further maths vs computer science vs psychology

I'm in y11 currently and picked bio, chem, maths, and further maths (still not sure if I want to go into medicine or cs at uni) as my A Levels for next year, but I'm starting to worry if fm was the right choice. Yesterday I was looking at maths and fm past papers, and maths looked like a manageable continuation from GCSE, whereas fm was deadass some eldritch abomination like I did not understand any of the paper I looked at. I'm hoping that's just because I haven't learnt all the fancy names and symbols and whatever yet because I got a 9 in maths and the maths dept are great at explaining, but I've also heard horror stories abt fm so idk really.

So if fm proves to be too hard, there's another 2 subjects I'm thinking of for my 4th option (keep in mind my school will no longer let me switch to 3 + EPQ so I need to pick a 4th). Computer science sounds interesting and would probably be the obvious choice but I heard choosing it over fm would put you at a disadvantage for cs at oxbrimp since they prefer it. The teachers at my school are also kinda bad at their job and I don't want that to be reflected in my grades.

The third option would be to take psychology over fm. This is a subject I've been interested in forever like since I was a kid forever, and would be good for medicine because if I go that route I want to specialise in neurology. However this would close off cs as a potential degree completely, and the fact that it's essay-based is not great as I write slowly and am in the middle of asking my school for extra time (idk if they're gonna give it to me or not yet) BUT I also got a 9 in history and 8 in eng lang so I might not be as hopeless as I think lol. There is only 1 (one) psych class which is probably oversubscribed by now though and I would still really like to have both cs and med open to me.

Sorry for the essay but yeah do you guys think I should stick with fm or change to something else!

Reply 1

DerDracologe

Study Forum Helper

20

You wouldn’t NEED to pick a fourth per se, you could do 3 and spend the extra time reading around your degree subject or doing online courses- basically do stuff to go on your personal statement. Also if you opt for med you’ll need to prep for ucat so you could spend extra time doing that rather than taking up another subject.
However, if you want to then psych would be ok if you can make up for the content, feel confident you can do well with the exams (good luck with trying to get extra time btw!) and you think you can handle the workload of 4 subjects- fm is hard but psych has a lot of content and you’d need to catch up what you’ve missed, possibly around the time the difficulty starts to ramp up.
I dont quite get what you mean by closing cs off if you take psych- could you explain this?

Reply 2

supergirlmiya

1

I'm not sure if this will impact your decision, but to pursue a degree in computer science, an A-level in CS isn't required. Maths is, though.

Reply 3

measurable-milki

OP

5

Original post by DerDracologe

You wouldn’t NEED to pick a fourth per se, you could do 3 and spend the extra time reading around your degree subject or doing online courses- basically do stuff to go on your personal statement. Also if you opt for med you’ll need to prep for ucat so you could spend extra time doing that rather than taking up another subject.
However, if you want to then psych would be ok if you can make up for the content, feel confident you can do well with the exams (good luck with trying to get extra time btw!) and you think you can handle the workload of 4 subjects- fm is hard but psych has a lot of content and you’d need to catch up what you’ve missed, possibly around the time the difficulty starts to ramp up.
I dont quite get what you mean by closing cs off if you take psych- could you explain this?

Mb maybe I worded it weirdly but what I meant was most places want you to have maths and fm a level for cs, but I think cs would probably be an acceptable alternative, but psych is kinda random in comparison. I heard maths + fm was basically 1.5 subjects instead of 2 so that's what made me choose it over something like psych. Also I think you misunderstood something I start y12 in September so no catchup needed, I can change my subject on the first day back so all I'd really miss is introductions. Makes psych an even better option but I'm still a bit anxious about the exams I think I'll wait for the SENCO (thanks for good luck wish girly) to get back to me before I make the change bc I'm not sure I could finish on time otherwise :smile:

Reply 4

measurable-milki

OP

5

Original post by supergirlmiya

I'm not sure if this will impact your decision, but to pursue a degree in computer science, an A-level in CS isn't required. Maths is, though.

Yeahh this is what was putting me off cs because it doesn't really benefit apps for med or cs. I'm def not dropping maths it's just fm maybe but basically all the unis I want to go to prefer it for cs. Should I just do fm for the first few weeks then see if it's too hard after that (we do maths in y12 and fm in y13 so idk how helpful that'd be)?

Reply 5

DerDracologe

Study Forum Helper

20

Original post by measurable-milki

Mb maybe I worded it weirdly but what I meant was most places want you to have maths and fm a level for cs, but I think cs would probably be an acceptable alternative, but psych is kinda random in comparison. I heard maths + fm was basically 1.5 subjects instead of 2 so that's what made me choose it over something like psych. Also I think you misunderstood something I start y12 in September so no catchup needed, I can change my subject on the first day back so all I'd really miss is introductions. Makes psych an even better option but I'm still a bit anxious about the exams I think I'll wait for the SENCO (thanks for good luck wish girly) to get back to me before I make the change bc I'm not sure I could finish on time otherwise :smile:

Oh I see! You can still do CS without further maths at most unis its just some top ones like Imperial and Oxbridge want it if you’ve had the opportunity to take it so if you’re set on top unis its a good idea but if not then dont worry about it.
Yeah there is ofc crossover in maths and fm as they are both maths but remember that fm is a lot harder than maths even if it is i guess less content than a completely different subject like psychology.
I didnt misunderstand that it, sorry I wasn’t clear myself! I meant that if you took fm for say the first term of year 12 then switched to psych after that you would have to catch up on the psych content taught in the first term before you joined the class and after Christmas I’ve heard the difficulty of courses ramps up a bit so that could be a struggle for you. Does that make more sense? But yeah if you changed it before classes started properly that wouldn’t be a problem :smile:

Best of luck again with extra time, hopefully it’s quite a smooth process for you! Hope you enjoy whatever subject you take too :smile:

further maths vs computer science vs psychology

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