Got 9s and now I’m just confused on A levels

lol i definitely think that you should not be tying a level choices to jobs right now cuz that seems to be causing too much stress for you. with bio chem maths you can go into so many fields and degrees (like biochem, biomed etc) !! but i know you dont really entirely like those subjects...oops. lowkey if you got the best in maths, bio, geo and art, (and i think you seem to enjoy it?) why not choose some of those subjects? you could go into architecture, natural sciences, human sciences. for ppe i think it would be good to do economics ( i dont really know tho), but if you think you might like politics have a look at the spec and what you need to study to see if that could be a possibility for you. i do bio chem maths and english btw.

So some background I took some GCSEs early - got 9s in maths, bio, geo and art and now have the rest of my subjects which I got 99987 a D2 and a predicted 9 but I didn’t actually do a mock .

Now, this all seems great on per but I have NO clue what I wanna do with my life .

The goal has just been get good grades and then it went well and I was going is find what I’m good at etc … but I feel I just like what I’m good at and have no real passion??

STOP - that sounded WAYY TOOo dramatic !! But I have no idea what to do now .

I was thinking maybe medicine and taking maths , bio and chem but I’m scared I will finish that and end up HATING my job cause I really don’t like studying those subjects and only really get through by last minute crams of it when pressure overrides the want or not want mechanism - if you know what I mean.

I was also thinking that I quite liked maths (specifically being able to listen to music whilst I studied LOLl) so then was thinking I could do fm . but I’m not really sure if I want to go into a mathsy job .

Then I was thinking that I kinda like English (in that it’s not straight up memorisation) but I don’t want to take it for a level . I was thinking maybe politics . But then comes the TINY issue that I have NO political or historical knowledge whatsoever , I don’t even watch the news and only found out that Starmer was our president or smth (sorry if that hurt any historians LOL) .

So I wa shrinking maybe take all 4 as politics wouldn’t be too demanding like history and would maybe open a PPE door for me and not nail me to medicine.

BUT everyone is telling me that it’s too much to take :maths , bio, chem and politics when I don’t have real passion any of them and I split my GCSEs so have no real conception of the workload .


ALL of this on top of the doubt that I might end up hating these subjects all together , wasting my time and ending up with a job I hate .

So thanks for reading this dramatic vent/hard beg for help and PLEASEE if anyone has any advice for me Lmk cuz I’m about to COMBUST WITH UNCERTAINTY and ‘but’ s .

Thanks and hope this was atleast half-coherent .

I'd recommend taking a step back, forget about the grades bit, and think about which subjects you actually enjoy. Which lessons do you look forward to? Do you actually enjoy doing e.g. homework/coursework etc for that subject? Do you find yourself reading up on topics relating to that subject outside of lessons (not necessarily even formal academic books but even just looking things up online etc)?
Then from that, look at those subjects at A-level and related subjects. Bear in mind there may be A-level subjects you haven't studied before - in those cases focus less on what you know and more on how well you think you could learn about those subjects. So basically work backwards from there - look at how they are taught and assessed, and then work backwards and think about for GCSE subjects with similar formats, did you actually enjoy those lessons and that subject?
In terms of careers I would just not think about that now. The reality is your A-levels (and even your degree) in general are not going to determine your career. Moreover on average people change career 3-4 times in their life (and evidence for younger generations i.e. millenials onwards, indicate it may even be closer to 5-6 times now!) so no matter what you go into at first, it's very possible if not actually likely you'll end up changing into another field eventually.

That was really insightful . The fact that most people change careers is really comforting, it doesn feel like my decision might have bad reprocussions . So Thanks for that .

In terms of subjects and working backwards, I don’t really know where to start : do you recommend just looking at specs or is there something else ??

Thanks again!!!

