Biology or physics?

I am a Y9 student and have just picked my GCSE options - separate sciences being one of them. I am very passionate about biology, physics and maths, and are looking to do these for my A levels. However, I am aware that from a higher education and vocational perspective it is more ideal to choose either biology and chemistry or chemistry and physics. Is there a way I can do both biology and physics without having to do chemistry? Or, if not, how do I pick between the two?

I am a Y9 student and have just picked my GCSE options - separate sciences being one of them. I am very passionate about biology, physics and maths, and are looking to do these for my A levels. However, I am aware that from a higher education and vocational perspective it is more ideal to choose either biology and chemistry or chemistry and physics. Is there a way I can do both biology and physics without having to do chemistry? Or, if not, how do I pick between the two?

Hi! I think it depends on what you are going to do. For University, you have to check the requirements as each is different. With the ones I looked at, most courses at University go on from an A-Levels (So you need a Physics A-Level to do Physics at University). As someone who's not finished high school...if you love maths and equations, Physics if for you! I generally think it's more math than anything else. Biology is more of a subject where you learn more facts and interesting things. The first thing to do is try to decide what you want to do as a career and look at what jobs are wanting degree/grade-wise At that point, have a look at colleges/Uni you want to attend and see what they will allow. Hope this kind of helps. Feel free to ask me anything else!

I am a Y9 student and have just picked my GCSE options - separate sciences being one of them. I am very passionate about biology, physics and maths, and are looking to do these for my A levels. However, I am aware that from a higher education and vocational perspective it is more ideal to choose either biology and chemistry or chemistry and physics. Is there a way I can do both biology and physics without having to do chemistry? Or, if not, how do I pick between the two?

Thank you so much! I'll look more into degrees and careers and see what works best for me.

Happy to help! This is the league table for best uni for science too! This is what I used when first looking at Universities, of course with a different subject. Your A-Levels are most important after high school of course as you can't get into most Universities without them
https://www.theguardian.com/education/ng-interactive/2020/sep/05/best-uk-universities-for-biosciences-league-table

Wait until you get your GCSE results, then pick the one you're better at if you cannot decide.
You can also do all four subjects, but of course as the_pharoah said, it depends on what you want to study at university otherwise.

Generally the expectation would be that you either did the combined science qualification (equivalent to 2 GCSEs, where you study all three sciences), or you study all three sciences individually (so still studying all three). Not studying one of the sciences at GCSE would be very unusual, and lacking GCSE chemistry knowledge would likely make continuing in either physics related areas or biology related areas hard. Several topics related to bonding are very relevant to both, while topics relating to materials and electronic structure are very relevant for physics.

You should aim to do either combined science or triple science, not to do two out of three of the individual sciences, in my opinion - no matter what your plans are, but especially if you have any notions of continuing in STEM fields. You can do A-levels in any of the sciences having done "only" the combined science double GCSE as well (the A-level syllabus and exams do not assume any knowledge from the single sciences that isn't also in the combined science course).

I've picked all three sciences individually for my GCSE's, I was thinking more about A-levels and Uni.

Ah I see, I misread the original post!

As you noted it is a less typical combination. Moreso from the bioscience perspective than the physics perspective; there are a few topics in A-level Chemistry which might be useful to have some background in for doing a physics (or engineering or similar) degree, but not so many (or so foundational, as with some of the GCSE material) that it is really essential.

So on the physical sciences side, with the exception of courses like chemical engineering, materials science, or chemical physics (where there often is at least some chemistry content) it's not normally necessary for the vast majority of physical sciences and engineering courses (and certainly not for physics itself at degree level). A-level Maths (and further maths) is more relevant than chemistry for most of those fields (even for some of the ones incorporating some chemistry content, such as chemical engineering). Biology is fine to take alongside physics and maths (and/or FM) for going into those areas though (although you won't necessarily specifically use that knowledge in the future).

For the bioscience side as indicated, it will limit your options a lot to not be taking A-level Chemistry; it would be like doing A-level Physics without A-level Maths. In the biosciences chemistry is fairly foundational (as I understand) in the same way maths is to the physical sciences and while you may not be explicitly writing out organic reaction mechanisms or something there is often some expectation that you are familiar with the overall scheme of such things and can understand what was happening on a chemical level if some particular reaction was mentioned (e.g. methylation of DNA). As such many bioscience degrees require A-level Chemistry as well as A-level Biology (sometimes even just requiring A-level Chemistry!) with the exception usually of only very macroscale focused courses emphasizing e.g. ecology and conservation. Anything which involves elements of physiology, biochemistry, developmental, molecular and/or cell biology (which is basically every other bioscience field, including zoology and plant sciences) will probably at least prefer you had A-level Chemistry if not outright require it.

However it is worth bearing in mind most STEM degrees are available with a foundation year for those who didn't take the "right" subjects in their A-levels, so if you did bio/phys/other then decided you wanted to do a bioscience degree, but the subject area in question required A-level Chemistry normally, you would likely be able to find that offered by a large number of unis with a foundation year. You would then in that foundation year study the necessary chemistry content needed to cope with the degree in a preliminary year 0, before moving into the first year of the main degree programme subject to achieving specified progression criteria. They are available at a lot of unis including some with quite strong STEM departments (e.g. Manchester, Birmingham, Southampton, among others) so you won't really have your options too limited no matter which subjects you choose if you are open to that route.

I am a Y9 student and have just picked my GCSE options - separate sciences being one of them. I am very passionate about biology, physics and maths, and are looking to do these for my A levels. However, I am aware that from a higher education and vocational perspective it is more ideal to choose either biology and chemistry or chemistry and physics. Is there a way I can do both biology and physics without having to do chemistry? Or, if not, how do I pick between the two?

If you're a Y9 student, please don't start worrying too much about higher education just yet. Wait a couple years and familiarise yourself with these subjects before you choose which to take further, as your opinion on them may change. Try asking older students who have taken/are taking these for A levels what they think of the courses.
I've studied Physics A level (EdExcel) for almost the full 2 years now and found it wasn't much different from GCSE, just a few new topics and negligibly more difficult maths (doesn't even let you use calculus smh). Most of what you do involves remembering how and when to use each of the 80+ formulae.
From what I've seen and heard of Biology A level (AQA), it's not as enjoyable and is incredibly difficult, due to the masses of information you need to remember, and the specific wording you must use on wordy questions. It has much overlap with Chemistry.

I also have a mate taking, F. maths, Biology, and Physics, so if after GCSE you still feel passionate about both subjects, know that you will be able to take both for A level and still be ready for Uni. For now though, it's just not worth worrying about, you'll cross that bridge when you get there.