Should I take A level Chemistry or Maths or both

So I am supposed to be choosing my a level subjects, and I have already applied to places with the option to change subjects any time until September when year 12 starts but I don't know if I should take a level chemistry or maths. For context I want to go into neuroscience so chemistry seems better but I still have lots of choice of good unis for taking just biology and maths. I also love maths more but I still like Chemistry and have a better grade in it (gcse 9 compared to gcse 8). The only issue is I don't think I want to take both unless I take 4 and drop one later into year 12 but even then I want to keep my options open with humanities subjects like English Lit and History incase I change my mind about university courses. So if anyone has any advice or takes both subjects I'd really appreciate any feedback.

So I am supposed to be choosing my a level subjects, and I have already applied to places with the option to change subjects any time until September when year 12 starts but I don't know if I should take a level chemistry or maths. For context I want to go into neuroscience so chemistry seems better but I still have lots of choice of good unis for taking just biology and maths. I also love maths more but I still like Chemistry and have a better grade in it (gcse 9 compared to gcse 8). The only issue is I don't think I want to take both unless I take 4 and drop one later into year 12 but even then I want to keep my options open with humanities subjects like English Lit and History incase I change my mind about university courses. So if anyone has any advice or takes both subjects I'd really appreciate any feedback.

If you're serious about neuroscience, I would take biology, chemistry and maths, and then a humanity if you want to keep your options open. However, having an essay subject on top of three demanding A levels may be difficult, so you'll have to decide about that yourself. In terms of subjects going together nicely, your sciences and maths go better than having a humanity subject that you won't do anything with.

Unis prefer having A levels that gel together nicely, and Chemistry and Maths would both help you more than a humanity in neuroscience. You can still show your range of interests in your personal statement when you apply, and you can get involved in extracurriculars if you're missing English or History, but as someone who does both Chemistry and Maths in hopes of studying Physics at uni, it's better if you stick with your sciences

You'll almost certainly need chemistry to do any sort of science at degree level - but you can't do science without maths. It is possible to get into uni to do a STEM degree without maths, but I'm studying bio natsci, and trust me, A level maths is really useful preparation.

In response to the comment above about maths being hard... I personally found A level maths piss-easy. It was practically a free A*... so some people failing it after doing well at GCSE doesn't mean that you'd find it hard. My college allowed people to take 4 A levels and drop one at the end of the first term if they wanted to. If possible, I'd recommend starting with 4 A levels - biology, chemistry, maths and one of the humanities, deciding which ones you like most and dropping the one you like least if you don't want to do 4 full A levels. Maybe you could do one of them as an AS level. But - you should probably look at some undergraduate courses that you're interested in to make sure this is correct - I think that you'll need to do a full chemistry A level if you want to do neuroscience for your undergrad degree.

Maths are killing my friends- it's so so so hard at a levels compared to GCSEs it's mad. The grade you get at GCSE literally has no affect on a levels, these are way way way harder than gcses. Literally it's childsplay compared to a levels. My friend got a 9 in maths at GCSEs and she's failing rn. If I were you I'd just take bio, chem, history and English it's a much safer option

Maths are killing my friends- it's so so so hard at a levels compared to GCSEs it's mad. The grade you get at GCSE literally has no affect on a levels, these are way way way harder than gcses. Literally it's childsplay compared to a levels. My friend got a 9 in maths at GCSEs and she's failing rn. If I were you I'd just take bio, chem, history and English it's a much safer option

Thankyou sm for the advice, but after hearing other people I think I will take 4 alevels (biology, maths, chemistry and a humanity) and then if I start to find maths really hard I can always drop it. I am a little worried though as one of the schools I applied too is a very competitive grammar school and for gcse they have their top 2 sets take further maths. But I've been told by their maths teachers that doesnt matter and they have lots of people from 3rd set take a level maths. I think if Maths goes really terrible in the first few weeks, and I already know I'm going to drop it I can always change to another humanity

So I am supposed to be choosing my a level subjects, and I have already applied to places with the option to change subjects any time until September when year 12 starts but I don't know if I should take a level chemistry or maths. For context I want to go into neuroscience so chemistry seems better but I still have lots of choice of good unis for taking just biology and maths. I also love maths more but I still like Chemistry and have a better grade in it (gcse 9 compared to gcse 8). The only issue is I don't think I want to take both unless I take 4 and drop one later into year 12 but even then I want to keep my options open with humanities subjects like English Lit and History incase I change my mind about university courses. So if anyone has any advice or takes both subjects I'd really appreciate any feedback.

