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Uni

I do A levels; Literature, Politics and History, but I want a career in medicine, how would I do this without biology and chemistry a level, I'm thinking about a career in surgery or neonatal care

Reply 1

global_astro

I've applied for Diagnostic Radiography at my home university and while they have a science A-Level requirement, they do also accept home students who have done an Access to Higher Education course in science. I'm not sure if this option is available for medicine degrees however, since those are much more strict with their requirements.

Best thing to do at the moment is look into the entry requirements of the universities you want to apply for, or contact them, to see what they advise. It's likely you'll have to take a year out in order to either study the A-Levels they need or do an A-Level equivalent course, like the HE course I mentioned above.

Reply 2

artful_lounger

Universities Forum Helper

Original post

by MeganBell123

I do A levels; Literature, Politics and History, but I want a career in medicine, how would I do this without biology and chemistry a level, I'm thinking about a career in surgery or neonatal care

If you want to become a medical doctor, you need to do a medical degree. There is one medical degree which accepts students with any A-levels (Newcastle) - otherwise you would either need to do biology and/or chemistry A-level and a second science (which may be the other of those two), or do an approved Access to Medicine course (note that not all medical schools accept all Access to Medicine courses - they usually publish or will be able to tell you which ones they accept). Note though that Access to Medicine courses often don't take school leavers who have done A-levels in the wrong subjects (or got poorer grades) so you will need to verify this.

Note also you shouldn't focus on any particular medical specialty because you will need to study the whole of medicine for the 5-6 year medical degree and then rotate through the whole of medicine for 2 years as a foundation doctor - so you will do minimum 7-8 years before you start specialising.

Reply 3

McGinger

Ask yourself this question - and be honest with yourself about the answer :
Why didn't you take science A levels to begin with - Chemistry in particular?

If its because you didnt like those subjects, didnt get very good GCSE grades, struggled with Chemistry etc,, then you may need to reconsider this as both a course and career choice.

An alternative to Medicine would be taking a Foundation Science year designed for those with good grade expectations but in the 'wrong' subjects - this would lead to a whole range of different STEM degrees but not Medicine. One example - Science Foundation Year | University of Southampton