A Levels for VetMed

Hello!!
I’m a Year 11 student, and in a couple weeks I’ll be making my final decisions on what A Levels I want to take. I’m stuck between two and want to know which would be better, if one is, for my prospects at Uni applications.
I’m going to be taking Biology and Chemistry, but am unsure about whether to do Psychology or Spanish as a third.

- I really enjoy topics in psychology, especially psychopathology and criminal psychology, and watching my brother (Year 13) take it has furthered my interest. His school does the same exam board so he can help me. A careers adviser at my school who helps with medicine applicants has also told me it’s the better choice because it goes well with sciences, but I’m not huge on the essay writing/ longer mark questions it would involve.
- On the other hand, I’m semi-fluent in Spanish so would have an advantage at A Levels. I think it would be a good opportunity to improve my skills which I’ve already done to a degree at GCSE (which I had to beg to be allowed to take for Spanish) so I can better communicate with Spanish-speaking relatives. It also does genuinely interest me too!! But I fear it’s not as relevant to medicine.

Which seems to be the better option? I’m leaning more towards psychology because I think I’d enjoy it more even if I’d find it harder, but I’m still not sure. I don’t want to take 4 A-Levels and for some reason my school has been oddly discouraging about us starting with 4 and then dropping 1??? Maybe because it’s disruptive. I don’t really want to have to go through the trouble of dropping 1 if my school seems against it.

ooh this is interesting i have a couple things to say

first i cant say which to take, theyre both good (and dont worry abt spanish not being relevant bc you can make any subject relavant eg spanish helped your communication) - from what youve said you have valid reasons to take both so id say do what you feel you want to do most. think about not taking psych, and not taking french, and just go with your gut bc unis wont look at what your 3rd subject is, just the grade, so do something you know youll do well in

the essays arent actually that bad theyre similiar to gcse rs if you take it (aqa anyway you can get away with 6-8 medium paragraphs, which is what i used to do at gcse rs)

next i also dont recommend taking 4 then dropping 1 because its honestly a waste of time, and its a bit of a hassle deciding when to drop it, timetables etc - saying this as someone who dropped my 4th at the beginning of 13 (later than most but it was annoying)

last depending on how fluent you are in spanish you could consider doing it externally and taking the exam in may/june or even nov/dec of yr 12? only if youre fluent, because this is what many bilingual people do as its not really heavy academically as not much work is needed and you dont do the exams at the same time as your actual a levels

anyways good luck with your choice and gcses

This is interesting because I took psychology as my third subject and my best friend/housemate who'll also post took Spanish so we have both perspectives ahah. As above, I also discourage taking 4 - there is no advantage at all and you'd rather focus on your 3 (A Levels are a big step up from GCSEs) to get As in all of them than have your focus disrupted by another subject you're not even going to be doing the A Level in (and unis don't care about 4 subjects so no advantage there). But essentially neither is better for unis - the third subject really doesn't matter from the unis 'prefering' any and tbh I feel neither have too much impact on your vet studies understanding etc.

From the psychology perspective, the only time I've really been able to apply any knowledge from this subject at vet school (we are now 3rd years at Liverpool) is maybe the tiniest bit in the neurology-type lectures, but even then it's just the very basics tbh so not much advantage. Also maybe in behaviour subjects, but tbh watching any documentaries/shows on the subject probably gives better advantage, even like dog training shows etc. The only other sort of useful thing was we did little 'mock studies' which helped have a little bit more of an understanding when it came to applying for ethical approval etc for my research project - again don't think I'd have been at a disadvantage had I not taken this, and a lot of people also do an EPQ which is way more useful for this (I didn't). Otherwise it's not awfully more relevant than if you took Spanish, so I wouldn't really worry about this. It does go well alongside biology though and there isn't much further reading required (unlike analysing texts etc which I think you do in Spanish) so it was a nice little relaxing subject for me which I did find interesting, and the essays weren't too bad (not massively long) but I also enjoy essay writing so there's that. If it interests you I don't think it'll be a massively daunting subject, I found it easy to get an A* and barely had to spend any time on it compared to chemistry which made me cry on a daily basis (but has to be done).

Well you are choosing between @RambleAmple ’s third A level choice (psychology) and mine! Your third A level choice doesn’t really matter so I wanted to make it my fun choice that I enjoyed the most. I was in a similar position to you, I was stuck between geography and Spanish. I started with the former and hated it, but my school let me switch just before October half term and I managed to catch up just fine! I loved Spanish and for me the lessons split my sciencey subjects up nicely.

A Level Spanish is quite different to GCSE. You’re no longer rote learning vocabulary about where you go on holiday and your hobbies. The A Level is essentially learning Spanish history (such as Franco’s regime), Spanish and Hispanic culture, and sociology/human geography all in Spanish.

Then, you have a book/play and film that you study and have two essay questions. The writing paper also has a translation into Spanish. The reading is similar to GCSE just harder with a translation into English. Also, for the speaking exam you discuss a topic of your choice that you have researched - I did the biodiversity of Costa Rica which was fun to learn about. In regards to the listening exam, the nice thing about the A Level is that you can pause and rewind the clip which really helps.

Obviously all that was for my exam board, the A Level is roughly similar for all the exam boards but definitely find out which ones your school uses and look up the specifications. You say you’re not big on longer answer questions which Spanish does involve in the reading and writing papers as well as in class as you’ll be doing plenty of practice essays and translations.

What I’d be concerned about is your current level of fluency as the GCSE and A Level isn’t really designed for people who already speak it at home etc, what grade are you currently working at?

Edit: I must mention that at least when I did them, A Level languages are known to be hard to get an A* in - I’m talking 85%+ which is madness for a language, not to put you off or anything but it’s so normal to be stuck on lower grades when you start off with it

Hi, thanks for your reply- I've seen your posts on other vetmed threads lol. Knowing neither has an advantage makes my choice a bit less complicated- but as a side note, I've heard people mention that for Cambridge taking maths for medicine subjects helps for your application because of how competitive it is- is there any truth to this? Would it really have an effect? I wasn't considering taking it because itd literally drive me insane, but I'm curious to know if you have any idea as to if thats true or not. It's good to know, too, that psychology doesn't have the massive workload that sciences seem to come with (I'm scared). What exam board did you do?

Yes I think for Cambridge they much prefer you having a third science subject such as maths or physics, and I think it would have an impact if you applied without (I think I read it in their admissions statement but it has been a few years) - not saying it's impossible, but they do value academics more than other unis. Otherwise the other unis don't care, and tbh I wouldn't necessarily risk wasting an application spot to Cambridge without this (unless you are very desperate for the uni) and I also wouldn't bother taking a subject you might not enjoy as much (and therefore risk not getting all As) for your third just to apply to Cambridge. As much as everyone on TSR gets hung up on the idea of applying to Oxbridge, this 'good rep' actually doesn't extend to the vet course at Cambridge as it's had a (now outdated, but it's still around within vet practices etc) bad rep for not being very hands on, being very research-focused as opposed to clinical vet focus etc. They have done things to change it and now is a lot more hands on etc, but yeah I wouldn't apply to Cambridge for the sake of 'it's Cambridge', the other unis are just as good. Bear in mind intercalating is compulsory etc so that's an extra year of education which comes with its costs etc (and I would've hated to do that personally but everyone's different). All the vet courses are so competitive to get into with like 10 applicants per spot so I wouldn't waste any of your choices. I did WJEC for psychology