DS's A level choices - your opinion please

Thanks Superpug - yes, I meant the TC website (electronic 'doc'!).

Hmmm... just read OP's last reply. Of course, depends on college and I hope she has received useful information from her son's school.
History is a difficult one in terms of Oxbridge - dsis found that it was a tough course which perhaps didn't live up to her expectations.

Sorry, I'm referring to the Trinity College website. Perhaps misleading in terms of not being entirely clear, in relation to a number of subjects studied by students.
Not as relevant for OP but I think that schools need to really look at the links other universities have with organisations such as Airbus etc. I don't think Oxbridge is the end and be all...

In what way do you think the doc is slightly misleading SuperPug?

Quite often people seem to advise 'don't do three essay subjects, too many essays'. Which could be a reason to do a science as one of the three I suppose,

Errol, I agree, I think it is slightly misleading.
I think there's also another element which is tricky.
I was one of two people studying a particular subject at my college. I had four traditional A Levels from a school with excellent results. My friend had so called less suitable A Levels from a school with little history of sending pupils to Oxbridge. Inevitably, I think that this is taken into account. If a student attends a school with a history of sending pupils to Oxbridge, there's possibly less flexibility when choosing A Levels, both from the school and the view of the admission tutor.
From experience, they may say they will accept the "less suitable" A Levels but this appears to create issues for some pupils when they apply.
I personally think that Psychology sounds great and shouldn't be considered in the same way as much "softer" A Levels. However, I don't have any experience of teaching or studying it.

Here is a link to advice on A Level choice and facilitating subjects..
www.russellgroup.ac.uk/for-students/school-and-college-in-the-uk/subject-choices-at-school-and-college/

Thats already been discussed upthread, I think Pug - according to that, for history there you need History, plus one more from list A1 or A2 and another from an A or B list. So - assuming he actually is good at chemistry, that can work for the A list, and the psychology is on the B list. There's no indication there at all that A2 subjects are preferable to A1 for Arts degrees (apart obv from specific ones for some courses). Do you think that document is misleading or wrong? (It is worth noting that individual colleges have slightly different specific requirements for some courses).

Look at the Trinity College, Cambridge recommended A Levels page.
Psychology and Politics are not List A subjects according to them. Obviously different in terms of colleges etc. but from experience, they're more lenient with schools who may not be able to offer so called traditional subjects.
If he's set on studying History at Oxbridge I'm afraid this sounds like a bad choice - History, English, R.S., Philosophy, Languages (for translation of sources) should be the A Levels he's considering.
Chemistry is notoriously difficult if you're not naturally good at science, Psychology is a softer A Level and also quite science based.
This is from my own experience and teaching pupils at two well known London day schools.

Russell Group recommend two facilitating but do not require them for many of their courses.

The one to go, if any, would be Psychology. It isn't needed even if you want to study at university.

But ultimately enjoyment is key and it's his choice to make. Why is he doing 4? Universities are only asking for 3.

Anecdotally you hear of people who found maths quite easy at GCSE, got A, but then found that they had reached their 'limit' at A level and didn't do particularly well (to put it mildly)*

I did GCSE before the A* came along but I got an A in my GCSE mock and thought I might do it for A level. My Maths teacher told my mum at a parents evening to put me off, saying I'd only get a D if I did A level!

I ended up with a B at GCSE and did all humanities/languages for A level.

I'm afraid hard scientists will still see Psychology as science lite. It's trying to change it's image and that is why the better degrees want maths as an entry requirement but it has a long way to go before it will be seen as a "proper" science.

Cambridge will make offers to those doing history and politics A level in some cases - what else have they done? Doesnt mean your chance of an offer isnt greater if you've done something other than politics.

Minimum requirements stated on university websites and what they normally take in practise can vary quite a lot. So your son would stand little chance of being accepted at Cambridge for a Psychology course without more science. It's not impossible (although the Natural Sciences route is obviously out) but it is unlikely. On many other top level courses they prefer you to have studied maths rather than psychology. He might still get an offer but he could either have to pick up at least maths AS level later or do a less popular course.

There isn't a general gist here because people dont know your son. If he, like many teenagers, will only work at subjects he likes then its better to have 3 good grades in poor subject choices than 3 poor grades in good subject choices. It will limit degree choices but few employers require specific degrees, some do care about the perceived status of the university.

"Thanks", not "thank ladies".

Thank ladies purple. Ignore me..,,

What does the school advise?

bike you can do a chemistry degree with just chemistry a level from the sciences...
www.nottingham.ac.uk/ugstudy/courses/chemistry/bsc-chemistry.aspx

Chemistry is hard, and doesn't really compliment the other subjects, but on its own won't be enough for further study in sciences. It seems a bit pointless as the only Science.

One problem is that it's not always easy to know if you are 'able' at maths in A level terms, before you start. Anecdotally you hear of people who found maths quite easy at GCSE, got A*, but then found that they had reached their 'limit' at A level and didn't do particularly well (to put it mildly). I've heard the same can happen between the old AS and A2.

That doesn't seem to be so much the case with some other subjects.

Able students are recommended to do english/maths A level. Personally I would avoid an 'ology' with the exception of biology. I did maths, physics and chemistry a level and found chemistry the easiest of the three.

If he did psychlogy and liked it the degree is a very popular choice as it's science lite with transferable skills.
Just wanted to pick up on this. This is not forcibly true. I studied Psychology that was part of the School of Sciences and as such, had to study 5 other science subjects and Maths. Believe me, Neuropsychology wasn't very 'lite' and as matter of fact was a class we took along side medical students!

Is the jump from IGCSE to A level Maths bigger than the GCSE/A level jump Titchy? Asking purely out of interest as have no dc interested in doing maths a level! But had always slightly thought igcse maths was slightly harder - is this not the case?

One thing that occurs to me reading this, and the discussion of facilitating/preferred/list X, Y, this that and the other, is that it is not surprising that some dcs still don't do the 'right' combos for universities - with so many subjects available and 'lists', it is by no means easy for them to work out what universities really want. Ok dcs should be using a bit of their own initiative to research it, but they're making the choices at the same time as contending with mocks, real GCSEs etc, so not that easy.
Would be interesting to know how much this is a factor in the differential rates of success in applying to 'top' universities.

Chemistry is a really really hard A-Level. Psychology and Politics are not facilitating subjects as already mentioned. Psychology (reformed) has even more maths than before. How about English Lit (facilitating) or Classical Civilisation (not facilitating but works well with History and has similar assessment objects eg evaluation)? What is his GCSE results profile?

My only other thought on this Maths dilemma is that now 3 A levels from Y12 is becoming more standard, is that universities may need to change their position for potential students wishing to take numerate degrees e.g. Economics, Pyschology, Biochemistry, Biology and Chemistry who don't have A level or AS level Maths. This could be taking a maths course containing the relevant Maths needed for that subject in their first year.

Sounds like dds option. She too is an essay based kid. However her teachers tried to push her to do maths because they said doing all essay based subjects can be hard work with the amount of essays they need to do. Nevertheless dd ignored their advice and is currently doing English, history and Religious studies (could only choose 3) and she finds it stressful doing 3 essay based subjects as she constantly has essays to do! And she has multiple teachers for English and history (how it's taught at her school) so do bear that in mind. Maths might be a good option to relieve him of the essays and if he's good at it why not.

There will always be relevance in later life. Plus, it's confirmation of cleverness.

How snobby.

It's a confirmation of maths ability. Plenty of people are clever without the ability to solve differential equations.