A level subject popularity

[TheFrendo]

My, in Y12, has an info sheet with the number of students doing each subject, I have sorted them:

German 3
Further Maths 8
PE 9
Philosophy 10
Spanish 13
Art 16
English Language 17
Geography 18
Media Studies 18
English Literature 22
Physics 31
History 32
Sociology 38
Chemistry 54
Biology 55
Psychology 63
Maths 72
Economics & Business Studies 76 (Could be two separate subjects?)

The list may not be complete (I see no French).

A couple of observations:

Very low numbers doing modern languages (French may be missing).
Physics seems low compared to chemistry and biology.
Large numbers doing non-facilitating subjects (psychology, business studies & economics)

The college is highly rated and my son likes it there.

Is this a typical distribution?

Yes, fairly typical. Physics is always much lower than the other sciences. Language has been declining steadily over the past few years as it is no longer compulsory lower down the school. There's a vague push to encourage fewer 'soft' subject choices as top end unis aren't looking for psych, sociology and media so much. It's not working too well!

Here’s the countrywide data
www.jcq.org.uk/Download/examination-results/a-levels/2017/main-results-tables/a-as-and-aea-results-summer-2017

MFL are low everywhere, and yes it seems that Chemistry has the edge over physics which surprises me (not so surprised about biology - lots of people want to go into healthcare of some sort).

Thanks for the table.

Chemistry and Biology are needed for many healthcare jobs. Doesn’t surprise me that Chem is more popular than physics

Economics is a facilitating subject business studies isn’t.

Schools push easy subjects to get them up the league tables.

Economics is not on the list of facilitating subjects used by the Russell Group:
www.russellgroup.ac.uk/for-students/school-and-college-in-the-uk/subject-choices-at-school-and-college/

Economics isn’t on the Russell Group list but it’s a reasonably traditional academic option unlike Business Studies.

This LSE list of preferred vs non-preferred subjects is informative (with the caveat that Art, which is on their non-preferred list, might be considered valuable at other institutions).

www.lse.ac.uk/Study-at-LSE/Undergraduate/Prospective-Students/How-to-Apply/Entry-Requirements

Taken from your own link TheFrendo

There are some advanced level subjects which provide suitable preparation for entry to university generally, but which we do not include within the facilitating subjects, because there are relatively few degree programmes where an advanced level qualification in these subjects would be a requirement for entry. Examples of such subjects include Economics, Religious Studies and Welsh.

So as Sevendown says, it is a facilitating subject for the few degree courses at universities where they say it is a facilitating subject on their entry requirements.

Similar to my dds sixth form. Though they don’t have some of those subjects.

How many students in total? Dd's year has only 2 in German and 8 or 9 in French. Drama has about 6 not sure if any Music atm. Typically Maths and Sciences very high take up, also English (lit not language) despite past results being patchy. Psychology, Business and Politics are oversubscribed. Another local school is introducing Psychology next year as they are directly competing against a neighbouring 6th form college who offer it.

With ~550 A levels on the above list, I guess a whisker over 170 in the year. That would give ~ 40 doing 4 A levels, the rest on 3.

That's LOADS doing Spanish.

DD does French at a good secondary and there are two in the class. And it's the only MFL anyone does in yr 12

English Lit is low, it's 2 groups at DD's school. This looks like a bigger sixth form too

LadyIsabellaWrotham I don’t understand the cumulative result figures. If an A in art is 14.9 and a B is 35.6 does this mean that the percentage of students who got a B is 20.7?

“and yes it seems that Chemistry has the edge over physics which surprises me (not so surprised about biology - lots of people want to go into healthcare of some sort).”

Most medical related degrees want chemistry over biology