Please or to access all these features

Add post

Watch this thread

Save thread

Start a new thread

Flip thread

Hide thread

My feed

Active Unanswered threads

Getting started FAQ's

Unanswered threads Acronyms Talk guidelines

Hide shortcut buttons

Talk

Higher education

Talk to other parents whose children are preparing for university on our Higher Education forum.

Flip

1 2

Original poster

DD is choosing A'levels,she has narrowed it down to 5! She needs to lose 1

39 replies

runaroundstartsnow · 22/01/2011 20:55

DD is interested in doing Art/Textiles at uni.She has a list of A'levels she wants to do and has been told its one too many.
Her choices are:
Eng Lit
French
Chemistry
Art&Design
Creative Textiles
She is flat out refusing to drop any, what do i do?
Chem is her best subject and she should get an A at least at GCSE, English she is due an A/B, French a B/C ( but she will be spending all summer with her French friend and loves everything about France.
Art she needs for uni but due to joining school late she was not able to do it for GCSE, she does however spend most of her spare time drawing and creating and has a decent portfolio.The various colleges have seen it and are happy for her to do Art.
So which one to give up?

OP posts:

Milliways · 22/01/2011 23:03

My DD did 5 AS levels, and originally thought about keeping them all on but the workload was just too much. She dropped 1 at the end of Yr 12.

They were expected to do 1 hour private study for every 1 hour lesson = 5hours a night, which was unsustainable as she had NO free periods in the day. I remember her saying she was glad she wasn't doing Art as the workload was horrendous (She did Maths, Eng Lit, History, French & German)

Maybe your DD could start with 5 and see how she likes the actual courses. (DD dropped History, because the periods they were studying weren't that interesting to her.)

Tolalola · 22/01/2011 23:08

I'd advise her to drop English Lit. French and Chemistry could both be very useful to her and will give her an edge with Unis and/or employers.

So many people do English Lit, and you want to stand out from the crowd a bit, if possible.

Merrylegs · 22/01/2011 23:14

I would drop Creative Textiles and keep Art and Design.

Why?

Because as long as she has an art, she will be able to do a Creative Textiles degree with the other A levels she has chosen.

And if at the end of 2 years she has gone off the idea of creative textiles she has a wider range of A levels to sell herself with.

Creative Textiles is not a widely offered A level so I can't see how it can be an advantage in doing a textile course when a more general Art degree wouldn't restrict her so much at this stage.

hatwoman · 22/01/2011 23:24

I wondered that too merrylegs - but didn;t know enought about the subject. If it's pretty standard to do a textiles degree not having done a textiles A level then I change my vote and think Merrylegs could be right. back in my day quite a few people were like that about economics A level - seen as a bit pointless because economics degrees were designed for people who hadn't done it before.

Original poster

runaroundstartsnow · 22/01/2011 23:48

I agree Merrylegs, i worry about her choices being too Art heavy if she changes her mind about her career choice.She does however like the look of the Textiles course content more than the Art .
One 6th form suggested she do Chem,Lit,French and Art.Then drop whatever is her weakest and do creative Textile AS in her 2nd year.
Would that go against her though? having 3 A'levels and 2 As instead of 4 full A'levels?

OP posts:

Merrylegs · 23/01/2011 10:26

The 6th form is giving good advice.
By doing a textiles AS she can see if it is really her thing, and if she wants to take it further shows a Uni that she has a real interest in it.

It is much better to study three A levels to a high level than do 4. Unless she is doing say Maths and Further Maths, 3 is the norm (Oxford's Fine Art degree for eg is AAA at A level).

(Oh, but as an aside, if she's gets a c in French GCSE will they let her take an A level? Minimum we have been told is a B)

thekidsmom · 24/01/2011 09:24

From our experience, I'd say that noone doing Art can do 5 full ASs! My DD's life (and our lounge) was overtaken by her art - every minute of every day she was doing something. The research and constant refining of ideas and development of topics is relentless - more so than any of her other subjects and more so than DS's sciences.

If she wants to do Art at uni she'll need to be aiming for an A and you doing get that by not giving it your all (and it'll be tough withut the grounding of a GCSE already).

I would drop French persoanlly - a B/C prediction for GCSE means she'll struggle with the massive step up to AS. Plus there is a lot of literature and social context (Which she may be looking forward to).

My DS did sciences and Spanish at A2 and I think he was weakest in Spanish because he didnt have another humanitites subject to give the reinforcement on essay structre and argument development - with this mix of subjects, your DD might find the same (unless she kept the English too...)

Bonsoir · 24/01/2011 09:27

She should definitely keep on with French so that she can pursue her studies/career in Paris at a later date.

Chemistry would be great for the fabric development side of textiles design - excellent choice.

Art & Design - general art training a must have.

She should keep English literature to hone her essay writing and general culture.

Drop Creative Textiles.

Honte · 24/01/2011 09:37

I would definitely only do one out of Textiles and Art. Not only is it very similar and won't come across as diverse to universities, both are extremely coursework heavy. To be honest, if you are going to do well at Art OR Textiles, most of your spare time has to be spent on that subject. She simply won't have time to do well at both.

I'm a 6th form advisor btw.

Original poster

runaroundstartsnow · 24/01/2011 16:10

Thankyou all very much, your input has been very helpful .
She is working on her choices now

OP posts:

Renniehorta · 03/02/2011 22:28

I agree that Art and Textiles are very time consuming and I would imagine that there is a fair amount of overlap.I did a foundation art degree on the basis of my textile studies. I did not find myself at a disadvantage compared to other students who had a more orthodox art background.

I would say that she should try to maximise her French grade and do AS French at least. I would even get a tutor for a couple of months. The reason being that she is going to be competing for jobs with others who will have those MFL skills. In such a competitive jobs market if you only have one language you are at a real disadvantage.

All the report writing skills etc are covered in AL French, you don't need to study Eng Lit for that.

solooovely · 15/02/2011 16:49

Either chemistry or French. Chemistry it sounds as though she is very good at so would be good to do it as a back up to an alternative career. French though would also be good for that. Maybe drop the French but keep it as a hobby, she could always come back to it later.

beanlet · 18/02/2011 16:43

According to the new russell group advice (google russell group) in their snazzy new booklet on choosing A Levels, your daughter should choose as many 'facilitating' A Levels as possible to maximise her choices, especially should she change her mind. Of her choices, English, French and Chemistry are all excellent facilitating A Levels. She also has to have Art to get into her chosen course. What she does NOT need is Textiles. She could do Textiles at AS and then drop it, but it is obvious that if she wants to have choice left open to her, she should drop Textiles.

beanlet · 18/02/2011 16:47

Oh - and the standard offer at most places is 3 A Levels - no need to do 4 and certainly not 5. 3 A2s and 2ASs might be a good way to go.

Flip

1 2