It is really feasible to do 4 "hard" A levels?

Yes Lonicera that's correct - they're reformed and therefore don't count towards the A2. Or whatever anyone wants to call it :)

Agreed, but DD has masses of dance and drama level 3 qualifications that have a value attached to them, so I was looking out of curiosity - not important on their own, but as DD dropped Dance GCSE I would like to know their worth.
Note DD is Y11 so A levels are still ahead of us

But points are irrelevant for mid/high tariff universities, which make offers based on specific grades in A levels. (They are only relevant for such universities in that the average points of entrants is used in league tables of universities.)

Also I read that AS will typically be regarded as 40% of an A2 in the new system, something I read in UCAS while trying to understand the new points system

lonicera as I understand it now AS is a stand alone exam and results don't contribute to the final full A level grade. They are different courses from each other.

The subjects DD is studying all have a new syllabus so that means they are uncoupled AS levels?

Lonicera I meant ASs in reformed subjects as opposed to eg Maths, Drama etc.

They aren't hard if you're good at them. Physics and chemistry are much easier than biology if you are good at them, because you have to learn less and understand it well enough to apply. Biology you have to learn much more information. Art , music ad drama etc are large workloads so combining with them would be tricky.

I think with maths and physics, you need to have a good natural ability (as well as putting some work in) otherwise they are hard at A level.
But there are overlaps.

Easy combination. Serious overlap with all of them. In Ireland we typically do 7 subjects (best 6 are counted for points). I did Irish, English, French, Maths, Physics, Chemistry & Biology.

I'm not sure what you mean by uncoupled AS levels. Is it that they don't count for 50% of the marks?

There are changes afoot at the school anyway as the headteacher is leaving, and as DD is staring year 13 it won't concern us after next year (hopefully).

@goodbyestranger some students (and their parents) won't be told.

Lonicera some of the worst funded schools did uncoupled AS levels initially and then stopped abruptly. Poor finances/ funding doesn't imply anything about the quality of leadership or strategic decision making.

The BMAT is marked differently now than it used to be. Maths and further maths much more crucial than essay writing.

Any student struggling as much as you imply needs to be told noble, not advised.

@LoniceraJaponica - good point. Four years ago the second most common degree destination for our English Literature classes after English was Medicine. An essay based subject can be handy for the ethics element of the BMAT.
However, what is vitally important for Medicine is to get the best grades you can. That might mean 3 or 4, STEM or a mixture. Advice will vary as students vary.

"If STEM subjects are what he is good at and interested in, they're less 'hard' to him than languages or humanities. There's also quite an overlap in maths/physics and Physics/Chemistry so they complement each other and less content than three unrelated subjects."

Maybe that's why one of the med schools we looked at encourage students to take a humanities or arts subject along with two science subjects, because they are more of a stretch?

Sorry, but your reasoning is illogical.

If STEM subjects are what he is good at and interested in, they're less 'hard' to him than languages or humanities. There's also quite an overlap in maths/physics and Physics/Chemistry so they complement each other and less content than three unrelated subjects.

All three science A-Levels plus maths will open so many doors for him, is he interested in dentistry, medicine or being a vet at all?

The only one out of your list that may be useful if it is at all interested and if it is from science/mathematical point of view, is economics instead of maybe biology because the others fit together better, if perhaps he has any interest i banking or the civil service.

@noblegiraffe - same at our place. January modules were just what some of ours needed. We will replace AS with internal exams but they won't take them as seriously (I didn't!). Our current year 12s need to get certain grades to continue, I'm not sure what we will do next year. Still, I'll be on mat leave for that.

That's interesting noble. At DD's school anyone getting less than 3 Ds will not be able to progress into year 13.

I am enjoying your contributions BTW. It is good to get a teacher's view.

I think what we will see is what happened when they got rid of January modules. Loads of kids failed those and got a kick up the backside to do some actual work. When they were replaced with internal exams failure was written off as 'I didn't revise properly for them because they were just mocks', I'll try harder for the real things (honest).

I'm surprised that DD's school still did AS exams this year then. Their finances are really dire. The school is one of the most underfunded in the country.

We continued with the uncoupled AS to start with for a variety of reasons (including Oxbridge liked 'real' grades rather than predictions). Not entering an external exam in year 12 will of course save a LOT of money!

Advice can be given, it isn't always taken.