Switching an A-Level at the end of Year 12
TL;DR: I want to switch from a-level maths to a-level psychology at the end of this year due to my continued poor perfomance in maths, has this been done before and is it legal?
I have continously done horrible in maths throughout year 12 and my teacher is completely aware of it. In my first round of mocks I had come out with a D in maths. I also do biology and chemistry alongside maths and regularly achieve a's and b's. I want to apply to pharmacy as well which usually have the grade requirements of AAB, so if i end up doing poorly in my actual a-level maths exams it would be a huge issue.
So after completing my second round of mocks recently (i havent gotten my grades back yet), i knew i had done terribly in my maths one. And since the first round of mocks i have worked on maths for so long but i genuinely just dont understand it and EXTREMELY dislike the subject as a whole. So i've been thinking about learning all of the as psychology content during my summer, then perhaps doing a mini-mock on my first week back of year 13. And if i do better in that in comparison to maths, i could join the a-level psychology class. But 1) i have no idea whether this is legal and haven't found out after searching it but and 2) i dont know if anyone has done this before.
I know i'll probably be able to learn all of the psychology content during my summer because it seems extremely interesting to me and it's more memorising which i know i'm very good at.
However, after talking to the head of sixth form at my school, she basically mocked me for it. She said that i'm not even allowed to take psychology independently??? And that it's my fault for picking maths which i know it is but i still have a year left so i want to do something about it. It seems like me trying hard in maths and working on it just isn't working which may also be because of my lack of passion which i have no idea how to magically fix.
I also think that there's no point in me continuing with maths when i'll probably end up with a c or something. AND if i'm finding year 12 content this hard then i'll basically be suffering next year. So i don't know why i should continue with it.
I have continously done horrible in maths throughout year 12 and my teacher is completely aware of it. In my first round of mocks I had come out with a D in maths. I also do biology and chemistry alongside maths and regularly achieve a's and b's. I want to apply to pharmacy as well which usually have the grade requirements of AAB, so if i end up doing poorly in my actual a-level maths exams it would be a huge issue.
So after completing my second round of mocks recently (i havent gotten my grades back yet), i knew i had done terribly in my maths one. And since the first round of mocks i have worked on maths for so long but i genuinely just dont understand it and EXTREMELY dislike the subject as a whole. So i've been thinking about learning all of the as psychology content during my summer, then perhaps doing a mini-mock on my first week back of year 13. And if i do better in that in comparison to maths, i could join the a-level psychology class. But 1) i have no idea whether this is legal and haven't found out after searching it but and 2) i dont know if anyone has done this before.
I know i'll probably be able to learn all of the psychology content during my summer because it seems extremely interesting to me and it's more memorising which i know i'm very good at.
However, after talking to the head of sixth form at my school, she basically mocked me for it. She said that i'm not even allowed to take psychology independently??? And that it's my fault for picking maths which i know it is but i still have a year left so i want to do something about it. It seems like me trying hard in maths and working on it just isn't working which may also be because of my lack of passion which i have no idea how to magically fix.
I also think that there's no point in me continuing with maths when i'll probably end up with a c or something. AND if i'm finding year 12 content this hard then i'll basically be suffering next year. So i don't know why i should continue with it.
Reply 1
No personal experience here unfortunately but wow ur head of sixth form sounds horrible and not at all supportive, I am so sorry to hear that. I was like this with a level bio last year and wondering why the hell I took it cos I was doing appallingly and I hated it, I did improve in year 13 thanks to our class getting a much better teacher but it has been the absolute bane of my existence. I think trying to learn a year’s worth of content over summer would be very difficult when you’ve still got to try and keep up the knowledge of your other subjects, as psych is a very content-heavy subject but if u want to give it a go I don’t see why not especially as u have said it interests u. One thing u could try is see if you can resit another year at the end of year 13 (so essentially year 14.) ur school/college might not let u but it might be worth a try if that’s something u want to do. I do know of ppl who have done this at my school but I believe they did carry on with the same subjects, but u could ask if u could join the y13 psych class and carry on with ur other subjects as normal, then stop on for ‘y14’ to do ur y12 content for psych. Like I said I’m not sure if u would even be allowed to do this but it may be an option worth exploring. I hope that helps and good luck with ur psychology 
Reply 2
Original post by grilledtomatoess
TL;DR: I want to switch from a-level maths to a-level psychology at the end of this year due to my continued poor perfomance in maths, has this been done before and is it legal?
