Choosing A Level subjects

Summer has finally come around and school is over for most of us. The start of each academic year always brings new challenges, from starting a new school or starting your A Level/GCSE course to things like UCAS, personal statements and choosing subjects. This blog post will mark the start of a series focusing on things like choosing subjects, personal statements and a general guide to UCAS. Although this post will focus specifically on A Level subjects, the same logic applies to choosing GCSE subjects. 

Choose what you like

Whilst this may be obvious, it is still something that needs to be said. A Levels are a massive step up from GCSEs and will require significantly more work, which is why you only take 3 or 4 subjects normally. If you absolutely hate a subject, there is no point taking it for A Level as you will find it significantly harder to motivate yourself to study. That being said, there will always be elements of every subject you do not enjoy so make sure to assess each subject in a holistic way - if you like maths but hate mechanics, don’t rule out maths simply because of that. Play to your strengths - if you’re great at humanities, don’t pick a combination that is entirely science and maths.

Have some idea of what you want to do in the future

I know it seems awfully early to be thinking about these things, but it is important to at least have an idea of what general fields you can see yourself going into. Even an idea of whether you want to go into STEM or humanities can help. If you know what kind of degrees or apprenticeships you can see yourself doing, have a look at what they require, as you may be surprised by exactly what they need. You don’t need an exact map of the next ten years of your life planned out, but some idea is important, and if you’re lost, just play to your strengths. What are you good at? What lessons do you look forward to?

Have breadth

Doing three or four similar subjects can be easy in the sense that you have a lot of transferable skills, but is also harder as when you get bored, you don’t have another subject you can turn to for relief. Having breadth means that you have a variety of things to do and keeps you interested, but also means that you keep your doors open. One essay subject amongst a few science subjects means that you can now apply to a whole host of essay-based degrees alongside science ones, and is especially great if you’re not sure about what exactly you want to do.

Don’t be afraid to try

The biggest misconception people have is that the subjects you choose are set in stone, in fact, it’s quite the opposite. Most schools have a grace period of about a half-term or even a term in which you can swap and change subjects as the first part of the course is really quite introductory. The worst thing you can do is not try something you want to do. Even something like getting an A Level textbook from your local library and flicking through it to get an idea of what the course is like can help.