A-levels: to press or not to

[MsAverage]

One more topic on the A-level choice.

DD is inspired by her success in GCSE's physics and wants to do it at A-level. I see Further Maths as much better choice: 1) she won't need physics anywhere after A-level, unlike maths 2) and we have a fabulous maths tutor.

The pool of subjects to choose looks like this: Maths (the only subject which is in for sure), Physics, Further Maths, Art, Psychology, Economics, Computing.

I still can exercise parental power. I do not want to. Shall I just let her make her mistakes at AS? Would not this mistake be too expensive? Your thoughts? Your experience?

If she is excelling in maths (and she would need to, A level maths has a very high drop-out rate) then Maths, further maths, & Physics all work well together. Art is very time-consuming, but a nice contrast. What does she want to do afterwards?

Why can't she do physics and further maths. Why won't she use physics, what career does she want.
My Ds had just started 6th form. He is taking Maths, further Maths, Physics and Philosophy and Ethics.

To be honest, speaking as a fairly recent graduate, I think by the time you get to A-Level it really is up to the student what she studies. My parents didn't pick my A-Level subjusts for me and your DD is the one who has to actually take the 2 year course. Also, IMO Physics as an A-Level is not likely to be a 'mistake'. Lots of university courses require a science based A-Level. It's not like she wants to do General Studies!

Physics is a great subject and well respected and shows more diversity. At 16 she should choose herself. Further maths is very tough and imo should never be forced on anyone or they are not likely to do so well at it. What do you think she may want to do that further maths would be more useful for?

I have a physics degree, I don't use it now as I went on to do medicine. But it never fails to impress people, actually far more than the medical degree does, and has a habit of causing jaws to drop (maybe partly because I really don't look like a physicist ). More than half the battle from A level upwards is being interested in the subject, so if she wants to do it I wouldn't try to put her off. I promise you no-one will ever look negatively at it.

Ultimately, Maths, further Maths and physics are actually pretty much the same thing. If that is where her bent is, she will do fine with any combination. In my day further Maths was always a 4th A level, I don't know how it is now. But I would say that if she has ambitions to take physics beyond A level she will do herself a massive favour by doing further Maths now.

Oh, and actually everyone uses physics every day

DO NOT CHOOSE FOR HER

Seriously, let her choose. She's the one that will have to live with this for the rest of HER life. You push her into things, she will end up being miserable and/or failing. She's 16, you gently advise, not decide for her.

Have to agree with the posters who say it is her choice, particularly as Maths and Physics are closely related. Let her do which she prefers. I could understand if it was a subject that didn't fit in with whatever she wanted to do, in which case I would suggest she didn't take that. For example my DS1 told me he was intending to take Physics, Maths and PE and I was less than enthusiastic. Told him no science degree was going to be terribly impressed by his PE A level and he'd be better to do Chemistry, say. He's now doing MSc Engineering at Uni (having taken Chemistry, Business, Maths and Physics). Still feel he wouldn't have been accepted with his A level PE.

Let her choose for goodness sake.

I'm intrigued that the OP thinks that Physics is a useless subject.

Many thanks for responses, everyone. I was sceptical about doing 3 "hard" subjects, but now I see that being interrelated this pack is not beyond human capabilities.

Bruffin, is you DS aiming to those fabulously looking new Oxford courses like Maths+Philosophy and Computing+Philosophy?

When you say "fabulous maths tutor" you do mean tutor as in teacher at school, don't you? Not outside tutor on top of school?

I echo what other posters have said - it is your daughter's life and her decision not yours. IF your daughter has to have outside tutoring in order to get a good grade at A' level from the outset, I don't think she should be doing it.

Knows, Physics is not a necessity in the context of her desired uni destination.

It would be useful to know what her plans for university are. As another poster mentioned Further Maths is viewed by some institutions as a 4th A level, although is in some cases a requirement. I don't think Physics could ever be considered a waste of time.

Fluffy, DD has to have tutoring because she is in a state school with the results well below national average. Some buy education on wholesale market of private schooling, we went for retail tutoring (we had reasons, all of them not in the child). :)

I agree would be useful to know what her uni plans are and how rigid they currently are.

Personally I have never found my A level maths useful beyond getting into uni as it covers pretty niche and specialised aspects of maths which certainly aren't useful in everyday life (apart from a small section about compound interest). Maths as an a level subject is more about providing skills that will supplier the sciences IMO.

The only reason further maths will be a better subject than physics is if she wants to do something at uni which is very mathematical. Otherwise physics shows diversity. I assume she is doing straight maths tho or this makes the physics very hard but not impossible.

Apple, plans are running in the area between Maths and Computing with Silicon Roundabout as a target. Physics won't hurt, but I am not sure if she could do that.

Haunted, A-level Statistics and Decision Making are covering the skills I am selling on the job market. I switched to them later in life (at 18yo I considered myself a humanitarian! :)) when I had to think how am I going to feed my family. They are ubiquitous. FurtherPure, agreed, is more like a brain gym rather than an earning tool.

(by real life I meant everyday life, a link to a specfic career was implied by my reference to needing it for specific uni course. I wasn't suggesting to not do the maths - just suggesting that unless further maths is specifically required physics is probably more useful)

Ds wants to do Engineering . He was going to take chemistry, then for some reason had a major panic about it. P and E showed a bit of diversity and he is interested in the subject.
The school also offers some sort of finance course but he has decided to take a Latin gcse instead

I don't see that physics would be a bad choice then. She may change her mind anyway. I think it's important to keep options open. If she's interested in maths then doing at least one science alongside keeps more options open in my opinion.
I assume she hasn't yet had any university visits? Of the subjects you mentioned in your OP which do you think she should take?
Our job as parents is to help with decision making at this stage. My DD wanted to take a BTEC alongside her 3 academic A levels. I didn't think it was a good idea. She contacted an admissions tutor at a (RG) university and he replied that it would do no harm and because of the chosen subject could be an advantage! She didn't do that in the end though.

Msaverage,

Just wondered why on earth you had to send your daughter to a school, which has such awful teaching that you have to employ a tutor?

I understand that many Unis take the school and postcode into consideration when awarding places, so perhaps you are worrying a bit too much?

Ds did contact Southhampton re a 4th A level. They said take what ever you want, preferably what your interested in.