Decisions, Decisions... (Choosing A-Levels in general)

Member Name: MichaelR

Product:	Choosing A-Levels in general
Date:	06/02/01 (51 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Better job prospects, essential for Higher Education

Disadvantages: None

Hey there! GCSE’s coming up this year? No doubt you will have been at least considering A-Levels…

I’m not going to lie here, A Levels are VERY, VERY, VERY, hard. Harder than the first year of your Undergraduate Degree will probably be if you go on to take one afterwards.

All those people who say that A Levels are easy nowadays really ought to go and sit one and see how well they do. I think that they would fail miserably.

Far from making the exams easier, the “new” (because it’s been around for some time now) modular approach makes life much more difficult for the student, because you get examined more often, and the available marks on each examination are less. This means that the margin between grades is greatly reduced…

Basically, I found that it gives you more chances to screw up. You have to know a lot more than with an A Level that is assessed purely on terminal examinations.

Now, I’m going to try and talk a little about the choices available to you, and hopefully help you to make some of the decisions, because, as far as a career goes, what A Levels you choose will probably be the most important career choice that you ever make. Even more so than what degree subject you choose if you go on that far.

Now, I’m currently on the third year of my degree, and things are now going to be a little bit different with A Levels than they were when I took mine. (Back in 1997)

I will talk about that a little later, but for now, I will just talk about subject selection, because the choices you make there are still the same ones that I had to make.

Chances are, that you will by now have a vague idea of what you want to do as a career. Even if you don’t really know, you should be able to decide whether it falls into the arts, or the sciences. This is the big academic divide – in Universities, ALL subjects are either an art, or they are a sc
ience.

Science subjects are generally speaking either those that are practical in nature, or what you would generally consider to be “a science” such as maths, physics, chemistry, biology and variations of those subjects.

Arts subjects are traditional arts, and traditional performance arts such as dance, music etc as well as things like management, psychology etc.

I hope I have explained that divide well enough, it’s kind of hard because there are so many subjects and only two categories, but I think you should be able to get the idea of which one your chosen subject falls in to.

For science subjects, you absolutely MUST take A Level Mathematics if you want to get on to any decent degree course at any University. I did it, and I hated it, but if I had not of taken it then I would not have been accepted onto the University course that I am now. You will find that with any technology based subject, maths is a requirement for entry. The traditional science subjects that I mentioned, apart from maths itself, will not usually specify an A Level in Mathematics, insisting instead on an A Level in the actual subject with “maths an advantage”.

So, if you’re thinking science subjects, you should be thinking maths, even if you did hate it at school, because you’ll find a great many doors open to you with this A Level. It is the most versatile and highly regarded of any subject. Partly because it is so damn hard, and partly because it is the underpinning of every other science… even things like Computing need maths… anything that leads to a BSc or BEng (engineering based) subject inevitably requires maths.

If you’re not considering Higher Education, but stopping at Further Education, then still look at maths. It is the subject that employers value most highly, again because of its difficulty, but also because it shows you capacity for clear and logical thought.


If you are looking towards sciences, then your second subject should be Physics if you are interested in any sort of Engineering or Technology based subjects. It is a requirement for some courses, and very useful for others. It is also another very difficult subject, and for that reason it is again highly valued by employers.

I know that I have just told you to pick what are (arguably) the two most difficult subjects going… but they really are the most versatile and most highly valued of any A Levels.

Your third subject should be the one you want to specialise in, or the one most closely matching what you want to specialise in.

I also have to say at this point, because some of you may be considering it, that for medicine you need all three sciences – Physics, Chemistry, and Biology. You will usually need to achieve straight A’s to be accepted onto a degree in Medicine too….

Looking at the Arts side of things, well, for any subject such as Management, Psychology, Journalism, etc, etc, or any humanities based subject, you should look at taking English.

And then? Well, I think probably maths is a good bet, although it is not as essential as with sciences, it does, as I said before, look very good to have maths on your CV, and it does show an ability for clear thought.

Really though, you can just choose the subject you want to specialise in and one that you think you might enjoy. There tend to be fewer pre-requisites in the Arts side of academia.

Having said that though, if you’re thinking of a degree in Art, Music, Drama, or anything like that, then you will usually need to have an A Level in that subject.

If you’re thinking of just going out to work after you’re A Levels, then I would choose maths and any other two subjects really, unless you have an idea of what sort of job you are going to be looking for. Obviously then you should look at A Levels r
elating directly to your ideal job.

There are new “Vocational A-Levels” (Pah! They’re just GNVQ’s with different names! I have nothing against GNVQ’s, but I wish that the government wouldn’t try to call them something that they are not) These are worth a look if you’re thinking of work after leaving college or Sixth Form, because they offer a range of subjects in areas directly related to the world of work, such as hospitality and catering, tourism, etc, etc.

Anyway, now I’ve talked about what subjects are advisable to take, I should try and talk about the new A Level system itself.

The government is bringing in these “new” AS Levels (AS Levels aren’t in reality new. They’ve always been there, it’s just that not many people took them, and with the modular system that has been around for a while now, you could already have done what is now being brought in – cashing in your 6 modules for an AS at the end of year one or continuing through to year two for an A Level) this year, and you now have to choose four of them minimum, it used to be three with the old system, so that’s why I advised for only three subjects above. I think probably since you now have to do four, you would be best off just choosing something that you enjoy or have a personal interest in for your fourth subject, I think that’s the idea behind it – not to get you to specialise so much before Uni level. (Bad idea if you ask me, but still)

Now, AS levels are worth one half of an A Level, and under this new system, you initially choose four subjects, and continue with three of them to get your three A Levels as before. The fourth is “dropped” at the end of the first year to get your extra AS Level, so this will probably be the “extra” subject that you chose.

You can mix and match vocational and academic A Levels, but this sounds a litt
le bit dangerous to me if you’re looking at continuing onto higher education. The academic subjects will always hold more credibility with Universities simply because they are more versatile and cover a wider spectrum than vocational ones.

I am not anti vocational courses, but I really don’t think they should be mixed in with A Levels. They are really good if you’re looking to go no further than college, but otherwise you really should steer well clear.

Anyway, I hope that did help a little bit. I know the decisions that you have to make are tough, and don’t by any means just go out and choose solely based on what I’ve said here. Get as much advice as you can, and if you are thinking of higher education, then send off to some universities and get prospectuses NOW don’t wait until after you have finished you’re A Levels to find out that you do not have the required subjects for your chosen degree – otherwise you may end up having to spend another year in college / sixth form.

The choices you make now really could have a big impact on the rest of your life – that may sound dramatic but it is a fact, so choose wisely…

Summary: