(help pleaseee) A Level Options for Medicine

I'm planning to do bio, chem, maths (and food science & nutrition; i'd probably drop this after or within the 1st year) with the ambition of doing medicine in uni.. my current predicted grades for bio & chem is A* but for maths a higher B.. maths isn't my biggest strength but all the unis i'm looking at prefer maths as an additional A level apart from bio and chem.. To all the current med students/ A level students planning to do med or doing the same subject as I mentioned, do you think this is a good combination to do? How is the workload, stress etc.? I'm getting really stressed over this (along with my current exams) so I'd like some advice please and thank you

**(posted this on the GCSE forum too)

I'm planning to do bio, chem, maths (and food science & nutrition; i'd probably drop this after or within the 1st year) with the ambition of doing medicine in uni.. my current predicted grades for bio & chem is A* but for maths a higher B.. maths isn't my biggest strength but all the unis i'm looking at prefer maths as an additional A level apart from bio and chem.. To all the current med students/ A level students planning to do med or doing the same subject as I mentioned, do you think this is a good combination to do? How is the workload, stress etc.? I'm getting really stressed over this (along with my current exams) so I'd like some advice please and thank you

Hey!
Your alevel combination sounds good however I am not sure which website you are looking at because I can’t think of any med school that needs maths as well as bio and chem. no medical schools as far as I am aware in the UK require all three not even oxford or Cambridge. Most require chem with EITHER maths or bio with a third alevel that can be any. Also if you do choose maths with bio and chem you won’t have a better chance of acceptance compared to those who don’t choose maths.
In my opinion, if you don’t think you can get an A in maths, do something you are more confident in. Cause maths is not an easy one if you don’t enjoy it.
Use this for any entry requirements you want to check https://www.medschools.ac.uk/media/3060/uk-medical-school-entry-requirements-2024-entry.pdf
I hope you make the best decision based on your circumstances,
Good luck!

I'm planning to do bio, chem, maths (and food science & nutrition; i'd probably drop this after or within the 1st year) with the ambition of doing medicine in uni.. my current predicted grades for bio & chem is A* but for maths a higher B.. maths isn't my biggest strength but all the unis i'm looking at prefer maths as an additional A level apart from bio and chem.. To all the current med students/ A level students planning to do med or doing the same subject as I mentioned, do you think this is a good combination to do? How is the workload, stress etc.? I'm getting really stressed over this (along with my current exams) so I'd like some advice please and thank you

Hi!! Yeah that's what I meant, I understand now that I've worded my post wrong, my apologies.. Thank you for your reply, but what exactly do you mean by "you won’t have a better chance of acceptance compared to those who don’t choose maths," do they (unis) not prefer maths as a 3rd subject? and what is the recommended 3rd subject choice? Thank you once again!

There is only one medical school that prefers a STEM subject (which need not be maths - physics is also fine) and that's Cambridge.

All other UK medical schools don't care for the most part - a couple specify the third subject be "academic" (so food tech wouldn't be accepted as the third subject for those) but most have no specifications or preferences.

I would say if there is a fourth subject that you would enjoy more/find easier than maths you are much better off doing that as you'll probably find you actively want to do the work rather than just having to to pass which can make the workload feel a lot easier - I did music as my third A level purely cause I enjoy it and it hasn't caused any problems for my applications

Wouldnt bother doing 4, so much stress and a waste of time as most unis won't even look at it. I did psychology which was easy in comparison to bio n chemistry.

Why are you bothering with Food Science and Nutrition?

Sorry for the late reply, but like @artful_lounger said no specific alevel is needed for the third one. Any alevel you think you can do amazing at can either be English literature or a language, or philosophy literally any unrelated to stem alevel subject you enjoy, there is no restriction or recommendation that will make you have a better chance.

The only thing that make you more advantageous/preferred to other applicants is an extremely good UCAT score! Mainly because people applying for med school generally speaking have three As so as long as u believe you will get an A in the third alevel you are good to go.

One last thing, pls don’t try to juggle 4 alevels, even if you think you can. Zero universities in the UK take in account the 4th alevel. And its better that you already know that you will drop it so why take the stress? Focus on your three main ones and cement the knowledge before the big yr 13 starts.

Hope that clears it, if you still have any questions, ask me!

It's okay, tysm for your reply! I've only now started to realise that; I only chose to do a STEM subject as a third a-level bc my careers advisor said so.. I've decided to drop the fourth a-level :')) Thank you once again

I do psychology as a GCSE and I don't really like or hate it, but I heard the A-level is very heavy on essays and long answers.. Also did you do bio, chem and psych A-levels all the way till the end or did you drop any of them? How was psychology overall? I was actually contemplating to choose it

Yep, you should only do 3, especially for med where getting 3 top grades is critical, and where any spare time you have will be taken up with getting work experience, doing other supercuriculars such as maybe EPQ, and preparing for UCAT etc. As others have said, the 3rd should be whatever you can get a top grade in. Cambridge is the one uni that prefers 3 STEM, but the others don’t care, and it might even be beneficial to do an essay subject to develop those skills.

Yeh I did bio, chem and psych for the whole 2 years. Psychology I just found quite easy - but I was interested. I didn’t end up revising it very much as the knowledge just sunk in compared to biology and chemistry it’s lot of concepts and more so applying the knowledge where as psychology was more so regurgitation of knowledge if that makes sense but I really enjoyed it I put it as my 5th option when applying for medicine.