I have continously done horrible in maths throughout year 12 and my teacher is completely aware of it. In my first round of mocks I had come out with a D in maths. I also do biology and chemistry alongside maths and regularly achieve a's and b's. I want to apply to pharmacy as well which usually have the grade requirements of AAB, so if i end up doing poorly in my actual a-level maths exams it would be a huge issue.
So after completing my second round of mocks recently (i havent gotten my grades back yet), i knew i had done terribly in my maths one. And since the first round of mocks i have worked on maths for so long but i genuinely just dont understand it and EXTREMELY dislike the subject as a whole. So i've been thinking about learning all of the as psychology content during my summer, then perhaps doing a mini-mock on my first week back of year 13. And if i do better in that in comparison to maths, i could join the a-level psychology class. But 1) i have no idea whether this is legal and haven't found out after searching it but and 2) i dont know if anyone has done this before.
I know i'll probably be able to learn all of the psychology content during my summer because it seems extremely interesting to me and it's more memorising which i know i'm very good at.
However, after talking to the head of sixth form at my school, she basically mocked me for it. She said that i'm not even allowed to take psychology independently??? And that it's my fault for picking maths which i know it is but i still have a year left so i want to do something about it. It seems like me trying hard in maths and working on it just isn't working which may also be because of my lack of passion which i have no idea how to magically fix.
I also think that there's no point in me continuing with maths when i'll probably end up with a c or something. AND if i'm finding year 12 content this hard then i'll basically be suffering next year. So i don't know why i should continue with it.
I have continously done horrible in maths throughout year 12 and my teacher is completely aware of it. In my first round of mocks I had come out with a D in maths. I also do biology and chemistry alongside maths and regularly achieve a's and b's. I want to apply to pharmacy as well which usually have the grade requirements of AAB, so if i end up doing poorly in my actual a-level maths exams it would be a huge issue.
So after completing my second round of mocks recently (i havent gotten my grades back yet), i knew i had done terribly in my maths one. And since the first round of mocks i have worked on maths for so long but i genuinely just dont understand it and EXTREMELY dislike the subject as a whole. So i've been thinking about learning all of the as psychology content during my summer, then perhaps doing a mini-mock on my first week back of year 13. And if i do better in that in comparison to maths, i could join the a-level psychology class. But 1) i have no idea whether this is legal and haven't found out after searching it but and 2) i dont know if anyone has done this before.
I know i'll probably be able to learn all of the psychology content during my summer because it seems extremely interesting to me and it's more memorising which i know i'm very good at.
However, after talking to the head of sixth form at my school, she basically mocked me for it. She said that i'm not even allowed to take psychology independently??? And that it's my fault for picking maths which i know it is but i still have a year left so i want to do something about it. It seems like me trying hard in maths and working on it just isn't working which may also be because of my lack of passion which i have no idea how to magically fix.
I also think that there's no point in me continuing with maths when i'll probably end up with a c or something. AND if i'm finding year 12 content this hard then i'll basically be suffering next year. So i don't know why i should continue with it.
I'm literally in the same position right now, that AS maths exam had me shook. I'm really considering switching maths for sociology but I haven't spoken to anyone yet. I really do not want to resit year 12 or take a gap year
Reply 3
Sorry for replying so late! I've talked further with my school and unfortunately they won't allow it at all, so I'm just going to work extremely hard for maths during the summer and hopefully will have some pay-off. Otherwise, I might just have to resit or something
Reply 4
Original post by CallMeLucian1
I'm literally in the same position right now, that AS maths exam had me shook. I'm really considering switching maths for sociology but I haven't spoken to anyone yet. I really do not want to resit year 12 or take a gap year
If you do continue with maths and you're early entry, try convincing your teachers to do some sort of 'emergency mock' at the beginning of year 13 so that grade can be used instead! If not, then we always have year 13 mocks
Reply 5
Original post by grilledtomatoess
TL;DR: I want to switch from a-level maths to a-level psychology at the end of this year due to my continued poor perfomance in maths, has this been done before and is it legal?
