A Level Choices

Maths makes everything easier (I love maths and I am doing Further maths a level so I am totally biased - feel free to ask me anything about it) but if you hate maths don’t put yourself through it. You have to do maths lessons effectively every day and if you don’t like it there is no point. However the problem solving side does make subjects like physics easier.

Hey everyone, I'm currently in Year 11 and I'm about to pick my A - Levels. I enjoy science and hate Maths but my parents say taking Maths is really useful. Should I go for my current options (Bio,Chem,Physics and Core Maths OR Psychology) or should I go for my parents options (Bio,Chem,Physics and Maths.) If anyone could tell me the:
- Extent to disadvantage of not taking Maths
- Usefulness of Core Maths
- Whether I should take Psychology or Core Maths
I'm looking to do a high paying job in almost any science field other than engineering. Thank you!

Hey everyone, I'm currently in Year 11 and I'm about to pick my A - Levels. I enjoy science and hate Maths but my parents say taking Maths is really useful. Should I go for my current options (Bio,Chem,Physics and Core Maths OR Psychology) or should I go for my parents options (Bio,Chem,Physics and Maths.) If anyone could tell me the:
- Extent to disadvantage of not taking Maths
- Usefulness of Core Maths
- Whether I should take Psychology or Core Maths
I'm looking to do a high paying job in almost any science field other than engineering. Thank you!

Agree with the person above, if you don't like a subject, then you're going to really struggle to motivate yourself to study it. But I would check entry requirements of particular courses at universities you're interested in attending, like if you want to do a physics degree then many universities would expect you to take maths of course. But if you're going to do anything biology related, for example, then you'd probably be fine for a lot of courses, especially as you'd be doing 3 sciences anyways. In terms of a fourth subject, unless you really want to take one I wouldn't bother, I think core maths would at best help you out a bit with physics and perhaps give you a reduced offer for some unis. But again if you don't like it I'd say 3 sciences should mostly be alright

You might struggle with physics without maths. For context, even my further maths A level has been very helpful for physics, and everyone in my class does maths (many do further). You will have to learn to use logarithms for physics, which is taught in maths A level. And even though calculus technically isn't part of the physics A level, it's very useful for understanding concepts and problems, and my school expects us to have a good grasp of calculus to help with the physics course.
Edit - I do want to add though, that the most important thing is to genuinely like the subject you are taking. I took maths and further maths only because I wanted to do physics. I hated maths at GCSE. I dislike it at A level, but definitely like it a lot more than I did at GCSE. It IS possible to motivate yourself through subjects you don't like, but it does suck sometimes when you realise that you're not a fan of 1/2 your A level subjects. I had to learn to love maths, and I will admit that further maths is quite fun sometimes. But sometimes, I do wish I had picked different subjects that I knew I would have enjoyed.

Hi thanks for the advice! Could I ask, how hard is the maths in A Level Physics, is it like GCSE and building on from that or more complex things? And I o enjoy physics I just don't like the maths side of it tbh so how much Maths is in A Level physics. Thanks sm!

A level physics is very maths-heavy, definitely so much more than GCSE. There are a lot of graph calculations, which you don't see very much at GCSE. There are derivations, which is also new. More questions require you to work algebraically, or 'show' that you can get to a certain equation.
I think the language of physics at A level is maths. There's no way you can get around it. However, it isn't pure maths. The maths itself isn't the hard part, I think, it's knowing which equations to use, what quantities are changing, the fact that you have to mix several equations together, etc. It's physics-style maths, if that makes sense? Not pure maths. If it's any consolation, I really dislike pure maths, but I love the maths calculations you do in physics.
Best of luck for GCSEs btw!

Hey everyone, I'm currently in Year 11 and I'm about to pick my A - Levels. I enjoy science and hate Maths but my parents say taking Maths is really useful. Should I go for my current options (Bio,Chem,Physics and Core Maths OR Psychology) or should I go for my parents options (Bio,Chem,Physics and Maths.) If anyone could tell me the:
- Extent to disadvantage of not taking Maths
- Usefulness of Core Maths
- Whether I should take Psychology or Core Maths
I'm looking to do a high paying job in almost any science field other than engineering. Thank you!