A level subjects - help please

[resrtr]

Thanks a lot. Advice from some one who has studied Latin will really give my friend and her daughter the insight they need to decide.

[ToadMum]

Thanks a lot. Advice from some one who has studied Latin will really give my friend and her daughter the insight they need to decide.

Most people posting on here are parents, so their personal experience of taking any A level will be rather out of date.

The girl might find some current A level Latin students if she posts in the A level section on The Student Room site.

[2childmum]

It will only be well repsected if she gets good grades in it (and A level Latin is much, much harder than GCSE) and she doesn't get worse grades in 4 than if she only did 3.

There is absolutely no need to do 4 A levels and the majority of Grammar schools/Secondary schools are now actively dissuading pupils from doing 4 as Universities offers are based on 3.

I know that 3 A levels is generally sufficient but is that still always true when Further Maths is one of them? At DS's school they typically take 3 unless doing FM in which case they take 4.

This is the case in dd's school as well. I always assumed (maybe incorrectly) that FM wasn't counted as a "proper" 3rd A level. They only have 50% teaching time for FM compared with their other A levels (so those doing M/FM get 150% of the time compared with those just doing maths).

DD is doing Maths, Further Maths and Chemistry. She has 5 offers for chemistry from 4 Russell Group unis and 1 other which is good for chemistry. She also visited York, Oxford and Durham, who all said they were happy with Further Maths as the 3rd A level - although she didn't apply to these so we won't know if they would have offered with these 3 A level. Several unis commented that it was a really good combination for a Chemistry degree. Apparently there is a better correlation between grades at A level Maths and class of chemistry degree than there is between grade at A level chemistry and degree class. She has also met a number of other students with this combination of A levels. I think it is becoming more common. There is a lot of work for the Further Maths - it is harder now than when my son did it, when the FM applied modules could be the first level modules also available for 'ordinary' maths (so you could do Statistics 1 and Mechanics 1 for your FM if you hadn't used those for your ordinary maths) Now the Further Maths choice of modules are all harder as they build on the ordinary maths stats and mechanics, unless you do the Decision maths. (As an aside, she also 'only' has 8 GCSEs - that didn't cause a problem with any unis either!)

[loobylou]

Interesting. Thank you.

[fairyelephant]

FM is extremely well respected by unis - some of DDs offers are expressed as lowering if one of the three counted grades is FM. I think its has definitely helped DD get 5 offers (for Geography, so completely unnecessary technically). It’s complex, requires commitment and is definitely a whole other real A level, with a heavy work load. However nothing in 18 years has caused as much tears, not sure it was worth it! FM is not for the faint hearted, only to be undertaken if you really really really like maths!

[Tinkers]

FM is extremely well respected by unis - some of DDs offers are expressed as lowering if one of the three counted grades is FM. I think its has definitely helped DD get 5 offers (for Geography, so completely unnecessary technically). It’s complex, requires commitment and is definitely a whole other real A level, with a heavy work load. However nothing in 18 years has caused as much tears, not sure it was worth it! FM is not for the faint hearted, only to be undertaken if you really really really like maths!

It does however depend on the subject and uni. DDs choices all said that they wouldn’t count both FM and maths, they would only count one of the other in grade offers. Otherwise she would have taken FM as one of her choices. As it was there was no point.

However for maths degrees, I should imagine that most of not all courses would be happy to consider them as two separate A levels. Same for engineering degrees.

[tiffinboys]

FM is extremely well respected by unis - some of DDs offers are expressed as lowering if one of the three counted grades is FM. I think its has definitely helped DD get 5 offers (for Geography, so completely unnecessary technically). It’s complex, requires commitment and is definitely a whole other real A level, with a heavy work load. However nothing in 18 years has caused as much tears, not sure it was worth it! FM is not for the faint hearted, only to be undertaken if you really really really like maths!

5 offers, without FM. Offers for mix of degree courses.

[Moon unit]

My DD will be doing 4 A levels including maths and FM.
We visited 4 sixth forms and were told that if she wanted to drop to 3 FM would have to be the one or it would leave her with only 2.5 A levels and in a weak position for unis.
This doesn’t fit with the first hand experience of some OPs.

[scary mum]

My DS did 3 including FM. It wasn't a problem for any courses (engineering) that he looked at.

[Tinkers]

My DS did 3 including FM. It wasn't a problem for any courses (engineering) that he looked at.

I wouldn’t expect it to be an issue for engineering degrees. They are very maths heavy anyway.