Did you actually complete the GCSE course - many schools didn't. A level Maths is not that difficult if GCSE is well understood ....

So I am supposed to be choosing my a level subjects, and I have already applied to places with the option to change subjects any time until September when year 12 starts but I don't know if I should take a level chemistry or maths. For context I want to go into neuroscience so chemistry seems better but I still have lots of choice of good unis for taking just biology and maths. I also love maths more but I still like Chemistry and have a better grade in it (gcse 9 compared to gcse 8). The only issue is I don't think I want to take both unless I take 4 and drop one later into year 12 but even then I want to keep my options open with humanities subjects like English Lit and History incase I change my mind about university courses. So if anyone has any advice or takes both subjects I'd really appreciate any feedback.

There's a few misconceptions on this thread. Firstly, there's not some unwritten preference for unis. Their preferences is what is written on the course pages. If they say they like course x, it does not mean that you have to do course y as well because it is similar to course x. If you are intent on doing neuroscience or any biomedical science for that matter, you don't need to do a 4th humanity subject or a 4th subject in general.

Maths is a useful A Level for sciences due to that bane of most math students' life -stats. It's used throughout the sciences for determining significance however, you do dabble in stats in other A Level sciences and you would also learn them at uni because everyone hasn't done the same courses so the course would also have to lay the foundations for this as well.

GCSEs have no correlation to A-Level, the step and change in style mean that whatever you got at GCSE has very little determining factors in predicting your successes in A Level or Higher Education.

For what courses you need to do at A-Level, look through this: https://www.theuniguide.co.uk/search/course?utf8=✓&c%5Bq%5D=neuroscience If I were you I'd go with the consensus to leave the most amount of options open, so if 80% of courses required A Level x - take A Level x.

I don't really understand about keeping your options open because neuroscience is pretty specific so obviously there has been some thought there. why do you want to keep your options open for a more non-science related course?

The main thing to think about is, 'What grades am I going to get?' because it is the combination of courses and grades which determines what unis you can get into. So if you don't think you are going to do well in a subject - don't take it. People's perception on how easy/hard a subject is shouldn't really have much weighting in your decision because everyone is different. I found Bio really easy, does that mean you will?

This has a bit of a ramble but thought it might help. @Admit-One might be able to give a more qualified opinion Thanks

Okay thankyou so much! I was doing 4 alevels because one of the schools I applied to makes you choose 4 anyway and then they allow you to drop one later usually after year 12. So I thought I would apply to 4 in my other chosen schools so that I can always drop something if I'm struggling in it, I don't really intend to sit 4 at the end if year 13 it's more a just incase option
The backup humanity was more because I really enjoy those subjects as well, and out of my own nervousness incase I got into sixthform and decided I didn't actually want to continue with a STEM course in uni, especially as the jobs I'm interested in for neuroscience mostly require a phD.
But I really appreciate the advice so I think I will take chemistry as it will give me the most opportunities for courses

In all honesty chemistry is alot easier than ppl make out. If u do maths it helps w all subjects (chem. And biology). It may be a bit difficult but it's more about practice and using the text books (I did edexcel 2019 A*). Chemistry wise it's about structure. If u k how to answer structured Qs worth 6 marks easy pickings my friend. So I suggest taking maths bc in a science based degree you'll almost always need it. Chem also seems like something you'll need since it's also imo the main science that everything stems from. Obviously u need biology so I mean those 3. If I want your options open take a subject for humanities but I will say it will be a larger workload. Also these r essay based subjects which will make it harder. However, if u work hard and r ready to make sacrifice (ur free time) then I don't see y u can't do it. U could drop 1 if it gets too much during the year or at the start of year 13 but bear in mind that could effect your predicted grades you'll use to enter uni.

I think maths is one of those subjects which could be quite easily taught poorly. I know they did at my school.

Well what jobs are you interested in?

That isn't the point - you will find A level harder if you didn;t complete ALL the GCSE topics - many schools didn't. Our Year 12s are doing just as well as previous cohorts.

As one of the schools I'm applying to you have to do 4 at first, thats mostly why I will start off taking 4 but I was going to try and drop one around halfway through year 12 so I won't have to bother with it anymore. And I am okay with a bigger workload, but I really appreciate the advice!!

Mostly I'd want to pursue a research based career and after looking up job availabity majority need a phD for that. Especially as I would want to specialise into looking at links between brain inflammation and how it can cause conditions like PANS/PANDAS later down along the line