Top uni won't accept just biology they need another science for many subjects? Is the true

[Fabulousfeb]

My dd wanted to do biology, pyscology and history but now she sisd all top uni want another science?..

DS says lack of chem A level is no issue. Also says having maths A level is no specific help but I suspect it is, all the same, just he is not aware IYSWIM.

He's in his third year btw.

c@clary thank you. Where is he?

My dd did Biology Chemistry and Psychology (now doing Sociology which needed no sciences ironically) - she got 2 x A stars and an A in Chemistry and found the chemistry a massive slog (having found the GCSE very straightforward). She only got the A as a result of a huge amount of work (and all credit to
her) and I am sure she would counsel anyone to avoid Chemistry if they didn’t need it. In comparison she found Biology and Psychology (Psychology in particular) very straightforward. Although the plus point of Chemistry is that although you have the cote practicals there is no NEA and having gone through NEA’s with my other child I would view not doing one as a good thing.

Bristol Biology is becoming more quantitative. It used to be heavy on animal behaviour and ecology but is now branching out into things like phylogenetics. Students now do stats and code in R in 2nd year. It will be easier for her if she chooses Chemistry, Maths or Physics with the Biology as they give a certain mindset.

I guess DS's maths has been useful there then. He's done coding, but hates it. Not his interest.

He's at Loughborough getting a very good American-football-playing degree haha

I think he occasionally does some work too :) He needed AAB, which was the offer he got from the RG places he applied to as well (or ABB for one I think). Lboro not RG ofc but just as good hey.

Thank you Clary!! Sounds fun for him 😁 football 🏈⚽

Trust me, Chemistry A Level is never a waste! Psychologist a level often is, however.

I agree with this. I don't regret my Chemistry A-level but Psychology was a bit dull in comparison.

NatSci at Cambridge and elsewhere is what it says on the tin, a response to the increasingly cross-disciplinary nature of scientific advances. It literally aims to equip Scientists with cross disciplinary knowledge and skills. You cannot study just single subject Biology. It would be very odd if it didn't require cross disciplinary Science A levels.

Dd felt maths would have been better than Chem (she did neither - Psych was her second science). Now aiming to be a research scientist so hasn't held her back. Is Maths an option?

Only just been through applications to 6th form for Sept, but the tutors at the open day were very clear that unis are a bit closed minded about subject combinations and favourite groupings.

DS’s fave subjects were Biology & Comp Sci. Was told Bio and CompSci could be an issue if wanted to study Bio and some other similar degrees at uni and that you don’t need A Level CompSci to study it at university, but was also told that maths is in demand too. So, he’s dropped the idea of comp sci and is doing bio, chemistry & maths instead as he’s interested in med school or medical sciences.

Fortunately, he can get good grades at GCSE but is now a little daunted about how challenging the A level syllabuses will be!

I would chat to the relevant school/6th form tutor about what they recommend as they will likely say that if your DD definitely wants to study Biology, and wants to have the full choice of universities to select from when the time comes, doing a second science (not a social science) and/or maths is strongly advised?

DD2 would echo what @B0G0F and @PurpleOrchid42 have said - she found psychology to be the least interesting and the least useful of her A levels (biology and chemistry were her others).

She admits maths would have been exceptionally useful in her Masters too, but she feels she only got top grades in her 3 x maths GCSEs because she had a very, very good teacher, and not because she was especially good at the subject!

I agree it's a much better grounding to have a second science for a biology degree. If she goes for ecology options there's a fair amount of maths; if she chooses more biochem, molecular, med stuff, there's obviously lots of chemistry.

I swapped from history to chemistry a term into A levels because of this. It was something of a struggle but helped my degree.

I think you can pick up what you'd learn in a Psychology A-level from generally reading around the subject, whereas you'll learn things that you might not encounter if you didn't study Chemistry and Maths.

I would say that the Chemistry and Maths would be more useful career-wise than Biology and Psychology if you are going to be in a STEM environment.

If there's an option to do Statistics at school, I'd recommend taking it.

DD is taking biology, chemistry and psychology A levels and wants to study neuroscience. She was determined to take psychology and has really enjoyed the A level. Chemistry or maths was a toss-up. She felt maths would be easier (for her) than chemistry, but picked chemistry in the end because it was required for Edinburgh and UCL. She also opted to take AS maths over two years as an extra, to boost her maths skills. Taking the psychology rather than maths A level meant she couldn't apply for NatSci at Cambridge. On the other hand Exeter, Bristol and Warwick would all have accepted biology + psychology without chemistry. Her view of chemistry now is that it was the right choice and once you understand something it is pretty easy to get good marks, but some bits are harder to understand than others!

Haha @B0G0F yes DD2 did maths, further maths and statistics GCSEs but still couldn't be persuaded to take the A level. But there was a fair bit of epidemiology in her MSc and that is very stats-based so it was extremely useful to have studied a bit more maths than just 1 GCSE.

Some great advice here and lots to mull over, thank you.

DD2 would echo what @B0G0F and @PurpleOrchid42 have said - she found psychology to be the least interesting and the least useful of her A levels

@thing47 DD also disliked psychology A level. She found it dull and unchallenging. She dropped it after AS levels (she had started with 4 subjects).

She found chemistry hard but enjoyed it all the same. She also found that it went well with biology and managed to answer some biology questions during her exams that her friends who hadn't taken chemistry couldn't.

DD chose A Levels in Biology, Eng Lit and Psychology.
When she decided to apply for Biology at university, her options without Maths and/Chemistry were limited but she could still apply to Oxford, Durham, Exeter, Bristol and Bath - the year before Oxford stopped accepting Psychology as a second science.
Her A Level subjects raised eyebrows at her Oxford interviews but she scored enough to receive an offer and graduated with a first class MBiol in 2022.

DD found A Level Psychology very, very dull. Maths would have been the better option with hindsight.

DS is a current biology student. He didn't do A level chemistry and it's not been an issue. Unless it's really off the cards A level maths is useful. As a PP said lots of data handling & analysis. If she is doing geography GCSE, which counts as a science, that links well for environment/climate /food aspects.

I used to lecture in bio sci at a RG uni. I had so many students who hadn’t done chemistry A level struggle with some of the work, esp the more molecular stuff. I ended up developing a “chemistry for biologists” course!

DD studied biomedical sciences at university. She said the students who hadn't done chemistry struggled during the first year.