DD and too many A levels - is this a good idea?

[stoneysongs]

Sorry for the length - DD did well in her GCSEs and has started sixth form college doing maths, biology, psychology and French A levels. She isn't sure what she wants to do later but right now is thinking about Human Sciences.

She also wants to do history but knows that 5 A levels is a bad idea. The question is what to drop and so far biology is the favourite for that, because it's difficult. (Having talked about this I think it's only difficult because the way of learning is new - she just needs to get used to it.) I also suspect that she hasn't made a friend yet in her biology class and one of the friends she has made is giving history the hard sell, but she has only been there a week so all of that will change.

She is enjoying all her subjects so far and thinks that although biology is her least favourite, it would be useful for human sciences so she wants to carry on with it for that reason.

My question is - is this a good solution if the college will let her do it - bearing in mind we are in Wales, so separate AS and A2 qualifications.

Y12 do maths, biology, psychology and history and take 4 x AS. Y13 drop history and do AS french instead (if she wants to). So she might end up with 3 x A levels and 2 x AS. I guess she could then do another year at college to convert them to full A levels if she wanted to (she won't want to), or could just use the 3 x A levels to apply to uni.

Is that crazy? I am trying to find a solution she can live with that keeps as many doors open as possible, because she is very unsure about what to do next. She knows that she only needs 3 A levels for uni but there is no way she will give up another one. Any advice gratefully received.

I did 4 AS levels in my first year of 6th Form - Latin, History, Politics, French.
Then in the 2nd year, took 3 to full A Level - French, History, Politics, and did an AS in Maths - picked up Maths again because I was considering applying for PPE, although I ended up going down a different path in the end.

The workload was perfectly manageable, and no questions from Unis about indecisiveness. My Oxford offer was for the standard 3 As, and I enjoyed going back to a subject that had right and wrong answers instead of the shades of grey in all of my essay based subjects. Although the Maths didn't end up being important at university, I have found it's been very useful in my later career, particularly as the modules I took were focused on statistics rather than mechanics.

Things I would consider:
A) Does an extra AS cover a specific area of knowledge that she'd otherwise be lacking? I think a humanities subject to balance someone who is otherwise v science focused, or vice versa can be worth it, particularly if your DD isn't sure what direction she wants to go for university.
B) Is she someone who does tons of extra curricular activities? Might be tough to balance workload. I only really did debating club which was v manageable, but a heavy commitment to a sports team for example would not have been.
C) When I did this in 2004/5/6, marks for A level were banked at AS - so I knew that I could in the 2nd year get a low B at the A2 part for Politics, History and French, and still come out with an A overall, so it took some of the pressure off. Does that still happen with the Welsh set up? Again, if not, I'd think very carefully about whether doing the extra AS is worth the pressure and if your DD can handle it.

Overall, can be a really good thing, but think very carefully about your specific circumstances.

Thanks Buwch - the choice to do four is not really to do with university admission, but because she enjoys all the subjects and isn't sure which are most useful for the future because she hasn't decided what to do next. Hopefully by the end of Y12 she will have more idea and will find it easier to pick one to drop, if the extra work is beginning to risk compromising her grades.

withering that's really interesting that you did what I thought might work for DD, ending up with 3 x A levels and 2 x AS. I agree that universities don't require decisiveness at this age, especially for courses that are multi-disciplinary. In answer to your questions, A) yes, history would add some essay-writing skills, B) no she doesn't have any other huge demands on her time, she swims but for fun, plays the piano a lot but not to the point where it would interfere with her studies, C) I think this is a very good point, yes AS grades are banked and count for 40% of the full A level. That does make me feel better about this idea.

So for now she's doing 4 and for Y13 will either drop one ending up with 3 x A level and 1 x AS, or stick with 4 x A levels, or swap one for history and do 3 x A levels and 2 x AS. Thanks again everyone.

@NiteCat - FM is allowed for those who are bright enough and because it overlaps so much with maths but it’s the only A level students are allowed as a 4th. We also offer IB so the argument is that if students want breadth they can do that instead.

@sheepdogdelight - ah hadn’t spotted that.

I wish DD could have done IB, it would have really suited her, but sadly not an option here.

Thanks@Cleopatra67