Advice on A-levels - switching from physics to psychology

[hackmum]

DD has started A-levels. She's currently doing maths, biology, English language & literature and physics.

She's finding physics a bit of a struggle (despite getting A at GCSE) and is thinking of changing to psychology. She doesn't have long to make up her mind.

She is slightly worried that neither Eng lan & lit nor psychology are facilitating subjects for Russell Group unis - though having had a look around, I've discovered that some unis like LSE and Sheffield seem quite happy with those subjects, and only seem to rule out things like media studies or art.

Her second worry is that if she wants to do something like biology or zoology at uni she might need a second science subject, though again, having looked around, a lot of unis seem happy to treat maths and even psychology as science subjects.

Final worry is that she's not sure whether she will like the psychology course, never having studied it before. The course will be AQA.

My thoughts are that it will be much better for her to do something she's interested in and will probably enjoy rather than struggling for the next year doing something that she finds difficult.

Anyone have any advice or thoughts to share?

Psychology was the easiest to get good results in for me. It is a mix of concept stuff and factual and quite easy to revise for as there are distinct topics and case studies so it's quite "bite size" if that makes sense. It was my highest score overall I think.

DS would agree with this. However, if your DD turned down Geography because it was too Human and not enough Physical then will a humanity subject like Psychology really appeal?

I agree with senua in that there is a discrepancy between what she rejected her favourite subject geography for and her now considering psychology. Perhaps she should consider geography again. Maths, biology, geography and English would be a good basis for a social science | geography degree / psychology degree and therefore keep more options open.
Not doing chemistry rules out most bioscience degrees.

The other point here is that three subjects rather than four may actually be better to focus her efforts on getting good grades in the subjects she is most sure of liking.

Even if you want to do a psychology degree you don't need psychology A level so it seems a bit pointless to me in terms of university admissions (although it would be enjoyable to do in it's own right). I did physics, chemistry, biology (found them hard despite good GCSEs - I'm not good at maths) and a psychology degree. You can't do the opposite.

I think she should reconsider either Geography or Chemistry if she is certain physics is not for her.

Or could she do economics? It would take her in a different direction, but if she is finding physics hard going and is baulking at the idea of chemistry, then maybe hard sciences are not for her in the long run.

Many many students find physics a bit like a jigsaw that suddenly clicks around Xmas.Try looking at khan academy videos on YouTube. Topics are explained very clearly.if she has any thoughts at all of doing engineering, she will need to understand these basic physics concepts.

I think go for it and change (support dd changing) to Psychology. I think it can be a very interesting subject especially for students interested in humanities and sciences. Or maybe the Geography could be an option - both human and physical geog might interest her I'd think? It's a good broad and solid subject?
I as very like your DD and think I as over persuaded to do pure sciences ... I chose Physics, Chem and Geog. Predictably I did best in Geog. Then I went to Uni and did Geology which was interesting enough but think I'd have been better off with something like Geography with Anthropology. Think my ideal A levels might have been quite different ... maybe Geog, History, and Eng Lit!
DD has just started 6th form and doing some of the same subjects as your DD. She wants to go on to do a course in Wildlife Biology or Zoology or similar. She's doing Biology, Geography, Maths and Art. From what I've seen most courses she likes want Biology plus a second science and most appear to accept Maths and even Geography as a second science? What do you all think about my DD's choices too? Sorry, that's a classic thread hijack I guess! But any thoughts for her very welcome too.
Basically I think our DC should persue those things that they are most interested in as well and not be overly constrained by rather narrow lists of "facilitating subjects" I think if say two subjects are very solid ones then it's OK for one or two to be interesting ones adding to the breadth and variety - especially where this represents a DC's particular areas of interest?
I hope with my DD that there's a good cluster of facilitating subjects around Biology (Geog and Maths) and also a good breadth with one classic science, one humanity, one arts, and maths (which kind of is it's own thing - but very useful I think, especially the stats)

As your DD is doing maths with stats, she won't benefit from studying mechanics in both Maths and Physics. That can make Physics hard.

Thanks Gloria. Yes, planning to drop one after AS and hopefully keep the Biol, Geog, and Maths. Make the most of the resources available in sixth form (including excellent teaching) to continue with Art for this further year. But we're very conscious of how time consuming it can be. If Maths is a real struggle she might consider dropping that instead but hopefully not as seems the stronger and more facilitating subject of the two (hoping Maths should be do-able as she got an A for GCSE)
It is a tricky few weeks starting sixth form isn't it as things settle down and you all wonder if the subjects chosen are going to work out well for them?

