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how can i find out what i want to study for a levels

im currently in year 11 and i have no work experience, only volunteering and i wanted to try and figure out what it is i want to do in order to start getting experience and more knowledge in that field

the issue is im completely stuck and i dont know how to start on picking whats right for me, i enjoy biology and maths but thats all so far and then again im not 100% of those either

i want to try and figure this out asap so i can start building on my experiences for personal statements and cvs, and even ones for sixth form such as the ncs which requires a personal statement even tho ik that one is too soon so chances are whatever experience i do would not apply to that specific personal statement

can anyone advise me on how it is they decided on what they wanted to do for alevels and their possible future careers

Reply 1

aleesha.jelll

Original post

by tryingmybestt

im currently in year 11 and i have no work experience, only volunteering and i wanted to try and figure out what it is i want to do in order to start getting experience and more knowledge in that field
the issue is im completely stuck and i dont know how to start on picking whats right for me, i enjoy biology and maths but thats all so far and then again im not 100% of those either
i want to try and figure this out asap so i can start building on my experiences for personal statements and cvs, and even ones for sixth form such as the ncs which requires a personal statement even tho ik that one is too soon so chances are whatever experience i do would not apply to that specific personal statement
can anyone advise me on how it is they decided on what they wanted to do for alevels and their possible future careers

Hi , I'm currently in year 12 , for me I've been very indecisive with what I've wanted to do in the future. it did take me a while , but at the start of year 11 I decided I wanted to be a dentist in the future due to my love of biology, but I didn't I guess enjoy maths enough to take biology and chemistry at a level, around about august is when I really decided I wanted to get into studying law. I think to decide what you want to do you shouldn't rush yourself, don't put too much pressure on yourself. Please really research into different fields and jobs you want to do maybe since your into maths you could be n account , absolutely anything. the factors you should look out for should be fitting to your lifestyle like what I did was picture myself 10 years from now doing that job, questioning: am I living happily ? am I living a comfortable life? am I enjoying work?

As for my a-level decisions it was quite rocky I did change my options around quite a bit. But I think the first step to choosing your a levels is knowing what you want to do in the future because specific degrees will have certain requirements for example to study dentistry yits required you do both a level bio and chem. in your case the subjects you enjoy are very open to basically every career as they're seen as quite prestigious . secondly, I reckoned going for subjects you also enjoy because it wold be terrible to study a subject you don't have a passion for or don't urgently need .
so yeah hopefully this helps. just remember don't put too much pressure on yourself but don't leave it to the last minute , I'm sure I will all come to you and make sure to do research in depth!! good luck .

(edited 2 months ago)

Reply 2

DerDracologe

Study Forum Helper

Original post

by tryingmybestt

im currently in year 11 and i have no work experience, only volunteering and i wanted to try and figure out what it is i want to do in order to start getting experience and more knowledge in that field
the issue is im completely stuck and i dont know how to start on picking whats right for me, i enjoy biology and maths but thats all so far and then again im not 100% of those either
i want to try and figure this out asap so i can start building on my experiences for personal statements and cvs, and even ones for sixth form such as the ncs which requires a personal statement even tho ik that one is too soon so chances are whatever experience i do would not apply to that specific personal statement
can anyone advise me on how it is they decided on what they wanted to do for alevels and their possible future careers

As youre completely unsure of your future goals, id recommend choosing subjects that you enjoy and have interest in outside of the classroom. You could explore some topics that youre interested in by watching documentaries, reading articles and listening to podcasts etc (these could be a good starting point for wider reading for your ps in the future and something to discuss briefly in your ps as initial development of your interest!).
Biology and maths are really versatile choices and great subjects if youre working at a 7 or above in bio and maths plus a 6 or above in chem and physics to support for biochem and mechanics modules. I take bio and maths so would be happy to answer any questions on them!
Its fantastic that youre so driven to thinking about gaining experience for the future but my advice would be to not focus on personal statements and cvs yet. To be honest, anything you do now will be too long ago to be relevant when you apply for uni or a job. For now, stick to enjoying your hobbies, exploring your interests and locking in for your GCSEs.

