Choosing Your A Levels
Choosing your A Level subjects can be difficult, and the best advice we can give is don’t necessarily pick the subjects you achieve the highest grade in at GCSE Level. Pick the subjects that you have a genuine interest in, as this interest will be more useful to you over a two-year A Level course than having a high grade at GCSE in a subject you don’t particularly enjoy.
Be clear about what the A Level course involves – use our prospectus to guide you. Here you will find the examination boards for each subject – use their websites to read through the course specification: Do you like the look of what you will be studying? Will your academic abilities help you to achieve highly in the subject? If you have a degree or career aspiration in mind already, make sure you choose the subjects that are required by that degree course.
Please do get in touch for some advice if you’re struggling to make a final choice; we can also put you in touch with our Heads of Department if that would help.
Required Subjects for Degree Courses
| Degree Course | Subject(s) usually required |
|---|---|
| Accountancy | Maths |
| Architecture | Maths (some), Art portfolio (most) |
| Biology | Biology, Chemistry or Maths or Physics |
| Business Studies | Maths (some) |
| Chemistry | Chemistry, (Maths or Physics*) |
| Classics | Latin (some), Classical Civilisation (some) |
| Classical Civilisation | None |
| Computing and IT | Maths (some) |
| Dentistry | Chemistry, (two of Maths/Biology/ Physics*) |
| Drama | English |
| Economics | Maths |
| Engineering (Chem.) | Maths, (Physics, Chemistry*) |
| Engineering (others) | Maths, (Physics, Further Maths*) |
| English | English |
| French – Languages | French, (Geography or Spanish*) |
| Geography | Geography |
| Geology | Maths, Physics (or two sciences*) |
| History | History |
| Land Management | Maths (few), Geography preferred |
| Law | None |
| Materials Science | Maths, (Physics, Chemistry*) |
| Mathematics | Maths |
| Medicine | Chemistry, (Biology, Physics or Maths*) |
| Music | Music |
| Oriental Languages | 1 Class. or Modern Foreign Language |
| Pharmacy | Chemistry, (Biology, Physics or Maths*) |
| Philosophy | Maths (few) |
| Physics | Physics, (Maths*) |
| Physiotherapy | Biology, (Chemistry*) |
| Politics | None |
| Psychology | Two sciences (few). Maths an advantage |
| Veterinary Science | Chemistry, (Biology, Physics or Maths*) |
*desirable
Preparing for Year 12
Our summer modules have been designed to give Year 11 students an introduction study at A Level. Each subject’s module has the same structure, providing Year 11 students with the following introduction to study in Year 12:
A brief overview of the subject content
This will give you an outline of the content covered in Year 12 and 13, with a link to the exam board specification for the subject.
A core knowledge and understanding task
A task which has been designed to highlight the basic knowledge and understanding of the subject that you must have prior to starting the A Level course in September. Each task comes with links and resources to help you to complete each activity.
A ‘bigger picture’ task
This task will help you to start to think about each of your chosen subjects as a discipline; to think more deeply about the subject, reflect on key themes and ideas and consider who or what has contributed to our knowledge and understanding. Each task comes with links and resources to help you to complete each activity.
Recommended reading
Each department has its own recommended reading list that you will be signposted to within each summer module. Heads of Department have also given you a ‘top pick’ from the recommended reading list to get you started before September.
Other recommended activities
Each module concludes with a collection of other recommended activities to either support the tasks above, or to help you explore your chosen subjects further before September.
Summer Modules
All our modules are available as PDF downloads. If you’re intending to study Further Mathematics, you’ll need to read both the Mathematics and the Further Mathematics PDFs.