A Level Options

Hi,

I’m currently in Year 11, I have to choose my A level options soon
I do currently business btec, spanish, history, religious studies as my options and am great at all of them - also good at english lit and lang - just not so great at science and maths.

I’m aiming to apply for a sixth form, and was thinking of doing religious studies, history , and either criminology or psychology- however , I am still unsure.
My sixth form does not have a large range of classes so it’s a little limited, but I was wondering if History was worth taking or not. I have heard how difficult it is, but I really enjoy it at GCSE - is it worth taking or not?

Also, if history is not good- is politics a better(easier?) alternative ? Although i looked at the courses and the history course looks much more interesting (russia) than the politics course (britain//18/1900s? not sure) so I guess I would enjoy history more

As with RS, I am great at it currently and have heard it’s decent at A level.
Was also wondering whether to take psychology or criminology ? I have heard psychology is more desired at universities, however I was wondering if psychology is maths/science based? As I am really bad at maths and science so would not take it if so😭.

If i were to take any other subjects , would probably choose english literature, but if anyone who has done these subjects could let me know how they are and advise me on what to take I’d really appreciate it - thanks !

(edited 1 year ago)

Reply 1

DataVenia

Volunteer Team, Clearing and Applications Advisor

21

Original post by user839292

Hi,

I’m currently in Year 11, I have to choose my A level options soon
I do currently business btec, spanish, history, religious studies as my options and am great at all of them - also good at english lit and lang - just not so great at science and maths.

I’m aiming to apply for a sixth form, and was thinking of doing religious studies, history , and either criminology or psychology- however , I am still unsure.
My sixth form does not have a large range of classes so it’s a little limited, but I was wondering if History was worth taking or not. I have heard how difficult it is, but I really enjoy it at GCSE - is it worth taking or not?

As with RS, I am great at it currently and have heard it’s decent at A level.
Was also wondering whether to take psychology or criminology ? I have heard psychology is more desired at universities, however I was wondering if psychology is maths/science based? As I am really bad at maths and science so would not take it if so😭.

If i were to take any other subjects , would probably choose english literature, but if anyone who has done these subjects could let me know how they are and advise me on what to take I’d really appreciate it - thanks !

With regards to the Psychology vs. Criminology decision, go for Psychology. Although it's a science (has hypotheses, experiments, data, conclusions, etc.) it's not like any science you've studied before. And there is some maths - the statistics you use to analyse large sets of data to look for trends / patterns, etc. - but it's not like you're doing trigonometry or something. :smile:

Another reason to do Psychology rather than Criminology is that Criminology is not an A level or a BTEC. It's a WJEC Level 3 Applied Diploma, and a few universities won't accept it as being equivalent to an A level, or if they do, they'll only accept it for certain courses. (For example, UCL say here that, "The WJEC Level 3 Applied Diploma in Criminology is only accepted for entry to the BSc Crime and Security Science programme, and the Engineering Foundation Year programmes. This qualification is not accepted for any other programme at UCL." Durham say here that, "We will consider applicants studying a WJEC Level 3 Applied Diploma for entry to many of our courses. This is considered on a case by case basis.")

Reply 2

niamhcols

2

Original post by user839292

Hi,

I’m currently in Year 11, I have to choose my A level options soon
I do currently business btec, spanish, history, religious studies as my options and am great at all of them - also good at english lit and lang - just not so great at science and maths.

I’m aiming to apply for a sixth form, and was thinking of doing religious studies, history , and either criminology or psychology- however , I am still unsure.
My sixth form does not have a large range of classes so it’s a little limited, but I was wondering if History was worth taking or not. I have heard how difficult it is, but I really enjoy it at GCSE - is it worth taking or not?

Also, if history is not good- is politics a better(easier?) alternative ? Although i looked at the courses and the history course looks much more interesting (russia) than the politics course (britain//18/1900s? not sure) so I guess I would enjoy history more

As with RS, I am great at it currently and have heard it’s decent at A level.
Was also wondering whether to take psychology or criminology ? I have heard psychology is more desired at universities, however I was wondering if psychology is maths/science based? As I am really bad at maths and science so would not take it if so😭.

If i were to take any other subjects , would probably choose english literature, but if anyone who has done these subjects could let me know how they are and advise me on what to take I’d really appreciate it - thanks !

I take history, psychology and Latin and psychology is by far my favourite. It’s really interesting and I’m annoyed I can’t do it past a level because I’m not doing another science at A Level. History is a well respected A Level by top unis but can be really hard depending on what area you are doing. I would definitely recommend psychology though (I also took English literature at one point but dropped it- too many essays). The science part of psychology is very basic and maths only makes up 10% of the aqa course (maths was not my strong suit at gcse)

Reply 3

matildaeeeee

6

Hi, I'm unsure what a levels to choose. I definitely would like to do French and Maths, and then it's between German orPsychology. I love languages, but Psychology also seems interesting. What would look more impressive to top universities (suchas Oxford and Cambridge)? Is psychology interesting? I've heard mixed opinions - if you are interested in it, what interests youabout it and if you're not interested in it, why not? What is it like to do two languages at A-level? I'm currently getting 9s in bothFrench and German

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