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A Balanced Timetable
It is very important that, when choosing your options courses for the next two years, you achieve a balance in your educational "diet" which will provide a foundation for a good general education.
Naturally you cannot be certain at this stage about the exact job or career you hope to be doing in several years' time, so it is better to choose subjects which leave the greatest number of career possibilities open to you. It is important to remember that, whatever job you eventually do, its demands will undoubtedly grow and may change completely so you will need to be flexible enough to meet the changes. It is also likely that you will change jobs or retrain for something quite different.
It may seem like a long time away, but if you are considering applying to a competitive university and especially a competitive course at a competitive university, it is important that you consider all the aspects of the entrance requirements, including the GCSE requirements. A summary below gives an idea of the GCSE requirements that you might come across for certain degree courses. Remember that these are only examples. It is important to check university websites for detailed requirements.
Applicants to study medicine are usually required to have very good GCSE results in Maths, Sciences and English.
For a degree in English, universities often look for applicants to have a GCSE in a Modern Foreign Language.
Grade 6 and above in Maths and sometimes Science is often required for a degree in Psychology.
What subjects at A Level give me the most options?
Many courses at university level build on knowledge which you will gain whilst at school. Where this is the case, universities need to make sure that all the students they admit have prepared themselves in the best way to cope with their chosen course. For this reason, some university courses may require students to have studied a specific subject at advanced level prior to entry, others may not. However, there are some subjects that are required at A level more often than others.
These subjects are:
Maths and Further Maths
English (Language and Literature)
Physics
Biology
Chemistry
Geography
History
Modern Foreign Language (like French or Spanish)
(Source: Informed Choices - Russell Group)
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