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confusion

im thinking of doing

art
biology + as core maths
sociology
economics

is this too much? Do you think I’ll survive in year 12
I genuinely have no idea what to do in the future

Reply 1

MindMax2000

Universities Forum Helper

Original post by samiya1234

im thinking of doing

art
biology + as core maths
sociology
economics

is this too much? Do you think I’ll survive in year 12
I genuinely have no idea what to do in the future

I have seen someone who managed to do the equivalant of 5 A Levels. However, her time management skills is on another level. The average person doing 5 would struggle.

Art is not one of those subjects where you can get by with little to no effort. It's going to eat up a lot of your time and it's not easy.
Similarly with biology; it's not a quick and easy subject. it's a very time consuming subject where you need to put in a lot of work.

I think the bigger question is: why did you want to do these subjects?

Biology is the only real required subject for any particular degree course, if you intend to go into life sciences. All the other subjects aren't really requested for any degree.
If you intend to go into any particular role that requires you to have A Levels, then I can't imagine you requiring any other subject than biology for lab work and Maths for most things in engineering and actuary. You can then have any of the other 2 A Levels in any subject that you want to do.

For degrees in sociology and art, you don't need specific A Level subjects (this applies even if you want to do something fancy like UX design or Architecture). Economic degrees won't really require you to have economics as an A Level, but some will require you to have a full on A Level in Maths.

If you want to pick 4 subjects that would allow you to do most degrees in terms of meeting subject requirements, you ideally should have the 3 sciences + Maths. This would even allow you to go into economics, design/art, sociology, or pretty much anything in life sciences.
If you want to choose academic subjects so your application seems well rounded, then I would go for Biology, Sociology, and Economics (I would prefer A Level Maths, but you decided not to include that).

Most jobs outside of life sciences/healthcare, academia, and education don't really require you to have a degree. For those jobs where you require you to have degree level qualification are usually in engineering, law, economics, architecture, and medicine, all of which can be done either with professional qualifications or apprenticeships.
With your subject choices, biology is the only essential A Level you would need for a healthcare/life science degree for work in healthcare outside of academia and education. You can then pretty much apply to most jobs with just what you have or with the finished A Levels.

I would recommend most people to start with 4, but then stick to 3 if you feel like you really need to cut things down. 5 is usually outside of the scope of many.

Reply 2

McGinger

Pointless. No-one needs 4 full A levels.

Doing 3 with Core Maths (preferably in Year 12), is fine but doing more than that risks all your grades and whatever your school tells you, will not 'impress' any University. AAA will always look better than ABBB.

A level Art is demanding, and much more work than you might imagine.
The other 3 will leave many avenues open to you.

Reply 3

samiya1234

I’m choosing

a level biology (with AS core maths)
a level english lit
a level sociology/ politics
a level art

Reply 4

alevelstudent090

you’re taking 4 a-levels and As core maths?

Reply 5

samiya1234

Original post by alevelstudent090

you’re taking 4 a-levels and As core maths?

I’m thinking about it but idk I think I’ll drop art

Reply 6

alevelstudent090

Original post by samiya1234

I’m thinking about it but idk I think I’ll drop art

im taking four a-levels biology, psychology, sociology and religious studies. i dont think four is worth it, im only taking four because im re doing the first year and adding biology as i need it for diagnostic radiography and dont want to drop the other three. what do you want to do career-wise? only do biology if you're really interested in the subject and/or if you need bio for a degree.