A-Level Maths, Computer Science and...?

[IngridMcDonald]

Hi, DD is about to choose her A Levels, she is in Year 11 and already has a grade 8 in Maths GCSE and is doing Further Maths GCSE this summer. She is certain she wants to do Maths and Computer science at A-Level with a view to do a Computer Science related degree. She does not want to do Further Maths at A-Level. So, the question is does she do Economics or Business A-Level with Maths and Computer science? She is doing business GCSE and doesn't really enjoy it though. The other option is History A-Level. She doesn't want to carry on with a science subject after GCSE. It really feels like she can't decide on the 3rd A-Level choice. Any advice greatly received.

Lots of schools allow FM as a third subject. Only in MN world is this not reality. You really can do a maths degree with 3 A levels. Two of which are maths. Reality is that CS is competitive. Possibly more so than maths. So if 4 makes you competitive at where you want to go for CS, then 4 it is with FM.

Lots of schools allow FM as a third subject. Only in MN world is this not reality.

I wasn't saying it wasn't an option as third A-level.

I was saying we've had a quick look at carrying on FM, Maths and Computer Science and found many universities course would count that as 2 A-levels - mostly likely to see it as 3 were computer science and maths degrees.

So it would limit options later - luckily the teacher changed and DS marks went up dramatically so it ceased to be an issue for us.

Another suggestion for Physics. Big overlap with maths.

How about philosophy? I think there’s going to be huge ethical implications of AI and there could be some really interesting new jobs opening up in that direction.

for me it would depend on her gcse results. No good doing physics if her grade is below a 7/8. English or even psychology could be a good choice

Does she have the option of doing another type of level 3 qualification in software engineering at college?

Physics would be the best for a CS degree, imo. Has she looked at the A level syllabus before rejecting it?

If it.s between economic and business, economics is the more academic subject.

My dd wanted to do computer science at uni, she took computer science, Maths and English lit (because she’s always loved English) after making her uni choices she totally changed her mind and chose to change to doing English lit and creative writing at uni. I would say “chose something they enjoy“. If they can’t decide then I would probably go for a science.