Choosing A Levels

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It's coming to that time of year where Year 11s across the country are having to choose their A Levels, so I thought we could have a thread where people can ask for advice, or give general feedback, etc.

So I'll start it off! I want to go into finances, and am thinking of taking:
Maths
Further Maths
Politics
History

Do those sound like suitable options? The careers woman at my school said as long as I have the Maths and Further Maths, it shouldn't matter.


I'm currently in my second year of Economics at LSE, I did Maths, Philosophy, Economics and English Literature. To be honest so long as you have the Maths in there whatever else you do is fine I'd recommend picking what interests you as when you get to the interview they'll want to hear about that along with anything outside your A levels. I would though think about a language as it is a massive boost in the finance world, I'm doing Mandarin (just speaking no writing) and when applying to internships most companies value that the highest.

But that's just my input, it does sound like Politics would be a good option because it gives you a different dimension outside finance.
 
dandec said:
I'm currently in my second year of Economics at LSE, I did Maths, Philosophy, Economics and English Literature. To be honest so long as you have the Maths in there whatever else you do is fine I'd recommend picking what interests you as when you get to the interview they'll want to hear about that along with anything outside your A levels. I would though think about a language as it is a massive boost in the finance world, I'm doing Mandarin (just speaking no writing) and when applying to internships most companies value that the highest.

But that's just my input, it does sound like Politics would be a good option because it gives you a different dimension outside finance.
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Well done on getting into LSE, is the work hard there?

Yeah, I'm now thinking of taking Physics over History because of what people have been saying about it being great to have a science.

In terms of a language, I'm doing French at GCSE and am good at it, but I don't really enjoy it, plus I'd be the only one taking it at A level as everyone hates it <) I think I'm getting closer to figuring out what I want to do.

If you have time, can you give a couple of pros and cons for the following:
Economics
History
Politics
Physics

No worries if you don't have time or don't know much about them. I'm dead set on doing Maths and Further Maths though.
 
The workload is pretty intense now that I'm in my second year, first year wasn't too bad as it's mainly going over what I did at A level Economics and Maths. But I can certainly give you some pointers on those subjects.

Economics- It'll definitely make your first year easier but alot of people on my course didn't do it. But you've got to show an interest in it at the interview.

History- Alot of writing and reading, my best friend did it and had more work than me who was doing English Lit. I'd only do that if it really interests you.

Politics- I sat in on a class before choosing my A levels and it's not what I expected it's mainly the technical and historical facts of Politics as opposed to debating but that is thrown in there, if you can get through it though it will look good on your CV and application.

Physics- Very hard course to do but if you can do it and do it well then I'd recommend that because Economics is really like a science and you'd be surprised how many people who are in finance did a science as a degree.
 
Any year 13ers here? What Unis you applied for? I've applied for Sociology and Anthropology at Oxford Brookes, Portsmouth, Winchester, Warwick and Royal Holloway.
 
dandec said:
The workload is pretty intense now that I'm in my second year, first year wasn't too bad as it's mainly going over what I did at A level Economics and Maths. But I can certainly give you some pointers on those subjects.

Economics- It'll definitely make your first year easier but alot of people on my course didn't do it. But you've got to show an interest in it at the interview.

History- Alot of writing and reading, my best friend did it and had more work than me who was doing English Lit. I'd only do that if it really interests you.

Politics- I sat in on a class before choosing my A levels and it's not what I expected it's mainly the technical and historical facts of Politics as opposed to debating but that is thrown in there, if you can get through it though it will look good on your CV and application.

Physics- Very hard course to do but if you can do it and do it well then I'd recommend that because Economics is really like a science and you'd be surprised how many people who are in finance did a science as a degree.
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Thanks, I'm almost sure that I won't be doing history because that's the feedback I get from a lot of people. I can see politics being a bit of a mixture of both, but I also see it covering History as well which could "fulfil my needs". Physics I keep hearing is very hard but very interesting + challenging. Economics is not a practical one for me, so I think I shall make that my reserve with Politics and Physics.
 
They seem like the best options to me, do you have an idea of what uni's you want to apply to?
 
Jay Pricey said:
Any year 13ers here? What Unis you applied for? I've applied for Sociology and Anthropology at Oxford Brookes, Portsmouth, Winchester, Warwick and Royal Holloway.
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I'm in Y13. Am doing:
Maths
Further Maths
Economics
Physics

I've applied for economics and so far my application is going well. Got an offer from Durham and an interview off Cambridge.

For A-level so far, Physics AS wasn't too bad. But I'm finding the A2 course quite difficult, its worse than further maths atm!
 
SuperLeeChungYong said:
I'm in Y13. Am doing:
Maths
Further Maths
Economics
Physics

I've applied for economics and so far my application is going well. Got an offer from Durham and an interview off Cambridge.

For A-level so far, Physics AS wasn't too bad. But I'm finding the A2 course quite difficult, its worse than further maths atm!
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Cambridge and Durham, very nice!

I've been averaging A-B in all of the fields topics so far which i'm really happy with, since most people really seem to struggle with it. The average score for the year before mine was 35%, heh. Simple Harmonic Motion is easy though :D
 
Only downside of me not going my Sixth Form is my current History teacher is sexy, I'll have to leave that *** behind D:
 
For me when I go to college next year, I'm going to do...
Chemistry
Biology
Maths
Psychology/Physics
 
dandec said:
They seem like the best options to me, do you have an idea of what uni's you want to apply to?
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I'm thinking of, as my 5, Cambridge, Durham, Warwick, Nottingham, Manchester.

Ride The Walrus said:
Only downside of me not going my Sixth Form is my current History teacher is sexy, I'll have to leave that *** behind D:
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Man or woman? <) Couldn't resist ;)
 
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