I have continously done horrible in maths throughout year 12 and my teacher is completely aware of it. In my first round of mocks I had come out with a D in maths. I also do biology and chemistry alongside maths and regularly achieve a's and b's. I want to apply to pharmacy as well which usually have the grade requirements of AAB, so if i end up doing poorly in my actual a-level maths exams it would be a huge issue.
So after completing my second round of mocks recently (i havent gotten my grades back yet), i knew i had done terribly in my maths one. And since the first round of mocks i have worked on maths for so long but i genuinely just dont understand it and EXTREMELY dislike the subject as a whole. So i've been thinking about learning all of the as psychology content during my summer, then perhaps doing a mini-mock on my first week back of year 13. And if i do better in that in comparison to maths, i could join the a-level psychology class. But 1) i have no idea whether this is legal and haven't found out after searching it but and 2) i dont know if anyone has done this before.
I know i'll probably be able to learn all of the psychology content during my summer because it seems extremely interesting to me and it's more memorising which i know i'm very good at.
However, after talking to the head of sixth form at my school, she basically mocked me for it. She said that i'm not even allowed to take psychology independently??? And that it's my fault for picking maths which i know it is but i still have a year left so i want to do something about it. It seems like me trying hard in maths and working on it just isn't working which may also be because of my lack of passion which i have no idea how to magically fix.
I also think that there's no point in me continuing with maths when i'll probably end up with a c or something. AND if i'm finding year 12 content this hard then i'll basically be suffering next year. So i don't know why i should continue with it.
I have continously done horrible in maths throughout year 12 and my teacher is completely aware of it. In my first round of mocks I had come out with a D in maths. I also do biology and chemistry alongside maths and regularly achieve a's and b's. I want to apply to pharmacy as well which usually have the grade requirements of AAB, so if i end up doing poorly in my actual a-level maths exams it would be a huge issue.
So after completing my second round of mocks recently (i havent gotten my grades back yet), i knew i had done terribly in my maths one. And since the first round of mocks i have worked on maths for so long but i genuinely just dont understand it and EXTREMELY dislike the subject as a whole. So i've been thinking about learning all of the as psychology content during my summer, then perhaps doing a mini-mock on my first week back of year 13. And if i do better in that in comparison to maths, i could join the a-level psychology class. But 1) i have no idea whether this is legal and haven't found out after searching it but and 2) i dont know if anyone has done this before.
I know i'll probably be able to learn all of the psychology content during my summer because it seems extremely interesting to me and it's more memorising which i know i'm very good at.
However, after talking to the head of sixth form at my school, she basically mocked me for it. She said that i'm not even allowed to take psychology independently??? And that it's my fault for picking maths which i know it is but i still have a year left so i want to do something about it. It seems like me trying hard in maths and working on it just isn't working which may also be because of my lack of passion which i have no idea how to magically fix.
I also think that there's no point in me continuing with maths when i'll probably end up with a c or something. AND if i'm finding year 12 content this hard then i'll basically be suffering next year. So i don't know why i should continue with it.
i switched like halfway through year 12 and that was a smooth enough transition I'm not sure how it works on the schools side in terms of deadlines in that case. the head of sixth sounds like they just aren't willing to make the switch. id recommend perhaps getting a parent or carer involved. Usually centres are hesitant to allow a late switch however if you can prove that you will catch-up and do better than a current subject i think that could help with convincing. as it did in my case
Reply 6
Original post by grilledtomatoess
Sorry for replying so late! I've talked further with my school and unfortunately they won't allow it at all, so I'm just going to work extremely hard for maths during the summer and hopefully will have some pay-off. Otherwise, I might just have to resit or something
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