A Level choices - picking tactically?

[CornishGem1975]

Is that a thing?

For example, DD wants to do psychology and biology with a view to moving towards a psychology and/or neuroscience degree at uni.

When it comes to the third subject, she's swaying towards media studies (which she loves) or chemistry BUT one of the degrees we are looking at needs AAA and I was just wondering out loud if she should think about which subject she is most likely to achieve an A in as the third option. This would probably be Art, and to be honest, she hasn't 100% ruled out an art & design course for higher education.

This is all a minefield for me so any advice is very welcome!

You have kind of answered (one answer) your own question.
If DD has a desire to go to said (or similar) AAA Uni, then you need to consider maximising that chance, so picking something where that 3rd A is at least semi-achievable.
Alternatively, look at where may be possible if she could get a B (Media Studies, say) in that 3rd subject.
Then, maybe see if the Unis in question may lead to 'better/different' employment.
E.g. if the latter doesn't really have much of a sway, then maybe Media Studies and AAB would suffice.

Don’t do chemistry unless you’re very good at maths. It’s a mistake I made that I regretted.
I would definitely choose things she’s going to enjoy and do well in.

Whilst she may be likely to get an A in art, I would be wary about the amount of time needed for coursework etc that will take time from her other subjects.

I honestly think doing subjects they genuinely like and are interested in is the best approach.

Think that's the problem @Seeline she really enjoys most subjects! She loves art, and really enjoys the change of pace during the week, having to do something less academic but she's not sure it's something she'd want to do in life as her career.

@Smartiepants79 She's actually really good at maths (doesn't get it from me ) but has no desire to take maths at A Level.

Psychology includes a large element of maths so Alevel would be a good choice. If she changed her mind re. art a foundation course to build a portfolio and experiment is a good entry course.

Some neuroscience degrees (not sure if all, but suggest she has a look at unis she's interested in) will want her to have chemistry as well as biology at A level. She may well be limiting her options significantly if she picks Media Studies instead.

Maths A level (if she can get an A) may give her a better choice of psychology degrees.

@Ellmau

Some neuroscience degrees (not sure if all, but suggest she has a look at unis she's interested in) will want her to have chemistry as well as biology at A level. She may well be limiting her options significantly if she picks Media Studies instead.

Maths A level (if she can get an A) may give her a better choice of psychology degrees.

Thanks - we had a good look through a lot of websites yesterday and most only specified Biology but we did think Chemistry could be a good shout.

I think she should take the subject she's most excited about - among those where she would have an excellent chance of an A. I think it's actually pretty hard to predict which will be the safest bet for an A, and it would be awful to go for something she is less keen on that turns out not to be such a safe bet after all?

Are you sure that Art would be the safest route to an A? We found it to be easily the most unpredictable grade. With the other subjects my daughter knew exactly where she stood, whereas there seemed to be A LOT of variance in the Art grades. In the end she got an A but was genuinely very worried that she would not get the A she needed. And that worry was justified given some other grades that year and in the recent past fot Art at her school. It was also more work and stress than all the other subjects put together. She got A English, A German (she was planning on a late push, but never got to take the exam...). and a very easy A for AS Maths, but didn't want to continue. She regrets taking Art as it was just too much stress.

I'd also say that chemistry and maths would both put her in good stead for the kind of subjects she wants to study later and leave more options option generally. Especially maths. But I still think it's more important to follow your passion...

Yeah @irregularegular At the moment Art would be a pretty safe bet for her, she's consistently always worked above grades, seems to find it very easy, she's very bold and creative BUT that could change if her interest wanes...and then it could become a massive struggle.

I'm not sure if she'd achieve an A in maths A level or not. She's good at maths, she could be really good at maths, but she doesn't hugely enjoy it. She's absolutely capable but there are other subjects that she'd choose over it.

As I say, she does enjoy Media Studies but I always hark back to when I was at school and Media also felt like a bit of a cop-out .

Dd is going Psychology A Level. She originally thought she wanted to do it at degree level but has now changed her mind.

She’s doing RS and History alongside it. When we were looking at Psych degrees, she wasn’t ruled out of any by her A Levels (I appreciate Neuroscience will need Biology though). She’s never mentioned needing Maths/wishing she’d done it or struggling with the maths in Psychology. She’s predicted A, A, A*. It’s definitely been a good call doing the subjects she enjoys.

We did exactly this with DD (yr13) she knew she wanted to study biology and would need AAA/AAB, She also new she was unlikely to get A in Chemistry or Maths so I did some research and discovered that Psychology is accepted as a 2nd science in most unis (not oxbridge or st Andrews etc) but ok for Durham, York etc etc, So DD took at look at the Psychology A level at her school and liked the look of it (really important), so she took
Biology, Psychology and PE (a banker for high grade) She has just been predicted A* in psych and A in PE so hopefully it's worked out well for her, just need to get some offers in now..

Just to add - she always took Core Maths (which is like as AS level) so bridges the gap a bit more between GCSE and A level. it's been handy for both Pyschology and Biology apparently - she is lucky as is the only 1 taking it and has 1 to 1.

There's quite a lot of statistics in a Psychology degree. Without some A-level teaching in the subject, it may prove difficult but not insurmountable. Is there any way of including at least a Maths/Stats AS level?

Things are so hard for young people these days. I have a psychology degree, taken in the 90s. I was never very good at maths. I found statistics were more about logic and was pretty good at that side of my degree.

I feel sorry that people now need to consider A level maths to do psychology.

@CampervanQueen

There's quite a lot of statistics in a Psychology degree. Without some A-level teaching in the subject, it may prove difficult but not insurmountable. Is there any way of including at least a Maths/Stats AS level?

They do offer the one year Core Maths in Year 12, which she's probably capable of doing alongside the other subjects.

My DD does Biology, Psychology and Art ALevels. She’s Year 13 now and hoping to go to uni next year to do Biology. She also did an EPQ.

She is managing the coursework for Art fine and has plenty of time to revise for the exam subjects. Before she picked Psychology the school made a big deal about how lots of people dropped out because there was so much maths content. This worried my DD a bit but now she is wondering what all the fuss was about! She said apart from some graphs there’s not that much maths needed in Psychology ALevel (so far).

We did look into her doing a Psychology degree. Although she decided against it, the subject combination would have allowed her to do Psychology at any university including Oxbridge. Also, Art might be useful if wants to become an Art therapist in the future.

Thanks @BlueMarigold - they do seem like choices that go well together. At the moment she's swaying between Art and Chemistry alongside Biology and Psychology which are definites. She's not put off by maths, she's pretty good at it - if she was to do it at A level she'd probably easy get a B, not sure if she'd get an A - I mean with effort she could...she'll probably look at doing Core Maths.