That's an interesting and valuable insight Gloria - always so helpful to hear from those one step ahead!
I think my DD could do Art as her third A level with Biol and Geog and still get on to many of the wildlife biology courses that interest her? But if she can stick with Maths it probably opens up some of the higher level and more competitive courses? But I see her being quite happy doing a range of available courses - as long as she can go I think all will be well!
We have a friend who may be available for maths tutoring so that's an idea too!
Sorry to hijack your thread a bit hackmum - but does seem like our DD's are at a similar stage and have similar strengths and hopes for the future?
All the best with your decisions at this point

Psychology is a science subject and the maths content is exactly the same as the natural sciences. I'm afraid people who think it's easy option are mistaken. I teach psych A Level and this time of year I always have students dropping out because of the challenging nature. The new AQA spec is much more biology based and requires really good skills of analysis not to mention understanding of research methods. I had a student who achieved top grades and went to study history at Oxford so don't worry about RG lists. I think it would sit well with your daughters other options and offers a broad skills Base. Good luck to her :)

If geography is her favourite subject then. She should do that.

It's worth a couple of years of doing more of the physical stuff if she can then do a degree in it which is more human based.

Also it's the grades rather than the subjects which is most important. She should do the subjects she will get the best grades in.

DD2 chose Psychology as her 4th AS subject, planning to study Geography at uni. However, after a month or so of the respective courses, she completely switched, and now (Y13) has dropped Geography, and is applying to a bunch of top unis to study Psychology, looking at offers of AAA, which hardly suggests a soft option Roguedad.

DD2s advice OP is:

everyone hates Physics to start off with and generally it gets better, although she'd have been better of with mechanics rather than stats for Maths. So don't rule out it getting better.

Chemistry is really really hard and missing a month means she's be having to work incredibly hard to catch up. It's also well known for top set GCSE students to not "get" a level Chemistry until Y13 when it start to make sense, and then resit the AS to improve on the UU they got in Y12.

Psychology is a proper science, plus the new spec is more maths and science focused. It's also potentially easier to catch up on the missing first month, as it's quite a bitty course, compared to eg Chemistry which builds on itself all the way through. And if she likes stats, then the research methods topic will be pretty straightforward.

bolding fail - A star AA offers.

Right now your DD has a strong A level profile that says she is a serious student taking real subjects that will open doors to many university courses (engineering, science, computing..) with a balancing subject from the Arts side. The change you are proposing kills that

It makes no difference for computing for any RG department I can think of. She's already ruled out computing at Imperial and Cambridge by not doing further maths, and everyone else wants Maths plus two without being too fussy about the other two. I can't think of any computing course that requires Physics, or would regard Psychology as less attractive, and I can think of several courses where the Psychology would be an advantage once you got there (places with a strong HCI/UX bias). There may be some edge case exception, but as concrete examples UCL and Warwick are more than representative of RG CS departments and neither would care if you had physics or psychology.

Having read everyone's contributions - and thank you all for taking the time - I now feel completely confused! I've had two or three people (I think) saying that physics gets easier, and one person saying that physics gets harder.

The Laura McInerney blogpost was very interesting, I thought.

Chemistry is really out for her. She doesn't like it all and found it hard at GCSE. (She ended up with a B although predicted an A.)

I've talked to her about switching back to geography (A* at GCSE, a subject she has always loved) but she did the introductory lesson in June and really hated it, unfortunately. It's a shame but she's not going to budge on it.

At the moment she's thinking about biology or zoology for her degree. Not sure yet whether that's the best choice for her - I realise that lack of chemistry will probably be a disadvantage. Quite a few unis require biology and one other science, and they usually count maths as a science, and some also count psychology. But I imagine having physics as well, even if only at AS-level, would up her chances. (Assuming that is, she got a good grade, which is by no means guaranteed the way things are looking at the moment.)

OP
But I imagine having physics as well, even if only at AS-level, would up her chances.

If she already has two sciences I don't think it would make any difference at all unless she was going for the very very top Uni's and then it might

If Uni's ask for two sciences then it's because they want two sciences iykwim - if they wanted three they would ask for three.

But I imagine having physics as well, even if only at AS-level, would up her chances

Most of the universities you're thinking of do central admissions. They have the criteria set by the departments, which are pretty much what is published in the prospectus (because otherwise there are all sorts of bad implications) and offers are made to students whose existing grades and predicted grades match what is laid down. There aren't super-secret extra criteria. If the department wants or prefers AS physics, they will say so. Only borderline applicants get looked at by the department itself.

I teach Biology and Psychology at A level. I don't view Psychology as a Science particularly, and very little biological understanding is required, even in the biopsychology part of the spec. The maths is statistics, and is equivalent to that done in Biology A level ( ie with very little understanding of the maths behind it). I think your daughter would find it much easier than Physics, given her other choices and GCSE results i other subjects.

Her lack of interest in Chemistry rules her out of the biological science courses where lack of Chemistry A level would be a problem ( biochemistry from example), and for more biology oriented degree subjects, Biology, Maths and Psychology would be just fine, and it would be the high grades that were required, so a switch might not be a bad thing.

Thanks, Bolograph and TheFallenMadonna. Both your posts are very reassuring (and good to know about the lack of "super-secret extra criteria", as I have to admit the whole system does seem a bit mysterious and arcane to me). She went to a bookshop this afternoon and had a look at the course books for both physics and psychology to see what was coming up and said she found the psychology one really interesting, so I think that's the decision more or less made, provided they have a space in the class.

If your DD decides on psychology there are some great online model essays for AQA. My DS used them and thinks he owes his A* to them.