A Level options

[crazycrofter]

I’m after some objective advice please. Ds is starting sixth form at a new school (in a new area) in Sept. He’s bright (currently at a grammar school), but not particularly academically minded, much more interested when he can apply things in real life. He has ADHD and gets extra time and rest breaks for exams. Despite this, he generally doesn’t finish (except for Biology and Business as far as I remember from his GCSEs).

He doesn’t think he wants to go to uni as he wants to get out and earn money but he’s interested in a degree apprenticeship. He’d like to be self employed one day! He struggles to study for extended lengths of time and all his GCSE revision was done in 20-30 minute chunks. He writes very well but is very slow. He’s even slower at reading… I have no idea what his results will look like as until his actual GCSEs he never did sufficient revision. He’s also really into fitness and weight training.

He would have done PE, but as he doesn’t have an approved sport for the practical he’s doing single BTEC sport instead. He is also doing Business A Level. Out of the possible options for subject 3, he’s narrowed it to History, Biology and Criminology (WJEC level 3 diploma). He’s very good at history, capable of a 9, but not finishing has previously brought him down to a 7. He really enjoyed History - but did have a superb teacher. He’s done combined science (his choice) but found Biology the most interesting and easiest. I thought he might find Sociology or Psychology interesting (and so did he) but they’re in the wrong block - but Criminology includes aspects of both. I’m struggling to know how to steer him. He says he’ll wait til results day and make a snap decision then 😬

Sorry that was so long!

Do you think he would do better in a subject with lots of shorter questions which get him fewer marks or only a few questions worth more marks?

Some A level exams require students to answer as few as 3 questions over 2.5 hours and it sounds like this sort of subject might be tricky for your son. I would ask teachers about this and research this aspect of the courses.

Are BTECs an option? More coursework based and he can still go on to a degree apprenticeship.

He’d have to go to FE college for an extended BTEC. As he’s new to the area he’s not keen on spending his whole week with one class of students - he wants lots of friendship options. Also, obviously this remains to be seen on 25 August, but he’s not a fan of long pieces of work done at home and he actually has a very good memory when it comes to revision. So I think he’d probably prefer to revise for an exam.

I had been thinking more short questions might be better hence Biology. But dd (just done A Levels) keeps telling me how hard it is (according to her friends) and how they all regret taking it.

The other single BTEC available at the school sixth form is Applied Science. Maybe that’s worth a look?

Biology takes more revision but History is intellectually more challenging.

WJEC criminology is an applied A-Level which means it's not final exams at the end of Yr 13 but proper modular exams from the start - 2 units per year. This means that students have the hit the ground running and be very organised and on it at the start of Yr 12 rather than faffing about finding their feet for the first term. Having said that it is 'open book' so you get to take notes in with you.

Have taught the course a few years.

Thanks @MmeMeursault the BTEC Sport is similar. I am wondering as he’s an August birthday and really only just started to mature (and apply himself), maybe having to submit work in year 12 would disadvantage him? Do the assessments involve a lot of reading?

Dd did History and for her it was the most work (over RS and psychology ). Very labour-intensive coursework and huge amounts to learn for the exams. Plus there’s the slow reader issue.. hmmm

The other thing is, since he started working and thinking he might be capable of 7 plus in most subjects, he’s started saying he needs to do at least two proper A Levels.

Biology has a massive amount of content that just has to be learned. Takes a lot of dedication. Btec science would be a better option

TBH every A-Level requires a lot of reading. It's a wake up call for many who have breezed through GCSEs or who've been a bit cocky and complacent up to this point.
If he's higher achieving with 7s etc then he should really think about doing 'proper' A-Levels rather than applied ones.

They all sound like quite a compromise when Sociology or Psychology might be a better fit. Have you ruled out finding a different school or college where he could do one of them? Colleges tend to have very few restrictions on combinations, because there are multiple classes of everything, and more BTECs.

I wouldn't necessarily be scared off Biology on the reputation. It sounds like he has had a good method for dealing with volume and biology would suit 20-30 min chunking much better than History. Having a science would keep options open a bit more given he's unlikely to go to uni to study an essay subject (for which History would be helpful.)

Would something like Product Design be of interest?

Unfortunately there’s no sixth form college in the area. There’s an FE college which does about 4-5 subjects at A Level and he could do Business, Psychology and Sociology. But not Sport which is his favourite. And I assume numbers would be v small. I’m leaning towards Biology for him.

I would say that history is out. It involves writing a lot of essays and an NEA (non examined assessment) which could be anything between 4,000 and 6,000 (or longer) words.

I think you’re right @RampantIvy although I feel a bit sad about it as he enjoys the subject and is really good at writing . But it would be too much, dd found the NEA hard going.

Biology is not short answers; there are quite a few long answer questions where exact terminology needs to be used. It's difficult (compared to other subjects) and alot of content.

Yes, I know it's not all multiple choice or anything, but the answers are shorter than, say, History, where it's 3 essays in 2.5 hours or whatever. He is capable of learning a lot of information. The problem with the long answer questions is that he reads and processes slowly, and then takes a while to work out how he's going to structure his essay.

The real problem is we don't know what he's capable of as he's never put in the work, so we're waiting with baited breath for the GCSE results! If they're not as good as he's expecting, we'll have the fall back of the single BTECs (there's a single Business BTEC he could do instead of the A Level).

If you decide for biology, check exam boards as each one is different (papers have a different feel, some papers the questions are easier to understand, etc etc) and have a look at grade boundaries of previous years to give you an idea of what grade your son could achieve. Hopefully he enjoys the subject as it's a slog otherwise.

Yes, it’s OCR.

Biology would be a better complement to his Sport BTEC, for sure. Not sure how well regarded criminology is at A level, but he will definitely keep more options open by doing biology. If he did change his mind and decide to go to university a combination of Sport BTEC, business studies and biology would be a good combination to study something sport-related, such as management, coaching, science etc.

Thanks @thing47 i was thinking that too. I’m just fighting against dd who says it’s too hard and dh who did it and says it’s too boring! I’m not sure how ds would get on with the plant stuff but he’s definitely interested in human biology.

Hi @crazycrofter ! Let him do only the subjects he wants to - self motivation is everything now!

Schools are generally happy for one or two extra subjects to be tried for half a term or so before some are dropped and the selection is finally settled.

Thanks @Dido2010 I don’t think he really knows what he wants to do! But point taken, it needs to be his decision.

Few things to add

History (from what I've heard) is very essay heavy and I would hesitate with that with his shorter revising sessions

Biology does lend itslef to shorter revision session. My DD says it's a matter of simplifying and understanding the content (i.e. simplifying an enzyme process to the shortest and simplest sentences that you can remember and that tick everything examiners want), being able to answer application questions and lastly knowing what mark schemes look for. Apparently it has very pedantic mark schemes, but if you do enough questions it gets a lot easier.

Need to point out that surprise biology has a 25 mark essay in paper 3. Only science that does. Most people don't know it before they take the course. You should be able to write 4/5 paras in 45 min on a synoptic essay. (one weird thing is the max you can get us 24/25 if you don't include content not taught in the A-level 🙄🙄)

I would say that science a levels in general open more doors, but wonder if it really opens more doors when you have not two, but one. Id look into that. Like degree and apprenticeship criteria

@Dido2010 totally agree. He can take both and see what he prefers, just bear in mind that the start of the course might be different to the rest as you get used to sixth form. DDs class found that y2 bio content was much more challenging than y1.

DD acc started the bio course as a late last min decision, her class had already done ch1 in lockdown and she had to catch it up. Went fine