advice on a levels

hey im doing btec applied science, psychology a level and health and social a level, would anyone be able to tell me if these are a good combination + would i be able to have a career in clinical psychology with these a levels?

Reply 1

CCCU Health Rep

Official Rep

Original post by af021

These are great subjects to give you the underlying knowledge into both psychology, clinical areas and understanding the NHS values 🙂
You will need a degree in psychology that is recognised for the Graduate Basis for Chartered Membership by the British Psychological Society to become a clinical psychologist, and most universities do not specify A-Level/equivalent subjects as part of their entry requirements, but do state that studying psychology is beneficial.

If you haven't already, check out this page from the NHS giving more background on pathways into the profession 🙂

Reply 2

MindMax2000

Universities Forum Helper

Original post by af021

As the CCCU Health Rep has stated, you would need a BPS accredited psychology degree (joint or single subject) in order to go into clinical psychology (ultra competitive by the way). You can check the accreditation of each psychology degree that you come across using: https://portal.bps.org.uk/Accredited-Courses

The thing that complicates the above is that most unis only accept A Levels or BTEC Extended Diplomas, not 2 A Levels + BTEC Extended Certificate. From 3 pages of Google search results, I have found the following degree that are accredited and you can apply for, for example:
https://www.port.ac.uk/study/courses/undergraduate/bsc-hons-psychology#entry-requirements (which will lead you to the following page: https://student-system.port.ac.uk/ipp/U0256PYCPORT~2024.HTML)
https://www.lboro.ac.uk/study/undergraduate/courses/psychology/
https://www.city.ac.uk/prospective-students/courses/undergraduate/psychology#accordion502079-header2
https://www.aru.ac.uk/study/undergraduate/psychology#entry_requirements

What really complicate things is that you're not doing 3 A Levels or doing a full BTEC Extended Diploma. As such, you would really need to do a lot of digging in order to find a uni that would accept your qualifications.

Normal entry requirements for psychology degrees is 3 A Levels in any subjects. For some of the pickier universities, it's psychology/biology A Level + 2 other subjects. A number of them would accept BTEC Extended Diplomas (equivalent to 3 A Levels) though.

Where possible, I would switch out the BTEC for something else that you can get a high grade in.