much insight on French itself so thank you for your reply, it was very helpful!

Quick Reply

Latest