3 A levels vs 4

[LavenderBombshell]

Does anyone have any experience of a DC taking 1 A level or equivalent early (ie 1st year 6th form) and - as DC's school has said - this one won't count for university entrance ..? Would DC be better just doing 3 subjects to be taken in final 6th form year ? Clearly we will take school advice but v interested to hear anyone's experience as this is the first time we have heard this .

Thank you

Ds is doing AS at the moment and the school advice is take 4 for AS and drop one for A2.
Not sure what your actually asking are you saying start off with 4 and complete one in the first year and finish the other 3 next year. Or are you saying take a single A level then go on to take 3 at another time.
In the RG guide it does say exams should be taken together.
My Ds's gf is going through uni applications at the moment and from what i can gather she has reduced offer because she has 4 As at AS.

My DS did a full Maths A-level in L6, followed by Further Maths in U6, with Physics spread over the two years.

The qualification taken early was fine for his Russell Group university. His conditional offers just mentioned two subjects, given that one was already in the bag. He is in his third year now.

You do have to look at the fine print for each university course you are interested in, especially if it is based on points rather than specific grades. A lot of courses will specify that all points have to come from A2s and will not count the points from the dropped AS subject (and other qualifications, such as music exams).

It's also important to keep an eye on changes to A-levels, such as the abandoning of January modules, and the AS modules for subjects to be taken at A2.

I have just had a look at DS's university entry requirements. There is no mention of A2s to be taken at the same time. One thing they have added since DS applied is a pass in a fourth subject at AS.

A typical sixth form will have students studying four subjects in L6 then three in U6. It looks like this stand alone AS is becoming important for top universities.

I think it might be different now, knowabitabout.

We had a talk at our school last week and were told that an A2 taken in L6 wouldn't be considered as they want A2s all taken at the same time - that was for Oxbridge, though, so not sure how applicable to other RG.

And if your DSs maths was like my DSs(4 years ago) they didn't actually 'cAsh' their first maths grade until the second year so it wasn't a firm A2 yet- grade could change depending on the other modules.

I've just had a look at UCL's website, and there's nothing about having to do the 3 A2s at the same time.

DS's Maths was definitely cashed-in. His subsequent offer was BB for Further Maths and Physics, not ABB had the Maths result still to be certificated.

The system is changing though. The AS will become a stand alone qualification, and will not contribute to A2s. I have still to get my head around all of this.

I think it's mainly Cambridge who discount A2 Maths taken in lower sixth. So they will give you an offer based on the 3 A2s taken in upper sixth.

Ah, thanks mummytime - that makes sense in the context of our talk at school

@beck I find it difficult to believe that Cambridge, for example, is advising people not to take A levels early. Lots of kids take maths A level before they are in the 6th form. Some kids take a language A level early too (especially if it is their mother tongue). At DSs comp, which doesnt have a sixth form, some of the brightest kids do maths and French A level before they leave to go to the 6th form college. I can't believe that Cambridge would seek to penalise kids like this.

www.study.cam.ac.uk/undergraduate/teachers/academic.html
Cambridge does advise against early A levels. It is not "seeking to penalise kids" - thinking explained here in a document freely available on the web found with a 30 sec google search.

There is a Russell group advice on subjects leaflet. It clearly states they want exams take together.
The reason is that they want people who can handle the workload of 4 AS/3 A2

My dcs comp don't do any exams early that matter and regularly get students into oxbridge or rg

I know some dc who did an A level early recently (not maths) and some universities made offers that either excluded it from their offer or made an offer that was that much harder than their standard one (eg: AAAA instead of AAA), while others made reduced offers as it had already been achieved (eg: BB instead of ABB). For these dc it wasn't an issue as they had done it for interest rather than as a means to university.

Maths and further maths is a bit of a different case as nearly all universities recognise that doing maths in L6 and f. maths in U6 is the same workload as doing maths AS + f. maths AS in L6 and completing them both in U6. So they don't mind that one being done early if f.maths is being taken the following year (though I think one or two used to mind).

Cambridge is definitely one that tends to make tougher offers if you have done one early, but they also sometimes make tougher offers if you are doing more than 3 in U6 too. This is a bit college and circumstance dependent though - they don't always do it. I suspect they just don't want anyone coasting at the end of sixth form.

russians our talk specifically said that for girls taking A2 French this year, L6 year, that Cambridge would not count this as one of their 3 A levels for their offers. It has apparently been this way for several years, where this is a common approach to languages at our school. You then have to get three more A2s at U6 and these are the grades they count.

Beck The people I know (when I was a kid and the kids of today - such a long time later ;) now I'm a mother) who did the languages early still did and do 3 A levels at the normal time. Same with the mathmos, I guess the difference is that it's much more common for kids really gifted in maths to take A level when they are 14 or 15. Several of the people I read maths with at Cambridge had done this (not me, I hasten to add). They all did at least 3 A levels at the normal time as well. And of course they all had 2E offers. These days clearly it s a different ball game (and languagesfor example are more accessiblein normal schools) but the really gifted maths kids still often take their exams early. I don't think nay of them see it as an opporutunity to do less work in the 6th form though!

Luckily this isn't something that will worry any of my kids.

Thank you all - I will look for the University guidance on this as well as talking to the school. I appreciate your replies .

Just had a thought about maths further maths.
There's an advantage taking them together rather than maths year 12 and further maths yr13.
From what i can gather maths and furthermaths are made up of the same modules. You bank your best modules for maths and the nite so good ones for furthermaths. Ds took decision and mechanics in Jan. He got A for decision and E for mechanics. The A will go for Maths and the E towards further maths. He is resitting the E which i am fairly sure he is capable of getting a much hunger result as we know what went wrong.