The Student Room Group

Maths or Biology Alevel?? Pls help me

I had my first day at college today and had only 2 lessons which were spanish and maths.
I have been very anxious and worried for maths as I'm not too confident in my ability compared to others. Maths was OK but nothing more, it just felt like alot of pressure to be in the same level as everybody when I knew I was not as I didn't know how to do some of the indices questions (the equation ones) and got some "straightforward" questions incorrect.Everybody seemed so prepared which made me feel uneasy as I only changed my options from economics to maths 2 weeks ago.(my maths summer homework is barely done but it's really hard)
Now, I got a grade 7 in Gcse maths but it was only a few marks above the grade boundary.
I also got a 7 in Biology. (But a higher one I suppose)
I've been thinking of many different careers as I'm not actaully sure what I really want to do now but some things I have been interested in recently are:
-Software Engineering
-Pharmacy

I enjoyed doing programming courses on Freecodecamp but didn't have much time to do them.

[Current alevel courses: Spanish,chem and maths]

I'm really contemplating changing maths to Biology because maths just seems hard and abit out of reach for me . I know this is a really negative mindset but even my teacher at Gcse told me very enthusiastically not to choose alevel maths and now I'm thinking maybe he was right.
Biology seems long and hard also, furthermore the content seems really heavy but I'm wondering whether I'd have a better opportunity to get higher grades in that instead of maths.
But if I were to choose Biology I'd also have to think about completely abandoning any dream of getting into comp sci/Software Eng.

I'm really stuck rn and I don't have too much time to decide because I know the longer I wait to change courses the harder it will be to adjust :/ .

I'm also interested in philosophy and econ but have ruled these out due to concerns of uni entry requirements.
Can you take both and see which suits you better then drop one?
Reply 2
Original post by DerDracologe
Can you take both and see which suits you better then drop one?


I tried to do so on enrolment day however apparently I needed a total gcse point score of 7.5 to do 4 subjects and my average gcse point score is 7.4 :frown:
Original post by alib12
I had my first day at college today and had only 2 lessons which were spanish and maths.
I have been very anxious and worried for maths as I'm not too confident in my ability compared to others. Maths was OK but nothing more, it just felt like alot of pressure to be in the same level as everybody when I knew I was not as I didn't know how to do some of the indices questions (the equation ones) and got some "straightforward" questions incorrect.Everybody seemed so prepared which made me feel uneasy as I only changed my options from economics to maths 2 weeks ago.(my maths summer homework is barely done but it's really hard)
Now, I got a grade 7 in Gcse maths but it was only a few marks above the grade boundary.
I also got a 7 in Biology. (But a higher one I suppose)
I've been thinking of many different careers as I'm not actaully sure what I really want to do now but some things I have been interested in recently are:
-Software Engineering
-Pharmacy
I enjoyed doing programming courses on Freecodecamp but didn't have much time to do them.
[Current alevel courses: Spanish,chem and maths]
I'm really contemplating changing maths to Biology because maths just seems hard and abit out of reach for me . I know this is a really negative mindset but even my teacher at Gcse told me very enthusiastically not to choose alevel maths and now I'm thinking maybe he was right.
Biology seems long and hard also, furthermore the content seems really heavy but I'm wondering whether I'd have a better opportunity to get higher grades in that instead of maths.
But if I were to choose Biology I'd also have to think about completely abandoning any dream of getting into comp sci/Software Eng.
I'm really stuck rn and I don't have too much time to decide because I know the longer I wait to change courses the harder it will be to adjust :/ .
I'm also interested in philosophy and econ but have ruled these out due to concerns of uni entry requirements.


I think maths a level is really different in my opinion but since you mentioned you want to do pharmacy, your best bet is dropping maths and doing biology instead. Good luck x
Reply 4
Original post by unharmed-profess
I think maths a level is really different in my opinion but since you mentioned you want to do pharmacy, your best bet is dropping maths and doing biology instead. Good luck x


Thank you so much for the advice, it's a tough decision but I might email my college i hope I can atleast feel more confident with it.
Original post by alib12
I had my first day at college today and had only 2 lessons which were spanish and maths.
I have been very anxious and worried for maths as I'm not too confident in my ability compared to others. Maths was OK but nothing more, it just felt like alot of pressure to be in the same level as everybody when I knew I was not as I didn't know how to do some of the indices questions (the equation ones) and got some "straightforward" questions incorrect.Everybody seemed so prepared which made me feel uneasy as I only changed my options from economics to maths 2 weeks ago.(my maths summer homework is barely done but it's really hard)
Now, I got a grade 7 in Gcse maths but it was only a few marks above the grade boundary.
I also got a 7 in Biology. (But a higher one I suppose)
I've been thinking of many different careers as I'm not actaully sure what I really want to do now but some things I have been interested in recently are:
-Software Engineering
-Pharmacy
I enjoyed doing programming courses on Freecodecamp but didn't have much time to do them.
[Current alevel courses: Spanish,chem and maths]
I'm really contemplating changing maths to Biology because maths just seems hard and abit out of reach for me . I know this is a really negative mindset but even my teacher at Gcse told me very enthusiastically not to choose alevel maths and now I'm thinking maybe he was right.
Biology seems long and hard also, furthermore the content seems really heavy but I'm wondering whether I'd have a better opportunity to get higher grades in that instead of maths.
But if I were to choose Biology I'd also have to think about completely abandoning any dream of getting into comp sci/Software Eng.
I'm really stuck rn and I don't have too much time to decide because I know the longer I wait to change courses the harder it will be to adjust :/ .
I'm also interested in philosophy and econ but have ruled these out due to concerns of uni entry requirements.

You could probably do alright in maths but you’d have to work hard at it and if you’d like to do pharmacy, biology is a better choice.

The first couple months of A Level maths is just the difficult GCSE stuff, maybe a bit extra, so if you’re already feeling the difficulty it’s not a great sign. It just depends on if you enjoy maths or biology more.
Reply 6
Original post by Peach_rose34
You could probably do alright in maths but you’d have to work hard at it and if you’d like to do pharmacy, biology is a better choice.
The first couple months of A Level maths is just the difficult GCSE stuff, maybe a bit extra, so if you’re already feeling the difficulty it’s not a great sign. It just depends on if you enjoy maths or biology more.


Yeah, thank you for the advice :smile:

Quick Reply