Anyone else’s SC taken 5 A levels?

[Parvolax]

DS has taken 5 A levels and is half way through his 20 exams (with a few step etc thrown in). Anyone else taken 5 A levels?

Computer Science is ultra competitive at the top unis. I think the top unis therefore use their own admissions tests. Concentrate on helping DC achieve their best in any admission test in the area. I think that will be more important than 5 a levels.

Mine had 4 A* and a top-graded AS (A) in a 5th subject already passed - wasn't allowed to take 5 A levels by school due to time-tabling (plus not sure they'd have wanted to anyway, so banking an AS was good). Maths, FM, Physics and two languages.
Didn't get into Oxbridge either. It's just very competitive. Just move onwards and upwards. Mine is somewhere equally renowned in their field (if not more so) and very happy, and it's turned out to be the right place for them. Good luck to your son.

@Whalesong he has a good first choice uni who are looking for 3 A*’s which hopefully he’ll get so I’m not too concerned.

That's great! But wow, 3A! Don't think I've seen anywhere making offers like that, so hopefully he'll get a slightly easier offer. What subject is he looking to study? Mine is doing Maths, and nowhere (including Oxford) asked for more than AAA.
Even when they're pretty confident of getting the grades, having no margin for error is an additional pressure which they really don't need. I was very glad that mine didn't HAVE to have A in FM as that's a pretty big ask. Getting it was a bonus rather than a necessity (and resulted in a lucrative scholarship, so a BIG bonus in the end).
Either way, with 5 A levels yours will hopefully have some degree of leeway. Mine did as while he had to have A* in Maths, the other two grades could come from any two of his other three subjects.

Bolding and italics fail! That should have said wow 3 A star! And that nowhere my DS applied to asked for more than A star A star A.
And no idea where the italics came from. I was relieved that mine didn't have to have an A star in FM as that's a big ask.

I did 5, back in the day when after the ASs, you would drop down to 3. But I got straight As at AS so was reluctant to drop any. Perhaps I should have done in hindsight as ended up with BBBCD, the D being in history which was my favourite subject.

Or perhaps you were just extremely bright?

AS levels were introduced in 1989, and it was easier to take more subjects when the exams were modular because students took half an A level at each exam sitting.

A levels were decoupled in about 2017, so all of DD's subjects were linear. She started with 4 subjects but dropped down to three because she just didn't have the physical or mental strength to deal with the volume of work (she had CFS).

But why?

(And I would imagine very few DC have. Your son is very much in the upper echelons of quantity of A Levels taken - as endorsed by Mumsnet!)

But why?

So that they can boast?

@GodessOfThunder and @RampantIvy no not so he can boast! He’s the least boasty person you could meet! Two reasons, one because he’s indecisive about absolutely everything and it drives me mad so he couldn’t narrow it down and two because he loves it. He’s had 20 exams these last 4 weeks and he’s loving every minute of it.

@Whalesong I think he needs an A in maths and A in comp. Science and one other A* I don’t think it has to be FM but I might be wrong.
He has a lower offer for his second choice of AAA and the just needs A in maths so he can get the other A in anything.