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Further education

You'll find discussions about A Levels and universities on our Further Education forum.

Original poster

Confused over A level choices

234 replies

ihearttc · 07/07/2021 20:25

DS1 has just finished Y11. He is a fairly bright boy and is predicted 6s, 7s and 8s for GCSE. He has picked his a level choices…PE, Geography and Biology. These are some of his best subjects and is predicted 8 in both PE/Biology and a 7 in Geography.

He had his induction day at 6th form this week and PE/Geography are ok, the Biology didn’t go well. He thinks the teacher is great (he taught him before) but the others in the class are just not on his wavelength. I’m aware that sounds really shallow and pathetic but 2 of the boys especially are very hard work and he said he was only in there for an hour and wanted to walk out. There are 10 of them and he said there is literally no one he could talk to. He is rather cool and sporty…they are the complete opposite so I can see why he found it tricky.

Anyway…my question is does he suck it up and just accept the fact that he is going to hate a lesson just to do the subject or walk away and chose something else. He wants to do something sport related…either sports science or become a Secondary PE teacher if that’s relevant.

The other option is his other choices are limited due to timetabling. It would have to either be the biology, Media Studies (which he did for GCSE), a BTEC medical science (which seems not at his academic level) or Maths. The obvious one is maths but he is freaking out over hard it will be and he doesn’t want to fail.

Any thoughts if that makes sense at all?

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Original poster
ihearttc · 07/07/2021 21:26

@clary

Thank you for understanding! He is so looking forward to doing PE.

I can’t stand Harry Kane sorry…love Jack though! I’m borrowing DS’s season ticket to watch when Villa come to play our newly promoted team!

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thelastgoldeneagle · 07/07/2021 21:26

there is literally no one he could talk to. He is rather cool and sporty…they are the complete opposite so I can see why he found it tricky.

Lovely. You need to help him not to call other people - who may be more academic than he is! - uncool 🙄🙄🙄🙄

They may be thinking, Christ, I don't want this arrogant tosser in my class.

TotorosCatBus · 07/07/2021 21:29

A-level Biology and Maths are hard - they often have the people wanting to go into medicine or engineering so the competition for top grades is fierce. My dd has an 8 in both at GCSE and has found them hard. She had to grit her teeth over the biochemistry topics too (has an 8 but not a fan of chemistry)

I wouldn't necessarily discount the BTEC. I believe there's not a lot of human biology in A-level (dd is not here to check) so the BTEC course might be more useful for sport science.

In my experience at my DD's school (a comp)the sporty kids often did PE (sometimes double) , Applied Science (BTEC) or a non-related subject like Business. As long as the BTEC is a level 3 then it is equivalent to an A-level so will be accepted for uni and further study.

Piggywaspushed · 07/07/2021 21:29

I taught Ben Chilwell. He was lovely and got on with everyone. Maybe he needs to be more BenWink

It does sound like a crisis of confidence . You said he rates the teacher and that's important and something he should think about. Could he talk to the teacher if he feels a bit all at sea?

Original poster
ihearttc · 07/07/2021 21:32

@TheOnlyLivingBoyInNewCross

He looked on several courses and none of them specified a science apparently but maybe I need to check myself.

If he was capable of doing Maths, which I am very doubtful, then he’d be fine in there. At least half of his current maths set are doing it. It’s just the particular combination of people in the biology class doesn’t work. I can’t even explain why…he knew it would be challenging and he isn’t usually bothered by what people think but for him to say he felt very uncomfortable I know he must have done. It’s whether he can suck it up and deal with it.

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TheOnlyLivingBoyInNewCross · 07/07/2021 21:34

God, I had no idea who Jack Grealish was but having read his Wiki entry I can see why your DS feels out of place in A Level Biology if he's more like a guy who's been caught allegedly inhaling nitrous oxide, was suspended from playing for violent conduct, was fined for violating Covid rules and has been banned for careless driving 🤨

Original poster
ihearttc · 07/07/2021 21:40

@thelastgoldeneagle

He is honestly the least arrogant boy I know…in fact he is completely the opposite. He thinks he isn’t good enough to be in an A level biology class with 9 other people who are questioning why he was there as he appears very different to them. He isn’t doing biology, physics, chemistry and maths like they are. He hasn’t taken part in science olympiads for the school or have aspirations of being a doctor.

No matter what I say it’s not coming out right. He isn’t cool…he is just very very different to them and I was trying to badly demonstrate just how different he is. He wants to play sport and teach kids to play sport not fix their injuries and he isn’t sure he can spend 2 years with others that appear to not want him there.

Some of that maybe his own feeling of lack of self confidence but for him it’s very real. These poor kids have had an awful 2 years and at the moment he is doubting himself every which way.

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Original poster
ihearttc · 07/07/2021 21:43

@TheOnlyLivingBoyInNewCross

Seriously I’m not discussing the ins and outs of a footballer…was simply using as an example as he was the first person I thought of,

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Original poster
ihearttc · 07/07/2021 21:45

@TotorosCatBus

Thank you that’s really helpful. I think he’d probably really enjoy it, it’s the human biology he is really interested in. I shall take another look. Need to also find out how the grades equal to UCAS points.

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SE13Mummy · 07/07/2021 21:45

Does the school get m/any external students joining the sixth form? Is it possible that there may be others intending to do biology but for whatever reason, did not make it to the induction session?

