Year 11 A Level Choices - Maths?

[Geminijust]

Hello

Struggling with A Level choices here! DD has no clue what she wants to do, vague mutterings about police/social work/mental health but that could all change. She chose media and drama for GCSE as she used to want to work in that field but now "hates" them as "too much writing". She's dyslexic so really struggles with this aspect so her grade predictions in most subjects involving lots of writing (English, REP as well as Media & Drama) are around 5 or 6. She's predicted 7 in Maths and 7 in the Sciences - the common denominator being less writing! She qualifies for extra time in exams.

The only subject she's sure she wants to do is Psychology. At open evening the other day, her maths teacher suggested she do maths, she said she's sure she'd cope. I was a bit shocked as DD was historically poor at maths and has only got her grade to a 7 through Tutoring and extreme hard work. She doesn't particularly like maths, nor Science but these are her strongest subjects due to the writing aspects.

Any perspective? Would someone who is predicted a 7 but not easily cope with A Level? I agree it would be a great A Level to have if she could pull it off!

I teach Maths at A level, and a grade 7 would be the minimum grade in most schools where students would be accepted. The reason being that it's an A level with a lot of new and tricky content and students have to have good working knowledge of algebra and number in order to work through the harder topics. So if she's predicted a 7 then I would say she is capable of the course.

However, it does require a lot of independent work outside the classroom, and I think students have to enjoy maths to complete the course well. If she's not keen on the subject (and she might find the A level topics more interesting than GCSE) then you need to think honestly about whether she is prepared to put in the work needed.

The A level is heavy on algebra, calculus, trigonometry, statistics and mechanics (which is the maths used in Physics, so if she takes Physics she will find that part easier than others do). It might be worth her having a look at some of the material and seeing if it's something that will interest her.

Sorry, I should have said that if she's predicted a 7 but not easily, then it's likely she will need some support during the A level course as well.