University A level preferences

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ChessDadStrategy
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Joined: Sat Aug 24, 2013 11:25 pm

Re: University A level preferences

Post by ChessDadStrategy »

WP wrote:While the government and exam boards hold that all A levels are equally rigorous, some universities distinguish between them: Most universities do not count General Studies in their tariff, and some also exclude Critical Thinking, or accept it only at AS level. An A-level in a foreign language that you already speak is often discounted. Particular courses will have more specific requirements. (thanks to mitasol for these links)

Comparison of subjects:
This is a great list thanks very much, I'm all for filtering out the soft options and to concentrate on the flagship subjects that are directly aligned to a profession that leverages the underlying subject matter to further depth to ground the core principles, skills, knowledge and understanding
ChessDadStrategy
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Joined: Sat Aug 24, 2013 11:25 pm

Re: University A level preferences

Post by ChessDadStrategy »

flicka wrote:I thought all this was something everybody knew? That soft options are just a cop out for doing real hard work at A level, introduced to get the lower achievers to a) stay on at school instead of joining the ranks of the unemployed and unemployable, and b) to give everyone a "qualification".
Of course loads of them are not worth the paper they're written on! Isn't it obvious that something that ends in "studies" is not going to be up to much! My mum retired from secondary teaching nearly thirty years ago, and it was known then!
It's not just up to the teachers - it's up to us as parents to help and advise our children, surely? I would never advise a child of mine to take a soft option. Total waste of time.
It all started going down hill when GCSEs were introduced (you can guess I am old, can't you?) and has never reveresed the downhill trend in all that time. Sad.
But the moral is, be aware as a parent what your child is doing in school.
Well said!
Tree
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Re: University A level preferences

Post by Tree »

Ok i would like to balence this thread a little

With my dd we are curently in the midst of uni applications and we have trawled around loads of unis and been at endless admission talks where the topic of a levels has constantly come up and I have a few observations. My DD has applied to study economics at oxford durham ucl nottingham and exeter so all russell group, she has 2 offers and an oxford interview next week. (she is doing maths further maths economics and geography to A2 and physics AS)

It is clear that you need to be doing 3 proper academic AS then 3 a2's from the proper list and relevant to the subject, after that the message was they don't care what your 4th or 5th choices are, in fact alot of courses like breadth they seem to quite like maybe 2 seprarate AS subjects and I think they certainly don't mind and I think are quite interested if your 4th and 5th choices are interesting and different (ie soft) . So for social science subjects if you did a 4th or 5th a level in a tech subject or music or drama, philosophy etc and for science they like tech computing and obviously languages, but also seem quite interested in philosophy critical thinking etc. Also if you ask them they are realy helpful my dd's school offers government and politics and philosophy and ethics and both durham and oxford said they where happy with these as alternatives to history and english for law or history, so it is useful to check with your respective uni's before applying.

The only other observation is that the IB seems to be nightmare and if you have a choice is worth giving alot of thought before doing this, my feeling is that it is done by some private schools so they can remove themselves from a direct comaprison with stste schools, however there is general feeling from students we spoke to who where doing it that the equivalent offers are not comparible lots of people applying for economics felt v annoyed that the top unis wanted HL maths level 7 to compare with a* A2 and thaat was significantly harder, and that 40-42 points was not equivalent to a*aa.
Daogroupie
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Re: University A level preferences

Post by Daogroupie »

Thank you Tree, this is very useful feedback. Philosophy is considered to be an academic subject, it is Critical Thinking that is not. Good Luck to your daughter. Let us know how she gets on. I will be very interested to hear what she thinks of the Oxford interview. DG
Tree
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Re: University A level preferences

Post by Tree »

I think it would be fine to do it for your 4th of 5th there was no sense that they thought doing 4 or 5 "proper" subjects was better than 3 "proper" and 2 soft, infact durham were not particularly happy with dd doing FM as they said they wanted more breadth.

My feeling is that there is nothing wr ng with subjects not being traditional government and politics looks alot more interesting than history, and it must be possible for them to be made even more academic, it would be possible to design a media studies A level that was as academic as english lit and maybe more intersting and inclusive.

Thanks for your interest she is pretty scared about her interview although happier now she has a offer from durham as a fallback, she has the grades but i think the interview is a bit of a lottery she is just going to try to be herself and let her enthusasm for econ shine through we will see.
magwich2
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Joined: Fri Sep 05, 2008 5:33 pm

Re: University A level preferences

Post by magwich2 »

Good luck to your daughter with her Oxford interview.
Miss Magwich is a history finalist there and adds that you obviously have to display enthusiasm about your subject but you also, in her opinion, need to display enthusiasm about arguing about it. Oxford, in her experience, favours what she and I call "loudmouths" and they call "likely to benefit from the tutorial system" (!!)
Tree
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Re: University A level preferences

Post by Tree »

Thanks mw2 she should be ok then opinionated loudmouth describes her to a T :-)
Rob Clark
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Re: University A level preferences

Post by Rob Clark »

it would be possible to design a media studies A level that was as academic as english lit and maybe more intersting and inclusive
fwiw I took a media studies module as part of my English degree in the 80s, taught by a renowned semiotician and author called Dr Ros Coward and I can assure you that it was every bit as rigorously academic as the module on European playwrights (Brecht, Ibsen, Chekhov, Strindberg).

It's only a soft option if it's allowed to be – I agree with Tree that it should be perfectly possible to design an interesting media studies A level, and arguably one which is more relevant to today's teenagers than, say, Wordsworth.
Tree
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Re: University A level preferences

Post by Tree »

I absolutely agree in my field science you could make DT as rigorous as physics and maths but more interesting, biomedical science a level that would contain as complicated biology and chemistry as existing a levels but more relevant to medical and biotech degrees. I think the debate should be around standards and what the country needs for the next 30 years not OECD rankings
Daogroupie
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Location: Herts

Re: University A level preferences

Post by Daogroupie »

Philosophy is a first rank academic subject as first studied by the Greeks. It is one third of the highly prized PPE, (Politics, Philosophy and Economics). I wish my dd's school offered the AQA pure Philosophy course as opposed to the Philosophy and Ethics courses. The AQA A level is a highly academic course where it is very difficult to get a good grade. It is odd that Critical Thinking has become so derided. Time for a change of name and a relaunch! DG
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