A level choices- any thoughts?

[Brian9600]

DS has to pick some subjects for a sixth form info day as potential A levels. He's not bound by his choices.

He has come up with maths, further maths, Spanish and economics. He's very good at maths and I know his teacher is keen for him to do further maths. Just wondered whether anyone had any thoughts on these choices and whether he's cutting off any (non obvious) options (obviously I understand he's not going to be a doctor or whatever).

Any musings would be gratefully received.

Looks like great combination.

Great!!

What does he want to do at uni?

If those are the subjects he lives then great.

So obviously he is cutting off lots of options but you have to at A level anyway.

Will he do four all the way through? I ask because even tho one is FM, four is a lot. The step up to MFL A level is quite big. Good for him choosing Spanish tho, yay!

haha loves not lives. Tho he may live them too!

Hi. Having just gone through choosing Alevels with my son and having various conversations with teachers/professionals as my son also isn't sure what exactly he wants to study at uni he has chosen Maths, Further maths, chemistry and physics. This seems to be a popular strong combination for most uni degrees. Obviously, your son needs to be interested and academically able in science to do this though but was informed even 1 science alevel helps and the physics has a lot of maths content anyway. My son is also doing an EPQ so he may do that in economics as he was going to choose that as an alevel initially but swapped with chemistry. It's so hard choosing but he's finally happy with his choices for September.

Thanks, everyone.

He doesn't know what he wants to do at university although I think may end up heading towards economics. He's very good at maths but he doesn't love it in the way I think you need to to do a degree.

He has never liked science much, sadly.

Opens up a lot of opportunities around economics/business type areas, options for a year abroad, working abroad, joint honours/major minors etc.!

Great combination!

Maths, Further maths, chemistry and physics. This seems to be a popular strong combination for most uni degrees.

While these are great choices and offer lots of options at uni, they certainly don't let you into "most uni degrees". I mean, nothing does! That combo closes the door on history, geography, MFL, English lit, drama, art and lots of other things. If your DS likes those subjects then great, he could go into medicine or health, engineering, science, maths, lots of possibilities.

Doing one science A level is fine, or more, but doing a science A level only helps if that is what you are interested in. Better to do French, Music and Drama if that is what you love, no point ditching the music for biology just because it "helps".

Anyway OP don't worry that your ds doesn't want to do science - tho actually maths is a science for the purposes of uni admissions.

He's very good at maths but he doesn't love it in the way I think you need to to do a degree

But even for sixth form if he takes maths and further maths 50% of his time will be maths so you really do need to love it. The jump from GCSE to A level is always a bit of a step and you have to be willing to put effort in. Plus he will be doing 4 A levels so he will have less free time than others if they are starting out with 3 but usually an EPQ is required. Ds did maths, FM, physics and computer science but managed all his homework during free periods.

Re uni, look at that now, every subject he would tolerate or be interested in and just look at the entry requirements re subjects. That way he will be making an informed choice of knowing how much is open to him with those subject choices.

A friend of mine has a dd studying economics with Spanish at a very good uni. She loves it.

Sounds like a great combination, particularly for economics and related subjects at uni. If he's not interested in science, then there's no point in doing a science, but the maths will show off his technical/logical side if he wants to do something with a quantative aspect.

Fab combination in my view! An essay subject, a science subject (maths and FM), a language - great for life skills, great for keeping uni application options as open as possible. And the opportunity to drop one during year 12 if something doesn't work out.

great combination that keeps lots of options open.

computing is another route he could go down from there, that uses the maths without actually staring at equations all day.

Great choices! If he is good at Maths, he will do well with Spanish. I am a native Spanish speaker and qualified teacher and I can say that Spanish is becoming more and more popular than other languages.

MFL are a bit of a secret weapon as the subjects are so poorly recruited at university, either as a straight subject or joint honours. And if he might be targeting the top economics courses, he will need further maths or at least be much boosted by it for most of them