Help with a level choices

To the PP who said French isn’t a good A level for Law, it absolutely is. Together with History and maybe English (and any other academic subject) it would be perfect! Law and French is also a great degree.

The lack of two MFLs at A level reduces choices for joint honours if both languages you wish to study are not offered ab initio. In some universities this would be French and Spanish and possibly German. But not all. Therefore choices would be limited. In addition some DC with only one MFL A level are very apprehensive about studying ab initio. It’s very hard. With more languages studied, ab initio is perhaps an easier choice to make.

Also there would be nothing against a young person studying 2x MFL and History at A level and applying for History. If they applied for History and a MFL joint humours, the university might be pleased to see them as MFL departments are not awash with great candidates.

Exeter has reduced its MFL provision and is recruiting MFL students. Oxbridge would not be so lenient. I can see that Exeter require students, who are taking 3 languages at degree level, to have studied 2 at A level. Therefore their Combined degree seems similar to anyone else’s Joint Honours. So with one MFL A level you can do an additional one ab initio. They offer French, German, Spanish and a couple of others so they are flexible in order to recruit. Some universities would not have ab initio courses for French, German snd Spanish.

I would agree with PPs who've said to do 'traditional' subjects - these are still viewed far more favourably by most universities than more specialist subjects. They also leave many doors open (so, for example, biology is broader than psychology) and there is really little point in specialising at this stage. Keep it generic. Languages can mix with pretty much anything; you say not science or maths, so humanities, arts and MFL are all options? I would suggest then that she starts to narrow down what she likes in those areas, aiming for a good balance in the type of thinking they require. Look at the assessment objectives of the A levels for an idea of the kinds of thinking that are being measured - you can find these in the exam specs, it shouldn't matter too much which board you look at but if you know which boards the 6th forms are using, that would be ideal.
One of the problems with A level is that lots of young people find that a subject they loved at GCSE changes or their taste for it does. So sometimes you have to have an open mind and be prepared to change within the first few weeks.

@BubblesBuddy
If she likes languages, always do 2 at A level. One limits choices.
I discussed this with 6th forms when we were choosing A levels for my DS. While it definitely used to be the case, apparently it no longer is and universities are very much more accommodating for anyone who applies to study MFL these days. My friend's daughter only did French and is going on to do combined languages at Exeter. So I'm not sure it is actually the case

I did two languages at A level - back in the day - and went on to do a degree that wasn’t a language. Languages are academic subjects, involving essay writing and analysis and literary criticism. Two languages is common combination at A level, though I think it’s also fine to have just one. At my DC’s secondary school - inner city comprehensive- there were five languages on offer. Taking two, or even three, at GSCE level was quite normal for lots of children.

Yes, that is a shame. Personally I feel 16 is too early to specialise on only 3 or 4 subjects!

The problem being that English students only do 3 or sometimes 4 subjects, unlike on the continent.

Of course you can take 2 languages at A level! If you're good at languages it's not a problem, in fact they can complement each other well.

In most continental European countries students HAVE to take two foreign languages, along with Maths, Science etc for their age 18 exams!

If you want to do medicine with two languages, you can't.

Presumably, only if two out of three? Admittedly, I haven't had a detailed look at every UK medical school's entry requirements, but are there actually those which say, e.g. Required subjects: Chemistry, plus one of Maths, Physics, Biology. If four A levels being taken, candidates offering more than one MFL will not be considered?

You couldn't be further from the truth!

And the be honest, even if you still do the course you want, two languages isn't going to help you unless your uni course is a language. French is not going to help you if you study law at uni, but geography and history might.

Whether you do 2 languages obviously depends on the course you want to do next.

Some subjects have no requirements, duh. But others do. If you want to do medicine with two languages, you can't.

If a sixth former doesn't know what to do, taking two languages is a bad move. It definitely closes of certain subjects of you do two very similar ones at Alevel.

If you enjoy and are good at languages and want to study them for A level, it's not a terrible idea in the slightest to do 2 languages at A level, if your school/college offers that. Language a levels are well regarded and seen as rigorous, and would not affect admission to "academic" courses such as Law. Having said that, if your DD genuinely has no preference, maths or science A Levels probably rule out nothing at this stage.

DD's school didn't give them the opportunity to take 2 MFL at any stage. Most MFL teachers could teach French, Spanish & German, but they could only take French or Spanish to GCSE. Even in year 7 they were put in a French or Spanish stream and could only switch between the two if there were particular family links.

Nothing at all wrong with doing two MFL A levels - they were classed as facilitating subjects on the old system. But in most cases people can only do one, and I fail to see how it is remotely restrictive. Ok if you don't have German A level you can't do it at post A level standard at uni but a lot of unis have beginners courses.

Dd did 2 mfl!

I don't know anyone who's done two languages at alevel and it's also a terrible idea. It gives you an extremely narrow path and you won't be able to do any of the more academic courses.

berlinbabylon: for MFL degrees, you have far wider choice if you have studied 2 at A level. This is obvious. It leads directly to joint honours MFL and ensures you should be able to cope with ab initio. It’s also not going to stop you studying Law as long as you put History, say, with the languages.

It’s no coincidence that there is a dearth of MFL grads from state schools. They have poor preparation for the degrees. As your post demonstrates.

Just to clarify, I did mean SACU!

UCAS?
www.ucas.com/undergraduate/what-and-where-study/ucas-undergraduate-what-study

Try SACU and play around with the A level tool under students. That will show you degree programmes students went into last year and what subjects they used. You can click on the degree names in the cloud thats generated for more info. Hope that makes sense.

You need the RG Informed Choices site. It's designed to help students mot get pushed into taking (say) law, business studies and accountancy when (say) maths, economics and history may give them more options in the future.

www.informedchoices.ac.uk