Year 12s: what will be the first way you research your future options? >>

Uni course

Im a yr12 student i really want to do accounting and finance or economics but i do english lang,socio and law for a-levels.
Will i be able to get into a top ten for those courses without a maths related a-level?
Also i got a 5 in gcse maths but thats because of the grading system they used for my year. I feel like this also lower my chances but i know i would have got at least a 7 if i actually sat the exam
Is there anything i could do to better my chances of getting in?

Reply 1

artful_lounger

Universities Forum Helper

For accounting and finance, maybe, although you might need to resit GCSE maths to try and get a 7 or above for quite a few (also some might still require A-level Maths, like I believe LSE may require the A-level). For economics, there aren't any courses that are conventionally considered "top ten" which don't require A-level Maths, even if only implicitly (as for Oxford), except Nottingham (which even indicates it would be preferable - and without A-level Maths they require an A/7 or above in GCSE Maths), as far as I'm aware.

You should bear in mind in the case of economics this is because the course is necessarily mathematical at degree level, and you would be using A-level Maths and beyond on a regular basis in that course. It's not like accounting where there are numbers involved but relatively little maths, there is actual a substantial amount of maths in an economics degree, especially the "top" courses. So if you aren't good at and/or don't enjoy maths then an economics degree is not going to be a good choice. A&F is probably less of an issue in this regard because while it involves numbers you aren't really doing much maths beyond very basic operations as far I can tell.