Can't decide on a 3rd A-Level!

Spanish is the only language I've had the opportunity to do at GCSE and I have developed a huge passion for both Spanish and languages in general. I will likely study it at uni as well, I want to be a languages teacher if that helps at all. So I'm definelty doing it as an A-level.

The issue is choosing what subjects to go with it, English Literature is not my best subject but I am quite passionate about it and I feel that the courses would compliment each other so I will probably choose that too.

I just don't know what to choose as a 3rd subject. I'm moving to another 6th form where I will have the opportunity to also study French or German. We are able to study them from scratch but I'm worried that it might be too difficult. Even if I do decide on a 2nd language, I don't know which one, French is absolutely more useful to be a language teacher however from the very very little that I have learnt from the 2 languages, I significantly prefer learning German.

History is also something I've been considering.To be honest it's mostly just been a back up plan if I don't want to do languages but I am fairly good at it and it seems like a safe option that I would likely enjoy.

I do just want to stick to 3 A-levels, I feel that 4 would be way too much work. I just need some advice on what to take as my 3rd, thanks!

Spanish is the only language I've had the opportunity to do at GCSE and I have developed a huge passion for both Spanish and languages in general. I will likely study it at uni as well, I want to be a languages teacher if that helps at all. So I'm definelty doing it as an A-level.

The issue is choosing what subjects to go with it, English Literature is not my best subject but I am quite passionate about it and I feel that the courses would compliment each other so I will probably choose that too.

I just don't know what to choose as a 3rd subject. I'm moving to another 6th form where I will have the opportunity to also study French or German. We are able to study them from scratch but I'm worried that it might be too difficult. Even if I do decide on a 2nd language, I don't know which one, French is absolutely more useful to be a language teacher however from the very very little that I have learnt from the 2 languages, I significantly prefer learning German.

History is also something I've been considering.To be honest it's mostly just been a back up plan if I don't want to do languages but I am fairly good at it and it seems like a safe option that I would likely enjoy.

I do just want to stick to 3 A-levels, I feel that 4 would be way too much work. I just need some advice on what to take as my 3rd, thanks!

Hiya! I'm Fatiha, a 2nd year Psychology student and also a Cardiff University Student Rep. Whilst I'm not a massive expert on foreign languages, hopefully I can help a little bit!

The best piece of advice I was given before my A-Levels were to choose the subjects I enjoy the most. The idea behind that is that the more you enjoy something, the better you'd be at it since you'd be working a lot harder for it. That's why I choose pretty unconventional A-Level combinations (Fine Art, Psychology, Sociology) and ended up doing well on it, even though most people would say taking a science would be more useful for the route I'm taking! I think since most language degrees only need the specified language A-Level as a entry requirement (as taken from the Cardiff courses), I would say it would be good to focus on the subjects you really enjoy or the ones you are good at

That being said, it might also be quite helpful talking to students who are at uni, taking modern foreign languages themselves! Let me know if you'd like the resource to that

- Fatiha, Cardiff Uni Rep

Thank you for replying! Yes I'm trying to stick with ones I enjoy, which is the reason why I'm not going the maths route like my parents advised. Aside from languages and English Lit, it's only the humanities I really enjoy. I've spoken about history and the A-Level RS course doesn't seem like something I would be interested in. Geography has always been one of my favourite subjects, and also one of my best, it's probably the only other subject I'm considering aside from the ones I've listed, I think my only issue with it is that I don't want to accidentally love the A-level and then want to take it at university, but then be at a disadvantage because I've not taken multiple science subjects.

I would greatly appreciate that resource! I think that would probably help me a lot

Thanks!

Geography has always been one of my favourite subjects, and also one of my best,

Am almost done with A levels and am planning to do languages at Uni.
I only did french GCSE, and am only doing French as a language at A level, though am planning to pick up Arabic at uni.
My other 2 subjects are really random - Geography and Media. Although there have certainly been some low points with them during the last 2 years, I don't regret either of them as it has given me a much more varied education than had I confined myself to languages and closely associated subjects. This has also in no way disadvantaged me in applying to unis. So I cannot stress enough how important it is to pick subjects you enjoy!

The advantage of German over French is that German is (obviously) a germanic language, so a different family to French and Spanish, which are romance languages (Latin based). French could easily be seen as a cross between English and German.
It might be worth considering if there's anything you want to specialise in at a later date when picking between languages - French is far more suited to global history and politics than German which is likely to have a european focus.

I'm sure you don't need me to tell you this but starting from scratch will be a lot of work (but HUGELY rewarding) so I would quite strongly advise against taking 4 A levels in that scenario - though that is a decision for you and you alone to make based on how you perceive your work ethic.

Its great that you are passionate about english lit! As I'm sure you know the A levels have essay papers on film and literature - sounds daunting at first but its completely manageable. Although you are likely to be able to draw links with any subjects you choose (maybe with the exception of maths!). As an example I used a fact from my french exam in my geography exam the other day, and then a geography fact in my media exam. You don't necessarily need to go down the rabbit hole of tying all your subjects together in the hope they'll be complimentary!

I hope this was some (if any) use!

Thank you for replying! Geography is the other subject that I’ve been considering but I was worried that it wouldn’t fit with my other subjects, and that I would be at a disadvantage if I wanted to take it at Uni, is it actually better then to do a variety?

From what I know, I would probably enjoy languages far more than I would enjoy any other subject (aside from the mountain of catch up work I would probably have to do). German is absolutely the subject I’d prefer and it would be the one that I would be more likely to take at Uni. But looking at it from a job perspective, I’ve wanted to be a languages teacher for quite a while now (I definitely will teach something as a job), and pretty much every school teaches French or/and Spanish, so not having French would likely make me not be eligible to a lot of jobs.

Yes I’m definitely not doing 4 A-levels, no matter the subject combination, that sounds like way too much work for something that might not even matter in the end.
Thanks! Yes it was of some use 😊

Thank you for replying! Yes I'm trying to stick with ones I enjoy, which is the reason why I'm not going the maths route like my parents advised. Aside from languages and English Lit, it's only the humanities I really enjoy. I've spoken about history and the A-Level RS course doesn't seem like something I would be interested in. Geography has always been one of my favourite subjects, and also one of my best, it's probably the only other subject I'm considering aside from the ones I've listed, I think my only issue with it is that I don't want to accidentally love the A-level and then want to take it at university, but then be at a disadvantage because I've not taken multiple science subjects.

I would greatly appreciate that resource! I think that would probably help me a lot

Thanks!