Does your child want to do a "XXXX Studies" A Level?

[Ponders]

Make them read this before they choose!

A grades in drama and theatre studies, religious studies, and English language and literature, but no university offer 2 years in a row...

Drama/theatre studies and English lang/lit is obviously not a good combination; much too similar. Religious studies may well be (& should be) quite rigorous intellectually - I have no idea what the syllabus is like - but I can imagine admissions tutors glazing over at 2 lots of "studies" without looking any further.

Frustrating for the lad but who let him choose those subjects? His school should have advised him!

Thanks very much for that. Things are very tough at the moment and I think it will be like that for at least another four years.

My son will be choosing A levels next year and it looks like he is going to go for biology, chemistry, maths and geography or history probably dropping maths after AS...

I read a while back that after 2012 (I think) UCL will not consider anyone for any degree unless they have a language at GCSE.

Those sound like excellent choices, silver - 4 proper subjects, & AS maths very desirable for all sorts of things!

(Of course, to be fair all round the boy in the BBC story aimed way too high both times, given his subjects - he does seem to have woken up to that now, which is something, although he still sounds a bit snobby & I do wonder if he's taken any notice at all of the newspaper league tables?)

I agree that doing a language at GCSE is desirable but making it compulsory (what grade would be required?) for a degree offer seems a bit excessive - some very clever students just don't get languages, do they?

Religious studies is a "proper" A level though.

Ok, so what is considered "notaproper" A level then?

My eldest is 11 but I am forward-planning.

This list: www.trin.cam.ac.uk/index.php?pageid=604

Thank you gero - that's enlightening.

Just 3 A-Levels isn't going to walk him into a good Uni course these days, & Drama/Theatre Studies was a seriously dumb choice alongside the Eng Lang/Lit.

Anything '___ Studies' wants careful thinking, as does any combo award like Eng Lang/Lit. I think you can have one of these by all means - but not three.

He's not showing much in the way of rigour or breadth with those options, & I can quite see admissions being underwhelmed.

Agree that a good language pass at GCSE is becoming increasingly important.

Useful list, Gerontius.

Interesting that it appears science A levels are acceptable for Arts applicants - obviously enough, not the other way round.

This ought to be publicised - we badly need both more STEM skillef graduates, and more properly scientifically literate people in all walks of life in this country. Frankly, Religious studies may be 'proper' but its of limited use in the real world.

One thing that RS does is teach people how to construct an argument and also how to write acurately and persuasively ,these skills are sadly lacking in many job applicants.most chemical concepts have limited use in life as would quite a lot of geography or maths for that matter.It is not what you learn but how and with how much rigour

I did religious studies a level. I'd say about a third of my a level set went on to Oxbridge, to do degrees including theology, classics, PPE and English.

Religious Studies is not a modern invention and I don't think it is badly regarded by Russell Group universities.

I don't think anyone should put their children off doing it for this reason. It was pretty dull though, the worst of my 4 a levels!

main mistake was applying for Eng lit degree with a lit and lang combined A level.
He doesn't say what he achieved at GCSE and this would have been important, not what he achieved at AS or was predicted for A2 - all could be very significant.
Looks as though he could have done with some help on his PS and choice of unis rather than choice of A levels maybe...

Note though that Religious Studies is on the Trinity College List B - i.e. eminently suitable for those wishing to pursue an Arts degree. It's the other two A Levels that let the boy down by the looks of it. RS A Level is very demanding as far as I know - a friend of mine is Head of RS at the school I used to work in and she teaches philosophy, ethics, feminist theology, etc as part of the A Level course.

Sorry , List A2 not List B.

Subjects too similar and he'd applied only to the prestigious universities. Perhaps he should lower his sights a bit.

I'm really fed up with people talking about proper A levels. It depends on what a young person wants to study at university and what they want to do afterwards,DD2 did Btech Performing arts/Musical theartre certificate for A level . She got double Distinction which is equivelent to " A#s and she also Did English A level which she got a C. She did not get to university the first year after finishing college despite having several interviews and auditions. The courses she applied for actually wanted her to have English A level and somesort of Performing Arts A level. She perservered and got a place the next year. She actually wants to do something Drama related and found that she needed a lot of experianxe in acting /dancing to get in. They don't just look at grades. She did several shows and also took extra Dance classes in her unplanned gap year. So if someone wants to do Drama/theatre studies and English lang/litDrama related or crative things then is a good thing to take, By the way DD2 works hard at uni and she has had a lot of essays to do as well as make a film and edited it.

