The TSR Community Awards 2025 are now live >>

A Level choices for mechanical engineering at Imperial

I'm currently studying for my GCSEs and will have to choose my A level subjects at the end of this academic year.

trying to do mechanical engineering at Imperial

what a levels should I take

I have established that I need to take maths, further maths and physics but should I take a 4th and what should it be? (chem or even a language such as french)

Currently predicted all 9s for gcse except 8s for English literature and language

Reply 1

artful_lounger

Universities Forum Helper

I don't see that a 4th would be necessarily advantageous. Take a 4th if you want to, but don't feel compelled to. The situation I may suggest considering it even if you aren't as keen is if your school structures maths/FM teaching such that you do all of A-level Maths in year 12 and take the exam in year 12 - as otherwise you end up only doing 2 A-level exams in year 13, which is sometimes a bit of an issue for a couple courses/unis (albeit I'm not aware of Imperial caring about this specifically).

Also bear in mind language A-levels have a pretty high ongoing workload so alongside maths and FM might make your day to day/week to week workload a lot higher. If you would be choosing a language more with the aim of language acquisition practically, perhaps consider taking up the language learning informally in an extracurricular manner (so you can adjust how much time you spend on it dependent on how busy you are with your academics) :smile:

Reply 2

McGinger

You will have 5 UCAS choices so don't just focus on Imperial. Look at the 'entry requirements' for a range of different Universities, not just Imperial - which A levels are required or 'preferred', do you actually need 4 A levels, and don't forget to also check for any required GCSE grades. Remember that a course with any sort of placement, work-experience or study aboard will add heaps to your graduate CV.