A-Level subjects.

[BernieBridge]

DS wants to take English Lit, Law and Economics for A-Level. He is in current year 11.

He is bright enough but like a lot of boys lazy and doesn't put much effort into school work.
Top set pretty much all through secondary but terrible mock results.
He is willing to attend every extra lesson and intervention offered at school but is not cut out for sitting in his room for hours revising.

Anyway talking to his form teacher today and she looked at what A-levels he wants to do and said "wow they are big subjects"

Now I'm worried that they will be too much for him given his difficulty in revising etc.

What are his predicted gcses? He should get at least a 7 in any subject he wants to do at A level, and if it's a new subject the school will have an idea which subjects he'd need. It's a considerable ramp up in terms of work. Have you considered IB? Broader but not so in depth.

He needs a 7 in maths which I think he will get to do Economics.
He needs a 6 in a English which I'm hoping he will get.
What is IB? Never needs of that.

Firstly, does he like writing essays? If yes, then these choices could work. Secondly, does he have any experience of studying economics or law? They're both interesting areas, but I'm not sure that you get to do the interesting stuff at A Level.

He needs to be kept interested. He hates science subjects as he finds them boring. He likes maths too and altho predicted a 7 thinks he's not good enough to do it at A-level.

He does actually like writing essays. He would much rather do that than sit and revise / produce flash cards etc. x

Also to add. He has very low confidence in himself. Altho in top sets, he's in the middle to bottom of the top sets which in his mind makes him not very bright.

IB is the International Baccalaureate. It’s a European 16+ study programme. Seems to be becoming more popular in England as it offers more breadth (more subjects) and less depth than the traditional 3 or 4 A levels usually taken here. It’s recognised by UK universities as A level equivalent (or at least it was in the early 90s).

As a solicitor I would not recommend Law A level. He would be better off doing history or Politics even if he wants a career in Law or to do a law degree eventually.

He needs to think what degree he might want to do. He will severely restrict which uni he could go to if economics as most want Maths A level to do economics degrees.

I did A level law and really enjoyed it. I didn’t have any previous experience of doing law and went on to do a criminal justice and law combined degree. You need to have a good memory for dates as you need to learn a lot of case law. I found it really interesting, it was my favourite subject by far (also did English Lit)

If he is lazy then IB is not the solution.
Six subject - three at higher level and three at standard level. Plus a 4000 word essay and theory of knowledge. Internal Assessments for all subjects.
It is a fantastic programme but not for your son.

It is also not European it is is world wide.