Easiest A-Levels to achieve?

[Bickleymumma]

DD needs to confirm A-Level choices soon and wants to choose 3 subjects that she’ll enjoy and with the smallest workload. She’s predicted mostly 8&9s in GCSEs so is capable and isn’t afraid of hard work but has just witnessed my DS struggle with the sheer workload of Maths, Physics and History A-Levels and wants to make her life a little easier as she also has to train a lot for her sport. She doesn’t really know what she wants to do at uni and is thinking something generic like Marketing. Currently thinking Geography, PE and can’t decide between Psychology, Biology, Chemistry and Economics for a third alongside an EPQ. Definitely doesn’t want to do English, Spanish. Didn’t do Art, drama, any DT type subject at GCSE. Doesn’t feel she’s strong enough in Maths although predicted an 8. Any thoughts gratefully received. Thanks

I’d go with psychology. A levels are hard and there is no getting around that.

Re: the EPQ, DD was given an offer by her current Uni (she’s in her first year) Red Brick- Offer was AAA; they offered BBB if she got an A in her EPQ. So very worth doing.

The sciences and maths A levels are definitely a huge step up from GCSEs. They are hard, I’ve had four children do maths, further maths, chemistry, biology and physics in different combinations. If you’re not committed to a career needing them, or absolutely loving studying them, then I wouldn’t recommend

Looking at your DS choices physics is by far the hardest science and by picking history he did an a level completely different from the others and needing a different skill set

i agree with the overlap of topics and skills - pick arts or sciences and go with that as much as you can and align it with the skills she needs for her Uni course

Economics isn't too hard if you're good at maths.
https://www.penguin.co.uk/books/187172/economics-the-users-guide-by-chang-ha-joon/9780718197032
is the book my DC were told to read at the beginning of their A level course. I'd suggest buying / borrowing it and giving it a try - if she really enjoys it (even just a couple of chapters over the weekend) then she'll probably thrive on the A level.

Why not business if she wants to do marketing? It’s very widely accepted and is relatively straightforward

You see I thought physics was a doddle because it's mostly just sums. Chemistry otoh required you to actually learn stuff.

has she considered an extended diploma at level 3 instead of A levels? My daughter did this in her chosen subject and it was a great alternative. The work was well paced and regular assessments rather than exams.
Dsughter got into a great uni with her level 3.
it’s the equivalent of 3 A levels.

If she is predicted 8s and 9s, she is bright and would probably be aiming for a RG uni, doing a fairly academic degree?
Some subjects are regarded by most RG unis as preferable, and some courses have definite requirements, so if she does want to go that route, then she needs to research which would appeal to her too.

If she is interested in getting into a business type career and would be considering an Economics degree, then Maths is essential to get onto most Economics degree courses.

It sounds like she goes to an academic school (possibly private given sixth form requirements) - surely they could assist in advising as they also know her capabilities?

You see I thought physics was a doddle because it's mostly just sums. Chemistry otoh required you to actually learn stuff.

Yes, it depends so much on the individual. For me or my DD the stem subjects would be least work, history or any of the other subjects much harder.

I wouldn't personally encourage a bright dc to just opt for the path of least resilience without really thinking through the implications. On the contrary, if would be emphasising that, sometimes, the things that we really want can often be worth working for.

This in spades. For many kids, acquiring good study habits and work ethic at this stage (if it's not already there) is invaluable. Perhaps the OPs DD already has some of this sort of characteristic well-developed through commitment to her sport.

On the humanities end of things English, History, Geography are a huge workload. MFLs are a lot less but an aptitude to languages is more than useful.

At DCs sixth form Sociology, Philosophy and Business seem to be regarded as less labour intensive than most.

PE/Sport A level seems popular. I’ve heard of this with Maths, Biology, Business, Geography.

As a standalone science Biology seems to work. Economics is mathsy and probably best done alongside Maths. It’s supposedly hard to do Physics without doing Maths but we do know some who have, likewise Chemistry.

Coming back to coursework and curriculum workload, as others have said, History might be the most overloaded in both respects. DC’s sixth form are meant be an outstanding school, but they only just fitted the history curriculum into a reasonable timescale. The coursework was a slog too.