Reply 3

tryingmybestt

Original post

by aleesha.jelll

Hi , I'm currently in year 12 , for me I've been very indecisive with what I've wanted to do in the future. it did take me a while , but at the start of year 11 I decided I wanted to be a dentist in the future due to my love of biology, but I didn't I guess enjoy maths enough to take biology and chemistry at a level, around about august is when I really decided I wanted to get into studying law. I think to decide what you want to do you shouldn't rush yourself, don't put too much pressure on yourself. Please really research into different fields and jobs you want to do maybe since your into maths you could be n account , absolutely anything. the factors you should look out for should be fitting to your lifestyle like what I did was picture myself 10 years from now doing that job, questioning: am I living happily ? am I living a comfortable life? am I enjoying work?
As for my a-level decisions it was quite rocky I did change my options around quite a bit. But I think the first step to choosing your a levels is knowing what you want to do in the future because specific degrees will have certain requirements for example to study dentistry yits required you do both a level bio and chem. in your case the subjects you enjoy are very open to basically every career as they're seen as quite prestigious . secondly, I reckoned going for subjects you also enjoy because it wold be terrible to study a subject you don't have a passion for or don't urgently need .
so yeah hopefully this helps. just remember don't put too much pressure on yourself but don't leave it to the last minute , I'm sure I will all come to you and make sure to do research in depth!! good luck .

thank you so much for your reply,
this is such a coincidence because ive also been thinking about going into dentistry, but ive heard a lot of complaints on how much the workload is and how competitive the field is

how did you decide to switch to law, as it is basically on the other side of the spectrum?

and do you have any website or place recommendations on where i can do the research? or do you mean literally just google "a levels and their future career options"

Reply 4

tryingmybestt

Original post

by DerDracologe

thank you sm for ur reply,
i do need to focus a lot on my gsces first so thank you
do you have any recommendations of websites or sites where there are good documentaries/ podcasts that are reliable

since you take those a levels what are you planning to do in uni?
for bio and maths:
how different is it to gsce?
what are the most challenging aspects?
what do u find the most rewarding when studying those subjects?

Reply 5

DerDracologe

Study Forum Helper

Original post

by tryingmybestt

thank you sm for ur reply,
i do need to focus a lot on my gsces first so thank you
do you have any recommendations of websites or sites where there are good documentaries/ podcasts that are reliable
since you take those a levels what are you planning to do in uni?
for bio and maths:
how different is it to gsce?
what are the most challenging aspects?
what do u find the most rewarding when studying those subjects?

BBC sounds and iPlayer are usually my go-to sources for podcasts and documentaries cos it’s easiest to find a lot of them on a broad variety of topics from the apps. YouTube can also be good for documentaries and lots of podcasts like national geographic are available on streaming services like Spotify.
Im applying for a mix of Biology, Ecology and Zoology courses 🙂

Biology:
The content is quite similar to gcse but a lot more in depth, far more focus on the steps of the processes behind whats going on (a lot more explaining than describing id say). You get to cover a lot more about animals and plants, for example we did about the organ systems of insects and immune defences of plants which was really cool. The exams are quite similar to gcse but some longer questions can come up (especially if you do aqa cos they have an essay) and theres a lot more multiple choice questions but they are tricky so dont be fooled!
The most challenging bit is the volume of content, difficulty wise the jump from gcse isnt massive provided youve got solid grades in bio, chem and maths but the jump in the amount of content is challenging to say the least! You really need to be revising continually throughout the year to do well because it would be insane to try and cram for bio. You also need to focus a lot more on exam tech than at gcse because the markschemes are very picky at times.
The most rewarding bit is learning about such a broad subject, theres content spanning such a wide variety of topics so i think there’ll definitely be something youll love if you liked gcse bio! I personally love how often we do microscopy and we also did 2 days of field work which i loved, theres more trips than you’d think (at my school anyhow so ask about yours!). We’ve been to museums, nature reserves, opportunity to visit labs etc. Honestly i adore bio so much lol

Maths:
The main difference from gcse is that you do mechanics and stats which isnt really done at gcse outside of a few bits on probability and motion graphs. You need to be really strong on algebra but a lot of the stuff is pretty new, like logs and calculus, compared to gcse but it’s not that hard imo.
Some of the topics are very challenging but theres lot of practice questions and resources available so you should be alright i think. Just be prepared for doing a lot of practice! I did ocr fsmq btw so am likely to not have had a normal level experience of the step up from gcse as a lot of year 12 was revision for me of fsmq content.
I enjoy the problem solving elements of maths and stats is great too! Not such a fan of mechanics lol

Happy to answer any more questions if you have them 🙂