Which A level for Politics degree

[stilldumdedumming]

I wonder if anyone can help here. My ds was ill as a child and more or less home educated. He's pretty academic though and very dedicated. So far he has an English GCSE grade A, and 2 A levels Politics A grade and Sociology B grade. He tends to study without tuition as it's very expensive. So he just sits the exam.

He should complete a Cert HE this year at a specialist music college. He has no music grades - so no UCAS points there.

So he would like to do a politics degree and thinks he will need another A level (I know his GCSEs are not enough but he's hoping that will be ok).

What third subject could he do? It needs to be exam only as getting non exam coursework marked is a pain and expensive (otherwise he would do English).

Any thoughts at all?

Has he started the Cert HE? If not I'd strongly counsel him to not do it. As you say it uses up a year of loan entitlement and gains him nothing if he plans on doing a politics degree next year. What it would do is mean he has no wiggle room, so if he needed to repeat a year of the degree for whatever reason, he couldn't do it (unless for documented health reasons).

For economics he would need good maths understanding
History A level will be a good fit for politics
But he needs t sort out the GCSEs too: Maths and English at least or he will not look like he will be able to cope with the subject matter.

DS is doing IR and did English, politics, history. Both English and history had coursework. Economics if he can cope with the maths. Any essay based subject eg I don’t think classical civilisation has coursework.

You need to ask the university admissions people really rather than random Mumsnetters.

Why isn't psychology respected? Its sold by dc's 6th form as respected and seems a good basis for many careers.

As pp said, best to look up specific requirements. A political science degree usually requires students to undertake statistics or similar. Worth looking into that if you think maths is a problem.

It is respected. This is what I mean by misinformation...

History A level is very demanding. Psychology would be less of a challenge.

Could he do a foundation year? Some unis, not all, offer a foundation year for students who have not been able to meet entry requirements. Could be worth looking into those.

The list of Russell Group facilitating subjects was scrapped in 2019 precisely because people were incorrectly saying that any subject not on it was not worth taking. Neither Psychology nor Economics was on it. Both are good courses.

I'd pick History myself. How would he like to do an EPQ?

I’d echo the GCSE maths and Ancient History A level - no NEA.

Thank you so much! I've given him the bad news! We went thru a foundation past paper and he was nowhere near as bad as I thought. And yes I see that GCSEs come under the general requirements for uni's. I hadn't realised that. Although I had said to him a few years ago he'd need his maths, but at that time uni looked less likely.

It is doable. He is pretty academic I think so he should be fine. He will get there in the end I'm sure! He usually does. He has some chronic health conditions but these are much more under control. He doesn't want to be a politician!

You've all been so helpful- but yes I will check with specific uni's. In case he needs more than these two GCSEs! Some interesting A level suggestions too!

Many universities have minimum requirements for English language and maths GCSE (see the example of University of Liverpool at www.liverpool.ac.uk/study/undergraduate/applying/entry-requirements-and-qualifications/). They won't look at applications without these in most cases. Not having GCSE maths will cause problems.
Very few courses take UCAS tariff points for things like music grades into account, so that's not an issue, but the CertHE won't contribute anything to a university application. As a third A-Level, I'd have thought history would be the most obvious. Economics A-Level is supposed to be 20% maths (more than biology, chemistry or physics, which are supposed to be 10%), so studying it without GCSE maths behind you is likely to be difficult.
There is a separate, very big question raised by your posts, though. If he has done all his study alone so far, how is he likely to adjust to university study? Politics degrees will usually involve a lot of seminars & group discussions, and might involve group tasks where he has to work with other students to produce pieces of work. It sounds like he might find this hard.

Economics a level without gcse maths would be a mistake.

I think Economics A level with lower-than-GCSE-standard maths might be hard? (I don't know the A level, but I know that 'top' unis for economics require v good maths A level grades).

If he does the Foundation paper for GCSE maths it is relatively straightforward if he is academic, and he may well need the qualification for later life anyway. Unless you have severely neglected his maths it shouldn't be beyond him to do this year.

DS did A Level Economics without A Level maths and has a place at a RG uni to do a degree with economics. He did need a 7 in GCSE though. But the OP's DS doesn't want to do an economics degree.

In terms of adding the A level, I wouldn't do economics just because he wants to swerve an NEA. It's lots of rote learning, reasonably enquiring, lots of graphs etc. DS got an A* but was very engaged in the concepts and works like a Trojan. It's one of those A Levels that needs really good teaching to get students engaged.

The most rote learning, not very applied and non NEA social science A level I have come across is Law. Complements the two he already has. Way less debate and applied thought than sociology - more similar to politics. RS would be another good one. No NEA and similar material (examined differently) and topics to sociology.

University open day season is about to start, definitely worth going to look at some and talk to people.

dd studying politics and international relations. Has A level psychology, history & eng lit… Statistics / research module to degree so I’m sure maths (stats) gcse a standard requirement. Good luck to him, very impressive by what you’ve shared 💐

Maths at grade 4 or above (or equivalent) is a standard requirement for all unis. That will be the barrier anyway, regardless of whether a politics degree specifies it (what they'd do is specify more than the uni standard requirement of a 4 - I have never actually seen a politics or IR degree that does this).

You're getting confused, love.

The most rote learning, not very applied and non NEA social science A level I have come across is Law.

I would also suggest this is the same for psychology.

Avoid English lit, geography and history as they all require an NEA which will need marking. Although history is a good match with politics.

Joining in the chorus of your DS requiring maths GCSE.

They are all the same demand hence A level.

Yes, psychology also vvvv rote learning. A bit sciencey maybe for OP's DS.

As pp says- lots of misinformation here.

1. Book open days. Some book up quickly, and your son should allow time to talk to admissions. He should also look at info on personal statements

2. GCSE Maths ( as everyone else says)

3. Taking an HE cert will eat into his funding allowance. It will still do so if he finds the HE cert himself

4. He should take whatever subjects he enjoys. History will compliment nicely, or he may be interested in Philosophy and Ethics

5. but really, #1 He needs to talk to unis about his circumstances as well as support.

I too wonder how he will cope at uni if he can’t manage college/ school. Will he be living at home?

• funds not finds!