What fourth a level should i pick? help

So im starting 4 a levels next year.
I know for certain im gonna do Maths, Physics and Spanish.
I want to take a fourth one but im stuck.
Im thinking about further maths. but i know its super hard. and since my subjects are very maths based thats a lot of maths. Howveer, fm would fit in very nicely with maths and physics. and it is valuable and i also do FM GCSE so i do have some prior knowledge, the jump wouldnt be as bad as it would without fm gcse.
I also want to take psych. i do it at gcse level and i get good grades. i also really enjoy it. however i dont want to take it further, im not interetsed in a career in psych or anything that requires it - its more of a hobby. but again i cant choose an a level based off a hobby becayse i need top grades as i am aiming for top unis. also it really doesnt match nicely with my other subjects - does that matter?
I was considering DT (design tech) bcs it is sounds like something id enjoy. i love making stuff and crafting but at the same time i HATE coursework like so much. also i dont want to waste all my frees in a dt workshop.
I was considering econ but its lowkey not that interesting to me and it has 15 and 25 markers which remind me too much of igcse history and i dont like fully essay based subjcts.
ive spoken to freinds, family and tecahers and ive written out pros and cons lists but i cant decide. any advice on what to choose based off my other subjects and what i enjoy and stuff?
also what do unis like in a level combos? bcs if i do further maths is that too much maths and do i end up looking like i am only skilled at maths. and if i do psych is it a waste of time or is it a useful extra?
Thanks

What do you want to do after a levels?
Unless you are aiming for a mathsy degree (eg: econ/engineering/physics/maths/comp sci) you have no need for a fourth subject. The only sensible fourth to take would be further maths and that is not needed unless you want to do one of the above mathsy degrees.
Does you school offer EPQ? Thats a great way to continue a subject like DT or psych without doing a fourth.

So im starting 4 a levels next year.
I know for certain im gonna do Maths, Physics and Spanish.
I want to take a fourth one but im stuck.
Im thinking about further maths. but i know its super hard. and since my subjects are very maths based thats a lot of maths. Howveer, fm would fit in very nicely with maths and physics. and it is valuable and i also do FM GCSE so i do have some prior knowledge, the jump wouldnt be as bad as it would without fm gcse.
I also want to take psych. i do it at gcse level and i get good grades. i also really enjoy it. however i dont want to take it further, im not interetsed in a career in psych or anything that requires it - its more of a hobby. but again i cant choose an a level based off a hobby becayse i need top grades as i am aiming for top unis. also it really doesnt match nicely with my other subjects - does that matter?
I was considering DT (design tech) bcs it is sounds like something id enjoy. i love making stuff and crafting but at the same time i HATE coursework like so much. also i dont want to waste all my frees in a dt workshop.
I was considering econ but its lowkey not that interesting to me and it has 15 and 25 markers which remind me too much of igcse history and i dont like fully essay based subjcts.
ive spoken to freinds, family and tecahers and ive written out pros and cons lists but i cant decide. any advice on what to choose based off my other subjects and what i enjoy and stuff?
also what do unis like in a level combos? bcs if i do further maths is that too much maths and do i end up looking like i am only skilled at maths. and if i do psych is it a waste of time or is it a useful extra?
Thanks

Well do you have any idea of what you want to apply to in y13 such as university courses? Some courses might have specific subject requirements or subjects that are more favoured.
About the FM thing, if you do AQA FM gcse then that does not help with FM a level at all, the only ones that would help are OCR FSMQ and Edexcel IGCSE FM, and even they they don't really help FM, but Maths at A level.
As a Y13 who did 4 subjects and and EPQ and ended up dropping FM 3 months ago, i would say don't do FM as a fourth unless you genuinely need to. FM is a lot of work as well and requires lots of practice but you can still do well in it if you actually have time to. I guess physiscs mechanics would also help with Further Mechanics as well (a lot of the time that me and the people in my FM class were stuck on mechanics questions, we went and asked the physics teacher).
I get what you're saying about DT (because I hate as well) but i don't actually have any comments about DT atp i might edit this post later to talk about that
Also you said that you don't like fully essay based subjects, well psych A level is pretty just essays (i have a few friends who do psych)
I know a lot of people who initially took 4 subjects then dropped down to 3, so if you're still a bit indecisive about subjects then you could do that. I also know some people start Year 12 with 5 subjects and then drop to 4 after a few months, but I honestly wouldn’t recommend it. It spreads your time too thin at the start, and that’s when you really need to be building a strong foundation in each subject.

