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Original poster

4 A levels ?

80 replies

Min3rva · 30/10/2018 15:46

I am interested to know if there is any benefit to studying 4 subjects at A level anymore. My Dd keen to do maths and further maths but I think she'd need to have another 2 subjects as surely maths would only count as 1?

OP posts:
BillywigSting · 30/10/2018 16:18

4 a levels is a LOT of work too. Maths, further maths and two others might not be as bad as some other combinations but I'd be careful about her stretching herself too thin.

I did maths and the 3 sciences and that was bloody hard going. I very nearly packed in biology and would have got better results doing just the three

Blessthekids · 30/10/2018 16:14

Might be an idea to first check out the course she wants to do at University then work backwards from there. Many University courses give offers based on 3 A-levels so doing 4 may prove to be pointless.

riotlady · 30/10/2018 15:56

Universities base their offers on 3 a levels, so you are far better off working hard to do really well in 3 than quite well in 4. Further maths counts as an a level in its own right.

I did 5 as levels and school pushed me to do 4 a levels, but I refused and did 3. I still ended up at Oxford.

Here’s a useful guide if your daughter is aiming for a top uni- www.trin.cam.ac.uk/undergraduate/applying/a-level-subject-combinations/

TeenTimesTwo · 30/10/2018 15:56

Double maths was always the exception to '3 A levels' even in the 80s. The only people I knew then who did 4 all did double maths (and no, it wasn't just people on my maths degree!)

TeenTimesTwo · 30/10/2018 15:54

It counts as 2 but for an able mathematician it may well be less work than 2, so there might be bandwidth for another one.

I did 2 maths & physics a million years ago and went on to do a maths degree.

What does slightly worry me is 2 maths plus 1 other isn't actually very broad so may cut down course option compared with eg Maths, Physics, Chemistry or Maths, Chemistry, Geography.

However I'm not personally up to speed with current requirements for uni. The two teenagers I know have both done 2 maths + 2 other subjects. (But both had near perfect GCSE results).