Stuck on final A-level choice

Hi there! I'm a GCSE student in my final year and I'm heavily thinking about my A-level options due to how conflicted I am with what my third choice will be. I have decided that I will definitely do psychology and chemistry, but my last choice could be one of the following:
English literature
Sociology
Criminology
Biology
Criminology is what I originally wanted to go for, but I've heard that it's generally not as respected as other subjects. Sociology would be good, but I'm not as certain on it. English literature is good to keep my options open, but I don't enjoy it, and I find it tedious to remember a lot of different texts and remember them, what they suggest, their methods, etc. (I would do English Language, but with the way my school has set it out, English clashes with psychology, meaning their lessons overlap. Therefore, I chose psychology over it due to my big desire to do psychology as a degree). I love the anatomical parts of biology, but I hate doing the parts related to botany. I'm much more interested in how we work as humans, whether that's physically, mentally or socially, and I'm even more intrigued by how we have developed over time. I'm very conflicted, and I really don't know what to do. Any advice is appreciated. Thank you. :smile:

Reply 1

marciawilks

2

hey ! if you don’t love english lit i wouldn’t take it because from what i’ve heard from friends, you need a passion to be able to cope with how much content there is and it’s such a big jump from a level . i’d say biology would be good for a psychology degree however it’s not necessary . i take biology and it definitely is very content heavy so if you have the sciency subjects already i wouldn’t worry about needing to take it . as for the others , sociology would fit well with psychology however if you find that you think you’d prefer criminology more ( even though it’s not deemed as super academic ) i think that would fit in too . good luck : )

Original post by north_r

Hi there! I'm a GCSE student in my final year and I'm heavily thinking about my A-level options due to how conflicted I am with what my third choice will be. I have decided that I will definitely do psychology and chemistry, but my last choice could be one of the following:
English literature
Sociology
Criminology
Biology
Criminology is what I originally wanted to go for, but I've heard that it's generally not as respected as other subjects. Sociology would be good, but I'm not as certain on it. English literature is good to keep my options open, but I don't enjoy it, and I find it tedious to remember a lot of different texts and remember them, what they suggest, their methods, etc. (I would do English Language, but with the way my school has set it out, English clashes with psychology, meaning their lessons overlap. Therefore, I chose psychology over it due to my big desire to do psychology as a degree). I love the anatomical parts of biology, but I hate doing the parts related to botany. I'm much more interested in how we work as humans, whether that's physically, mentally or socially, and I'm even more intrigued by how we have developed over time. I'm very conflicted, and I really don't know what to do. Any advice is appreciated. Thank you. :smile:

Hi @north_r,

I'm currently in my second year of psychology, and my a-level combinations were Biology, Chemistry and English Language. If I were to suggest a third subject between English and Biology, I would 100% suggest you opt for Biology. I understand that the botany side is uninteresting, but any content related to the botany felt very minor to me in my opinion in comparison to the "human side". Similarly to you, I also preferred the human side v.s the plant/botany aspect.

In my first year I remember one of my modules: Introduction to Psychology had lectures and seminars that covered the biological side of psychology, where it touched on concepts like axons and neurons in our brains and how action potentials played a role in our cognition. The biology + psychology overlap happened again recently now in second year with my neuropsychology module.

Oddly enough, I felt a sense of relief with how familiar I was with the uni lectures and seminars because of what I had learnt in biology a-levels. Although the lectures and seminars explore the content in much more depth, I felt more confident tackling the module with prior background knowledge.

Hope this helps,
Danish
BCU Student Rep

Reply 3

Muhcloodles

7

Hi! I’m in year 13 and I take chemistry, biology and psychology. I’d say biology is a good way to go as in psychology (I do AQA for both so it may be different for others) you do about the nervous system, nervous coordination and synaptic transmission as well as glands all in the biopsychology topic. I think doing biology alongside it allowed me to grasp the concepts a lot quicker!

Plus, definitely do not do something you don’t enjoy as when the content begins to build up it may impact your grades due to the lack of interest in the subject.

Reply 4

zoeedgington19

4

Hiya, I do both English Lit and Sociology, so here is my opinion...
English Lit i loved in GCSE'S but i have found A-LEVEL super tricky, tbh its very subjective to the texts you study - what I would say is for me its deffo a subject to do, as some others have said, only if you actively enjoy reading and analysing texts and not just if you're good at it. I have found it can be difficult to access higher marks because the grading is really subjective and specific and that can take some of the joy out of it, of course if you are incredible at it then yes it can keep your options open, but alevels are long and hard so passion for a subject is key.
Sociology is my absolute favourite subject so I am a tad biased, I find the topics like education really interesting and it can veer onto criminology in the crime section which is fun too. However, it is very much essay based and REALLY content heavy, revising is looooonggg. So if that does not sound up your street I would avoid it, I known some people have really struggled with that. There are also many classical theories involved which can be complex, but good language skills, which it seems like you have and an interest in whats going on in the world really help to access high grades. Also research methods in psych will boost your sociology knowledge
I hope some of that helps,
Good luck :smile:

!!

Reply 5

raindropxox

10

I would definitely not recommend doing English literature if you don’t enjoy it, I think all A-Levels are difficult and there’s always going to be times when you don’t enjoy the subject, but if you don’t even like it to begin with that’s really not a good start! I think Biology would be a good fit for you, though I do get that you don’t enjoy the plant bits as much. However, from what I’ve done of Biology, Chemistry and Psychology (I do these A-Levels as well as German), they all go together quite well, I have noticed quite a lot of chemistry in biology and quite a lot of biology in psychology! So it does feel like quite a good one to plop in! Also it might help you in the future if you do go on to do psychology! But then again of course it’s really important to choose one that you think you are going to enjoy, honestly that’s the most important thing, because as I said A-Levels are hard and if you hate the subject it’s really hard to get motivation to revise! And remember that you can switch if you really dislike your subjects, I switched so many times before I began A-Level, I even switched a few days before starting Sixth Form, and now I love my subjects! Good luck with your choices <3

Stuck on final A-level choice

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