Throughout my many years of tutoring, many aspiring Oxbridge students have presented an important question to me.
Which A Levels will maximise my chances of getting into a top university?
Whilst I have tackled this question in short conversations, I realised I have not penned my thoughts to this query. Until now.
Hopefully, this newsletter can help you make an informed decision when that time comes.
(P.S If you want to know which subjects are the best to study at GCSE, you can read about it on our blog here).
🥵 Should I take 3 or 4 A Levels?
If you managed to achieve a slew of 8s and 9s in your GCSEs then you can make a very strong case to your school or college for taking on an extra A Level. But is it worth it?
Well, as with many decisions in life, it depends.
Firstly, do not underestimate the workload required to succeed in just 1 A Level. The step-up from GCSEs to A Levels has always been a steep one. Prepare to work even harder.
3 is already a decent amount of work and you won't be penalised by any university for not taking a 4th subject (although unofficially it certainly helps - more on this below).
Taking 4 A Levels isn’t as simple as just having to learn more content. You also have to attend the lessons for the subject, which cuts into your free periods.
While other students will have at least 1 or 2 free periods a day, you will be very lucky to have more than 2 in a week. That's a substantial amount of hours of work you are going to have to cover at home on top of other commitments.
That being said, it isn’t a bad idea. Having an extra A Level will certainly help keep your options open, and an extra A/A* always helps to give your CV some extra shine. I myself did 6 A Levels, but I wouldn't recommend this.
Another thing to keep in mind is, some universities (e.g Imperial) do lower requirements if you take 4 A Levels - attaining 4 As might be equivalent to achieving 1 A* and 2 As for them. So if you feel you are better at dealing with a larger variety of subjects and scoring decently in them rather than being the best at a select few, this is the option to consider.
Which are the best subjects to take?
Which subjects should you fill your 3 or 4 slots up with?
Well, it really depends on how certain you are about which career you want to pursue?
1) You are 100% sure about what you want to do
2) Still thinking about it
If you fit into category 1, then choosing which A Levels to pick is much simpler. Most degrees list out required or preferred subjects on the respective university page, for example, you must take Chemistry plus another science to undertake a medical degree at most universities. Here are Oxford's requirements for Medicine as an example.
Do the research, email the university, consult with some of our team if you need help and it shouldn't be tricky to nail down your options.
But, what about that spare subject space, what should you fill that with? Well that’s where our next section comes in handy.
I am not sure what I want to do in the future, which subjects should I take?
If you fit into the above category then I would pose 4 general principles that you should keep in mind when deciding:
1. Keep your future career paths open by taking facilitating subjects
Your A Levels heavily determine what you are allowed to study at university. If you are unsure about what you wish to study then it is best to keep your options open. This means prioritising subjects that are recommended for a suite of different degrees, as opposed to niches such as Music or Drama.
Luckily for you, universities have actually published a list of “facilitating subjects”.
Facilitating subjects are a handful of A-level subjects commonly asked for in universities’ entry requirements, regardless of the course you’re applying to – this makes them a good choice to keep your degree options open.
The facilitating subjects are:
Biology
Chemistry
English
Geography
History
Maths
Modern and classical languages
Physics
In no particular order.
Having at least 2 of the above subjects keeps most degree pathways open to you. Given, taking a humanity plus a language won't keep your options open to the same degree that 2 sciences would.
If you do plan to pursue a humanity-related subject, I would recommend taking either 2 sciences or a science and Mathematics alongside it, because most universities value the skills that these A levels develop.
Taking 2 sciences also keeps options open if you wish to switch into that field later on.
2. Take supporting subjects
What do I mean by this?
Well, let's say you are interested in studying a Biology-related course at university - Neuroscience, Biochemistry, Biomedicine etc. But you aren’t exactly sure which one.
Well, you are probably going to need to take Biology but complementing this with a Chemistry A Level would be a good idea, since most Biology degrees either require or highly recommend Chemistry.
Just taking Biology by itself narrows down the amount of Biology-related degrees you are eligible to study. They aren’t all closed off but there will be fewer options than if you took both.
A similar story would follow for a Computing or Physics-related degree, having an A Level in Mathematics is almost compulsory for most of these types of degrees.
3. Ikigai
Ikigai is a Japanese term that means "reason for being".
It mentions 4 things that you should take into account when choosing a lifelong career:
1. What you love
2. What you are good at
3. What you can be paid for
4. What the world needs
Clearly, many of these factors are linked. Usually, we love things we are good at and what the world needs, i.e. what's in demand, you can generally be paid for.
Taking these 4 factors into account is a very good way of deciding what A Levels you should take and what career you should pursue.
If you love languages, but you aren't naturally very good at them it probably isn't a fantastic idea to take 1 at A Level (of course, this isn’t to say don’t learn other languages whatsoever, I would highly recommend doing that, but probably not when your future degree options are at stake!)
If you are good at Mathematics, but don't love it then it isn't advisable because you will eventually burn out. You need to commit A LOT of hours if you wish to achieve those top band grades. Harbouring a genuine interest and passion for a subject will definitely make those hours more enjoyable.
If you love a subject and you are good at it, but it isn't meaningful then pursuing it as a career can lead to a feeling of insignificance.
4. University preferences
I have already mentioned a list of subjects which universities tend to view in a positive light, however, each individual university does have their own preferences beyond these and gives 1 or 2 subjects a higher weighting than others.
With that in mind, thoroughly research which subjects the universities you desire to study at like and then consider studying those at A Level
There you go. My 2 cents on the topic. Individual circumstances may vary, but this should provide a rough guide. As long as you don’t pick A Level subjects according to:
What your friends are doing
Thinking about what is fun in the short term rather than taking future degree options into mind
What seems easy
You aren’t going to screw up too badly. Further to this, consulting with our Oxbridge team can’t hurt for green lighting your options.
As always, your comments and thoughts are welcome on the topic.
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Amazing article