School trying to force chemistry or maths A-Level

[roboflorist]

My Stepdaughter is 15, she's doing her GCSEs and picking A-Level Subjects.
She goes to a private school so will likely continue there for sixth form. She wants to study Sport and Exercise science.
She's set on doing Biology, PE and Spanish, the school make everyone start with 4 A-levels and about half will drop one. Stepdaughter is thinking of doing English as her 4th, but the school are insisting it should be Chemistry or Maths for Sport science. The main unis she's looking at (Loughborough and Kings) don't seem to ask for this but UCL does.

Should she really do Chemistry or maths even if they aren't her first choice? Or is English fine?

[clary]

If she’s going to drop it, it doesn’t matter what it is! Tho I guess school thinks she may drop a different one.

For sports science a lot of unis ask for two sciences but include PE bc of the degree subject. So her choices sound good. She should look into unis tho and see what they say - do they make a lower offer with a third science?

Lboro is the cream for this degree so is she very bright? Will she gain an A star and two As at A level?

Where else is she looking at? Do they ask for a third science? If she’s not planning to apply for UCL their requirements are not relevant but others may be.

Maths and chem are challenging at A level - what GCSE grades are likely?

[roboflorist]

@clary

If she’s going to drop it, it doesn’t matter what it is! Tho I guess school thinks she may drop a different one.

For sports science a lot of unis ask for two sciences but include PE bc of the degree subject. So her choices sound good. She should look into unis tho and see what they say - do they make a lower offer with a third science?

Lboro is the cream for this degree so is she very bright? Will she gain an A star and two As at A level?

Where else is she looking at? Do they ask for a third science? If she’s not planning to apply for UCL their requirements are not relevant but others may be.

Maths and chem are challenging at A level - what GCSE grades are likely?

She is very bright, her GCSEs are all 7-9 predicted 7 being Geography and Business, then 8 for all three sciences, English language and literature and maths, PE and Spanish predicted 9.
She has looked she's only told me about Loughborough, Kings and UCL but I think she's looked at more.

I think the school hope she will continue with all 4, and believe chemistry or maths will just be better when applying to uni.

[clary]

Great PGs then!

I’ve glanced at a few unis and can’t see any others apart from UCL requiring maths or chem. Those are great A levels ofc and if she decided instead she wanted to do (for example) biological science then she would ideally have a further science. So in that sense they open more doors than Eng lit (unless she may go for an Eng lit degree instead!).

I see you say half drop the fourth - there is no point taking four A levels, no uni asks for it and it’s a lot more work. More likely to lead to ABBB rather than AAA - obvs AAA is much more useful. So I would say she should deffo push to actually sit only three. When do they drop one?

[MujeresLibres]

I'm a bit old and out of the loop, but on a human level would suggest she does something she both enjoys and would advance her aims, rather than assuming she'd definitely drop it. I was ill during final year of A-Levels and missed so much school that I couldn't complete a coursework-based A-Level, so Further Maths (which was exam-based) became my third. Sometimes unexpected things happen.

[NotDonna]

Do they offer an EPQ as many universities reduce their grade offer with an A in the EOQ. It’d be too much doing 4 A levels and an EPQ so definitely only instead of the fourth and ideally have it done during yr12. It needs to be something she would enjoy doing though as it’s quite time consuming but will at least count for something unlike half of a 4th A level. They may offer ‘core maths’ too - which is AS level, again taken over the first year. It’ll help keep her maths up to date and useful for degrees that don’t need maths per se but are quite sciencey. Some universities reduce offers for this addition but not the universities you’ve mentioned (Bath, York, Sheffield are several which I know do).
Although she sounds very able no one needs 4 A levels (unless taking maths & further maths and not always then). Much better to achieve highest grades possible in 3 A levels than lower in 4. There’s also little point in studying a subject for the first year only to drop it - that’s a lot of energy.