MY OPINION ON CHOOSING FOUR A LEVELS

Before you know it, your secondary school life has flown by, A level options come around the corner and it's time to choose. As an indecisive person by nature, I found this particularly challenging and after much opposition from my teachers, I decided on four A Levels.

When I was exploring the possibility of taking four A Levels, I found a general consensus against the decision. Yet, little of this perspective came from the students themselves and so, here is my personal opinion on whether or not taking four A Levels is the right choice.

I would say the most compelling reason for choosing for A Levels should be indecision. To pursue these subjects at a higher level, you should have a real passion for them, finding it incredibly hard to eliminate an option. This ensures that you will truly enjoy your subjects at A Level and enable you to engage in topics you find genuinely interesting, helping to aid your performance in that subject. This passion further increases the chance in you more widely enagaging with your subjects outside of the curriculum, helping aid higher education applications, if that is what you later wish to pursue. Interest is a powerful motivation that enhances learning and is essential to academic success. Therefore by choosing subjects based on interest, it can contribute to a more engaged, motivated, learning experience for students.

Another thing to consider is workload. If you decide on four A Levels my top tips for managing work are: doing homework the day it's set, using nearly all your frees (you're allowed to schedule some to relax!) and making summary sheets/flashcards as you go - allowing you to be prepared for every test. In my opinion, staring the year with four A Levels, means you can't tell the difference between the lesser workload of three subjects. The work you get becomes the norm, you get accustomed to it. This mindset helps you to manage mentally since you have nothing to compare it to, therefore, it feels easier to manage than you might expect. Despite this, if you intend on doing lots of extra curriculars or are busy outside of school, choosing four A Levels might not be the best option. No matter how well you manage it, you're bound to get caught out every now and then and that can be stressful. Therefore, it's important to consider how well you'd cope with the extra work on top of other activities.

Lastly, I would like to say it also depends how well you cope in an academic environment. If you're someone who thrives in school life and truly enjoys learning, then four A Levels might be right for you, if your interest extends that far. Yet, if you struggle with deadlines or aren't particularly good at the subjects you are interested in, it might be better to go for three, despite the passion you hold. If you are looking for an inbetween stage, I would definitely recommend doing either an EPQ or Core Maths along side your 3 A Levels, both of these really appeal to universities and show an application of knowledge into more real life situations. EPQ further demonstrates a true passion for your chosen subject and so more universities are now providing reduced offers for students with this qualification. Both EPQ and Core Maths are equivalent to an AS Level qualification.

To conclude, I would like to emphasise that no university or higher education facility will ever ask for four A Levels. If choosing four subjects will compromise your performance, picking three subjects that would guarantee good grades would be the much better choice, even more so if your interest in the subjects is wavering.

Niamh