Any knowledgeable people out there, advice on A-levels

This is a helpful website: www.informedchoices.ac.uk/

It's from the Russell Group, you can put in A level choices and see what degrees you can do from them. It also works the other way round, put in a degree subject and see what A levels it requires.

My eldest has just started at Uni, youngest same stage as yours. We found it really helpful as a starting point.

Economics will help your dd to make sense of this crazy world we live in..Its a valuable tool for life.

Kids I know who have done economics have found it hard without maths and/or if they got a 7 or under at gcse maths. It's tricky but therefore highly regarded.

Languages are a big jump from GCSEs, especially if you don't have a natural aptitude and are instead just intelligent/hard working. Back when a levels were a bit easier I got an A* at gcse but then struggled to get a B at a level!

She hasn't even got her mock gcses to go on yet! It's a lot different t o homework and end of topic tests.
I think you need to wait

Hi,

Just a thought if your DD enjoys Maths she may find Economics easier than English. That might mean a higher grade at the end of the day.

My DC Is in year 12 studying Economics, English and Maths. Out of all these subjects Economics seems to involve the least work.

Your not you're ruddy autocorrect!

You say that you're dd is not yet sure what she wants to do later. That is usual but I do think that it's worth you investing some time with her to think about it and which careers most appeal. It will avoid her dropping a subject that will rule out a future career choice. Eg. Physics is dropped by a lot of girls and can make them ineligible to apply to engineering courses later. It's also a good thing to have some long term goals in mind anyway. I didn't and as a result did a hopscotch of a levels and a drifting career path!

This is tricky (I speak as a parent and ex English teacher). If you love reading, Eng Lit will seem easier - if it’s a chore it will be hard. Lots of schools only offer Eng Lit A level so that may restrict choices

If you want to do sciences, more focus is better. If you fancy Social Sciences/Arts breadth is good.

Your school should offer ‘taster’ lessons post GCSE to experience the subjects and there’s usually time to swop in the first few weeks of year 12.

Beware the teachers who are to boost numbers on their courses!

My son did Maths, Physics, English & Economics A levels.
Economics was much easier for him than English Lit. Though if your daughter loves reading for pleasure plus writing long essays she may enjoy it more than he did.
He didn’t do much revision for Economics and never too much homework but still got an A. English Lit he sweated for months over the coursework and revised more but still got a B. I guess everyone’s different though.

Also, if Maths is her favourite subject then Physics is the natural partner to Maths.
So she will probably be advised by her school to take Maths, Physics & one other subject, possibly Economics or English Lit.
Plus FM if she thinks she might want to do a maths based course at Uni like a Maths or Engineering degree.

My DD is currently doing Chemistry and it's a total bitch. She regrets ever taking it. Really struggling through it so I'd say you need to be proper strong at GCSE to take that forward.

The most competitive unis will consider Economics more academic than Business studies (most unis won't care, however).
At my daughter's school the less academic pupils were encouraged to take Business studies because it is seen as an easier option than Economics.

My dd is taking maths, further maths，chemistry and biology. At the sixth form open evening the teachers advised that chemistry is the biggest jump up from GCSE and dd would agree with that. Maths and FM is a heavy workload but content so far is manageable.

Cambridge have this to say about Business Studies:
However as Cambridge does not typically offer vocational subjects, A Levels such as Business, Photography or Media Studies may not be as appropriate.

She's also not necessarily keeping science at uni open as an option by only doing one science. Really you need to figure out if she might want to do sciences in the future- if she does, doing only one science will drastically cut down options

While I agree that broadly, English is a bit of an outlier, actually for any uni place to study science, maths counts as a science. I know this bc ds2 is studying science and did biology and maths, no other science (don't think PE counts!)

I teach biology at A-level, and it is a big step up from the GCSE- at GCSE I would say for many it's the "easiest" science, and so students find it enjoyable- but the jump to A-level is wider (in my opinion) than chemistry and physics. Chemistry and physics usually start with content that's a bit more familiar and then build on it, biology is often more "in at the deep end".

There's also a lot of content to learn, especially if she's not doing another science. Biology and chemistry really support each other at A-level. She's also not necessarily keeping science at uni open as an option by only doing one science. Really you need to figure out if she might want to do sciences in the future- if she does, doing only one science will drastically cut down options.

I'm not saying that she won't do well, with 9s, but it may not be the best 3rd choice.

I'd consider English, economics and maths as a possible combination too- a lot of unis will want maths if she wants to take the economics further anyway.

You can do language or literature as A-levels. You can also do combined lang and lit - I think it's slightly less respected by unis if she wanted to go down an English route, though. Teachers will be able to advise about English language A-level, I think it's quite linguistics based and different to the GCSE, but it's worth speaking to her teachers.

In terms of what she'll enjoy, what does she enjoy now? Students who enjoy sciences and maths at GCSE tend to enjoy them at A-level. Students who like English/humanities at GCSE tend to like more essay based subjects at A-level. Maths especially I do think you have to really love it to want to take it past GCSE, it's not enough to just be good at it.

Not sure how much this helps, but I'd get her to consider broad uni options and work backwards from there!

OP I don't know a massive amount about eng lang at A level but I believe it is a lot less about the things that are on the GCSE syllabus and a lot more technical, about analysis of how language is used. (V smart ) mate of DD's took it and hated it tho I thought it sounded interesting when she spoke about it! She also took maths and psych and did a psych degree fwiw. Eng lang not required for any specific degree but I can see might be useful if you were leaning towards marketing for example.

YY re eng lit degree - for big readers only. DD finished her degree in the summer and in her first semester of year 3 she did three modules - for one of those she had to read about 10 Victorian texts (I mean Dickens, Eliot, Hardy - not easy stuff)

I would say maths and physics are the biggest step up for A level. It depends of course on whether your DC is naturally good at maths or has to work hard at it. It might be worth checking with their teachers in those subjects.

I agree that economics is a good subject to study, depending on what they want to do as a degree. It might be worth doing English if they're not sure of the direction they want to go in, but only do it at Uni if they love reading as you have to read shed loads of books but I do know two people who switched to English at Uni after hating their other subjects.

Have you thought of geography A level? A lot of people at my son's school ended up doing a geography degree as you can specialise in the social science side or the science side, depending on your interest.

I have taught both Business Studies and Economics at A Level. In my opinion, Economics is rated much higher purely because it requires a more analytical mind - it is more maths based. Business Studies is not rated highly by accountants for example, because it doesn't require much mathematical ability, but it is good if you want a career in HR or the soft side of business.

It depends on her career preferences. I teach Business Studies A Level and the AQA syllabus is more academic than you might think. There are lots of essays and case studies to analyse, and it can always be useful.