It is really feasible to do 4 "hard" A levels?

[Kazzyhoward]

DS is forecast grades 8 and 9 in his GCSEs across the board. He is wanting to take all 3 sciences and Maths at A level. These are the subjects he enjoys. At this stage (argh!), he has no clue about what career he wants to go into! School/teachers seem happy enough to let him do them with the usual warnings of them being hard subjects etc. Just wondering if any parents/teachers have experience of kids doing these 4 A levels and whether it's realistically feasible to get decent passes. My personal view is to run for the hills and choose just 3 A levels of a different mix, maybe one science, Maths, and a humanity or economics/business studies, but perhaps that would do him a great dis-service. Very difficult when he hasn't a clue about career nor what degree subject he'll take at uni.

Lonicera some of the worst funded schools did uncoupled AS levels initially and then stopped abruptly. Poor finances/ funding doesn't imply anything about the quality of leadership or strategic decision making.

@goodbyestranger some students (and their parents) won't be told.

I'm not sure what you mean by uncoupled AS levels. Is it that they don't count for 50% of the marks?

There are changes afoot at the school anyway as the headteacher is leaving, and as DD is staring year 13 it won't concern us after next year (hopefully).

Easy combination. Serious overlap with all of them. In Ireland we typically do 7 subjects (best 6 are counted for points). I did Irish, English, French, Maths, Physics, Chemistry & Biology.

I think with maths and physics, you need to have a good natural ability (as well as putting some work in) otherwise they are hard at A level.
But there are overlaps.

They aren't hard if you're good at them. Physics and chemistry are much easier than biology if you are good at them, because you have to learn less and understand it well enough to apply. Biology you have to learn much more information. Art , music ad drama etc are large workloads so combining with them would be tricky.

Lonicera I meant ASs in reformed subjects as opposed to eg Maths, Drama etc.

The subjects DD is studying all have a new syllabus so that means they are uncoupled AS levels?

lonicera as I understand it now AS is a stand alone exam and results don't contribute to the final full A level grade. They are different courses from each other.

Also I read that AS will typically be regarded as 40% of an A2 in the new system, something I read in UCAS while trying to understand the new points system

But points are irrelevant for mid/high tariff universities, which make offers based on specific grades in A levels. (They are only relevant for such universities in that the average points of entrants is used in league tables of universities.)

Agreed, but DD has masses of dance and drama level 3 qualifications that have a value attached to them, so I was looking out of curiosity - not important on their own, but as DD dropped Dance GCSE I would like to know their worth.
Note DD is Y11 so A levels are still ahead of us

Yes Lonicera that's correct - they're reformed and therefore don't count towards the A2. Or whatever anyone wants to call it :)

Well, it's not an A2 anymore as there is no 'A1'! It's an A Level.

Yes but look how many more characters you've had to type :)

I know! I'm exhausted .

"Also I read that AS will typically be regarded as 40% of an A2 in the new system, something I read in UCAS while trying to understand the new points system"

Only if you drop the subject. If you continue to the full A level the AS level doesn't count.

I think there is a lot of confusion about AS levels as some schools have dropped them and some subjects still count them towards the final A level. We have never had it explained to us at school. Most of what I know comes from here.

I don't see that it's confusing Lonicera.

Some subjects are still unreformed. No change.

Some are reformed.

The reformed subjects can be studies as a stand alone AS in Y12 or the stand alone qualification can be ignored. It's not co-teachable so probably best not to take a stand alone AS in a subject being studied to A Level since unis don't (or can't) care and it takes time out of the summer term which could better be used teaching the higher level curriculum.

The AS result doesn't count towards the A Level.

There is still merit in taking a fourth subject to AS as a separate qualification, for breadth, but lots of schools are not doing this in order to save money in the face of funding concerns.

That should read studied, not studies.

It was confusing to me because nothing was ever explained, and I am not familiar with the current system.You have had several children go through the A level process so you already understand how it works.

Everyone taking A levels at DD's school has had to do AS levels this year. DD took AS levels in four subjects, but has now dropped down to three.

Well obviously the system is new for students who have just completed Y13 this year so having several children go through earlier doesn't help, does it, as someone insisted earlier in the thread....

It just isn't especially complicated.

The reformed AS levels have been designed to be co-teachable with the A-level.

noble you may possibly be generalizing from the maths particular since in the vast majority of subjects, with the greatest of respect, they are not co-teachable in the proper sense of the word.

"Exam boards are not obliged to produce co-teachable A and AS level specifications, but they are doing so universally. Perhaps no surprise, given that this is likely to be what you want should you be considering AS levels. All of the AS and A levels that we at Ofqual have accredited so far are designed by exam boards to be co-teachable "

www.gov.uk/government/speeches/an-update-from-ofqual-on-a-level-reform

Whether schools can make it work in practical terms is a different matter, but the plan was that you could teach a class in Y12 containing both AS-only and A-level candidates.