Physics/Maths A level

[Milkandacookie]

My daughter has heard you shouldn't do physics A level without maths A level. Is that right?

She'd like to do chemistry physics and psychology....

She could do chemistry physics and maths but is quite keen on psychology.

She also wants to go to a "good" uni and is worried she might not get an A in maths (predicted an 8 at GCSE)

I am not sure psychologists earn all that much money.

If money is her goal, better to keep the options of the hard sciences open by taking Maths. Almost all Engineering courses and the more competitive Economics courses at Uni require maths.

If she wants a taster of Psychology, she can read the A Level textbook. Doing Chemistry, Physics and Maths at Uni still allows her to do Psychology at Uni if she fancies it.

Be guided by the entry requirements for the course she wants. 🤷‍♀️

My second daughter does physics in an Aus school, she’s about to start the first term’s work for her final year (she’s also come top of her physics class, I’m proud 😀).

In her hard science cohort maths would be preferred over psychology, but because of the different way uni entry works. Stop reading here if you’re not interested in how another system works!

In Australia there are 3 different types of maths at pre uni level, general, methods and specialist. Specialist maths is really only for those you want to do maths/engineering or want a really good ATAR. I don’t think anyone is doing physics without maths but could be because they’re maximising their ATAR score.

Students finish the year with a ATAR score, rather than individual grades. Most students will do 5-6 subjects, then the ATAR takes the top 5 into consideration. Our largest local uni is competitive, so the scores required to get into really popular degrees are higher than others, I think nursing needs 80 something, which is higher than most. A basic BA needs 70, Bachelor of science 80, law is around 90.

Medicine’s official requirement is high 90s, but no one will get in without 99 point something, ie being in the top 1 percent. Academic scholarships are offered for some degrees for students with ATARs of 98-99, although I think to entice some bright children away from medicine and into other courses.

My daughter goes to an academic private school, in her year at least 5 should get in that top 1%. On this year’s grade prediction she’s sitting around 99.50 - all of her raw marks in her two maths and chem/physics are 95% or higher.

She’s not trying to get into medicine but of her cohort who are, they are deliberately choosing harder subjects that scale well. If you do well in a hard science, it scales up - an 80 in physics will scale up to around 86, an 80 in psychology will scale down to the low 70s. Some languages scale well, as does literature, philosophy and literature extension but generally academic children going for a competitive course would choose maths methods over psychology.

It's relative isn't it. It's a higher entry point than teaching/nursing/OT/other careers she's looked at.

She just wants to live better than us, not have a career in finance. Originally she wanted to go into medicine then changed her mind when she thought about the practicalities! She liked the idea of psychiatry but not completing a lot of medical training to get there.

I much prefer the Oz system of doing 5-6 subjects and even more that you only have to "count" some of them. She could have done psychology then! It's silly they have to choose 3 at 15/16 here. From the little I know too of friend in Australia it's only the last couple of years that "count" too. We have high stakes exams at 16 and 18 so literallh everything they study in lessons between 14-18 has to be learnt and revised for exams at 16 (in 9/10 subjects) and at 18. It's too intense.

Psychology is one of the most popular A levels here (and degrees I think) so I'm not worried about it's "status" amongst other science subjects as she's planning to do another science.

Interestingly for medicine here for the ones I've looked at -

Southampton want biology plus a science (could be psychology). Not fussed about third

Oxford want chemistry plus (biology /physics/Maths) not fussed about third

Manchester want (biology OR chemistry)
Plus one of (biology/chemistry/psychology/maths). Not fussed about third.

So no worries with the combination bizarrely (I had no idea you didn't have to have biology to do medicine..) if she wanted to do medicine but she isn't aiming for medicine anymore!

If she knew what she wanted to do that would make it easier but who does at 15!

I like it too, I’m not native to it but it seems pretty good. In QLD only the final year “counts” (year 12) with a mix of internal assessment/externals.

The tactical choosing of subjects is only for those who want/need to be in the top few percent, most children just pick what interests them. To get into uni from school, you have do English in some form though, and some form of maths until at least year 11.

Wow even better just one year assessed rather than 4. And more freedom to do the subjects you want to for the sake of learning before that final year.

We are far too restrictive in the UK and far too much pressure for too long with exams.