People who tried to significantly change change A-levels, how did it go?

5

Hello all,
I applied to some sixth forms(HWSF, Woodhouse, and others) hoping to study English, History, and Politics, as my parents wanted me to go into law. After reconsidering, I now want to go into engineering (aligns better with my interests). At the time of application, my humanities were much better than my STEMs (9s vs 6s and 7s), but now the gap has closed, and I have started to get better at STEM subjects. I would like to switch Lit and Politics for Maths and Physics (and possibly Further Maths, or I could just do it externally), and keep history. Has anyone had success with changes like these, and if so, how?

Reply 1

DerDracologe

Study Forum Helper

20

You should be fine doing this if you contact the sixth forms and ask. They may not be very flexible if timetabling or over-subscription is an issue tho or they may ask you to wait til results day to select subjects on enrolment depending on how they run things.
Your grades shouldn’t be the only reason for the subjects you pick, neither should what your parents want you to do. Pick subjects that you actually enjoy and dont run into a decision you might regret in changing them and then realising engineering isnt your thing. Maybe spend some time researching your interests before emailing the sixth forms and committing to changing your application.

Reply 2

niko6ak

3

Original post

by saxophone

Hello all,
I applied to some sixth forms(HWSF, Woodhouse, and others) hoping to study English, History, and Politics, as my parents wanted me to go into law. After reconsidering, I now want to go into engineering (aligns better with my interests). At the time of application, my humanities were much better than my STEMs (9s vs 6s and 7s), but now the gap has closed, and I have started to get better at STEM subjects. I would like to switch Lit and Politics for Maths and Physics (and possibly Further Maths, or I could just do it externally), and keep history. Has anyone had success with changes like these, and if so, how?

i think i'm well qualified to answer this question! i changed my subjects around 5 times at woodhouse, it's really not that big of a deal- with the caveat being fm (which i will discuss later). i think i enrolled for maths, politics and economics and am now doing maths chem physics.

it's probably good your humanities subjects were slightly better, because if you applied for woodhouse for physics and maths you ideally want 7s and 8s in those subjects as a minimum. if you want to study engineering, then apply for further maths- you might find your university applications are slightly less strong if you're a candidate with only maths as opposed to fm. it is also really difficult to change to further maths once you get to woodhouse, but really easy to drop further maths to regular maths. it is by far the most oversubscribed course, because many people realise they need fm for university when they start woodhouse so want to pick it up. there's usually a waitlist to join fm and around the time of january mocks, you can self-study the fm taught so far for these and do the mock to see if you're any good (if you do well they'll let you on to fm).

that being said, you might want to consider if these subjects are for you. physics and maths alevel are definitely difficult, but not impossible. i joined physics nearly 2 months late and managed to score top 25% in my year group. i would say for maths overall- it would be ideal to have an 8/9. i think the minimum offer is for a 7, but you will notice even in the first 2 weeks you might struggle. there are definitely people in both maths and physics who aren't the brightest, but as an average most people get an 8/9 in these subjects at gcse.

the first 2 weeks at woodhouse are just introduction to your subjects anyways, which means a lot of people swap subjects in those 2 weeks (or after in my case!) so if you don't enjoy maths or physics, you can drop them then.

People who tried to significantly change change A-levels, how did it go?

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