Good A level choices?

[zippydoodade]

DD currently in Yr11 has no idea on what she wants to do career / uni wise at present, but wants to take English, Film Studies and Art A levels.

I would really appreciate your opinion on:

1. is this a good combination? Are English and Film Studies too similar?

2. if DD decides not to take Art at Uni, will having an Art A Level disadvantage her getting a place at a top Uni to take eg English? (Not Oxbridge but next tier down for example)

No help from school and Uni websites vague. Thanks!

English and film studies are very similar I think. What does she want to do at Uni at the moment ? Art is a good A level and v hard work. My DD has medic friends with Art as their 3rd A level so shouldn't prevent anywhere taking as long as the other 2 are good.

She literally has no idea. Has chosen Art and English as her current favourite GCSEs and loves films so is keen on taking Film Studies. Watching films with her she is pretty analytical so I think this is an ALevel she could do well in.

We know she isn't a scientist or mathematician so really just want to keep as many avenues as possible open for another year until she has to choose Uni courses.

Probably best to discuss with her English teacher - usually them who teach film studies too. Each syllabus is slightly different so might vary more than ours do. Also look at a couple of Uni prospectuses and the criteria for a couple of courses that look vaguely interesting. Usually they just need good A levels in whatever but some do require specifics. It is always best to choose subjects you enjoy as you will do better as you enjoy them 😊

English and Film Studies are similar but that’s not necessarily a bad thing - they’re very complementary, both writing-heavy and full of analysis, which will prepare her well for any sort of analytical university course. I have a student hopefully heading to Oxford from my Film class so it’s well-regarded!

Sounds fine to me. What's the problem?

If aiming for the "next tier down" from Oxbridge, I'm not sure that film studies would be the best choice tbh. A more traditional "academic" option might open more doors. However, if your dc really wants to do it anyway, I would support them in that choice - I don't think it will create any major barriers.

Thanks all. English Lit is EDEXEL and Film Studies is EDUQAS

Film Studies is a difficult course and regarded well by universities, so really no need to worry about that side of things.

DD is at a grammar school so I think she is capable (with a lot of work obviously) of achieving top grades and I just don't want her to decide to take English somewhere very competitive and then find we've let her down by not choosing the right A levels in the first place.

Seems all her friends are choosing Maths and Sciences and suddenly I feel her choices are a little weak! Strange how we don't value the Arts in society in the same way!

@zippydoodade do not worry about others going STEM subjects - lots of parents push that way I'm afraid. Is it Eng language, lit or both ?

Just English Lit.

Could she start with four, adding in another essay subject, then if she decides art isn't for her she can drop it and still have three essay subjects? Art is very very time consuming so she needs to be careful it doesn't take all her attention if she doesn't take it at degree level but still needs a top grade.

To add, if she did decide to do art as a degree, she'd still need to do a foundation, so maybe think about not doing Art a level at all, just keep creating informally.

Thanks good idea about starting with 4 and dripping one, assuming school will allow that

She really might want to do an Art degree of some sort though as she has always loved Art since a toddler. Identified as G&T in Art at primary. 😀GCSE hasn't been a big deal for her time wise but am conscious the last 2 years haven't been normal due to Covid.

Just bear in mind that if does do an art degree, the art a level will effectively have been a waste of time and she'll have to spend a whole year doing Art Foundation before the degree.

I did English lit and film studies and didn’t really find them too similar. They built similar complementary skills but the content was quite different! In film we covered some aspects of business (what’s a blockbuster, how does the marketing work) and in the world cinema module did the relevant world history to support the films we were watching.

Eng Lit sounds a perfect combo with film. Art degrees do often require a foundation year but not always. Does depend.
Joint degrees good if unsure so maybe English and Art an option ? Put A levels into UCAS search and it will show you all the courses possible (it will be a v long list !).

She doesn't have 'no idea'. She's knocked out a lot of options & is obviously into qualitative analysis. Lots of appreciation for aesthetics.

My DD did Photography rather than Art at A level, the big advantage and I believe Art is the same is the exam takes place a good couple of weeks or more before all the others and the majority of prep work for the exam you do before hand.

DD was predicted a B and got A*, she also excelled by a similar amount in her other 2 Alevels as she 'got the Photography out of the way early' and had around a months solid revision of just 2 subjects.
May be worth looking at when and how the final exams are taken time-wise, it was a definite advantage for DD - she wasn't even nominated for an excellence award for any of her subjects (school nominates 3 per subject and 1 winner) yet was the only A* in photography..
Admittedly at a good state comp, they had an excellent teacher who taught them 'how to write the subject', and extra classes after school.

I would say if she's going for an academic uni not to do film studies. English good choice Art good choice how about another humanities subject like Philosophy or Geography or History? How about a language? I studied two for a level and they were great fun, plus if she likes films you get to analyse a lot of the foreign language films! I studied PPE at university but a levels were French, Spanish Biology and Chemistry so not that related.

Trout. That sums it up brilliantly, thank you!

Titchy surely most people choosing Art Foundation have taken A level art? Would be hard to get a good quality portfolio together on your own?

I am a film studies teacher (waves at gravity).

Lots of Film students also do Eng Lit : it is the most common combination.

In fact, 3 of my class dot eh combination you mention! All three are going on to study art history at university, one combined with Eng Lit. Russell Group unis.

Any questions, fire away!

In film we covered some aspects of business (what’s a blockbuster, how does the marketing work)

This isn't part of the course any more.

Alexa your view on FS and uni admission is not accurate, especially not if studying Lit. arts.

Thanks Piggy (and gravity). That's the kind of real life examples I was hoping for! Other students with that combination and what they have gone on to do.

Film studies sounds like a fascinating subject. Wish they had offered it in my day!

Can MN for once and for all drop this nonsense about film not being suitable? I'd link to sample exam papers and the spec if I could be bothered. It is such an inaccurate view. I can tell you now , foreign films are taught a hell of a lot better by the film teachers I work with than the cursory treatment they get at French, Spanish or German A Level and we step outside of Europe, too, to look at, for example, Brazilian or Iranian cinema. It is not running around waving a camera. There is also documentary, and silent film and far more texts that students cover in English A level so it is very demanding.There is also, in many schools , a screen writing element which maintains the creativity booted out of so much of English. Creative and screenwriting degrees are expanding all the time.