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3 A levels and epq or 4 a levels or 4 a levels and epq?

Am really struggling to decide
I don’t know if it’s too much workload

Planning to do Bio, chem, physics, maths a level and epq

First option: stick with them

Second option; drop physics after as level BUT WOULD UNIS SEE THAT AS YOU BEING UNDERCOMMITED OR ITS TOO HARD FOR YOu?

3rd option ; do 3 a levels and epq and self study physics (without a level)

4th option ; 4. A levels



Please give me some suggestions
Reply 1
Original post by jadennnn
am really struggling to decide
i don’t know if it’s too much workload
planning to do bio, chem, physics, maths a level and epq
first option: Stick with them
second option; drop physics after as level but would unis see that as you being undercommited or its too hard for you?
3rd option ; do 3 a levels and epq and self study physics (without a level)
4th option ; 4. A levels
please give me some suggestions

alsois bio , physics and maths a weird combo if i am doing 3 alevels and epq instead of 4? As im not sure to go down wildlife route or astronomy, is chemistry essential for wldife? Degrees
Original post by Jadennnn
alsois bio , physics and maths a weird combo if i am doing 3 alevels and epq instead of 4? As im not sure to go down wildlife route or astronomy, is chemistry essential for wldife? Degrees

id say drop physics just do 3 plus an epq
ur uni will never know tbh so it rlly doesnt matter mate
plus unis like for example oxford u just need to get A*AA people with like 5A*s still get rejected so id say less workload but do better so u can focus on other stuff better like epq, preparing for interviews, volunteering , etc
hope that helps bro :smile:
Reply 3
Original post by ayeshaazmat
id say drop physics just do 3 plus an epq
ur uni will never know tbh so it rlly doesnt matter mate
plus unis like for example oxford u just need to get A*AA people with like 5A*s still get rejected so id say less workload but do better so u can focus on other stuff better like epq, preparing for interviews, volunteering , etc
hope that helps bro :smile:

But would bio, physics and math be good but i checked cambridge website its not in one of the combinations, because im not sure between biological/astronmical field, so i want to keep the subjects open, thanks bro for your suggestion
Reply 4
Original post by Jadennnn
But would bio, physics and math be good but i checked cambridge website its not in one of the combinations, because im not sure between biological/astronmical field, so i want to keep the subjects open, thanks bro for your suggestion

Should i self study chemistry? or shouls i drop physics and self study that
Original post by Jadennnn
But would bio, physics and math be good but i checked cambridge website its not in one of the combinations, because im not sure between biological/astronmical field, so i want to keep the subjects open, thanks bro for your suggestion

i mean if u wanna go into medicine its best to go with bio, chem and maths
Original post by Jadennnn
Should i self study chemistry? or shouls i drop physics and self study that

i woudlnt recommend self studying anything u wont be able to cope or manage bruv
Original post by Jadennnn
But would bio, physics and math be good but i checked cambridge website its not in one of the combinations, because im not sure between biological/astronmical field, so i want to keep the subjects open, thanks bro for your suggestion

if ur not sure what field u wanna go into, best to go with chem, physics and maths because chem is must for medicine
Original post by Jadennnn
Am really struggling to decide
I don’t know if it’s too much workload
Planning to do Bio, chem, physics, maths a level and epq
First option: stick with them
Second option; drop physics after as level BUT WOULD UNIS SEE THAT AS YOU BEING UNDERCOMMITED OR ITS TOO HARD FOR YOu?
3rd option ; do 3 a levels and epq and self study physics (without a level)
4th option ; 4. A levels
Please give me some suggestions

