Help DD with her future please!

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DD is in Y11 and has to give in her preferences for A Levels over Xmas online. The deadline is Jan 1st for her school and she has had countless talks at school and support but she still has little knowledge of what she would like to do and what would facilitate her future etc.

She is toying with these subjects but will have to narrow them down to three.
-History
-Geography
-Spanish
-English Literature
-Drama
-Biology

Biology is the odd one out in a sea of humanities/arts

She also isn’t sure what she would like to do after University and thinks something to do with languages (she also does French but not as keen) might be good at University but she wouldn’t want to just do languages and isn't sure that she would be academically inclined enough to do something to challenging at University.

DH and I are little help as DH is in Politics but had a very maths/IT based career beforehand, which she isn’t interested in and I’m in the art world, but again she doesn’t enjoy art.

Honestly we are desperately running out of time and I can’t believe we have let her ignore the deadline for so long but have dealt with a very traumatic bereavement on DH’s side before the Xmas holidays so this was understandably not at the front of our minds.

Do you need to see her predicted GCSE grades/mock grades to help? I wasn’t sure.

This just feels terrible and poor DD is so overwhelmed.

I think she should choose what she likes the most. That way she'll apply herself.

From previous career advice that I was given at school we were encouraged to choose one across each board and due to the 6th form time table it worked out well. For example we couldn’t do french and Spanish. I took English Literature, RE and Philosophy, Classics and Biology. With that I considered several universities and careers and was accepted onto a wide variety of courses before choosing nursing. If she is unsure then maybe look at what courses she wants to do at university and then what subjects they require and then which career she might possibly want to work in. Unfortunately unless you do a profession it’s very difficult to get into certain specialist job areas. Good luck 😊

Academic here.

Spanish for sure. Having a language will put her ahead in the job market, Spanish is one of the most widely spoken in the world and will also allow her to learn other romance langs easily (esp Italian and Portugese but French and Spanish help each other out). She will be able to do another language from scratch at most universities and will also study the history, politics and literature/theatre of the culture in question at both a level and degree level - further options like postcolonial studies etc open up at degree level too so she will be able to study her other interests through the language(s) if that makes sense.

At a-level I'd go for biology and either and lit or history too to keep her options wide. If she's still undecided which route to take after a level, strongly consider Scottish universities which allow students to study a range of subjects and change them up year to year before deciding on a firm pathway.

English History Spanish and Biology or French would be the best CV wise.

Her HoY is pushing for DD to pick Biology (which she does enjoy so could do so)
Yeech
I hate when teachers try and pressure kids into doing a subject.

Biology opens lots of doors, but if she isn't as interested in it, and doesn't do well, then it won't do anything for her

Not Drama.

Only Biology if doing Geography also. Otherwise it is too out on a limb to be useful. Geography has a foot in both Science & Humanity camps.

Geog/ Spanish /

or

Biology / Geog /

She'll probably be allowed to change them later anyway. So don't get too het up about it.

Sorry only read pages 1 and 4 but my idea would be to get up some prospectuses online and ask her to look at courses at good universities. What appeals? Business degrees with a year in industry? Languages with year abroad? Something like Philosophy? Then work back from there. Broadly, if she gets into a Russell Group/Oxbridge on a course she’ll do well in there will be plenty of options.

I did Bio, French, Latin and Philosophy of Religion then ended up deciding I wanted to study Chemistry so went back and did Chemistry, Physics and Maths. I now of course don’t use my Chemistry degree at all, but it opened many doors and gave me a great start!

I would try and stimulate some longer term thinking on which doors she wants to keep open. Most of the subjects there are good solid traditional ones and shouldn’t be too limiting. Failing that, I’d keep a science, a humanity and a language (e.g. Bio, History and Spanish) to keep options open.

Also worth talking to current sixth formers about what’s easy/hard. I know when I was in sixth form Biology was one of the easier ones and Latin was considered quite a slog...imagine varies by exam board, quality of teaching etc etc...

An in-depth look into each course specification on the school website might help

Question: Can you do anything science based at university with Biology but no support such as Geography/Maths/Chemistry? I thought not, but could be wrong. Which is why I said not Biology without support.

I’d decide on a career and work backwards. The wrong degree will lock you out of certain careers and the wrong A levels will lock you out of certain degrees. Not to mention she should be doing career related work experience from the beginning so she needs to know what her goal is. Choose a career and plan a route to get there.

I suggest choosing the subjects she’s best at and most likely to achieve good grades in. A 1st is better than a 2nd, in many cases employers care less about the subject than about the grade. Having a 2:2 in a “harder” or “more interesting” subject is worthless if the employer only accepts applications from candidates with at least a 2:1.

I’d do Geography over History as I think it develops more skills that might be useful later on, but either would be an OK choice. Check the syllabus for History, though - she doesn’t want to get stuck with 2 years of an area she has zero interest in.

What she is good at and what she is most interested in? That's most important. I did biology and English A-level (against all advice), a biology degree, science communication masters and worked in the media (via science journalism)

Your daughter needs to make this decision and it needs to be what she enjoys most. There is a big jump from GCSE to A-level and it doesn’t matter how good she is at GCSE if she doesn’t enjoy the subject she’ll really struggle to push herself to revise for the exams. It gets really tedious doing exam after exam in a subject you can’t stand. I did Law at A-Level and I consistently got A’s because a lot of it was just memorising cases and applying it. I found it so tedious though and even though it was easy for me it still brought me down doing my revision. Everyone was pushing me to do law at Uni and have a career in law but two years was enough for me.

