Top universities and only 3 A2s

[PaulaYatesbiggestfan]

Does anyone know if any universities are planning on changing their admissions policy in favour of four A2

DC1 did a ridiculous number of A2 s and ended up at his university of choice but not before he had wondered if he had taken on more than necessary.

With DC2 and then 3 coming to make the same choices now I am wondering whether or not they should take the 4A2 and then drop the softer choice at AS

This sounds logical - but could the wind change and some top RG places start making offers based on four where 3 just won't do??

Thus will they be disadvantaging themselves from the outset - or will three do for the foreseeable future?

sandripples my Year 13 daughter was advised by her chemistry teachers that A2 was a quantum leap from AS. She dropped it and stuck to her three non-science A2's but got her choices through UCAS (law). The daughter a year older dropped french which she said she would have struggled with and kept history, english and art and was offered five out of five (history). I wouldn't have felt it appropriate to try to persuade either daughter to keep on the fourth subject as neither was confident. I take the view that they need to decide on the basis of what they feel comfortable with; even with three they still seem/ seemed to have plenty to do.

DD2 hasn't noticed much of a step up with chemistry from AS to A2. Two of her friends(potential medics) are doing four A2s Biology, Chemistry, Physics and Maths and seem to be managing fine. All practical work is done in the lesson and there are no essays to write! The problem with science A levels comes at exam time when they are all timetabled very close together.

I think certain combinations lend themselves to 4 whereas in other cases the work load will be too high (i.e. with coursework heavy and essay subjects). DD2 had history as her fourth AS level and she was glad not to have to carry it on.

Glad to hear that Webwiz as mine is struggling with AS Chemistry.

My son is doing PPE at Oxford, he did 4 subjects at AS and intended to drop one at A2 to get a really good chance of getting 3 As, unfortunately for him he was strongest in the subject he wanted to drop, and his offer was conditional on an A in it, so he ended up doing 4 just to be on the safe side.

adamschic - ds struggled with chemistry much more than biology but in the end it all suddenly clicked - he got A* and scored better than in his biology

webwiz there's something wrong if applicants for medicine aren't cruising through A level Chemistry! Just saying that Year 13 daughter did struggle so gave it up but it hasn't prejudiced her in the slightest. She went out on an A grade at AS but wouldn't have been predicted A* at A2 so reckoned (I think sensibly) to go out at least looking as though she was on a high, even if it wasn't particularly true....This thread is doing nothing to persuade me that students who 'need a boost' should add an extra subject. Fine if they want to but a very bad idea if they don't. Doing four A2's won't in itself prove to tutors that a student can cope with the intense work pressure at Oxford or Cambridge. But it may well spread a student too thin as Oxford has said/ wear a student down/ prevent depth in the subjects taken/ prejudice grades. Obviously it's harder to do four essay based subjects than four sciences and I might have a slightly skewed view because my three eldest who've been through the process have all done three arts subjects at A2, not sciences - but I remain firmly convinced that for them three was sufficient and four would have affected them adversely with no scintilla of gain.

thanks yellowstone - i hope you are right and that the situation is not sliding towards 4 for rg universities

I think that you think that it already has!

Well I agree Yellowstone that the medics should be finding chemistry easy! They are the only students doing 4 A2s in DD2's year as medicine is obviously incredibly competitive.

I wonder if how much you struggle with A2 chem depends to an extent on how good you are at maths. The calculations required seem to trip quite a few up, but if you are good at maths then it's not a problem.

Thank-you for all your comments on this. We'll continue to ponder till we get the AS results in the summer, I think.

I agree that doing 3 sciences and maths seems a reasonable work-load so far - DS is doing very well without a massive effort so far. He's working well but doing plenty of other things. We will also seek the teachers' advice of course. He wouldn't know which one to drop at the moment and for Chem. Eng (plus an interest in bio-chem.eng) all the 3 sciences and maths seem v. usful.

My medics are not doing four A2s. They did 4AS. Grades As in everything. The same with Vet Med, Dentistry. Law and Engineering. RG offers from all over but none of them have asked for 4A2s. We do have one student who is doing 5 along including Further Maths and he is exhausted and regretting his decision.

i think dd intends to start off with four and as you say - see how the land lies
we also have the advantage of seeing how university applications fall this year - if RG are inundated etc

'tis never going to be easy now trying to second guess everything as the pressure mounts

It will be very interesting to see what effect the fees have. Nobody really has a clue at the moment as far as I can tell. The top universities might be inundated, or there might be fewer applicants. Ds will apply next year, so won't know in advance what the trend is. He is planning to do 4 A2s next year btw (unless things go badly wrong this year I guess), but one is f. maths so maybe it only counts as 3.5.