If I don't take Psychology A level, would it weaken my Oxford EP application?

I took an undergraduate-level psychology at a local community college when I was back in the US. I feel like the psychology course is right for me. I want to do it up to DPhil and plan to stay in academia if possible, although this may change later on.

However, for A levels, I plan to do Biology, Math, and German.

Why German? That's because I have German roots and cousins, but my German is so weak. I barely passed Goethe b1 and I feel ashamed. I want to learn it properly. A level would be a good excuse for me to learn it.

I'm just a bit concerned that if I don't take Psychology A level, my Oxford EP application will be seriously weakened. I heard that it's ok to not take Psychology if your school doesn't offer Psychology. However, my school does so.

Would that be seen as 'Oh this candidate must be not so serious about Psychology as psychology was chosen for A level'?

My thought process is rather like this:
I'm going to study Psychology anyway in the undergraduate and the grad school as well for 7-8 years. So I'd rather use this time to get proficient in German and get rid of the feeling that I'm not a real German descendant who can't even understand its roots. This is quite an urgent matter for me. I'm sick of not being able to understand the dinner table conversations when reuniting with my German family. I don't want to force all of my German cousins to use their poor English just because of me. I want to tick this German language checkbox asap. That will make my life complete.

On the Oxford EP website, it says the following:
It is highly recommended for candidates to have studied one or more science subjects (which can include Psychology) or Mathematics to A-level, Advanced Higher, Higher Level in the IB or another equivalent.

So my Biology and Math would suffice the requirement. However, I feel like this could be a bare minimum. In practice, do almost all the EP candidates take psychology if the subject is provided by their school? I couldn't find stats for Oxford, but for Cambridge, it says "successful applicants typically took Psychology (78%) and at least one of Biology or Mathematics (82%)."

Maybe I should give up Math? But it's my natural strength and an easy A* for me. So I don't want to give this up either. 4 subjects would be too much for me :-(

As the Oxf Uni website says, at least one science subject is recommended for the course. This is only a recommendation not a requirement. It's recommended because it helps students get up and running faster with new and often complex material in the course. You're also right that psychology A'level is not required because not every school is able to teach it. They're far more interested in students having a good grounding in basic science. Don't get too hung up about whether or not your school teaches psychology. Seriously, the admission tutors won't check the UCAS application in that level of detail.
You'll also have thoroughly researched the Oxford EP department and noted the study of linguistics is closely aligned to the course and research programs. Taking German A'level might therefore be seen as a good match for the program.

I don’t think it has a significant negative influence on your application - they don’t say they require it and that doesn’t secretly mean they want you to do A Level Psychology anyway! I did Bio, Chem, Maths and French and got in to do EP. Most people I knew did have Psych A Level but I think that is more to do with the fact that people who want to study Psychology at uni will probably be interested in studying it at A level too rather than Oxford selecting for people with the A level. I actually didn’t think not having the A-level affected me on the course either - I think people who didn’t have Biology/Maths had a harder time because there’s a lot of neuroscience and statistics on the course. And from what I know about A level Psychology anyway most of the content is pretty outdated and doesn’t relate to what you’d be taught at uni anyway.

Biology and Maths tick the box in terms of the subjects Oxford say they recommend, German seems important to you for other reasons, so ultimately I don’t think you need to give one of them up to study Psychology A level. As long as you use your own time to pursue an independent interest in Psychology (read books, listen to podcasts, attend talks etc etc) I think you’ll be fine.

Thanks a lot for sharing your experience!

I think Chemistry over Psychology would have strengthened your application, as EP emphasizes science subjects. I'm a bit worried if I would be interrogated during the interview for wanting EP over PPL even if I chose language over another science. I know that I strongly want EP and not PPL.

Have you ever heard of any case where a candidate applied for the EP but got an offer for PPL? I saw some YT videos of folks who applied for KCL PPE but got Philosophy course offer instead.

Hats off for killing four subjects. I wish I could do that too, but I just know that four would be too much and I rather should focus on three.

How strong was your French? Took GCSE or DELF before? How difficult was French A level compared to GCSE or DELF? While I say I'm determined to do German A level, I'm quite intimidated by it too. I just barely passed B1 exam, just above the minimum requirements for each section, so I feel a bit insecure if I could get A or A*. I'll probably have to work really hard.

