a level choices help

hello,

im thinking of doing a level maths, economics and biology . im also thinking of picking a 4th subject of psychology and if i like my main 3 subjects then ill drop the 4th one but if i dont like one of my subjects ill drop it in favour of psychology.

i have a few questions: do you think it is worth it to pick 4 alevels to have a backup just in case and i was wondering what a level psychology/biology/maths/economics are like and what kinds of things you learn and if they’re hard or easy etc

thanks

Reply 1

klafow

i think it’s worth it if you can deal with the workload. my school forced us to do four and drop one later. i did bio chem maths econ and dropped econ. several of my friends were going to do the same but they ended up keeping econ and dropping maths because it was easier for them. having the luxury of choice is really good if your predicteds aren’t what you want them to be.

i can’t comment on psychology but i’ll talk a bit about the other three

•

biology - very very content heavy. it is genuinely quite difficult, partly because of the content and partly because of the very specific mark schemes. if you don’t love the content there is no point in doing it, you’ll hate it after a bit probably. it’s also the most ‘useless’ out of the science a-levels in terms of opening doors to things - i swear you don’t even need biology to do a biology degree.

•

maths - i hope you like maths, because if you don’t it’s going to be a rough two years. the main thing with maths is practice because the more questions you do the better you get at it. also the a-level is split into pure, stats and mechanics. from what i’ve seen so far everyone either hates stats or mechanics but are neutral about pure. i am personally a mechanics hater.

•

economics - useless in terms of opening doors to things but so so so enjoyable. i had a very fun year studying it and regret not continuing on to year 13. you learn so much about the world and how it works. it’s got bits of human geography, politics and psychology mixed in with it too, and probably other things but i can’t remember it right now. it was also the easiest subject out of the four i did. just bear in mind that a-level econ is very essay based but at degree level there is going to be a lot more maths involved if you are considering it.

i hope that was helpful. i realised that i didn’t actually explain what we do in any of the subjects properly so if you have any questions feel free to ask :smile:

Reply 2

Emma:-)

Entertainment Forum Helper, Careers Forum Helper

Original post

by coolblackguy

hello,
im thinking of doing a level maths, economics and biology . im also thinking of picking a 4th subject of psychology and if i like my main 3 subjects then ill drop the 4th one but if i dont like one of my subjects ill drop it in favour of psychology.
i have a few questions: do you think it is worth it to pick 4 alevels to have a backup just in case and i was wondering what a level psychology/biology/maths/economics are like and what kinds of things you learn and if they’re hard or easy etc
thanks

Yes, id advise starting with the 4 and seeing which of your subjects you like the most and see how you get on with them. It gives you the option of dropping one if you arent doing very well in it or dont end up enjoying it or whatever.

Reply 3

DerDracologe

Study Forum Helper

Original post

by coolblackguy

hello,
im thinking of doing a level maths, economics and biology . im also thinking of picking a 4th subject of psychology and if i like my main 3 subjects then ill drop the 4th one but if i dont like one of my subjects ill drop it in favour of psychology.
i have a few questions: do you think it is worth it to pick 4 alevels to have a backup just in case and i was wondering what a level psychology/biology/maths/economics are like and what kinds of things you learn and if they’re hard or easy etc
thanks

Starting with 4 and then dropping to 3 based on which subjects you enjoy the most seems very sensible. My a level subjects are Maths and Biology so if you have any questions about those id be happy to try to answer them 🙂

Reply 4

Uni of Southampton Students

Official Rep

Original post

by coolblackguy

hello,
im thinking of doing a level maths, economics and biology . im also thinking of picking a 4th subject of psychology and if i like my main 3 subjects then ill drop the 4th one but if i dont like one of my subjects ill drop it in favour of psychology.
i have a few questions: do you think it is worth it to pick 4 alevels to have a backup just in case and i was wondering what a level psychology/biology/maths/economics are like and what kinds of things you learn and if they’re hard or easy etc
thanks

Hello!

I hope you are doing well and having a good Christmas. I think this is a really good idea to start with 4 as it allows you to have more options in the future if you change your mind.
I can offer advice about A level Maths as I studied this when I was at school - I found the content manageable, year 12 was definitely a lot easier than year 13 but the best thing you can do is to continually complete test papers and practice questions.

Hope this helps!
Rachel (UoS Student Room Rep)