Quitting an A-Level - does this make me a bad person?

7

I decided to quit my Ancient History A-Level because I have been struggling with it for the entire year and a half I’ve been studying it and it is bringing down my mental health (and possibly subsequently my physical health). I know nothing about the course and if I were to want to pass I’d have to essentially teach myself the entire course in a couple of months - I am passionate about my other two subjects and would rather spend the time working on getting better grades for them. I feel apathetic towards History at best and don’t think it’s worth the effort. However, I am still overwhelmed with guilt about my choice; I feel that I am lazy and just taking the easy way out rather than doing what would be morally right and working my socks off to get better. I don’t think that only having two A-Levels will impact my uni offers or life in any way, but I still feel a sense of obligation towards the subject even though I am mostly happy with the decision to quit it aside from this guilt. Am I a lazy person for doing this?

Reply 1

LancashireRep4

Official Rep

12

Original post

by FroggyStar

I decided to quit my Ancient History A-Level because I have been struggling with it for the entire year and a half I’ve been studying it and it is bringing down my mental health (and possibly subsequently my physical health). I know nothing about the course and if I were to want to pass I’d have to essentially teach myself the entire course in a couple of months - I am passionate about my other two subjects and would rather spend the time working on getting better grades for them. I feel apathetic towards History at best and don’t think it’s worth the effort. However, I am still overwhelmed with guilt about my choice; I feel that I am lazy and just taking the easy way out rather than doing what would be morally right and working my socks off to get better. I don’t think that only having two A-Levels will impact my uni offers or life in any way, but I still feel a sense of obligation towards the subject even though I am mostly happy with the decision to quit it aside from this guilt. Am I a lazy person for doing this?

Hi @FroggyStar

I'm sorry to hear you are going through a hard time with your A-levels. It is perfectly fine to drop an A-level if this is the best decision for your mental health. You should not feel guilty about this at all!

Doing only two A-levels will limit your options, especially with what university courses you can apply for, but there are still plenty of opportunities out there.

Firstly, you need to look at courses and universities that focus on UCAS points rather than having three A-levels as their entry requirements. If your ever unsure about the entry requirements, contact the universities admissions team and they can help you.

Secondly, you can look at foundation year courses. This just means you will do an extra year to ensure you are in the right position to begin the main content of the degree. Foundation years opens up so many course to you. Some foundation years may still require three A-levels, so please check the entry requirements.

Another option is degree apprenticeships. These are very competitive, but some only require two A-levels.
Also remember, there are plenty of options beyond university. Apprenticeships and college are also excellent options and can lead on to university in the future!

I hope this helps, please feel free to ask me any questions,
-Sophia (University of Lancashire)

Reply 2

Kingston Trenyce

Official Rep

12

Original post

by FroggyStar

I decided to quit my Ancient History A-Level because I have been struggling with it for the entire year and a half I’ve been studying it and it is bringing down my mental health (and possibly subsequently my physical health). I know nothing about the course and if I were to want to pass I’d have to essentially teach myself the entire course in a couple of months - I am passionate about my other two subjects and would rather spend the time working on getting better grades for them. I feel apathetic towards History at best and don’t think it’s worth the effort. However, I am still overwhelmed with guilt about my choice; I feel that I am lazy and just taking the easy way out rather than doing what would be morally right and working my socks off to get better. I don’t think that only having two A-Levels will impact my uni offers or life in any way, but I still feel a sense of obligation towards the subject even though I am mostly happy with the decision to quit it aside from this guilt. Am I a lazy person for doing this?

Hi, no you're not lazy. Choosing to protect your mental health and focus on the subjects you care about is maturity, not weakness. Forcing yourself to "suffer through" something that's harming you isn't morally superior it's exhausting. However keep in mind doing two A levels can lower your options as it is harder to achieve UCAS points that would of been easier with 3 A levels with 2 A levels.

Trenyce (kingston rep)

Reply 3

FroggyStar

OP

7

I completely forgot to add that I have two unconditional offers from one of the universities I applied to and very low UCAS points from another so I don’t think that 2 A-Levels will limit me :smile:

Quitting an A-Level - does this make me a bad person?

Quick Reply

Related discussions

Articles for you

How The Student Room is moderated