Y11 2025-26 Exams have started - chat, support & drink of choice if needed here.

[UncomfortableSilence]

New thread for all of us with lovely Y11s to support them and us through the coming weeks.

The head of maths at one of the local 6th form had a similar point of view on A level maths. He said that the requirement was a 7 because a 6 at gcses is just above 50% of the paper right, and a 7 is about 65%. He then said that with a 7, DCs are most likely to get a C at A levels. That's when I got scared... @Beachforever this is my dd too, not sure whether she likes maths or whether she likes the fact that she's good at it.

@Stowickthevast DD is also thinking about architecture (Possibly maybe...) She's done work experience and loved it. She hasn't done art and all the people she spoke to at her work experience said it wasn't necessary? I haven't really checked, she is so undecided. She's thinking an epq could be architecture/art related, then do maths, french and psychology to keep as many doors as possible opened...

We have goat themed exam meme going on, although I'm quickly running out...

@Stowickthevast i think they grow up hugely in that first term of A levels and what they like and don’t like starts to click into place . Being able to start 4 really helps whilst they figure it out.

Also these days there are lots more foundation years out there which are great if they don’t pick the right mix of a levels

Physics another huge jump especially without A level Maths. Many schools don’t allow A level Physics without A level Maths so hopefully that tells you all you need to know.
Biology, it’s not so much the difficulty as the sheer volume.

It depends what grade she needs for next steps. If she needs A or A star then no. If B, C, D then yes possibly although whether she would enjoy it is another matter.

Psych, while a good A level for sure and a way to see if you like the subject, won’t keep any specific doors open as it’s not needed for any degree. Ofc do it if of interest; but biology (for example) as a second science would offer more options. Med would be possible as would bio; or physics would keep engineering as an option .

I'm not saying 16yos should keep options open, in fact it’s very hard to do so and IME most don’t; but if that’s the aim stick with subjects like MFL, Eng lit, sciences, maths, art. Those are needed for specific degrees in a way not much else is (can do history or geog at uni without either A level).

This might be a contender for post-exam!

Pre-exam, I might go with “this exam doesn’t stanza chance against you”.

That’s the problem, she doesn’t know. I think she’ll either do maths, chemistry or economics at uni or a combination of those.

But now she’s recently said she wants to investigate engineering as she doesn’t know much about it and it might suit her skill set.

But she’s doing 4 A levels (Chem, maths, FM and Economics) so she could always drop FM if she needs to. Personally I think she should do physics but I’m not allowed an opinion!

If those are genuinely her choices then maths, FM, chem and physics would cover all those. Econ not needed for econ degree (tho obvs if of interest it’s worth doing). If she drops physics that closes a lot of engineering doors.

Thank you @clary , I’m going to show her your post as you’re saying exactly what I’ve been saying but she won’t listen to me as I’m her mum.

BSc economics often needs Maths, BA economics doesn't.
You don't need to have done A Level maths to apply for PPE at Oxford but almost everyone who passed the exam needed to get an interview (TSA) was studying Maths.

The document linked to already showed a real difference between boys and girls who continue with maths and physics after getting very good GCSEs in the subject. So I would be encouraging girls to take A Level maths if they are good at it as there are obviously plenty of other factors discouraging them if that makes sense. Of course it will be hard but A levels are meant to be hard and the question is do you enjoy the process of trying to work out the solution.

https://www.cambridgeassessment.org.uk/Images/735630-144.-progression-from-gcse-to-a-level-2021-2023.pdf

My DH admits to economics. He wants maths and further maths as A level subjects. Doesn’t care about the others. FM more useful than economics for an economics degree (much though he would prefer it were otherwise).

That’s really useful information, thank you! I’ll show this to DD too.

Ohh talking about A-level choices (obviously depending on how GCSEs go) my daughter wants to take Chemistry, Biology and unsure about the 3rd one. She will probably take Russian as her 4th but that would be outside of school, so she needs a 3rd school-taught A-level choice and is very unsure. Originally, PE or psychology were on the table, but not sure what goes well with Chem/Bio if she doesn't want to take Maths. She's not sure what she wants to do (vet medicine has been floated for many years but so so competitive, she definitely wants to go into STEM).

On the other hand, DD1 got 5 offers for RG uni economics with Business, politics and Economics a-levels (currently doing exams eek) some BSC, some BA.

Not LSE or oxbridge, but solid institutions.

So, you don't NEED maths for lots of things!

DS2 wants to do Business Economics and another probably Geography - not Maths on that he is adamant . There are many courses that want Maths for Economics but a fair few that don’t . I guess it just means they have to teach the kids what’s needed ? If it’s not a BA rather than a BSc . Good luck to @postitnots DD .

Not a great day here 😟

Moral boost needed for tomorrow Eng Lit which is one of her stronger subjects.

That’s interesting. Some unis certainly are not keen on business and econ.

Econ is v popular for sure. It depends where you apply tho. I know a YO who applied with Astar and A grades in maths and FM in hand to some v top unis and only got one offer.

Quite a few of the popular unis do ask for maths A level tbf. Bristol, Warwick and Birmingham for example. Not all tho it’s true. Loughborough and Sheffield for example.

She wants to go to Newcastle who want a 7 in GCSE maths, and the students who haven't done maths have a compulsory 'maths for economics' module in first year.

The other unis were Leeds, Liverpool, Sheffield and York (she's a proud northerner!) but Nottingham is also an option.

Same here.

Sounds like the Chemistry paper was hard.

Tomorrow's literature so I'm going to go with something about not losing the plot, but I haven't got the wording quite right yet.

Leeds was one of the unis my friend's lad (with A star AAA in hand in maths FM and 2 others) didn't get an offer from so your DD must have impressed. Possibly my friend's lad put together a poor/late/somehow inadequate application (you never know really about other folk) or maybe it was just a very popular year for econ? Anyway well done to your DD.

Oh thank you for sharing @postitnot . We are southerners … though I worked in Newcastle for a while back in the day - good to know as there maybe potentially more options than I thought .

Lots of sympathy to those that haven’t had a great day today with the chemistry - hope literature tomorrow is better @TheBeatlesWhoarethey @WydeStrype .
As DS2 had coursework in place of a second paper in literature he is now done till Thursday . I now need to somehow make sure he revises something other than just business

@applecrumblespider I'm anticipating digging DS's English Literature revision materials out of the litter tray tomorrow evening. He loves ranting about it.

@whereonthestair if your DS is interested in studying economics at university then there are unis that take more of a policy approach. Oxford PPE for one - I got a place without taking maths at AS or A-Level, albeit 20 years ago. Warwick also allows students to choose between a mathsy/policy route.