DS's A level choices - your opinion please

[chococupcakes]

Hiya Mumsnetters,

My son has opted for the following if he stays at his current school:

History
Psychology
Chemistry
Politics

Definitely a humanities kid and loves essays. The aim is a Russell group uni such as Oxbridge or Durham. He has no clue career wise what he wants to do and wishes to study History or History and something else (History and Politics for example). He also loved the sound of economics but mention maths and watch him coil.

Here are my issues:

1. I would prefer if he did at least one year of Maths even if he were to drop it after the first year to open up his options. To be able to do History and Economics, for example. or Philosophy, Politics and Economics. He may just scrape an A* in maths.

1. Psychology is being offered for the first time and so has no history of success.

1. The world is going so tech and so I cannot see how these subjects which although he adores can help him much for the future. He doesn't want to be a lawyer.

1. It's no point getting them to do subjects which they hate is always the advice as they won't do well in it.

Grrr...parenting!

Any advice would be most appreciated. We have a small amount of time left to change.

Thank you for reading.

bike you can do a chemistry degree with just chemistry a level from the sciences...
www.nottingham.ac.uk/ugstudy/courses/chemistry/bsc-chemistry.aspx

What does the school advise?

Thank ladies purple. Ignore me..,,

"Thanks", not "thank ladies".

I'm afraid hard scientists will still see Psychology as science lite. It's trying to change it's image and that is why the better degrees want maths as an entry requirement but it has a long way to go before it will be seen as a "proper" science.

Cambridge will make offers to those doing history and politics A level in some cases - what else have they done? Doesnt mean your chance of an offer isnt greater if you've done something other than politics.

Minimum requirements stated on university websites and what they normally take in practise can vary quite a lot. So your son would stand little chance of being accepted at Cambridge for a Psychology course without more science. It's not impossible (although the Natural Sciences route is obviously out) but it is unlikely. On many other top level courses they prefer you to have studied maths rather than psychology. He might still get an offer but he could either have to pick up at least maths AS level later or do a less popular course.

There isn't a general gist here because people dont know your son. If he, like many teenagers, will only work at subjects he likes then its better to have 3 good grades in poor subject choices than 3 poor grades in good subject choices. It will limit degree choices but few employers require specific degrees, some do care about the perceived status of the university.

Anecdotally you hear of people who found maths quite easy at GCSE, got A, but then found that they had reached their 'limit' at A level and didn't do particularly well (to put it mildly)*

I did GCSE before the A* came along but I got an A in my GCSE mock and thought I might do it for A level. My Maths teacher told my mum at a parents evening to put me off, saying I'd only get a D if I did A level!

I ended up with a B at GCSE and did all humanities/languages for A level.

Russell Group recommend two facilitating but do not require them for many of their courses.

The one to go, if any, would be Psychology. It isn't needed even if you want to study at university.

But ultimately enjoyment is key and it's his choice to make. Why is he doing 4? Universities are only asking for 3.

Look at the Trinity College, Cambridge recommended A Levels page.
Psychology and Politics are not List A subjects according to them. Obviously different in terms of colleges etc. but from experience, they're more lenient with schools who may not be able to offer so called traditional subjects.
If he's set on studying History at Oxbridge I'm afraid this sounds like a bad choice - History, English, R.S., Philosophy, Languages (for translation of sources) should be the A Levels he's considering.
Chemistry is notoriously difficult if you're not naturally good at science, Psychology is a softer A Level and also quite science based.
This is from my own experience and teaching pupils at two well known London day schools.

Thats already been discussed upthread, I think Pug - according to that, for history there you need History, plus one more from list A1 or A2 and another from an A or B list. So - assuming he actually is good at chemistry, that can work for the A list, and the psychology is on the B list. There's no indication there at all that A2 subjects are preferable to A1 for Arts degrees (apart obv from specific ones for some courses). Do you think that document is misleading or wrong? (It is worth noting that individual colleges have slightly different specific requirements for some courses).

Here is a link to advice on A Level choice and facilitating subjects..
www.russellgroup.ac.uk/for-students/school-and-college-in-the-uk/subject-choices-at-school-and-college/

Errol, I agree, I think it is slightly misleading.
I think there's also another element which is tricky.
I was one of two people studying a particular subject at my college. I had four traditional A Levels from a school with excellent results. My friend had so called less suitable A Levels from a school with little history of sending pupils to Oxbridge. Inevitably, I think that this is taken into account. If a student attends a school with a history of sending pupils to Oxbridge, there's possibly less flexibility when choosing A Levels, both from the school and the view of the admission tutor.
From experience, they may say they will accept the "less suitable" A Levels but this appears to create issues for some pupils when they apply.
I personally think that Psychology sounds great and shouldn't be considered in the same way as much "softer" A Levels. However, I don't have any experience of teaching or studying it.

In what way do you think the doc is slightly misleading SuperPug?

Quite often people seem to advise 'don't do three essay subjects, too many essays'. Which could be a reason to do a science as one of the three I suppose,

Sorry, I'm referring to the Trinity College website. Perhaps misleading in terms of not being entirely clear, in relation to a number of subjects studied by students.
Not as relevant for OP but I think that schools need to really look at the links other universities have with organisations such as Airbus etc. I don't think Oxbridge is the end and be all...

Hmmm... just read OP's last reply. Of course, depends on college and I hope she has received useful information from her son's school.
History is a difficult one in terms of Oxbridge - dsis found that it was a tough course which perhaps didn't live up to her expectations.

Thanks Superpug - yes, I meant the TC website (electronic 'doc'!).