AIBU to think Chemistry A Level is essential?

[Mooda]

Long time lurker, first post - for traffic - sorry I know this is a niche post but could do with quick advice from anyone working in scientific field.

DS has just got excellent GCSE results. After a slow start he worked hard and became really enthusiastic about chemistry and physics. He was planning to do maths, physics & chemistry A levels and Spanish AS. However DD has (unhelpfully) convinced him that AS Spanish will be too difficult to do in a year so he's now decided to do the full Spanish ALevel and downgrade Chemistry to AS.

He thinks AS Chemistry will be enough if he wants to do it at uni/ pursue a career in pharmaceutical science, food production etc (which are current ideas but obvs at 16 not a firm decision) but a quick google suggests he would have more options in these fields with the full A Level.

Can anyone offer advice - would AS Chemistry rather than full A Level cut off related career paths? Thanks

Scientist here.
Do the chemistry A level.

Retired Chemistry teacher here. Firstly I would recommend that he studies only 3 A’levels. Most good Unis expect 3 top grades if 3 are taken but 4 top grades if 4 are taken, it really does not make any sense.
Secondly, if he has any notion of studying pharmacology or something similar he would not be considered without A ‘ level Chemistry. Also AS Chemistry is considered to be fairly easy to cope with, the more challenging content is in the full blown A’level.
Lastly he should really speak with the head of sixth form at his school who will undoubtedly, if they are any good, be able to advise him further.

Thanks @SproutsAtChristmas and @PeekabooAtTheZoo - both v helpful

Definitely drop the Spanish. Doing a language you are not already very familiar with at A level is crazy. To succeed he will need to spend a decent amount of time being immersed in a Spanish speaking country.

Don't do Spanish A level trust me
My DD got a 9 at GCSE but despite working hard and being good at it, only achieved a D at A level. It's very difficult to get above a C in languages

However if he wants to go into pharmaceutical sciences Chemistry A level is essential and it's much easier to score highly on as is one where the answer is right or wrong.

I also agree only do 3 A levels but do them well. Spanish AS level isn't "fun" !! Get him to plays sports or take up a club hobby for fun. Don't add on more study

I don’t believe for one second a chemistry A level is easier than a Spanish one.

He will need chemistry at full A level but will never actually need a Spanish qualification.

It really depends on what your aptitude is for.
I got an A in Chemistry but found Physics and Maths difficult.
I studied French and found it easy and also got an A in that.
I asked the OP for the results as they can show up aptitudes.

When I was at school (admittedly more years ago than I care to remember!), an AS level was always just the first year of an A-level.

My physics exams were modular and if you gave up after year 1 you'd get the AS level.

I just did a random search of a University Pharmacology degree and hit upon Reading's Link. There's has entry requirements of BBB including Biology and Chemistry, so even with a full chemistry A-level he'd not get in without biology too.

Oh, and I did a language A level. Very, very different beast to GCSEs. You literally went from asking where the nearest train station is to reading and discussing literature. I'm not sure how you were supposed to have become immediately fluent in a language in the period between GCSE and A-levels...

I wasn't great at English Literature so it was a miracle I even managed to get an E at A-level with foreign literature in it (I'd got an A at GCSE)!

I would definitely do the chemistry A-level. I have a biology related degree and universities were more interested in chemistry A-level than biology!

God I wish this had an edit function. In hindsight I wish I'd done a chemistry A level instead!

I was going to mention Biology too, though I'm not terribly familiar with the UK university entry system. If you find Chemistry easy, Biology is also usually easy for you as there tends to be an overlap of sorts. I would put Maths and Physics as being in a different aptitude but both of those are similar type subjects too, so an aptitude for one would usually lend to an aptitude for the other.

Why does he want to go into food science? Has he had exposure to that type of environment?

I have to hold my hands up and say that I was not educated in the UK so apologies for stupid questions or statements.

Cut the Spanish out entirely

With languages i think the proficiency tests are regarded a lot more highly than A levels.I would do 3 A levels and study spanish out of school

I wonder if triple science would give him the most science career options? There has been some apprenticeships in the nhs recently which needed biology and chemsitry despite the job its for using physics more than chemistry. It was seen by the university as more useful. I agree full a level chemistry is essential. I found maths hard at A level despite doing well at gcse so drop that or Spanish (or both and do 3 sciences!)

If he wants to do a science-based career then he would be very very silly to drop Chemistry at AS level.

Languages at A-level are a huge leap from GCSE, too.