It sounds as though biology is a good fit for your DS in terms of his strengths and interests as well as working well alongside his other two subjects. Are there other sixth form settings near you? Perhaps he could do some research into those places and see which of them he could do that combination at. He has almost certainly missed the application deadline but there's nothing to stop him approaching other places and asking - lots of Y11s will have accepted places at more than one sixth form so there's often some flexibility. What would he have done if the induction session hadn't taken place and the first he knew about the class make-up had been in September? Did he have a back up plan for that scenario? If not, how does he think he'd have handled it once he'd enrolled and started the course?

Although your DS feels uncomfortable right now, some of that may be because he wasn't expecting the group to be as it was. Come September, that won't be a surprise and he'll have the time between now and then to make a positive decision to be in this class rather than moving to another setting. There's every chance the other students in the group are feeling as uncomfortable as your DS is because they find sporty people terrifying! At the end of Y11 students are often still presenting in their 'school' persona but by the start of Y12, having dropped subjects they have no interest in, wearing their own choice of clothes etc., lots of them are more relaxed about being themselves... and more open to trying out different friendships or reconsidering their opinion of peers they've previously had little to do with.

Your DS could...

  1. start a recruitment campaign to get one of his friends to take biology
  2. apply to alternate sixth forms where he won't know if biology is full of uncool students
  3. find out if there will be other students joining the class
  4. continue with his plan to take biology and just see how things go in September...
  5. brood and fret over the class make-up but not do anything about it
  6. pick a different subject but accept it may close doors
Original poster
ihearttc · 07/07/2021 21:49

@SE13Mummy

Thank you. Yes quite possibly there will be more joining…they are the only local 6th form.

I think it’s more to do with his lack of confidence which is affecting everything. Biology was always the one he was doubting if he could handle and it’s all be compounded by this. His back up was Media Studies and I think he’d enjoy it and do well but would definitely close doors.

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Original poster
ihearttc · 07/07/2021 21:51

@Piggywaspushed

Wow did you really? DS plays Left Back so he can definitely be like Ben!

Speaking to teacher is a great idea actually…will see if DS can email him.

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Piggywaspushed · 07/07/2021 21:52

I did! He was lovely.

SE13Mummy · 07/07/2021 21:56

I'd encourage him to chat to the biology teacher. DD1 is hypersensitive to this sort of thing and over analyses every look, intake of breath, smile etc etc convinced that each one says something about her. It's exhausting and is absolutely because of how anxious she's feeling about choosing subjects and settings for sixth form. She emailed one of the subject teachers who offered to phone her to talk through what she was thinking and for the moment at least, she's sufficiently reassured to feel as though she doesn't actually need to make a decision until results day.

Original poster
ihearttc · 07/07/2021 21:59

@SE13Mummy

Yep that’s exactly how DS is. He constantly feels he is not good enough and people are judging him.

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Bananapuppy · 07/07/2021 22:09

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

whattodo2019 · 07/07/2021 22:15

Biology is pretty tough at A level. Even i remember it being a huge jump from GCSE. You might find that the kids taking it for a level are also doing sciences such as physics, chemistry and or maths and are rather intellectual?? ie not so cool

Original poster
ihearttc · 07/07/2021 22:17

@whattodo2019

That’s exactly what’s happening. All the others are doing biology, chemistry, physics and Maths. It wouldn’t matter if he felt ok with it but he really doesn’t at the moment anyway.

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52soon · 07/07/2021 22:23

My son originally picked A level Biology but had to do it at a different school as his school dropped the A level, the teacher didn’t really gel with the kids from different school and after 3 weeks moved them all to medical science BTec my son wasn’t happy about this as wanted all A levels, he also picked A level PE, at the start of Y12 he was thinking of doing sports science degree. After lots of discussion with his school to try and move to another school for Biology he decided to stay with medical science, he’s just finished Y13 and has got his TAG grades BBC and he’s got his Uni place studying a healthcare profession and medical science made him decide to go the route he did and not having Biology A level didn’t make any difference to his 5 Uni offers.

Original poster
ihearttc · 07/07/2021 22:30

@52soon

Thank you that’s really helpful. How hard was the Medical Science? DS is worried that it’s not challenging enough but I’m not sure he is looking at the right course spec. And how do the grades work? I assumed it was a Pass Merit Distinction but if your son has BBC it couldn’t have been. Apologies for all the questions but I can’t seem to find many others who have done it.

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52soon · 07/07/2021 22:48

@ihearttc I’ve just checked the original email we had off school when he changed and it said it’s not a btec it’s a level 3 applied qualification so check the actual course name. My son really enjoyed it and it was challenging, he had to learn about taking basic obs, BP, pulse, temp and what and why the different results meant, he had lots of assignments for various diseases and had to diagnose case studies, he said that PE was more anatomy and human biology in the theory learning, he was at a sports academy so his performance and training was part of his PE. He decided against a sports science degree as he didn’t want to teach and the job availability and salary was better doing healthcare, he’s studying Radiotherapy and Oncology at University.

Bryonyshcmyony · 07/07/2021 22:51

He'll get into Sports Science or Physiotherapy without biology but with PE and Geography

Bryonyshcmyony · 07/07/2021 22:53

So could choose another A level. I'm a big fan of BTECS but some of the course content varies so much so double triple check the content with the unis he wants to go to

GrandmasCat · 07/07/2021 22:53

It depends on what he wants to study afterwards. My son hated his maths teacher but there was no way he could study engineering without an A level in maths. Simple as that.

Stick to biology.

Original poster
ihearttc · 07/07/2021 22:59

Thank you, I’ll have another look at the Medical Science specs in more detail.

His end goal is to do Sports Science to either be some kind of sports analyst (I’m not sure what he even means by that) or Secondary PE teacher.

He went to the introduction to Medical Science and he enjoyed it, I just wasn’t sure if it would be a good idea in terms of a qualification.

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