If you drop/change the subject now then i dont think unis will even know. Which sciences do you enjoy the most? Which are you best at?
I was in a similar situation when picking my a levels as i enjoy physics but i want to go into a field like zoology so i need Biology. Im doing maths, physics and bio because those are the subjects which i enjoy/am interested in the most and also what suit my strengths. It’s slightly unusual but i know that i can still do what i want to at uni with this combination if i get the grades 🙂
For Cambridge Nat sci which has been mentioned, look at first year modules to see if you could do them and the entry requirements- bio, physics and maths might not be one of the recommended combinations but that doesn’t mean they’ll automatically reject you- those are just the combos that keep your module choices open the most from what i know.
Have you thought about what you’d like to do an epq on? If there’s a subject you’re interested in then it could be worth doing. Don’t do it alongside 4 a levels cos then you’ve got the workload of doing 5 a levels which is madness. Three a levels and an epq is the most common option but you could take 4 a levels if you wanted and then drop one after a term or the end of year 12 if you’re unsure but taking 4 is unnecessary so only do it if you’re interested in all the subjects and think you can cope with the workload- if you cant then drop a subject.
Btw the way it was explained to me with 4 alevels vs 3 is that if you do 3 then you have a bunch of study periods so you can do some homework during them. Like if you have 10 hours of study periods per week and then 15 hours of hw for your 3 subjects you could theoretically then have only 5 hours of homework outside of school. However, if you do 4 then you might only have 5 hours of study periods and 20 hours of homework so 15 hours of work outside of school. It’s a big difference.
Also you haven’t really given any context- are you year 12 now or year 11/10 thinking about options? How are your gcse grades?
Reply 9
Original post by DerDracologe
If you drop/change the subject now then i dont think unis will even know. Which sciences do you enjoy the most? Which are you best at?
I was in a similar situation when picking my a levels as i enjoy physics but i want to go into a field like zoology so i need Biology. Im doing maths, physics and bio because those are the subjects which i enjoy/am interested in the most and also what suit my strengths. It’s slightly unusual but i know that i can still do what i want to at uni with this combination if i get the grades 🙂
For Cambridge Nat sci which has been mentioned, look at first year modules to see if you could do them and the entry requirements- bio, physics and maths might not be one of the recommended combinations but that doesn’t mean they’ll automatically reject you- those are just the combos that keep your module choices open the most from what i know.
Have you thought about what you’d like to do an epq on? If there’s a subject you’re interested in then it could be worth doing. Don’t do it alongside 4 a levels cos then you’ve got the workload of doing 5 a levels which is madness. Three a levels and an epq is the most common option but you could take 4 a levels if you wanted and then drop one after a term or the end of year 12 if you’re unsure but taking 4 is unnecessary so only do it if you’re interested in all the subjects and think you can cope with the workload- if you cant then drop a subject.
Btw the way it was explained to me with 4 alevels vs 3 is that if you do 3 then you have a bunch of study periods so you can do some homework during them. Like if you have 10 hours of study periods per week and then 15 hours of hw for your 3 subjects you could theoretically then have only 5 hours of homework outside of school. However, if you do 4 then you might only have 5 hours of study periods and 20 hours of homework so 15 hours of work outside of school. It’s a big difference.
Also you haven’t really given any context- are you year 12 now or year 11/10 thinking about options? How are your gcse grades?

Hi so I am currently in year 10, My first choice would be bio phy and maths plus epq but i am not sure if this is a good combination and if further maths is needed? as many unis say its desirable but im not too good at it
Original post by Jadennnn
Hi so I am currently in year 10, My first choice would be bio phy and maths plus epq but i am not sure if this is a good combination and if further maths is needed? as many unis say its desirable but im not too good at it

To be honest, at the moment you dont need to make a decision.
When i was in year 10 i was very undecided about what i wanted to do at uni or as a career. You’ll only have just started your subjects and so you wont actually have much of an idea of what you enjoy or are good at yet. Going into year 10 i wanted to do double maths, physics and chem. However once i started some of the other topics in GCSE chemistry I realised it wasn’t the right subject for me (we started with topics which have a lot of crossover with physics). I started to enjoy Biology a lot as i liked the depth of the gcse content and the topics covered compared to what id done in ks3 (mostly human bio focused for a lot of the time which i liked less). When i applied for a levels at the start of year 11 i still wasn’t totally clear on what i wanted to study so i applied to do double maths, physics and biology. Due to personal circumstance i then decided that doing 4 subjects would be too much for me and so decided against further maths- i now plan to do an epq on something relating to zoology as i am now set on this as a career goal.
Obviously as i do maths, physics and biology id say it’s a great combination- i have no regrets for picking it. They’re all challenging subjects in different ways but i enjoy all of them for different reasons. Btw let me know if you have any questions about the subjects (im only a month in but have a feel for them at least!)
As to whether you need to do further maths, this depends on the uni course you’re aiming for. If you’re leaning towards something in physics/maths or anything related, doing further maths is a good idea as unis do prefer it. However if you’re leaning toward something in biosciences doing an epq instead might be more enjoyable and you could do better at it depending on your skills. At the moment, it’s understandable that you aren’t set on a degree so my advice would be to wait to settle on a decision and enjoy your subjects. If you want to do something a bit extra you could research into a subject you’re interested in. This was one factor in how i decided what i wanted to do. In the summer of year 10 i did an online course on astrophysics and watched documentaries. I enjoyed this very much but not as much as i enjoyed the online course i did on behavioural ecology the same summer. This wasn’t the sole factor in my decision but reading around the subjects in my areas of interest helped me to understand which i liked more outside of the GCSE curriculum.
Hope this helps and happy to try to answer any further questions if you have them 🙂 hope you have fantastic day!

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