Thanks everyone.

He got 9s in pretty much everything including maths, 3 sciences and Spanish and now thinks he's the big cheese, that's part of the problem.

He literally has a poster of the periodic table on his bedroom wall (his choice) and talks about chemical reactions etc in normal conversion. The food interest is because he's a great cook (9 in food tech also) and has a part time job in a kitchen - nothing more than that at this stage. I did a language A Level and degree myself and just think you can learn a language at any stage but a strong grounding in science needs to happen through the established GCSE/Alevel/uni path.

My sons both did 4 A levels at a state school. DS1 English, French,History and Maths. He did think about dropping French but it turned out that he did a Masters taught in French where it was very much needed.DS2 did English, History, Latin and Art, which was also hard work. They both had jobs too, In a supermarket and a takeaway.

he’ll need full. He’ll be up against kids who have full and if that’s his likely field it’s odd that he wouldn’t do it now. Any Uni would be worried he wouldn’t be up to doing a degree if he can do an A level.
sounds smart - go for 4 A levels

I agree he should prioritise chemistry but all the posters saying they're 'confused' about why Spanish is there at all in his choices.... it's important that people have a broad, balanced and varied learning for as long as possible. Languages teach you some incredibly useful transferable skills and he is likely to perform better in a subject he enjoys.

With regards to this add on... If he is likely to need the extra UCAS points then take the Spanish as an AS from the outset.

If he's not likely to need the extra points (i.e more likely to get good grades in his A Level Sciences due to being quite academic at GCSE Level) then don't bother with Spanish and study 3 all the way through as long as entry requirements allow 3 A Levels. However, extra curriculars are SO important for the UCAS application personal statement and often teenagers don't think of this as it's an age where socialising becomes a priority. Ideas include work experience in a pharmacy/in a science-related field, any volunteering programmes or NCS, Duke of Edinburgh Award, helping in younger years lessons for Science etc.

www.stem.org.uk/stem-ambassadors/find-activity

In reality, he won't need to pick yet. I studied Maths, Biology, Chemistry and Psychology at A-level with the intention of dropping Psychology after AS.
When the time came, I ended up carrying it on because it was interesting and relatively easy.
This was a long time ago though. the initial selection may be concrete now, but that doesn't really make sense.
It would be much more sense to let a struggling student drop a subject at AS-level than force them to sit through exams for a subject they've decided they don't want to do

FYI: I did a physics degree and worked in cancer research, particle accelerators, development of mass spectrometers and in other fields of engineering where I used my degree. I also went in to teaching for 5 years and then taught A-levels privately for 12 years - chemistry (and the biochemistry parts of biology), maths(advanced maths/stats) and physics at A-level. I've just retired at 60 last year and quit all the STEM subjects and will only return to teach Spanish which has been my main hobby for about the past 2.5 years.

The chemistry A-level is fascinating and has a lot of interesting and useful content - I don't think the AS Chemistry is even worth considering as it looks like chemistry is going to be of primary importance in a degree and possibly in a career. Sadly, the physics A-level is quite boring IMHO - especially in the first year of most exam boards - well - its more boring than it could or should be - the . I would choose maths over physics as an A-level - and I would only consider physics if that is primarily the field he wants to work in - it doesn't sound as though that is the case. Some universities have even stopped teaching physics. Of course there is interesting material in it for a wide variety of engineering jobs - aeronautical engineering for instance, architecture (properties of materials, modelling with forces etc) - it's a shame because the Brian Cox effect has created a lot of interest in some of the more interesting parts of real world physics - cosmology, particle physics - that either don't figure at all in the first year or aren't really covered in enough depth.

3 good A-levels matter far more than 4 A-levels - my DD's both did maths, chemistry and biology at A2 - both did AS music (as they are musicians) and one also did English AS as she liked the subject & teacher and would have done it to A-level until we talked her out of it - 1) on the advice of university admissions tutors and 2) feeling it would adversely affect the main A-level grades - they both went onto do medicine - they both graduated a few years ago.

Spanish as an AS - fine if it is for enjoyment, genuine interest and because it may be something he wants to continue with later in life and as a break from science.

Lok on the university websites and request prospectuses - you can do this at any time - either download a pdf or get a paper copy sent - spend some time looking at the course content and in particular the A-level requirements. There will always be some course content that doesn't look interesting - you have to accept 5-10% of that - don't just look at the name of the degrees - the content can be very different from one university course to another - you really must look at what he will be studying.