Thoughts on DD's A Level choices

I don't think it makes sense to do either economics or physics without maths. She really is making it harder for herself. Also, not sure about whether she is really keeping her options open because I do not think she could do either physics or economics at degree level without maths (which is fine if she would not want to do those degrees anyway). Not sure about psychology as a choice but that is mainly because I do not really know what it involves as an A level and whether it is considered a soft option. I think Eng, maths, economics and physics would be a better choice. I did a law degree with a broad base of A levels (maths, physics, Spanish and history) and actually found it very helpful because law exams are a combination of essay questions and problem questions.

I think they look good. My daughter's is just going in to her final year of a law degree and her A levels were Maths, Biology, Law and Government and Politics. The advice we were getting was that a range a subjects is good and that they must not be soft option subjects. They like Maths/Physics and also a subject that shows that you can write essays so I think they sound good.

Cross post with titchy :) The DD wants to read law, so the idea of a physics degree is irrelevant. I'm amazed you think she's ruled herself out of a physics A level titchy! Lots of kids at our school do it! She doesn't need to re-think at all. Law admissions tutors like physics, because of the particular thinking skills it trains.

DD1 did English Literature, History, Geography and Physics and read law.

DS1 did Physics without maths and got an A*. DS3 is doing Physics without maths and has just got an A at AS. It's perfectly do-able without maths.

OP, it's a perfectly good set of choices.

She's ruled herself out of a physics degree (and possibly a physics A level!) by not doing maths. Surprised they'll let her tbh.

So she needs to rethink that one as others have said and think about a language or history.

Did they offer any guidance or an interview for the sixth form place?

My dd started off doing English, History, Theatre Studies and Physics, because she was absolutely entranced by physics at GCSE. She only lasted a term- she found it incredibly hard and her maths just weren't good enough to keep up with all the kids doing A level Maths and Further Maths.

Physics without maths is unusual. I'd go with mintbaileys suggestion and consider a language or maybe History instead and then drop Psychology after AS. That can be quite mathsy too but still very do-able without it.

I'd also be worried about the lack of maths to support physics. DS2 considered doing A level physics and you had to do maths with it at least to AS. If she finds it difficult as a result of this and wants to drop physics at the end of year 12 then she's leaving herself with just one facilitating subject.

The advice my Ds had is that if you want to study economics at a higher level , you need maths. Or swap economics a level for maths . If she is good at essay subjects and wants to do law - could she swap psychology for history?

Obviously she is well rounded but if she is good at essay based subjects , it look to me like she has 1 in that mix. Or if she likes economics and physics it looks like she should be doing maths . But others will know better,

My instinct would be to say that the selection there is a little too broad-based, but I'm no expert. It shows that her abilities are very versatile, but d be concerned that there isn't enough of a weighting in any one area to allow her to get onto any particular university course.

I'd be interested to see what others say though.