Hey, honestly, you’re in a really good position.
Maths, Physics and Spanish is already a strong combination.
From what you’ve said, Further Maths actually sounds like the best fit for you. You already enjoy maths-based subjects; you’ve done it at GCSE, and it links really well with Maths and Physics. It is also highly respected by top universities, especially if you are considering anything STEM-related.
I wouldn’t worry about it being too much maths. Universities will not see it that way. They will just see that you are strong in quantitative subjects, which is a positive.
Psychology sounds like something you enjoy, which is great, but since you do not want to pursue it further, it is more of a nice extra rather than something that strengthens your application. DT and Economics do not really sound like a good fit for you based on what you said, especially if you do not enjoy coursework or essay-based subjects.
One option is to start with Further Maths as your fourth subject and then drop it later if it becomes too much. A lot of people do that, and it gives you flexibility.
At the end of the day, the most important thing is getting top grades, so choose something you can do well in, and that supports where you are heading.
Hope that helps.
Kind regards,
Faith
ULaw Ambassador and MA Law Conversion Student

this is really helpful thanks. in terms of after a levels i have no clue what i wwant to do. probably something with maths and physics. for FM igcse i do edexcel and its super hard and im not necessarily doing the best, like im not getting 8s or 9s, so doing fm would definately be something i need to put a lot of time into. also i dont want fm to take time away from my main subjects as its is more of an extra. also what subjects did you do with fm?
about psych yeah if its very different from gcse and essay based then i might rule that out.
My school only offers 4 max so i have to choose only one.
obviously its good to choose something that u enjoy and that ill get the best grades in but im also thinking about ahead like uni and courses. the thing is i have no idea what i want to do, like ive looked at courses but i havent found anything that i want to do yet

yeah im probs gona take an EPQ on psych. the thing is i have no idea what i want to do after a levels, im honestly just choosing subjects i like. i get what ur saying about 4th subject not being needed but i feel like maths physics and spanish doesnt open a lot of pathways, like i just feel like i need something else

I also did edexcel igcse and it does actually help quite a bit with maths a level from my experience.
The subjects i did were Bio, Chem Maths and Further Maths (i'm an aspiring medic), but I didn't need FM at all, literally for medicine, universities say that they dont look at FM at all becasue it overlaps with maths but for a lot of other uni courses it's different. I chose FM purely for enjoyment so I somewhat think it might be better for you to go with DT, but I understand your whole thing with coursework tho, i personally hate coursework as well, so maybe as @DerDracologe suggested above, you coulld look into an EPQ? The thing is is its also technically like 'coursework, being an independent project that you are supervised on, and you do have to make sure that you record your work throughout. You could research something specifically in DT thst you've always wanted to know more about as well, asking the subject teacher/s for help. Thats's pretty much what I did with my EPQ becuase I actually based mine on Gothic literature, kinda randomly.
FM could help when applying to top unis but only if you can actually get good grades in it tho
Also its onlty really helpful if you want to go into lke a mathsy degree
@DerDracologe can we tag someone who does A level psychology here, i can't think of anyone off the top of my head who does and I think we do need a psychology perspective here

when you did edexcel fm gcse were u doing well in it? like getting top grades? (if u dont mind me asking) because while it will help im not super confident in it
yea dt would be very different from my other subjects in terms of how its assessed. i think ill do an EPQ. gothic literature is a very cool interesting topic to choose and since i can do it on anything then i could just do it on dt or psych
again i feel like knowing what i want to do would help a lot but i kinda know that i want to do something with maths but not pure maths ykwim like i dont want to do a degree on maths only, like i want something that involves a bit of maths. also again idk if ill get good grades in fm, especially since i want to go to a top uni so i cant risk it for fm if its not going to be useful. i mean at the end of the day i can always drop but i really dont want to have to drop and start a new subject once the course has alreday started.
thank u sm for all the help, like genuinely u have been more helpful than any teacher

