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Secondary education

Connect with other parents whose children are starting secondary school on this forum.

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Original poster

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

289 replies

Kazzyhoward · 03/08/2017 11:35

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.

OP posts:

Mulledwine1 · 03/08/2017 19:20

I think sticking to 3 and having a life outside is better than doing 4.

You need extra-curricular things to put on your UCAS form - if you're doing 4 A levels when are you going to find the time to eg play a sport or an instrument or any hobby or DofE etc?

BobbinThreadbare123 · 03/08/2017 19:24

Depends on capability. I did 5 A Levels but played a sport, did a drama club, quiz teams and did Duke of Edinburgh as well. We weren't encouraged to do loads of extra-curricular compared to today's children, but I fit it all in.

Bloke1976 · 03/08/2017 19:26

Going back a couple of years now, but I taught a girl who took 5 A levels. Physics, Maths, Further Maths, Chemistry and Statistics I think. She kept all of them for year 13. Passed all 5 and went to Oxford studying Maths.

The only student in 15 years of teaching I've seen pull it off. She was a very gifted student though.

So yes it is possible but the work will be very challenging.

TheFallenMadonna · 03/08/2017 19:30

Biology not a respected A level?

OhYouBadBadKitten · 03/08/2017 19:31

You don't need extra curricular stuff on your ucas application. You need to demonstrate why you love a particular subject, backing it up if you can with evidence as to what you have done extra in that subject, even if that's just reading round the subject.

don't encourage him to do a mix if he doesn't want to.

BikeRunSki · 03/08/2017 19:33

Back in the last 1980s I started Maths, Physics, Chemistry and Biology.
It was hard, and I ended up dropping Biology after about 6 months - I wasn't that interested, and realistically it served no real purpose to my future career ambitions, since I'd decided that I didn't want to be a vet any more anyway.

There is a lot of overlap between Maths and Physics, and a bit between Physics and Chemistry, but high contact time and good aptitude needed for Maths. Still need to write some essays for Physics and Chemistry - my highly crafted essay on "The Wave-Particle Duality of Light and Electrons" got me through both A levels and a couple of years of my degree!

Unihorn · 03/08/2017 19:36

It was quite common amongst people I went to school with but I don't know how much it's changed now. I did 5 AS levels and worked 10 hours a week with no problems. I was going to continue with 4 academic A Levels but I'm lazy as fuck so dropped one. I did no extracurricular stuff/hobbies/instruments because I wasn't interested, apart from being head girl which didn't require much effort outside of attending school council meetings now and again. I came out with all As and got into all my university choices.

As others have stated, overlap in the sciences helps a bit too so In would encourage him to give it a go. Much easier to drop than to pick up anyway.

TipTop333 · 03/08/2017 19:37

From a sixth form tutor's perspective, I agree with PP - 3 excellent a levels are better than 4 that might not be as good. These subjects have an enormous amount of content and the jump from gcse to a level is astonishing.

Stickerrocks · 04/08/2017 18:44

We've been looking at 6th form for Sept 18 and have been repeatedly told that DD should only take 3 subjects regardless of how bright she is under the new papers.

BertrandRussell · 04/08/2017 19:58

The high achieving 6th form ds is hoping to go to used to encourage 4, and expected a lot of extra curricular stuff as well. Now, they expect kids to start 4, then drop to 3 at Christmas or Easter, except in very exceptional circumstances.

Littledrummergirl · 04/08/2017 20:04

Ds1 is going into yr13 in September. He did all three sciences and maths last year (some of his friends are also doing further maths, he opted against). He is planning to drop either maths or physics for next year but is still trying to decide which one.

RedSandYellowSand · 04/08/2017 21:04

20 years ago, that is what i did (plus General studies).
Personally, I'd have found it much harder to drop 2 of them and do a humanity, as i would have had to work much harder at it than the sciences.

If those are what he wants, and school are happy, I'd start all 4, and then after he has seen what's involved, started the courses and thought a bit further into uni, then drop one (don't do what I did, start bio, chem, phys then get to Christmas and realise that maths was needed for many of the interesting uni courses, and start maths one term in!)

RedSandYellowSand · 04/08/2017 21:06

Oh, and 'hard' subjects is all relative. I promise you those 4 were the easiest a levels i could have done for me. Anything else would have required a lot more effort!

MelvinThePenguin · 04/08/2017 21:16

It's not unusual. There are multiple factors as to whether it's right for a particular student though. In no particular order:

1.Capability in the chosen subjects

How studious they are generally
If it's going to be tough, whether it's actually necessary/ helpful based on future plan
Whether they enjoy the subjects in question

DH did a similar combo, went to one of those universities and is now enjoying a career in a related field. For me, it would have been a disaster based on factors 1, 3 and 4 above

Misstomrs · 04/08/2017 21:21

I agree with unihorn. I did the same and did well. It depends how motivated they are. I wouldn't dismiss it if they're keen.

Coconutspongexo · 04/08/2017 21:24

It's hard but it's possible, it's getting the balance right,
I studied Biology Chemistry Maths PE & Physics.
It's entirely dependent upon the child & their college/sixth form. It helps to have a 'fun' subject but that can be hard when you only have an option of 4 subjects sometimes.

MsAwesomeDragon · 04/08/2017 21:32

My dd is doing 4 hard A levels. She's doing maths, further maths, chemistry and physics. She's just finished y12, and so far is getting As in everything.

She doesn't have a part time job though, which a lot of her friends have. She does do extra curricular things a couple of evenings a week, but other than that all her time can be spent studying if she needs to.

Those A levels are only hard if it's not your thing. If you've got a good natural ability then they're easier than essay subjects.

If he wants to do sciences then don't force him to do a humanities subject. He'll want to do some sort of stem subject at uni, which would expect science subjects at A level.

He can always start 4, then if he discovers it's too much then drop whichever one is hardest/least interesting.

WinifredAtwellsOtherPiano · 04/08/2017 21:40

They're hard subjects in that they're easy to fail. But they're not more work than other subjects. In particular maths, further maths and physics are probably less "work" in terms of time spent and stuff to remember than any other combination of three A levels.

Do not persuade him to do English or History instead.

woollychimp · 04/08/2017 22:23

A friend did this (different A levels) and ended up with less than stellar grades in all of them and had to retake.

i would say it's risky unless he is incredibly academic.

CauliflowerSqueeze · 05/08/2017 02:07

I just want to reiterate how much harder in terms of content especially these new A levels are. A couple of years ago 4 A levels was really no biggie if you were good academically. Now I would say you'd need to be exceptionally good. And as universities offer 3 grades (and many consider the EPQ as more valuable than an AS) it is a lot more normal to encourage students to do 3.

bbpp · 05/08/2017 02:36

I think so. A-Levels really aren't difficult, no matter the subject (assuming you were okay at GCSE).

Coconutspongexo · 05/08/2017 02:37

I think the jump from GCSE to A level is quite big and I got excellent grades in both.

bbpp · 05/08/2017 02:57

I suppose it depends on how hard you had to study for your GCSEs then. Some study from Easter (or Christmas!) and some simply show up on the day to achieve the same grade.

Coconutspongexo · 05/08/2017 08:10

You cannot show up at A level exams without studying at all and achieve good grades that's absolute bollocks.

BertrandRussell · 05/08/2017 09:13

"You cannot show up at A level exams without studying at all and achieve good grades that's absolute bollocks."

Mumsnetter's children can.

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