What do you think of these A'level subject choices

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This is what DS might be heading for:

Maths
Economics
Computing.

My worry being that he has chosen two non facilitating subjects.

Yes, A-Levels are changing - going back to the old way of a 2 year course, with no need to do the AS exam. The idea of doing 4 and dropping 1 was introduced when A-Levels weres split 50-50 between AS and A2.

lapinlapin that is right but most private schools and some state schools will still allow the flexibility of four including taking a fourth decoupled AS level particularly for FM.

Yes, I know, but he doesn't want to! That for me would be a main reason not to force the issue. He'd have to work pretty hard to do all 4, so given that he's not keen to start with, I think it would be a bad idea. He'd risk getting 4 mediocre grades rather than 3 potentially good ones.

It also sounds as if his predicted grades are As rather than A*s. Obviously these are very good, but perhaps not enough to convince me he should do 4.

I'd suggest he also looks at possible career paths with particular degrees he might be interested in. That way he can see whether A level choices close anything off. When I was in his position (decades ago) I was given information on what a specific degree might lead to by the careers service.

You mention he might be interested in actuarial science. If he's interested in an actuarial career any numerate degree would get him in, but he needs to be happy to study and work hard (outside of work) in order to qualify. If he likes to coast along this is unlikely to be a good path for him.

I agree that he should not do four full subjects but instead use the option of four to find out what he is capable of and prefers.
A bright but laid back boy may actually do better once he is required to think a bit rather than regurgitate learnt facts at GCSE standard.

mean - use the option of starting with four subjects.

When pupils did 3 A levels back in the day, there didn't seem to be a problem regarding getting into university because most schools offered a fairly narrow diet of A levels and the vast majority were facilitating. Therefore getting into university was not a problem because you inevitably had the correct subjects. There was no Busuness Studies or Computer Science. At my school there was Art, Music, Economics, RE and possibly Domestic Science and Technical Drawing, but not much else on top of the facilitating subjects. No Philosophy, Psychology, PE, Sociology, Law, Media Studies, Drama, Politics, Art History, Classical Civilisation, Photography, etc.

True, bojo but I think that economics and computing are both well-regarded subjects though. I doubt there would be many universities who would look down on him because of the subject choices. The issue, of course, is what he might want to do later. It's easy to rule yourself out of a career by making the wrong A-Level choices. I've known a number of people who have had to do an extra A-Level later (often physics or chemistry) because they discovered they needed them for their chosen course.

If your DS is as quantitative as those choices suggest, he might want to do Further Maths which is excellent preparation for many more competitive university courses.

DD has friends who are good at maths (A) at GCSE and are finding further maths very difficult. IMO the teacher isn't great, but unless the OP's son is going to get an A or equivalent at maths I wouldn't bother looking at further maths A level.

Yes, I think FM is a tricky one. Fair play this is many years ago, but I didn't take FM because my school didn't offer it (tbh, I'd never even heard of it nor knew it was a option - ditto STEP, S levels etc etc). I studied economics at uni, and not having that extra maths knowledge definitely was a disadvantage, even then when the subject was less maths-y than it is now. I suspect engineering, compsci etc would all be the same issue.

But equally it's obviously a real step harder again than maths A level, and plenty of people struggle with that after GCSEs even without adding a fourth harder subject into the mix!

Doing 3 A levels including FM from the outset would be quite risky for someone borderline A/A* at gcse and (I'm assuming)hasn't done additional maths (is that still a thing? I'm not clear where things are at with the gcse changes). While it is a myth that universities will only accept FM as a fourth subject (on numerate courses), starting yr 12 with it as one of 3 would surely only be a good idea for kids who clearly have the ability and know they will want to do a course for which their 3 choices are appropriate.

Re the suggestion of considering a DT subject instead of economics- on the face of it that sounds sensible, however its probably worth checking the course specifications for that and the computing because I think they both entail a significant chunk of project work. That would probably mean a lot of sustained work to get decent grades, and the OP's DS sounds like a bit of a 'winger' so two subjects like that mightn't suit his temperature.

DS's school are still suggesting take four and drop one if it's too much. They're also still doing AS, but it seems that just means covering much of the sane material twice?