And from what I know about A level Psychology anyway most of the content is pretty outdated and doesn’t relate to what you’d be taught at uni anyway.
This is quite a surprise. It's a new information for me.

Thanks a lot for your help.

This is only a recommendation not a requirement.

> It's always tricky to tell if 'recommendation' is a real 'recommendation' or effectively a requirement. How can you actually tell?

You'll also have thoroughly researched the Oxford EP department and noted the study of linguistics is closely aligned to the course and research programs. Taking German A'level might therefore be seen as a good match for the program.

> I'm actually worried about this bit. Would taking German A level make admission tutors think 'This candidate is a better fit for PPL. Why did this candidate choose EP over PPL?' Would I be interrogated for this sort of question? I know for sure I'll be a better fit for EP rather than PPL.

eeeli appears to have given a very comprehensive answer.

I don't get the impression they'd interrogate you over your course choice at the interview - my experience of interviews (although this was a few years ago and a sample size of only 2 colleges) was that they focused on how I dealt with unseen tasks rather than asking me about my motivations for studying and such. I feel like they get an impression of that from you talking about your interests in your personal statement. But if they did ask you about course choice you seem pretty sure of your choice so hopefully you'd find that easy to answer!

I know a few people who applied for joint honours courses (e.g. Classics and English) and got offers for just one of those subjects, but I've never heard of anyone apply for a single honours course and be offered a joint honours place. For joint honours there are separate interviews for the different subjects so I can't see them offering you e.g. a Psychology and Linguistics place if you never did a Linguistics interview. I don't know if its impossible though, and I think some people do successfully request to switch from EP to PPL once there, but that's obviously quite different to being offered a place on a different course.

My French was not especially strong when I started the A-level, I had a 9 at GCSE but I don't think I could have held much of a conversation with a French person. I found the A-level challenging but not impossible, and ended up with an A. Part of what makes language A-levels difficult is not just that you're learning the language but that you also have to learn and remember a lot of stuff about that country, as well as possibly a couple of books/films. There were a few fluent French speakers on the course but they actually weren't the ones getting the best grades as a lot of the writing and speaking exam depends on your knowledge as well as your language ability. By the end of it I was probably hovering around a low B2 if I'm honest (though never took a test so that's a very rough guess). But I admit with how busy I was I probably didn't put as much into learning the language as I should have done - probably why I got an A and not an A*! I don't think language A-levels are necessarily the best way to learn a language to reach fluency, but they are a really good way to pick up some more advanced language while also learning a lot about the country's history, politics and culture.

And yes, from what I've seen of Psychology A-level textbooks, the syllabus is not that great. A lot of what we previously understood in Psychology is being challenged right now, but the A-level hasn't really caught up. There's definitely still a point to learning the classic studies and what the foundations of the field are like, but if you're going on to study Psychology they'll cover that anyway, and then let you get on to the interesting bits like reading the latest research and developing independent critical analysis skills. And this is obviously with the caveat I didn't do A-level Psychology, I've just read about the syllabus and skimmed a textbook out of interest. I think a great teacher could make it a lot more relevant!

Thanks a lot for such detailed information!

I had no idea even books/films would be relevant for a language subject. I thought it would be a high-level overview of the culture and a bit of history. What a surprise! It sounds really challenging but that actually makes me want to do the language even more. I probably wouldn't have the opportunity to dive deep into a culture if not for A levels.

It's good to hear about the perspective on A levels Psychology from a person who reads EP! Thanks a lot! One thing that Psychology A level might help me though is that it could help with essay writing skills. And that may potentially help with the TSA? especially the essay section. English is not my mother tongue, so I'm a bit worried about it. I'm relatively feeling ok about the PS and CT sections. Would you say your lack of essay-oriented A level subject choice made it difficult for you to prepare for the TSA essay section? Or were you naturally good at writing?

Also, if I may ask: What were your A levels for Bio/Chem/Math? Would you say the actual score doesn't matter too much as long as you meet the required A*AA? or even if it's all A*, getting closer to the full mark as much as you can matters a lot?

Regarding the TSA essay, I didn’t find preparing for that too difficult, but this was probably helped by the fact my first language is English so I was very used to writing in English. There are actually essay components in A-Level German (though obviously the essay is in German) and potentially A-Level Biology if you do AQA so you won’t be completely out of essay practice. But there are loads of TSA past papers and plenty of free guidance on the essay and I think it’s more than enough to help you prepare. If you do lots of practice essays you’ll get the hang of writing a good essay in the time required.

