A level choices

[allblondegirls]

My dd is currently trying to decide which A level subjects to choose before she has to apply for 6th forms in September. She is definite about biology and history and during a taster day at her current school tried out psychology, chemistry, maths and English lit with a view to choosing two of these. After the taster day she decided on chemistry and maths.

I am a bit concerned about her doing maths because, whilst she has always been good at it, she has never enjoyed it. I think her reason for choosing it is that she can do it (at GCSE) and she thinks it will look good if she wants to apply to study a science related subject at a good university (she has suggested that she may want to study medicine but this is not a definite). I would have thought that you would have to really enjoy a subject and be really committed to study it at A level. I certainly know that I won?t be able to give her any help but she has said that if she starts to struggle we can always get her a tutor. I would be prepared to do this.

I am tempted to suggest she chooses psychology instead as she really enjoyed the taster lesson. Does anyone have any experience of these subjects at A level? I have also been told that chemistry is very hard but I can see the sense in combining this with biology. Do these subjects become a lot more difficult? Should I be getting some help and advice from her subject teachers?

Well I think she needs to decide whether she is going to apply to do medicine or not before she picks her A-levels.
If she does decide on medicine then chemistry and maths would be the ones to go for , and yes they are hard..much harder than gcse. She would need to be predicted A' in those to hope for medicine.

My dd did maths A level. She found gcse maths easy and did it a yr early etc and got A* . She did not find A level easy at all and was pleased she ended up with a B.

No experience of chemistry but a few of her friends did it and said it is a lot harder than gsce.

Agree that for medicine: Chemistry, Biology and Maths is a good combination and you would need to continue to study all 3 subjects at A2 level. This may also be true for medical related courses e.g. pharmacy.
As a Chemistry tutor I would say that doing AS level Maths certainly helps with Chemistry A level (one of the reasons many students find it more difficult is that there is more Maths involved) but know of many students who "drop" it after AS level and then go on to do degrees in Biochemistry or Biology. I also have taught a few students who have studied Psychology at degree level who haven't studied it at A level.

I wouldn't have thought that psychology would be as good choice as any of the others mentioned. It's not really recommended to have done it even for a psychology degree. I agree she needs to not lose the option to do sciences/med if there's even a chance she might want to and would go with chem/maths. Or if she's looking at humanities/social sciences, English would be considered more academic than psychology.

Thanks for the replies. This is just the sort of advice I needed. Particularly regarding how useful subjects like psychology would be. I had assumed that it would get a lot more difficult at A level as I am forever reading about the big jump from GCSEs to A levels.

The school have advised that anyone considering medicine will need 5 A*s at GCSE. This is obviously a tough challenge. It would be much easier if she could wait until she has her GCSE results before having to choose A levels. I?m not even sure that she will peruse the idea of medicine, I just think at this moment in time she is still very young and does not know what she wants to do when she leaves school. She enjoys science (biology and chemistry but not physics) and I am sure that over the next couple of years she will start to consider other science related degrees and career options. I just want to make sure she makes the right choices to keep her options open.

It is reassuring to know that she may only need to do maths to AS level. It will give her an option to drop it if she thinks she?s made the wrong choice.

Although most schools ask you choose subjects now, there is often an opportunity to switch after the GCSE results come out. They need to offer this for unexpected results!

My eldest DS sailed through Maths at GCSE and achieved an A*, but the jump to A level was too much and he dropped it after getting a D at AS. This really knocked his confidence so I would strongly suggest she talks to her maths teachers before signing up!

My DD has just completed AS Levels in Chem, Maths, and French. Chem was her best subject at GCSE level ( she actually did Scottish qualifications so got a high 1) but she says it is very hard at A Level. Maths is hard too, and your algebra really has to be excellent. My son's school will only allow pupils too do A Level Maths if they have A* at GCSE or failing that they must have an A but veyr strong marks in the paper which involves the algebra. DD currently predicted to get a B which is fine for what she needs, but it is tough.

If she wants to do medicine then Chemistry, Maths, Biology would be the best option. A lot of medical schools specify Chemistry. It is hard.

I teach Biology, there is a jump from GCSE here too, and even A GCSE students don't find the transition easy. In fact sometimes they really struggle, if they've managed to get their A without too much effort it comes as a bit of a shock that they need to start really working!

Psychology is more limiting, in that less courses would specify it. Bio, Chem, Maths would be the best for any medical / bio / chem based courses. My biology students who also do maths find aspects of the course easier, for example at A2 you need to do statistical tests which can be a bit scary if you've dropped maths after GCSE.

