A level options

Hey guys i am in yesr 11 and i have signed up to my sixth form and the A levels i have chosen to do are: English literature, geography, psychology, biology and an EPQ. But here is the problem!

I used to love biology and truly wanted to pursue it as a career, but at the same time it is so draining and content heavy, already at GCSE so like A-level must obviously be hard, i think i will obviously enjoy some aspects of it especially paper 1 ( paper 2 will be the death of me ), another reason i want to do it is i think it goes well with the biological side of pyschology as well as geography.
For pyschology, i am required to have a grade 5 in maths and as im in foundation it is quite hard t achieve and im stuck st barely passing so that's like amazing! I think that i could definitely find it interesting
Geography:i bloody love this subject and i cant wait for it, despite the long essay writing aha but yea
English literature: i love this subject so much qnd i think i want to pursue it at university i got a grade 7 in my mocks and couple off an 8 which is the highest i have ever got so yay

EPQ: I think that could highly enjoy this as the subject i would like to talk about profoundly enjoys me, i was thinking about working on this during my year 11 summer in order to get ahead as obviously 4 A levels be alot

I am not sure if they go together i was thinking about studying eiver english literature or law but i do have an interest in STEM but im terrible at maths in chem which is amazing

Thanks!

Reply 1

sunflowers!

Hi, A-level student here!
I really do not recommend doing 4 A-levels and an EPQ. I almost guarantee you will not have the time for that, as in my experience (not that I'm doing 4) people doing 4 A-levels often feel stressed and have little free time for study, social life, etc. Doing an EPQ on top of that just seems like way too much.

I would recommend dropping Biology: If you find it draining it's not good as an A-level, and you can still keep up the interest by watching YouTube videos and such in your own time. Also, maybe put off the EPQ until your second year: you'll have plenty of time to do it then, and in the first year you really want to focus on finding your footing in the subjects you're doing rather than overloading yourself with stuff you can do in your second year anyway.

I'd keep a similar subject as a backup in case you don't get the grades for Psychology: it's also a very competitive subject and they may run out of places before you can apply. Maybe think about doing Sociology or Criminology instead?

Best of luck for exams and enjoy your summer!!

Reply 2

YSJstudents

Official Rep

Original post

by Liamgriff18

Hey guys i am in yesr 11 and i have signed up to my sixth form and the A levels i have chosen to do are: English literature, geography, psychology, biology and an EPQ. But here is the problem!
I used to love biology and truly wanted to pursue it as a career, but at the same time it is so draining and content heavy, already at GCSE so like A-level must obviously be hard, i think i will obviously enjoy some aspects of it especially paper 1 ( paper 2 will be the death of me ), another reason i want to do it is i think it goes well with the biological side of pyschology as well as geography.
For pyschology, i am required to have a grade 5 in maths and as im in foundation it is quite hard t achieve and im stuck st barely passing so that's like amazing! I think that i could definitely find it interesting
Geography:i bloody love this subject and i cant wait for it, despite the long essay writing aha but yea
English literature: i love this subject so much qnd i think i want to pursue it at university i got a grade 7 in my mocks and couple off an 8 which is the highest i have ever got so yay
EPQ: I think that could highly enjoy this as the subject i would like to talk about profoundly enjoys me, i was thinking about working on this during my year 11 summer in order to get ahead as obviously 4 A levels be alot
I am not sure if they go together i was thinking about studying eiver english literature or law but i do have an interest in STEM but im terrible at maths in chem which is amazing
Thanks!

Hi there!

I'm a current third-year student at York St. John University. I did Psychology, Biology, and Computer Science A-Levels, and I did an AS in Finance too :smile:

In my experience, Biology and Psychology had one or two topics that overlapped. It's helpful to an extent, but you can get good grades in Psychology without taking Bio. It seems like you're not 100% about doing Biology, and unless it relates to a future degree avenue (like Psychology), it may not be the best option. Unfortunately, like you said, Biology is a heavy A-level, and you need to enjoy it enough to put in a lot of extra time to do well (in my experience). If you don't fully enjoy it, it might take up too much of your time, which could have been spent on your other A-Levels. Looking back, I wish I'd swapped CS and Bio for A-Levels I would've enjoyed so that I'd have been more motivated!

Hope this helps a little! Good luck with your exams, and have a lovely summer!

Kiera
York St. John University

Reply 3

freyabb

Original post

by Liamgriff18

Hey guys i am in yesr 11 and i have signed up to my sixth form and the A levels i have chosen to do are: English literature, geography, psychology, biology and an EPQ. But here is the problem!
I used to love biology and truly wanted to pursue it as a career, but at the same time it is so draining and content heavy, already at GCSE so like A-level must obviously be hard, i think i will obviously enjoy some aspects of it especially paper 1 ( paper 2 will be the death of me ), another reason i want to do it is i think it goes well with the biological side of pyschology as well as geography.
For pyschology, i am required to have a grade 5 in maths and as im in foundation it is quite hard t achieve and im stuck st barely passing so that's like amazing! I think that i could definitely find it interesting
Geography:i bloody love this subject and i cant wait for it, despite the long essay writing aha but yea
English literature: i love this subject so much qnd i think i want to pursue it at university i got a grade 7 in my mocks and couple off an 8 which is the highest i have ever got so yay
EPQ: I think that could highly enjoy this as the subject i would like to talk about profoundly enjoys me, i was thinking about working on this during my year 11 summer in order to get ahead as obviously 4 A levels be alot
I am not sure if they go together i was thinking about studying eiver english literature or law but i do have an interest in STEM but im terrible at maths in chem which is amazing
Thanks!

hey!!
totally get the appeal of doing so many things, i was stuck too as i liked a lot of subjects! in year 13 currently and one of my friends is doing some of your choices - english lit, biology and geography. she signed up for EPQ this year and had to leave because of the coinciding stress with geography coursework plus english coursework last november! if you want to do EPQ i recommend not doing something so heavy as biology - i wanted to do politics as well as my a levels but had to decide not to.

plus, personally (i also left EPQ this year whoops) i would've done an EPQ in the first year, was too much with UCAS, mocks and coursework, but whatever feels right at the time, you can always push it back.

very excited for you, i do english literature too and it is the best!
hope all works out :smile:

Reply 4

lilacrosepetals

Hi!! I'm in year 13 and chose eng lit, psych and bio and also did an epq. In my opinion, I wouldn't do both 4 alevels and an epq BUT talk to your head of sixth form about the epq to see if you can get a copy of the logbook (idk if you know much about epq but if you don't, it's like this form that you fill out as you do the epq and it includes questions and sections to write in to help you research) and start on it in yr11-12 holidays which will get you a great headstart. If you're thinking about working part time I would advise against doing four alevels. If you don't think you'll work as well, then go for it, but I personally (and now i don't do four alevels so take my opinion with a pinch of salt) wouldn't aim for straight As as that's a lot of revision! Also keep in mind that you might start doing driving lessons during yr13 which also takes up a lot of time.
Just as a side note, my psych course is ocr and I the year below me takes aqa and I know both are very maths heavy. If you're struggling to get a 5 (which is fair, I hated maths too) then maybe consider switching to sociology.