Picked my A-level subjects!!

I'm taking maths, economics, physics and further maths
just wanted to ask people who take these how they like it.

I took Maths & Economics at the start of Year 12, only started doing Further Maths halfway through Year 12 (long story short: didn't realise I needed it for a competitive application to Oxbridge. got rejected anyway due to me barely revising for TMUA, oh well!)

Economics was fun, but since I'm doing Computer Science it made more sense for me to do Maths/Further Maths alongside it, and I just liked Psychology just a tiny bit more (but I do like both subjects!)

Maths was not enjoyable for me, up until I picked up Further Maths ironically enough. Year 1 Pure/Stats is mostly just GCSE recap at the beginning - Further Maths introduced some new content which made me enjoy both subjects a lot more. (also, we quite often had to speedrun a few Maths concepts we hadn't learnt yet, as at my 6th form they do both subjects in parallel! I'm aware that others do A-level maths in a year, further maths the next, etc).

(edited 1 year ago)

Reply 2

spectrum84

Universities Forum Helper

19

Original post by evakalabina

I'm taking maths, economics, physics and further maths
just wanted to ask people who take these how they like it.

I did physics and maths too and they were 2 of the hardest A Level subjects 😅
It starts off pretty okay in year 12 but when you get to year 13 it gets much harder and you really need to stay on top of it and do loads of exam questions

Reply 3

evakalabina

OP

8

Yeah I was at my sixth form interview and when I said I wanted to try applying for Oxbridge the interviewer immediately told me that I would be needing it. So guess I'm doing that now. just searched up TMUA had no clue that that was something required, is it better or worse than an A-level exam?

Reply 4

evakalabina

OP

8

I was expecting physics to be hard so i made sure to pick economics as something ill enjoy

Reply 5

ordane87

4

Original post by evakalabina

Yeah I was at my sixth form interview and when I said I wanted to try applying for Oxbridge the interviewer immediately told me that I would be needing it. So guess I'm doing that now. just searched up TMUA had no clue that that was something required, is it better or worse than an A-level exam?

Apologies for not clarifying in my earlier reply - whether you have to do the TMUA/MAT/etc depends on what course you're applying for at uni, and whether you're applying for Oxford or Cambridge! I applied for Computer Science at Cambridge, and they require you to sit their own TMUA admissions test (will be replaced next year however), at Oxford it's the MAT you'd have to sit.

Both the MAT and TMUA are quite similar in that the questions are not your standard A-Level questions; you need to do a ton of practice papers for them and really familiarise yourself with the question types, as without any prep, the questions will look terribly difficult at first glance. They usually involve things like hidden quadratics disguised behind trig functions, requiring you to sketch graphs and deduce patterns, etc - they mainly test your problem-solving skills more than the usual A-Level "memorise this formula or this procedure and you're good to go".

If you're applying to do Maths at uni, you'll definitely most likely have to do STEP (if you're applying to Imperial for CS they'll likely ask you to do STEP 2 as well) - from my understanding, it's harder than both the TMUA/MAT - but it's more difficult to compare the two, as MAT/TMUA are multiple choice whereas STEP is marked similarly to A-levels: actual examiners mark your working out & solutions, and you only have to pick 6/12 questions to answer.

(edited 1 year ago)

Reply 6

evakalabina

OP

8

Yeah I'm thinking about applying for maths or economics at Cambridge (obviously too early to tell but its my goal) and I looked it up and they would both require TMUA. Sounds tough but do-able.

Reply 7

ordane87

4

Original post by evakalabina

Yeah I'm thinking about applying for maths or economics at Cambridge (obviously too early to tell but its my goal) and I looked it up and they would both require TMUA. Sounds tough but do-able.

Good on you for thinking about it now - I'd also recommend starting to put together your personal statement if you haven't already, so that you can focus on other important things like admissions tests etc. I started drafting mine in January earlier this year, and was mostly done by March/April, only having to make a few tweaks in the run-up to the UCAS deadline - it definitely was a lot less stressful than for those in my 6th form who had to speedrun their personal statement in the weeks before the deadline! (also, your teachers won't be as busy now as they will be during September-October of Y13 when they're proofreading everyone else's PS!)

(edited 1 year ago)

Reply 8

Emma:-)

Entertainment Forum Helper

19

Original post by evakalabina

I'm taking maths, economics, physics and further maths
just wanted to ask people who take these how they like it.

Those subjects go well together. What are you wanting to do at uni?

Reply 9

evakalabina

OP

8

Original post by Emma:-)

Those subjects go well together. What are you wanting to do at uni?

maybe maths or economic unsure at moment but if i really enjoy economics then ill do that.

Reply 10

johnpork123

7

Original post by evakalabina

I'm taking maths, economics, physics and further maths
just wanted to ask people who take these how they like it.

I take Maths, Economics and Physics and I'm in Year 13. I thought that Maths A Level was going to be ridiculously hard but its not bad at all. If you stay consistent and complete all the exercises in the textbook, you can easily do really well. I have to say that Physics is defo a big jump from GCSE (in my opinion) and I would say if you are not prepared to do crazy amounts of work, dont need to do it or don't have a crazy interest in Physics and, don't do it - its not worth it. Economics is defo my fav subject out of all of the ones I do, it's quite logical and easy (if you are good at essay writing) and nice to revise for.

Reply 11

evakalabina

OP

8

Original post by johnpork123

I take Maths, Economics and Physics and I'm in Year 13. I thought that Maths A Level was going to be ridiculously hard but its not bad at all. If you stay consistent and complete all the exercises in the textbook, you can easily do really well. I have to say that Physics is defo a big jump from GCSE (in my opinion) and I would say if you are not prepared to do crazy amounts of work, dont need to do it or don't have a crazy interest in Physics and, don't do it - its not worth it. Economics is defo my fav subject out of all of the ones I do, it's quite logical and easy (if you are good at essay writing) and nice to revise for.

yeah the only one im worried about is probably physics because im not very passionate but ive got a pretty solid work ethic so i can tell that ill be able to do it but i probably wont enjoy. Thats why i chose economics because im actually interested in that.

Picked my A-level subjects!!

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