If she's thinking about medicine then she should look at the subject requirements in some prospectuses. Do some research and check everything you are told against some actual prospectuses. Don't listen to rumour. (5 or more A*s at GCSE are certainly a strong point for a medical candidate but having fewer is not necessarily a deal-breaker at all medical schools.)
She has to start setting out her stall during y12 really and make the right decisions now.

Chemistry is essential. Biology at least to A/S level is fine but she should do Maths. Eng Lit or History as a fourth choice would show some roundedness.

If she decides later not to apply for medicine then at least she will have picked the right A levels to start with and that's better than picking the wrong ones now and finding that she's locked herself out. Also these A levels will stand her in good stead if she doesn't apply to medical schools.

A level is a bit of a leap for everyone but the staff are used to helping them make the transition and the working ethos is so much better in 6th form.

I was like your DD, and really wish I had worked much harder at math even though I wasn't enthused or that good at it; math is just so useful for so many other things worth studying (I did get to Uni level calculus but not beyond). My believe that I needed to be enthusiastic and very good at math to go further held me back hugely, I should have pushed ahead even if my math talents were only high mediocre.

I have read descriptions of psychology as very soft option for A-level, not worthwhile.

My DD is studying Natural Sciences at uni. Her first love is Biology but she enjoys Psychology so much she did not want to give it up at AS. She also needed Maths and Chemistry, to apply for the courses she wanted so she ended up taking all 4 to A2, not unusual for those applying to Science courses (and it is certainly not because they are easier than humanities). The Maths has been essential, she focused on statistics modules in the A level and she has had to take an even more advanced course at uni, and uses it for the higher study of all three subjects, for data analysis of experiments etc. (although you can do more arts based Psychology degrees but they will still have statistics components ). She did find it a big jump from GCSE to A level in Maths and Science. Up to GCSE she was a bit of a Maths whizz, always top set etc but since then has found it harder and harder, but also relevent and indispensible to what she really enjoys. However Maths seemed to be a subject they can do well at if they work hard enough but a lot of them find the Chemistry is very hard. I have known of a few girls tripped up by it.

Medicine is so competitive but is about aptitude and vocation as well as academics, one of the girls tripped up by Chemistry at AS (a C) was reprieved by the fact she had very high scores in the various tests of clinical aptitude that you take (UKCAT, BMAT) and plenty of evidence of her sense of vocation, summers working in care homes etc. and performed well at interview so they let it go as long as she got an A at A2. I do know someone applying for medicine who has only Chemistry at AS (actually has taken it up in A2 year) but it has very much limited where she can apply and she is working on the basis she will do A2 in a gap year if she doesn't get anywhere. And the hard work getting in is just the beginning....... She should talk to some current students so she really knows what she is taking on, even my daughters Science course is significantly harder work than most other courses at her uni, third only to architecture and medicine, so that her ability to join in with normal student life is limited but she looks at the medics and thinks she has it easy. And then if your daughter wants to do it she is going to have to prove it by spending lots of time in hospitals and care homes wiping old people's bottoms, wading through the blood and vomit in A &E and watching people die in ICU . When DD's friend described it all it sounded absolutely horrific but her eyes shone with excitement and so you knew it was for her.

i was going to put what others have already said on this thread

ds got just a few marks shy of an a in gcse maths but found a level way too difficult - the other students in his class were a or a star students

off

If you read my thread opening post, we are in the same position as you but a year ahead, DS having just sat GCSES.

He started off wanting to do psychology at uni, but after some probing of courses and trying to match what he wanted it wasn't right really I think- he wanted a science based course with neurophysiology etc thrown in. Apart from oxbridge experimental psychology type stuff there wasn't anything.

We were strongly advised from many angles that you shouldn't do psychology A level as a route to psychology at uni.

Your DD needs to decide re medicine or not medicine by September really. Ds had a change of heart after we put the choices in and that was a challenge.

Don't choose medicine unless you really are at the top of your game GCSE wise at least for sciences/maths. You might not " have to have" all A*s at GCSE but it helps, and suggests that A levels at really good grades are reasonably with grasp.

I have also been told that chemistry is very hard

Its a subject which requires you to be both highly numerate and also able to deal in what can seem like fairly abstract concepts (so is physics obviously). So some people find it hard - others love it for those reasons.

I wouldn't really want a doctor who had found school chemistry difficult. Or maths come to that. Do they do a maths and stats A level still? They used to in my day, it was more popular with the people doing chemistry and biology (some aiming for medical type degrees) whereas the chem/physics people did the Pure and Applied. I don't know if the maths&stats (if it exists) is easier but it might be more relevant.

Adding my voice to those who know youngsters who cruised through GCSE Maths, got A* and then found AS really difficult. That's about 3 people I know of. I think it's one to take if you really enjoy it, ar really, really want to do it, but not if you don't.