The Student Room Group

math and art as an a-level combo

hi,
is taking math along with art a good choice? I know and have heard many ppl saying that art is a time consuming process and I don't know whether I should take it with math.
My other 2 subjects are psych and computer science.
Original post by d1y4+_+
hi,
is taking math along with art a good choice? I know and have heard many ppl saying that art is a time consuming process and I don't know whether I should take it with math.
My other 2 subjects are psych and computer science.


Unis only require three A levels - why are you taking four? If you are planning to go to uni, have you any thoughts about what you might study?
Reply 2
As above, why are you taking Art to A level?

If its just as a hobby, it isnt worth the effort - and you risk messing up the other 3 subjects with the extra work.
I did Maths, Art and CS so three of the four options you're thinking of. Personally, I thought it was alright since maths was no coursework, CS had some coursework and art was all coursework. I really enjoy drawing and painting in my free time, and I loved CS & maths in gcse, however like the last comment says, art can be really really really stressful. Sometimes I found myself sacrificing CS coursework for art, or staying home some days just to finish all of my art work and cs coursework at the same time. Because I had some freedom and I understood the markscheme I was able to complete my art coursework the way I wanted, but during the last parts of y13 actually missed some CS lessons, maths and lots and lots of studies & free periods just to go to art (with permission ofc, my teachers were very understanding). However all schools work differently. You're thinking of picking psych which I heard is also a great but stressful subject. I think you need to be certain that these are subjects you can balance, whether you can complete art with 2 components and whether you can balance CS coursework & maths. For me, these were subjects I loved at GCSE and I found my A-Level experience to be enjoyable, so if you love them and you're confident in yourself, go for it. Hope that helps :smile:
Reply 4
Original post by astudent6641
I did Maths, Art and CS so three of the four options you're thinking of. Personally, I thought it was alright since maths was no coursework, CS had some coursework and art was all coursework. I really enjoy drawing and painting in my free time, and I loved CS & maths in gcse, however like the last comment says, art can be really really really stressful. Sometimes I found myself sacrificing CS coursework for art, or staying home some days just to finish all of my art work and cs coursework at the same time. Because I had some freedom and I understood the markscheme I was able to complete my art coursework the way I wanted, but during the last parts of y13 actually missed some CS lessons, maths and lots and lots of studies & free periods just to go to art (with permission ofc, my teachers were very understanding). However all schools work differently. You're thinking of picking psych which I heard is also a great but stressful subject. I think you need to be certain that these are subjects you can balance, whether you can complete art with 2 components and whether you can balance CS coursework & maths. For me, these were subjects I loved at GCSE and I found my A-Level experience to be enjoyable, so if you love them and you're confident in yourself, go for it. Hope that helps :smile:

thank you so much !!! I rlly appreciate it :smile:
Reply 5
I wanna do film and animation for college but now I'm not sure whether to take psychology or not. After doing some research and all, I found out that math and CS can be really helpful in the technical aspects of animating. But so can psych for film theory. It's all too confusing !! I'll be taking art as an a level for sure but now I don't know whether I should take psych, math and CS as well or if I should drop psych. Any advice would rlly be helpful
Reply 6
Original post by d1y4+_+
hi,
is taking math along with art a good choice? I know and have heard many ppl saying that art is a time consuming process and I don't know whether I should take it with math.
My other 2 subjects are psych and computer science.

hey, i think you should go for it! i didn’t take art i took textiles and i also did three other science subjects too and i don’t regret my decision at all (i’ve finished y13 for reference) and if four a levels is ever too much for you you can always drop the one you don’t want. during the two years people were always saying how unnecessary it was to take four if one of them isn’t further maths but i continued anyway and managed to be predicted 4a* so it is possible😭 my combination was more rare but i knew quite a few of the people taking art and a lot of them were also studying maths aswell (popular subject combo for architecture) and i even knew a couple studying psychology too with it. it definitely is time consuming so just make sure to keep on top of your work but also make sure to have a really good social life too so sixth form isn’t miserable lmao and if you ever feel it’s too much just be honest with yourself and drop one it’s not a big deal at all. you might really enjoy art and i found that textiles was a really great subject for me alongside stem as the lessons were always interesting and the work was different than my other subjects so it was a good balance. good luck!
(edited 6 months ago)
Original post by d1y4+_+
I wanna do film and animation for college but now I'm not sure whether to take psychology or not. After doing some research and all, I found out that math and CS can be really helpful in the technical aspects of animating. But so can psych for film theory. It's all too confusing !! I'll be taking art as an a level for sure but now I don't know whether I should take psych, math and CS as well or if I should drop psych. Any advice would rlly be helpful

