I only want to take 3 a levels, but I’m stuck between 2 for my third?!

So, basically, I know I want to do English and History. My next step after A-level is doing an English course at uni, and my dream uni would be Cambridge. My expected grades say I could do it, but I don’t know which of these two subjects to take for my third A-Level.
And, no, I’m not taking 4 bc I don’t think I’d get the Cambridge A-Level requirements for 4 A-Levels. So….
A)French or
B)Psychology
Which is harder/easier? Which is more respected? Which will make me look more acedemjcallh capable?
I love both subjects and got 9’s on GCSE for both. So….Yh, which one guyssss?! x

So, basically, I know I want to do English and History. My next step after A-level is doing an English course at uni, and my dream uni would be Cambridge. My expected grades say I could do it, but I don’t know which of these two subjects to take for my third A-Level.
And, no, I’m not taking 4 bc I don’t think I’d get the Cambridge A-Level requirements for 4 A-Levels. So….
A)French or
B)Psychology
Which is harder/easier? Which is more respected? Which will make me look more acedemjcallh capable?
I love both subjects and got 9’s on GCSE for both. So….Yh, which one guyssss?! x

French mounts up real quick and with the History and English, Oxbridge will certainly no mind a third essay based subject such as psychology. It just depends how much you want to put additional work into it because that's not to say psychology is easy but French is REAL hard. It all depends on how up to the task you are. hope you love whatever subject you end up choosing though, all the best and well wishes!

So, basically, I know I want to do English and History. My next step after A-level is doing an English course at uni, and my dream uni would be Cambridge. My expected grades say I could do it, but I don’t know which of these two subjects to take for my third A-Level.
And, no, I’m not taking 4 bc I don’t think I’d get the Cambridge A-Level requirements for 4 A-Levels. So….
A)French or
B)Psychology
Which is harder/easier? Which is more respected? Which will make me look more acedemjcallh capable?
I love both subjects and got 9’s on GCSE for both. So….Yh, which one guyssss?! x

French is more respected but history and English would already be two facilitating subjects. Unless you plan on doing English AND French as a joint-honours I'd probably recommend doing psychology because French A-Level has a lot of different components which add up before you realise it. Definitely don't take 4 it's an awful idea and Oxbridge don't care anyway. At the end of the day I think both are great options (especially if you're talented in them as you seem to be from GCSE!) but from someone who takes 2 language a-levels I'd maybe recommend psych instead as even though it's a lot of content the content itself isn't actually difficult, whereas with French there's a little bit less content but that content IS difficult, and you want to make the path to your offer as easy as possible for yourself.

Either is fine. Bear in mind psychology involves a good chunk of stats type work so something to consider if you aren't keen on maths (which some people arem't!).


The concept of facilitating subjects as been retired by the RG due to misconceptions like this. They are't "hard" subjects vs other, non-facilitating subjects being "soft" subjects - they are just subjects which served as prerequisites for one or more degree programmes, and it was recommended students aim to take 2 simply so they had a good range of options for what degrees they may want to apply to.