My predicted grades I applied with were 2 A*s and 2 As. They made me the standard offer of A*AA. My achieved grades were a bit complicated because I got my A levels in 2020 (the year of teacher assessed grades + government grade adjustment algorithm as COVID meant exams couldn’t happen) and initially missed my offer as the government adjustment gave me AABB - my teachers gave me A*AAA so once the government algorithm was overturned they had to un-reject me as I met the offer with those teacher assessed grades. (sorry half of that is in italics, all the asterisks triggered the italics function lol)

When I applied they didn’t request any scores associated with my predicted grades, now that most people don’t take AS exams marks relating to predicted grades are less controlled anyway so probably not that informative. And in most cases you will be given a standard offer for the course, and all you have to do is meet that with your achieved A levels (even if you scraped it by one mark - but if you miss it by one mark you’d probably get rejected). I don’t know how exactly they weight grades but plenty of people get in with just the standard offer rather than all A stars so I see it as getting the required grades gets your foot in the door, and the rest of your application can then be taken into account.

Gosh, it must have been a lot of ups and downs. So much drama!

now that most people don’t take AS exams marks relating to predicted grades are less controlled anyway so probably not that informative.
Could you please elaborate on this? I'm not aware of this trend. I thought it was a must to take both AS and A levels. That's no longer the case and most people only take A levels? Why is that so? What do predicted grades even mean now? Is it purely based on the teacher's assessments?

I should note that this applies in England, not sure how they do it in the rest of the UK/international A levels so ignore me if you’re not studying in England! I recommend looking at the ‘UK qualifications’ section of the Oxford undergrad admissions website for full details on what considerations are applied to the qualifications you are taking.

Bit of a long story re AS levels but as I understand it around 2016 the UK Government reformed A-levels to be linear 2 year courses. So before that you’d do an AS exam after year 12 and if you carried on with the subject to A-level you’d sit an A2 exam at the end of year 13 and the AS and A2 score would be combined to your A-level grade. Now AS levels still exist but they don’t count towards the A-level, instead to get an A-level you do all your exams at the end of the two years, and AS is a standalone qualification that’s like doing the first year of an A level. So some schools still offer AS but it’s not taken nearly as often anymore since it no longer counts to the A level. In its place most schools would decide predicted grades based on internal mock exam results and class performance. But how it works exactly would depend on the school.

I took an undergraduate-level psychology at a local community college when I was back in the US. I feel like the psychology course is right for me. I want to do it up to DPhil and plan to stay in academia if possible, although this may change later on.

However, for A levels, I plan to do Biology, Math, and German.

Why German? That's because I have German roots and cousins, but my German is so weak. I barely passed Goethe b1 and I feel ashamed. I want to learn it properly. A level would be a good excuse for me to learn it.

I'm just a bit concerned that if I don't take Psychology A level, my Oxford EP application will be seriously weakened. I heard that it's ok to not take Psychology if your school doesn't offer Psychology. However, my school does so.

Would that be seen as 'Oh this candidate must be not so serious about Psychology as psychology was chosen for A level'?

My thought process is rather like this:
I'm going to study Psychology anyway in the undergraduate and the grad school as well for 7-8 years. So I'd rather use this time to get proficient in German and get rid of the feeling that I'm not a real German descendant who can't even understand its roots. This is quite an urgent matter for me. I'm sick of not being able to understand the dinner table conversations when reuniting with my German family. I don't want to force all of my German cousins to use their poor English just because of me. I want to tick this German language checkbox asap. That will make my life complete.

On the Oxford EP website, it says the following:
It is highly recommended for candidates to have studied one or more science subjects (which can include Psychology) or Mathematics to A-level, Advanced Higher, Higher Level in the IB or another equivalent.

So my Biology and Math would suffice the requirement. However, I feel like this could be a bare minimum. In practice, do almost all the EP candidates take psychology if the subject is provided by their school? I couldn't find stats for Oxford, but for Cambridge, it says "successful applicants typically took Psychology (78%) and at least one of Biology or Mathematics (82%)."

Maybe I should give up Math? But it's my natural strength and an easy A* for me. So I don't want to give this up either. 4 subjects would be too much for me :-(