Hi I'm in year 12 and I'm a bit of an all rounder so I had a pretty tough time deciding on my A levels. In the end I ended up picking biology, chemistry and Spanish which has worked out really well for me
My first tip is that people always underestimate the jump from GCSE to A level. I can understand how you want your application for uni to be perfect but it's very easy to overcomit and doing too many things can actually cause your grades to suffer. I would recommend doing either the EPQ or a fourth a level because universities view them equally and having just 1 of them is enough to be offered a lower entry for university. I started off doing psychology as a fourth a level and decided to drop it not because I was struggling but because I don't think it's necessary in addition to the epq and I could be spending that time focusing on my other A levels.
Don't let your English teacher pressurise you to take it if you don't want to. My deputy head was also my french teacher and she was very insistent on me taking it to A level. Even though I really enjoyed it and got a 9, I knew that I wanted to study Spanish and I stand by that decision. Your teacher will understand because ultimately they want the best for you.
If you want more of an insight into A level biology and chemistry:
Chemistry I'm absolutely loving. It is a big step up from the gcse and I'm finding that I do have to read ahead and go over things more than once to ensure that I understand it all. I got a 9 in GCSE and found that I understood every lesson first time but with A level a lot of extra work is required to understand it and then do well. You need to factor this in when organising your time
Biology again I got a 9 and it's not that big a step up from GCSE in terms of content, although my biology teacher would often go beyond the spec in our gcse lessons so maybe that prepared me better. The main challenge with biology is applying the knowledge to questions so it's important to factor in time for past papers. There's also a lot of content so it's important to keep up to date and quiz yourself regularly so you don't forget it when mocks come round.
Remember to keep happy and healthy during year 12. If you're up late studying most likely you're overcommiting. Bear in mind you might also want time to do extracurriculars and trips, for example I'm doing DofE gold, going on a Spanish trip and going skiing with school! In total this is quite a bit of time away from studying which is important for my wellbeing and personal development but also doing 4 subjects and an EPQ I'm not sure I would be able to do all these fantastic opportunities.
My best advice would be give all 4 a go and you can always drop one! Chemistry and according to some of my friends physics is quite different at a level so you may find actually one of your subjects is not for you. Also remember that doing too much can actually limit other opportunities available to you.
Wishing you all the best with your GCSES
Caotica ♡