Honestly you don't even need to think about that level of detail to start, just find out from e.g. teachers, people you know in upper years etc, what the general format is e.g. is the exam mostly essay based, short responses, data questions, mathematical problem solving, something else, etc? For the coursework what is that like, is it essays, making something creatively, scientific report write ups, mathematics problems again, etc. Focus on the broad strokes to begin with to compare with your GCSEs to see which GCSE subjects you're taking have similar ways of teaching and learning and assessment, then as said think about which of your GCSEs you actually like! I think this is easy to overlook (I definitely did, and regretted it...) but you will know instinctively which subjects you dread having lessons that day for, or that you can't wait for the day of the week you finally get to go to the lessons for Y subject, or that you're always bored in, or that you enjoy the lessons but find the coursework and exams very tedious or stressful etc

Ok , that’s much easier and less daunting than looking at the specs .
I’m just gonna have to figure out which subjects I like- easier said than done LOL.

I’ll ask my teachers , but my school only goes up to year 11 - do you know where I could get a level specific advice for the subjects that I don’t do . Are there any websites perhaps ???

I think for figuring out the subjects you like from your current GCSE subjects, focus less on "do I find X piece of information more or less interesting to learn about" in a vacuum and more on how you feel overall in those lessons, before and after the lessons, doing the homework etc, or even if you dislike particular core things about those subjects - if you really hate lab sessions for science, then maybe look at doing non-science subjects (or equally if you like e.g. chemistry labs but not biology, then rule out the one you don't like). Likewise if you might find it very enjoyable to go out and find the pieces of evidence to write your essays around (or conversely if you don't like doing that and dislike writing essays!).
As before, you probably will have an instictive, gut feeling about certain subjects even if you aren't as consciously aware of it, and you'll probably even indirectly voice this e.g. if you say for example "oh Tuesday is my worst day I have X then Y then Z all in a row!" or something - that tells you a lot about how you feel about those subjects even if you may not be specifically thinking about that
You could certainly ask on TSR what particular subjects are like at A-level though! Most subjects you'll probably find there are current students taking them right now which can give some insight both into that subject and how it compares to the other subjects they're currently taking, and if it's a subject continued from GCSE, how it compares to the GCSE. Obviously you can look at specifications or syllabuses as well which can give some insight but I'd say leave that until you've narrowed things down a little.

I will get on that . Thanks sooo much for all your help !!!

So some background I took some GCSEs early - got 9s in maths, bio, geo and art and now have the rest of my subjects which I got 99987 a D2 and a predicted 9 but I didn’t actually do a mock .
Now, this all seems great on per but I have NO clue what I wanna do with my life .
The goal has just been get good grades and then it went well and I was going is find what I’m good at etc … but I feel I just like what I’m good at and have no real passion??
STOP - that sounded WAYY TOOo dramatic !! But I have no idea what to do now .
I was thinking maybe medicine and taking maths , bio and chem but I’m scared I will finish that and end up HATING my job cause I really don’t like studying those subjects and only really get through by last minute crams of it when pressure overrides the want or not want mechanism - if you know what I mean.
I was also thinking that I quite liked maths (specifically being able to listen to music whilst I studied LOLl) so then was thinking I could do fm . but I’m not really sure if I want to go into a mathsy job .
Then I was thinking that I kinda like English (in that it’s not straight up memorisation) but I don’t want to take it for a level . I was thinking maybe politics . But then comes the TINY issue that I have NO political or historical knowledge whatsoever , I don’t even watch the news and only found out that Starmer was our president or smth (sorry if that hurt any historians LOL) .
So I wa shrinking maybe take all 4 as politics wouldn’t be too demanding like history and would maybe open a PPE door for me and not nail me to medicine.
BUT everyone is telling me that it’s too much to take :maths , bio, chem and politics when I don’t have real passion any of them and I split my GCSEs so have no real conception of the workload .
ALL of this on top of the doubt that I might end up hating these subjects all together , wasting my time and ending up with a job I hate .
So thanks for reading this dramatic vent/hard beg for help and PLEASEE if anyone has any advice for me Lmk cuz I’m about to COMBUST WITH UNCERTAINTY and ‘but’ s .
Thanks and hope this was atleast half-coherent .