If she enjoys all the subjects equally, tell her to look at prospects.ac.uk there’s a section where you can see some careers based on degree subjects. So she can look through biology/geography/Spanish as a degree and see where it leads or look at a more specific course like economics or law and see what she needs to get on those degrees. If that doesn’t narrow it down, don’t worry about her doing history and geography. Nobody ever worries about their kid doing two science subjects. Both history and geography teach a wide range of transferable skills. History will teach how to research, write essays, reference properly, refer to multiple sources for a balanced view. Geography will bring in some data analysis, data collection and observational skills. There is quite a lot of overlap between the two subject areas, such as archaeology but lots of differences.

It’s also important to let her know, if she get the decision ‘wrong’ she can still find herself on the career path she wants. DH did biology, a language and history at A-Level, did his degree in biology. He know works in accountancy. I did geography, art and law at A-Level and geography at uni. I work in the environment field, geography being the clear route in but there are other routes in through biology, chemistry, history... it’s about the transferable skills you learn at university.

Is there anywhere local to you that would offer an international baccalaureate? I did this rather than A levels, and it offers 6 subjects not 3, plus theory of knowledge and community work which may help her focus in on her interests.
www.ibo.org/programmes/diploma-programme/

My dd is in y12

She did both geography and history at GCSE and despite getting a 7 and 8, wishes she only did one of them as they were very content heavy.

She's doing Biology at A level (got 8/8/8 at GCSE) and finding it hard. She's taking maths too as it complements biology well and biology at university level obviously involves maths. If she's not keen on maths, I'd leave out the biology.

If she's aiming for a top uni then I think Drama looks a bit meh compared to the others even though I bet it's a lot of work.

Don't forget that this probably isn't a final choice and she can probably change her options later. (Apparently it's very common to change in results day)

Enjoyment of the subject trumps grade at GCSE imo. It's a hard slog but slightly easier if you love the subject (plus the love may mean that degree choice is more likely to end up being related to that subject)

If she has the capability and interest I would definitely say do a language. If she ends up in any sort of corporate field it will be a massive plus, and also offer her opportunities to work abroad whatever she does.

History, Geography, English Lit - all much of a muchness on a UCAS application form or CV unless she wants to do a degree or job specifically linked to them.

There are obvious links though - like if she is interested in law, history is probably the better a-level. But the relevance of that depends a lot on what sort of degree or job she may want to do, so if she can she should spend time looking at that - you can get books and online tests etc to help you decide.

Another who's only read pages 1 and 4
My DD took Eng Lit, Spanish, Sociology and History; She had real problems with social anxiety and really couldn't manage Yr 12 at all. Very proud of her that after the exams she didn't attend (!) we met with her form tutor and she was allowed to repeat the year. Dropped Eng. Lit and Spanish; Kept Sociology; repeated History and took up Psychology and one other... Now in uni doing Sociology!

Point of my post is: even if she starts down one avenue, it's always possible to re-evaluate and do something different if it's not right for her.

Incidentally, my daughter in law did two languages at uni, and hasn't used them since! Another of DD's friends is working in a shop following her degree ... I do wonder sometimes why there's such a fuss about having a degree!

A language is always good.

However, I did a college course (catering and hospitality) and I can’t remember what else, I think it was English but I’m not so sure....

I’m a dental nurse now. My GCSE’s made no impact on what I wanted to do when I was older, I had absolutely no clue until I was just looking for any old job to pay rent to my parents, saw an apprenticeship for dental nursing, worked hard at it and qualified 6 years ago. It’s an amazing job and I don’t regret anything, I enjoy what I do and it’s a career.

She shouldn't have to feel so much pressure at her age. If she’s short listed her choices, just pick as many as she needs to submit then let her find her way. As time goes on she will meet people and see various different opportunities that may be to her liking. She doesn’t need to decide at 14/15.

Could your DD be given an extension, this is an important decision and to make it quickly when bereaved seems pressured and unfair.
I am sorry for your loss

Reading what you’ve said, I think she should do geog, biol and either english or spanish.
With these subjects she could do a language degree, or if she goes for geography she will be helped in both the science side and the human side.

Definitely a language.

Being bilingual looks really good on applications even if it’s not relevant to the job etc.

Biology without chemistry or maths will involve extra work.

A couple of Dds friends lost their firms at uni this year as they got Ds in maths. The universities didn’t need maths for the courses but wanted any grade C or above for the third one. One of these girls was devastated as she got an A* in the subject she wanted to do.

Spanish Geography Drama

I'm very glad to say the ridiculous "facilitating subjects" list was abandoned by the Russell Group this year because it was being misused by schools to stop students taking entirely reasonable combinations of subjects for the paths they wished to pursue.

Geography and history are rather less similar to each other than geography and biology. I don't know why people keep suggesting only doing one of them because they are "similar". If she were thinking about specific routes it might make more sense to keep them apart because they're too different. If she were interested in something environmental, for example, biology & geography would be a good combination. History wouldn't be so relevant.

1. It is lunchtime. She has an absolutely streaming cold and a bit of a temperature. Debating going home. Looks at timetable and realises it is X subject. Decides she’ll stay at school. What subject is X?

1. What subject is she most sure she will get a 9 in?

1. Assuming she takes the options in (1) and (2) is there a subject that she enjoys, is fairly good at and will mean that she can do a degree of any of (1), (2) or (3) if she wants to? (So if 1 is French and 2 is geography then History would work if French, geography and history as a combination means that she can do French, geography and history at university.)

Then post the combination on mumsnet and see what people think!