Choosing A-levels- medicine

I am currently in Year 11 and must pick my A-level choices by the end of January. I want to study medicine at university. All students at my school have to start with 4 A-levels but can drop one later on. I am certain to study Chemistry, Biology and Maths, but I am uncertain about my 4th A-level. For my 4th A-level, I cannot pick between French and Physics. I enjoy both and predicted a grade 9 at GCSE in both. Please could you offer some advice on what to pick and which subject would be competitively useful for studying medicine in the future? Thank you.

Reply 1

McGinger

20

You dont need a 4th A level - no Uni requires this, and its gives you no advantage whatsoever.
And remember, AAA will always look better than ABBB, and that could cost you a Medicine place.

Reply 2

Someone20

11

further maths

Reply 3

Frizzle16523

13

Original post by McGinger

You dont need a 4th A level - no Uni requires this, and its gives you no advantage whatsoever.
And remember, AAA will always look better than ABBB, and that could cost you a Medicine place.

Some schools require you to do four a levels- it’s mandatory for them. And then you can drop to three if you want to after year 12.

Reply 4

Frizzle16523

13

Original post by A___a

I am currently in Year 11 and must pick my A-level choices by the end of January. I want to study medicine at university. All students at my school have to start with 4 A-levels but can drop one later on. I am certain to study Chemistry, Biology and Maths, but I am uncertain about my 4th A-level. For my 4th A-level, I cannot pick between French and Physics. I enjoy both and predicted a grade 9 at GCSE in both. Please could you offer some advice on what to pick and which subject would be competitively useful for studying medicine in the future? Thank you.

I would say do physics especially because it’s slightly more relevant than French and it also interlinks with maths a bit (Might be useful for the mechanics side of maths)z But doing French might mean you get less burnout as you wouldn’t be doing stem subjects all day. It’s your choice though!

Reply 5

klafow

14

Original post by A___a

I am currently in Year 11 and must pick my A-level choices by the end of January. I want to study medicine at university. All students at my school have to start with 4 A-levels but can drop one later on. I am certain to study Chemistry, Biology and Maths, but I am uncertain about my 4th A-level. For my 4th A-level, I cannot pick between French and Physics. I enjoy both and predicted a grade 9 at GCSE in both. Please could you offer some advice on what to pick and which subject would be competitively useful for studying medicine in the future? Thank you.

i honestly think french is a lot more useful. you can gain so much from doing a humanities subject in terms of knowledge and skills, and imo its worth so much more than the grade you get at the end. doing an a-level language also brings you close to fluency, which in itself is a valuable skill for the future, no matter the degree.
it’s honestly not that deep though, whichever one you pick is fine as long as you get a good grade at the end. also bear in mind that anecdotally i’ve heard that a level languages is a lot of work.

Reply 6

conquered-compos

Pick the one you are more likely to get a predicted A or above in. One thing to note though is that at my school, historically everyone who got an oxbridge med offer had a language as their fourth A-Level.

Choosing A-levels- medicine

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