2014 Oxbridge applicants - a question

[Roisin]

Can anyone advise on numbers of subjects?

ds1 is in yr12; he will do A level Maths this year and AS Biology, Chemistry and Physics.

Next year he will do A2 in Further Maths and at least two sciences.

He is capable, and is currently predicted, A in all subjects (got A for GCSE In all his exams) and is currently aiming for Cambridge.

The question is, would he be disadvantaging his application if he dropped a subject in the summer: ie ended up with 4 A levels instead of 5, 3 of them taken in 2015?

He should be capable of top grades in all subjects even if he drops one, but I'm sure he will have "more of a life" next year and will be less stressed and more pleasant to live with if he drops one.

sounds as if he's planning to do 4 full A levels at least, the optimum 4 for physical science would be math, f maths, physics and chem (with AS bio), but for biological nat sci optimum 4 would be maths, physics, chem and bio (possibly with AS f maths). The maths for bio nat sci is not as hardcore as for physical nat sci. If he kept all going and wasn't too stressed by it all 5 wouldn't be a bad thing either - they are all very relevent, quite a few Nat Sciers at Camb have done those 5.

Thanks all, especially georgettemagritte.

We/He's been reluctant to contact colleges direct, as the motivation for dropping one seems hard to justify! He is enjoying biology at the moment; but because the M, FM and Physics are so interlinked, and he's particularly gifted at Chemistry, the addition of Biology AS seems like a significant increase to his workload, not just +20%. It would also give him more free/study periods each week.

My DS found Biology to be the most time consuming of his 5 ASs. Possibly because he enjoyed it less, but there is a lot more material to cover. He was glad to drop it for A2.

I would agree with secret about the Biology AS being the most time-consuming of the 3 sciences, there is just so much to learn and so much material. My DD has continued with it at A2 and there is even more content and detail this year.

No problem OP - and don't be afraid to ask admissions tutors, this is exactly the kind of query they can be most helpful with and it isn't at all unreasonable to want to concentrate on doing as well as possible in 4 subjects (inc. further maths) rather than spreading too thinly across 5. They will be glad to advise.

Re biology, I think there is more content to absorb and learn, but paradoxically if you're a good chemist and a talented scientist I think it's a lot easier to pick up biology later from first principles using knowledge from chemistry and physics - but it's a lot more difficult to pick up the essential bits of chemistry afterwards (like molarity and so on).

DD2 is planning on dropping one. She wants to do Classics and finds the French course content too boring to contemplate doing for a second year. So she will almost certainly end up with only Greek, Latin and Chemistry next year, which might look a little odd.

Greek is far more academic than French so unless she's going for MML I'm sure it's an advantage.

No question of her dropping Greek! I just thought the classics/chemistry justaposition might seem odd, but since all she wants to do is classics I don't think it will matter really.

I always think people should drop French.

Disclaimer: did French at university. Hated it.

Chemistry I think shows breadth and logic - hugely useful for classics. French is too much the same.

She was doing the French because half our family is French, she finds it easy and she adores her teacher. But she hates the content of the course- it's just more of the same old GCSE dross. She'd hoped there would be more literature but there just isn't so far...

Does the school offer what used to be S Level and may now be STEP? Back in the day it was quite good for a language - if your fluency was decent then it was sort of a cross between an ethics paper and straight translation.

Dont forget Plan Bs. Oxbridge may not expect more than 3 A levels but London offers for science can be based on 4 A levels. Indeed one of my sons friends received a 5 A level offer from Imperial. DS needs A*AA plus a pass in Further Maths for LSE.

Several posts today seem to be advertising a tutoring service for Oxbridge.

Private tuition for interviews isn't the norm and admissions tutors will see through it.

I agree. I've reported the two mentions of Oxbridgesciences.com as spam.

They must think we're daft!

It really isn't necessary to buy interview tutoring etc. Cambridge are very keen to stress this but as a first-time UCAS parent this year I wasn't convinced.
I can reassure other parents that my DS had absolutely no help from his school, no reading lists, special lessons, Oxbridge interviews etc. One of his teachers gave him and another pupil a joint general mock Uni interview for his subject (not Oxbridge-specific) and that was it. We asked a friend to give him a "tough" general interview about why this course/ uni. He is genuinely keen on his subject though, and read the odd popular science book because he wanted to. The real interviews didn't touch on this at all, but were almost completely academic. He got an offer ( and his A2s start next week, which is why I'm on here!).
A bit off topic, sorry. To answer the OP, my DS also did "too many" As levels and wondered whether to drop one. He decided he would, and made it clear on the UCAS form that he was dropping it. His offer is A*AA, and Cambridge seem fine with that.

I wonder if they charge by results? I suspect not, so it'll be a nice little earner, preying on people's fears.

to answer the original OP - 3 is fine as long as that doesn't include maths and additional maths as that may be counted as 1.5. The only advantage of 4 is to show you can cope with the workload. If he needs to drop one to be less stressed how will he cope with the stress of a shorter, more intense, course and is Oxbridge the right place for him?

The workload at Cambridge was described to me as a bit like doing 9 A levels at once. Most of those admitted seem to manage but both students and parents should think about whether applicants would be better with a slightly slower pace.

Having some practise at the type of odd question Oxbridge can throw at you can be a good idea so that it doesn't come as a complete shock. However you can find books that do that and commercial courses aren't necessary.