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

Some research by Durham University "Dr Robert Coe, main author of the study, said: "At A-level, science, maths and technology subjects are not just more difficult than the non-sciences, they are without exception among the hardest of all A-levels. At GCSE, the sciences are a little more difficult than the non-sciences."

@agerageratum1 that research is based on data from 2006. The syllabuses have all changed.

But anyway, mark bands reflect the difficulty of the papers. So e.g. Chemistry might be objectively harder, but you'd need fewer marks to get an A than in Business Studies (for example).

Besides, taking a subject because you believe it's "easier" does not suggest tremendous suitability for advanced level study, does it?

There’s quite a lot of statistics, data interpretation and research methods in psych and economics. How does she feel about that?

@ageratum1 you might say that. But for those who get maths, it's not a difficult subject. I have a 1st in Engineering and then a PhD. I did not find maths difficult until my PhD (with hidden Markov models if you are interested). I attributed the difficulty from having done an Engineering undergraduate instead of maths/physics. Many working in the area has maths degrees.

I think they are all as hard as each other.

They re-did them a few years back to sort it all out.

But, my son has found maths and further maths gcse perfect preperation for A level as it all follow ons.

Whereas his friend has found A level French doesnt really follow on from gcse neatly so it's harder.

To be honest it's all down to time management. As DD does 4 A-level's, trains for a sport 6 times a week and does 2 work shifts, yes I know she's mad especially as one of her A-level's is art 🙈.

Oh I forgot she volunteers as well.

No she really doesn't have time for anything else but she's not a big sociliser and likes to be busy. She's was only a 7 average at GCSE and is looking at A/B's for her A-level's as she works hard.

She needs to be thinking more about what she wants to do after A-level's rather then how hard they are, as if she does the wrong ones she won't be able to do what she wants at Uni, which is probably more important. We encourage DD to do maths as she was interested in biology and would need more Stem subjects. Glad we did as she's now decided she wants to do biology at uni and without another stem subject she couldn't do it.

No a level is easy to achieve...honestly. however, if a student is engaged with the subject they 'find' it easier. Go with the subjects your child likes

I'm a science teacher. Biology has a huge amount of content to learn which takes a lot of time. Also need to do a lot of past paper questions to get wording right to score higher marks. Chemistry is rock hard and many bright, able student struggle and have to spend a lot of time outside of class to get their head around it. Students tend to find psychology much easier - achieve higher grades with less work. Can't comment on economics.

Students are advised to do maths if they study physics at A level. Physics is applied maths really. If she isn't too keen on maths, avoid physics. Physics is easier than chemistry I believe though, but certainly isn't an easy A level.

@Bickleymumma biology 100%.

Not sure all the PPs have fully taken on board that your DD is obviously at elite level in a sport. DS was the same and found that Biology and PE compliment and crossover each other and both contain elements relevant to high-level sport. (Incidentally he now works in his sport, though admittedly no longer competes at professional level.)

Also those subjects would get her onto a sports-related degree if that's what she wants. The addition of geography (which is considered a science by many universities) would also enable her to do a science-related degree if she would prefer to do that.

Wow thanks for all the responses. We will have a good read of all the advice and suggestions and hopefully it will help with decision making. Thanks again.

I teach biology a level and I would say it's one of the biggest jumps from GCSE. It's also very content heavy - it's not a subject you can breeze through if you are good at it as you still need to learn everything. Chemistry is also content heavy and I agree with the advice that doing chemistry and no other science subjects would be hard.

If she were considering biology and chemistry or biology and psychology I think that's a bit different as there is overlap in the content.

I'd also add that geography is quite high workload due to the coursework.

PE, psychology and biology could be a nice combination with a decent overlap between subjects which would reduce the content she has to learn a bit.

Maths teacher here. Very able students find maths easy, but by very able I am talking about those who get a high grade 9 at GCSE. My grade 8 students really need to work hard to make progress at A-level.

Maths is also a tricky subject as if you don’t get a concept you can feel utterly lost and have no idea what the lesson is about. And uncertainties can build and you can get further and further behind. If you don’t enjoy maths don’t do it!

It’s very individual. She has to pick what she enjoys and is good at - that will be easy for her. I did sciences and maths and found them all easy, sailed through exams with almost full marks. But I would have found history, geography etc a nightmare. Art might be a lot of work, but for someone who enjoys art it’s essentially a hobby. There’s no subject that’s easy for everyone.

It was a while ago but I did Chemistry and Biology. Chemistry is so hard, so much harder than GCSE. Biology also harder, but I didn't find it nearly as hard. Just more in depth and a lot more interesting.