Yh, but i had to put the most work into it out of all my GCSEs tho, I ended up getting an 8, a few marks from a 9. I think it will help regardless tho becuase you're exposed to lots of concepts in fm gcse which are then like brought back in a level maths so you'll have time to work on stuff and get better. I think just really make sure that you're understanding the concepts and why you do things in fm, becuase a lot more of that understanding is tested in a level maths.
Yh the EPQ is on any topic of your chiose but you do hae to either write a 5000 word report to like bring together your findinggs or you could do an artefact (which I think would work more if you did it on DT ) where you physically make something and then have to write a 2000 word essay so there's that, also doing all of your own research. For my school, We did ours over Y12 and tbh quite a few people had finished theirs by Y13 but my supervisor allowed an extensions for the people who were early entry (applying to oxbridge or medicine applicants). Schools do EPQ at different times tho, I know some that do EPQ in Y13 so that might be something to consider.

Yh, but i had to put the most work into it out of all my GCSEs tho, I ended up getting an 8, a few marks from a 9. I think it will help regardless tho becuase you're exposed to lots of concepts in fm gcse which are then like brought back in a level maths so you'll have time to work on stuff and get better. I think just really make sure that you're understanding the concepts and why you do things in fm, becuase a lot more of that understanding is tested in a level maths.
Yh the EPQ is on any topic of your chiose but you do hae to either write a 5000 word report to like bring together your findinggs or you could do an artefact (which I think would work more if you did it on DT ) where you physically make something and then have to write a 2000 word essay so there's that, also doing all of your own research. For my school, We did ours over Y12 and tbh quite a few people had finished theirs by Y13 but my supervisor allowed an extensions for the people who were early entry (applying to oxbridge or medicine applicants). Schools do EPQ at different times tho, I know some that do EPQ in Y13 so that might be something to consider.

Yh, but i had to put the most work into it out of all my GCSEs tho, I ended up getting an 8, a few marks from a 9. I think it will help regardless tho becuase you're exposed to lots of concepts in fm gcse which are then like brought back in a level maths so you'll have time to work on stuff and get better. I think just really make sure that you're understanding the concepts and why you do things in fm, becuase a lot more of that understanding is tested in a level maths.
Yh the EPQ is on any topic of your chiose but you do hae to either write a 5000 word report to like bring together your findinggs or you could do an artefact (which I think would work more if you did it on DT ) where you physically make something and then have to write a 2000 word essay so there's that, also doing all of your own research. For my school, We did ours over Y12 and tbh quite a few people had finished theirs by Y13 but my supervisor allowed an extensions for the people who were early entry (applying to oxbridge or medicine applicants). Schools do EPQ at different times tho, I know some that do EPQ in Y13 so that might be something to consider.

i'm sure someone else with more experience can be more helpful as i'm only halfway through psychology a level, but actually i'd recommend psychology if you enjoyed the gcse. i haven't found it's essay-heavy at all personally; there's no coursework, and although the exams are mostly short and long answer written questions they're based on knowledge - no ambiguous opinion-based evaluation or analysis is needed (unlike history for example). it's more maths/statistics/research methods heavy than the gcse (nothing you'll have an issue with i imagine), but other than that i'd say the format is similar.
also - even if it's not such a 'neat' fit as further maths, it'll be far easier to get good marks in a subject you have a passion for and *want* to study. at the end of the day, specific university course requirements do of course vary but generally a high mark in a slightly mismatched subject is better than a low mark in a subject that 'goes better' with your others.

also if fm isn't a subject you're super confident in, and you don't want to go for a pure maths based degree at university it might not be worth doing for you. psych isn't required or preferred necessarily by most universities, as someone above said, but it's also not useless, especially if it's as a 4th a level. it'll provide breadth to your a-levels, both in terms of university applications (particularly valuable as you don't know what you want to do yet, so it'll give some flexibility there compared to fm) and also your experience and enjoyment of them if you prefer it.