You can start with 4, and when the workload gets tough you can make a decision about which to drop. This way you can give it a go doing all the subjects and then drop the one you like the least or is the hardest once you've had a flavour of each.
Reply 8
Original post by hiabsotd
hey, i think you should go for it! i didn’t take art i took textiles and i also did three other science subjects too and i don’t regret my decision at all (i’ve finished y13 for reference) and if four a levels is ever too much for you you can always drop the one you don’t want. during the two years people were always saying how unnecessary it was to take four if one of them isn’t further maths but i continued anyway and managed to be predicted 4a* so it is possible😭 my combination was more rare but i knew quite a few of the people taking art and a lot of them were also studying maths aswell (popular subject combo for architecture) and i even knew a couple studying psychology too with it. it definitely is time consuming so just make sure to keep on top of your work but also make sure to have a really good social life too so sixth form isn’t miserable lmao and if you ever feel it’s too much just be honest with yourself and drop one it’s not a big deal at all. you might really enjoy art and i found that textiles was a really great subject for me alongside stem as the lessons were always interesting and the work was different than my other subjects so it was a good balance. good luck!

This is so reassuring. I've been having such a dilemma since so many ppl say that 4 subs are too much and ofc if it is, I'll maybe drop one if I can't manage. And as for the social life part, I'm moving to a new school (pray for me) and have already decided to try and put myself out there yk and hopefully making friends won't be hard...
Reply 9
Original post by sound-famous-
You can start with 4, and when the workload gets tough you can make a decision about which to drop. This way you can give it a go doing all the subjects and then drop the one you like the least or is the hardest once you've had a flavour of each.

thanks !!! Is there any specific time period where I'm allowed to drop a sub or can I during any time of the year?
Original post by d1y4+_+
thanks !!! Is there any specific time period where I'm allowed to drop a sub or can I during any time of the year?

That entirely depends on what your school allows, you'd have to ask them.
Reply 11
Original post by d1y4+_+
This is so reassuring. I've been having such a dilemma since so many ppl say that 4 subs are too much and ofc if it is, I'll maybe drop one if I can't manage. And as for the social life part, I'm moving to a new school (pray for me) and have already decided to try and put myself out there yk and hopefully making friends won't be hard...

i was in the same boat as you two years ago i was also moving to a new sixth form! i really think it depends on what kind of person you are and (to be frank) how good your aptitude is for your subjects. eg i found maths really easy in y12 and y13 and found that i didn’t need to revise much to get good grades whereas some of my friends who weren’t as quick as maths would do a lot more revision than me and in the end we’d get the same grade so i found that i could cope with four a levels as my revision methods take less time (blurting for ten minutes instead of rewriting notes from the textbook which takes other ppl hours) so i think you’ll be fine! my best advice is revise AS YOU GO ALONG, but not to a crazy extent. some people are ridiculous and are all “revise two hours a day and you’ll be fine” but i found that too hard to commit to and unnecessary. when you have a topic test just revise or make flashcards along the way so by y13 you’ll be completely finished with everything and you’ll be revising instead of learning and also doing well consistently in tests will make your teachers like you more and your predicteds will be better and revising for mocks will be easier! do your homework when it’s set it’s always easiest after the lesson when it’s still in your head (sometimes i would do my homework in other lessons) so you get home have no work to do, chat in your frees and use that time and lunch to make friends, make sure to exercise and go out regularly, eat good, do your art coursework at home to wind down. good luck for y12 xx
Reply 12
Original post by hiabsotd
i was in the same boat as you two years ago i was also moving to a new sixth form! i really think it depends on what kind of person you are and (to be frank) how good your aptitude is for your subjects. eg i found maths really easy in y12 and y13 and found that i didn’t need to revise much to get good grades whereas some of my friends who weren’t as quick as maths would do a lot more revision than me and in the end we’d get the same grade so i found that i could cope with four a levels as my revision methods take less time (blurting for ten minutes instead of rewriting notes from the textbook which takes other ppl hours) so i think you’ll be fine! my best advice is revise AS YOU GO ALONG, but not to a crazy extent. some people are ridiculous and are all “revise two hours a day and you’ll be fine” but i found that too hard to commit to and unnecessary. when you have a topic test just revise or make flashcards along the way so by y13 you’ll be completely finished with everything and you’ll be revising instead of learning and also doing well consistently in tests will make your teachers like you more and your predicteds will be better and revising for mocks will be easier! do your homework when it’s set it’s always easiest after the lesson when it’s still in your head (sometimes i would do my homework in other lessons) so you get home have no work to do, chat in your frees and use that time and lunch to make friends, make sure to exercise and go out regularly, eat good, do your art coursework at home to wind down. good luck for y12 xx

you have no idea how good it feels to hear someone else also going thru the same thing! I'll make to sure to keep everything you've said in mind:smile:

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