If his parents had sent him to the right school he wouldnt' have been allowed to make that mistake over A level choice because (a) drama and theatre studies and (b) combined English language and literature would not have been available.

But yes depends where you want to go and what you want to do. Although I suspect peoplw tih AAA in 3 proper A levels who to go Oxbridge and do a lot of drama there might find their acting career easier than drama at some other places.

I did Media Studies A-level along with History, English Lit, and Christian Theology. All As along with all As and A*s in my 12 GCSEs. I had a list of extra curricular as long as my arm, head girl, county honours in two sports, and still only got into three of the six universities I applied to.

And this was in 1999, so not the dire situation it is now. I was told later that I shouldn't have done Media Studies - I was very badly advised, and wish I'd done Maths or Biology instead.

It pays to think long and hard about subjects - they do count, and some will always be viewed as lesser subjects.

mumeeee - yes, of course it depends on what a student wants to do next and where they want to study. But a student doing the combination of A Levels this lad did was badly advised to apply for the high flying universities he did and to read English Lit which is a massively oversubscribed subject. TBH, these days three As is not as spectacular as it once was, and given he doesn't even have an A Level in Eng. Lit., I'm not surprised he didn't get offers from the places he applied to.

Students are always advised to have a scale of universities on their UCAS form - so maybe two 'on my best day' universities, two 'realistic' and one 'if it all goes tits up...'

an awful lot of unremarkable students can get A grades nowadays in all subjects

thats why the A* introduced

agree beemail

that lit/lang thing is not for a serious english candidate wanting to go to russell group

Poor boy was ill advised on his choice of subjects if at that time it seemed he had potential to get into a highly ranked university. Every year there are reports of students with As (and this year with A* no doubt) not getting any offers for subjects such as English and History. Generally they have only applied to the top universities without any insurance choices - though in his case his A Level choices, though no doubt interesting to him, didn't appear sufficiently rigorous and appealing to the admissions tutors.

He's only got one well thought of academic A level in that bunch and that is the religious studies one. Any school hoping to get bright kids into university to study something like english literature should know that drama/theatre studies should be a 4th A level and a combined english lang and lit a level is not well thought of. I really don't understand how this happens.

I've only seen one son through UCAS this year and along the way I have picked up this info so why the hell are schools not advising properly. This boy is obviously very bright an A grade in RS requires a high level of analytical skill and an ability to formulate arguments and understand complicated philosophical theory. he should have at least been advised to study another A level in the second year he was applying.

This surprises me. There are private schools which don't even allow you to take these non academic A levels. Why are some schools not at the least making it clear? This does not take more Government funding. It just takes the school issuing a piece of paper with two lists - "good" A levels if you want to go to XYZ and "bad" ones which of course could be superb if you want to go to XYZ very badly regarded ex poly but will not be likely to get you into a decent university?

Also parents who are unsure go and look at th elists of A level subjects available at schools like Westminster and North London Collegiate etc They are the lists of what are academic good A levels to take usually (as all the children in those schools are likely to go there). Indeed the few areas with state grammars probably have the same lists on their web sites too I assume.

But not all children can go to a Westminster or NLCS, or would want to.

At a very nice and well regarded GDST school we looked around a couple of years back, they said they planned to expand the list of A levels they offered. They took girls in at 4, and not all were headed for glittering academic careers. The scope to do some more practical subjects (I think photography was an example) would aid those perhaps looking for something more vocational after school.

In contrast I felt very sad when a colleague, who was very proud that his son was likely to be the first in the family to go to University, explained that the boy's sixth form college had persuaded him away from Maths and languages (his best subjects at GSCE) to law and media studies and accounting, on the basis that he would get better grades in those subjects, which in turn would help him into University. I did wonder whether the issue was that the College was not confident of getting a bright child good grades in those, perhaps more rigorous, subjects.

The boy is at an alright local university. If he had been in a more ambitious academic environment I suspect he might have been a sound Russel Group or Oxbridge candidate.

That is a shame.

English lit is hard to get into because its so popular. I did not do amazingly in my A'Levels (although Cambridge would have approved of all of them!) and someone at school advised me to apply for English and another less popular subject. I did and got in and within a week I switched to the straight lit degree. Its a bit sneaky but it is a way in.