EPQ is compulsory at DCs sixth form, in his year group there are 1200 students, about 400 defaulted. I don’t know of anyone who was formally excused the EPQ, I think some potential sports stars were excused extra curricular activities in Yr12 - ie those activities promoting socialising in Autumn and Easter terms.

Actually geography and chemistry can be really complimentary but only if you are interested in environmental studies type subjects. But in this case she would be expressing interest in sciences overall which she doesn't seem to be

I'd guess psychology. It was, at least it was a few years ago, a matter of learning standard essays. Much much simpler than chem or biol.
however I think you are looking at this the wrong way. You need to look at your daughter's schools stats, some school have some particularly strong departments and teachers and some have particularly weak ones.
My kids school psychology teacher was abysmal and the results showed that. (And yes it was after taking account of the type of students who sat that subject etc)
A guy called 'Loopa' used to sell standard essays for psychology which my son used. They were brilliant but not sure if they are still good as my son did it a few years ago.

It's a-levels. There is a lot of learning in all the subject. And understanding around the subject. Not just what is taught in class.

I’d pick Economics from your list as long as she doesn’t want to do an Economics degree (as pp have said most unis require Maths A level for that). Economics at A level has some maths but if she’s predicted an 8/9 in it at GCSE she will be fine. I know a few DC that have done this and got A* in Econ A level.

As pp said, there’s a nice overlap in Human Geography and Econ, which makes understanding some of the more in depth concepts such as globalisation easier.

I’ve had one DC do Psych A level and one do Econ and there doesn’t seem to be as much content to learn in Econ.

Unless she wants to go into something allied to medicine, I’d steer very clear of Biology. Hugely content heavy and all the A* chasing medics do it.

Biology is hard. Loads of content.

The easiest would be the subjects she's best at? It's so individual. I found maths the easiest. I never needed to do much for it as it's not a subject with lots to memorise. Physics is slightly more work. The other two sciences are much more work. I know most will disagree with my preference.

What I'm saying is your daughter needs to choose what she likes and what she's good at.

It's a great subject but I would have thought maths chemistry or physics a leveks would be favoured by unis no?

None of those are easy, and geography has field trips. Sociology I found very easy but it because I found it interesting and I'm a natural essay writer whereas maths I would have found impossible.

Maths physics and history aren't particularly demanding on work load, average I would say. I think she needs to rethink her situation as it will be a big step up

Looking at the number of NEAs i (and when they need to be completed) is a good idea.

My DD picked subjects with 4 NEAs in total and the main bulk of work ended up being in one very busy term.

ALL A levels are a huge step up from gcse and it’s very subjective. If you ‘get’ maths it’s an easy win, if you don’t it’s going to be a nightmare.

DD is starting with maths, economics, geography and biology with a a view to dropping whichever turns out to be the most difficult. Her school recommends that tactic as often the a level isn’t what the student expected.

I’d take her aptitude for the GCSE subjects as a guide.

Dd in thick of it now and definitely doing least work for Spanish.

All my kids did 4 a levels including maths and 3 did physics.i really don't think they are that work intensive.
Biology has LOADS of content.

I teach Economics A-level. It is a misconception that it is Maths-y. It is an essay writing subject. That's the key skill, along with an interest in current affairs and the ability to hit the ground running with a new subject (also the case with Psychology).

The confusion arises because many University Economics courses do require a high level of Maths competence. But it doesn't sound like the OP's DD would have that issue if she wants to do "something general like marketing".

If I were her I'd go with Biology and then either Psychology or Economics for the 4th (browse the Dorking Kindersley Big Ideas Explained Simply books for Psychology and Economics to see which appeals more). Avoid EPQ which is a time suck, and Chemistry as it's v hard especially without Maths.

Dorling! Thank you autocorrect.

I did Politics as an ‘extra’ A level to broaden my skills with an essay writing subject. Compared to my ‘main’ A levels of Maths, Physics & Economics it was very straightforward, although I did have an interest in the subject. I did little more than read the broadsheets, listen to R4 & read a couple of books and I got an A.