A Level

[Whole]

My daughter is going to start college next year. A level is my first child. I don't have any college experience before as my education was abroad. She a brilliant student for grade 8 and 9.
Can someone please guide me can she do three levels or four?

She would study
Bio
Chemistry
Psychology

Next week is college application any help and replies would be much appreciated.

Regards

Depends on what the college allows and what is possible with their timetabling. Have you looked at their prospectus or online admissions info? No reason not to apply for four and see what works though.

3 is the norm (unless doing both maths and further maths, which doesn't apply here). Sounds fine to me

Depends on the college, most kids do 3 a-levels but some do 4, some 6th form have kids start 4 with the option to drop one later.

Around here colleges do interviews with kids who’ve applied to check their course choices. They can also generally change courses after gcse results if they change their minds or miss required grades.

DS 1 has just started his A levels, he was originally doing geography, history and economics, but when he went for his enrollment interview the head said he should do a 4th so he chose to do maths although has said if it gets too mich he will drop it.

You can also apply and hold onto places at more than one sixth form. And even if the deadline is soon, that doesn't necessarily mean it's the latest you can apply. Also lots of people change their choices between now and starting college. One of mine I think changed every option at least once. They can usually change in the first few weeks too.

Can do 3 or 4 but usually when people do 4 the fourth is further maths. Even then it adds workload that isn't often necessary. For example if wanting to do medicine 4 A levels doesn't provide any benefit at all. I think these 3 A levels are a good choice, I did Bio, Chem, Math and psychology is common aswell.

The vast majority do 3 and that is all that is required by universities as a whole. Some courses at top ranking universities ie maths or computer science really want further maths and a lot of colleges offer that as a 4th subject so that the other 3 provide more breadth and it also allows for them to drop further maths if it gets too much. Around 50% do drop it if it is an additional subject.

Universities list what subjects they prefer for their courses so if your DD has any idea what sort of field she might be interested in she can look now and see the vast array of subject combinations offered by universities.

Usually each A level subject has around 4 1/2 hours of teaching per week plus homework. They then usually have enrichment on an afternoon which is anything from knitting club, chess, medical clubs that gives them hands on experience, learning the basics of a language, sports, film making etc. So lots of opportunities to try new things.

These replies are well informative thanks everyone 😊.

If the college offers it Core Maths sounds like it might be worth considering, depending on whether or not your DD likes maths and if it would be useful for her journey after college. It’s equivalent to an AS (so half an A level basically). Or if she has a language she enjoys she could take that to AS.