I always thought the fourth was more about providing flexibility than the value of the fourth AS though

Is it possible your DS could stay at hus school but do physics at another Op? I did one fairly obscure A level because our school had an excellent and very enthusiastic teacher for that subject and there was a boy from another school who joined us just for that one whist doing his other Alevels at his own school

I always thought the fourth was more about providing flexibility than the value of the fourth AS though

The flexibility is (IMO) very important but when we talk of 'value' I think sometimes on MN threads like this it seems to be focussed on 'does it improve my uni application' rather than 'will I learn something useful or interesting'. Education as an end in itself not just a means to an end.

In the case of FM its pretty clear that for some courses there would be real value in doing it to AS because it will cover more concepts (eg not sure if its changed but the current spec single maths doesn't appear to include imaginary numbers at all). DD did comp sci to AS and definitely learned some useful stuff. But there is a problem with the new format, its not necessarily been designed well for use as AS/A2 - the school policy last year was to put everyone in for AS(which was good for DD) but the teacher said it would have been better to teach things in a different order.

Oh I agree Error, but I wish someone would tell the school's/govt, from ks1 up. Actually, I'm thinking if doing Alevel politics with DS1 for that reason. It's not a subject that appealed to me when I was young, but I'd love to be better informed now. DS1 thinks it's a very bad idea

Thanks for all your comments again. I don't think FM would be a feasible option for all the reasons PP have already stated. He is boderline A* in Maths, also he didn't do it for GCSE so can't do it anyway.

DS is doing Art rather than DT in yr 9 but has no interest in doing it for A'levels, even though he's an Art scholar. I need lots of it.

For the record - I know someone who got onto a law degree at Oxford with German, Chemistry and Economics.

Economics is a very well regarded subject.

Study what he enjoys05 and is good at so likely to achieve the best results

Most students studying FM at A'level have not done FM at GCSE.
I would really want to talk to the school about why they are not offering Physics A'level as well, and asking their careers advice.
Maths Economics and Computing could be fine for a lot of subjects at Uni, but are not ideal for Engineering type subjects, if that is what he is likely to want to study. You need to look at what the subjects he might be interested in need at the kind of Universities he is likely to go to. All of which is reasonably easy to find out.

Is your ds taking iGCSEs OP - I think that most current Y11s are taking the new 9-1 GCSE in Maths now whereas iGCSEs still have A*-C etc grades.
Your ds will be the first cohort to take the new reformed linear Maths A level by the way. FM will also be reformed at the same time as well.
The new Maths A level has been redesigned to fit with the new 9-1 GCSE and smooth the transition from GCSE to A level.

"I think sometimes on MN threads like this it seems to be focussed on 'does it improve my uni application' rather than 'will I learn something useful or interesting'. Education as an end in itself not just a means to an end."

It isn't necessarily MN, but what is happening in schools and 6th form colleges these days. DD's school most definitely focus on the students gaining UCAS points.

I think we have really talked about not narrowing down options at university. It does not mean Maths, computing and Economics are not worthwhile subjects. So it is not really about improving the application - it is more about what you can apply for!

Also German and Chemistry are both facilitating, my favouritecolour and Law is very non presciptive regarding subjects plus an interview would help choose suitable candidates. Most courses do not interview so A level choices matter. Many Engineering courses offer catch up sessions so FM is not required very often. Physics is a much bigger advantage.

I would assume that this school believes the Physics pupils are capable of doing PreU. If they thought A level was the best exam, they would offer it. The teachers are presumably up to speed with PreU and no doubt the qualifications have been evaluated as to which suits the pupils best. That is why I would find out more about this course rather than try FM which is a real challenge for many reasonable mathematicians.

I cannot see how a pupil at an independent school can access an A level elsewhere? How?

We have a meeting with school next week. Hoping to discuss the Physics angle in more detail and hear what his tutor has to say. I think we're quite clear what the options are now. I don't think FM Would be the way forward and the worst case scenario he sticks to the subjects in the OP but I can see now there are still a few streams of engineering open to him such as e.g. Systems engineering, Software engineering etc.as shown in the link for Sheffield Uni that Sendsummer gave.
Thank you all, it's been quite informative.

Good luck :)

DD is only in yr 10 but has just come home having had a talk about A levels and uni choice I can see she's going to be in a similar sort of quandry in a year's time, her 'best' subjects by miles are maths/physics, but her top favourite is biology with chemistry unhelpfully languishing behind in both cases!

DD has just got into oxford with economics as one of her A levels , for a humanities degree , other subjects maths and history