[RichardG]

To anyone on here who has done a levels and progressed onto university, how important would you say is the fourth as level that you can drop after the first year? I'm doing Biology, History and Economics which I'm all fine with and very much enjoy, but I'm also doing Psychology and it's an absolute nightmare. I thought it would be an easy fourth subject to drop after the first year (our college encourages all of us to take 4 AS levels) but I couldn't have been more wrong.

We don't have January exams anymore so all of our exams are in May/June. With economics and history we've been told we will finish all the content for the second exam by March/April and it will be non stop revision from then on. Biology will be finished by around the beginning of May. Psychology, however... we've not even finished the content for exam 1 yet. We've literally been told that we will only finish exam 2 content two days before the exam. There is just too much to learn. I can't even revise for my other three subjects either because my stupid teacher is insisting that we make revision posters for her to mark so I'm spending all my free time doing them. It's taking over everything. I was up until 3am doing them last night and I'm still nowhere near finished.

So my question is, is the fourth as level as important as my college tells me? If I were to drop psychology and just do the other three subjects, could I still go into most universities? I'm genuinely concerned that I'm going to fail my other three subjects because I'm spending so much time on psychology which I don't actually even like, 90% of it is complete nonsense. Any help would be greatly appreciated!

[Z]

Well I went to school in Scotland so the systems are a bit different but I think our situations are similar - we're told we have to take 5 Highers in 5th year at school, Highers being the results that Scottish universities look at for admission. I took 4 Highers (English, German, French, Modern Studies) and 1 Intermediate 2 (Maths) because a teacher bullied me into taking Maths, saying how important it was to have a Maths qualification and I would do the Maths Higher in 6th year... Scottish unis look at your 4 best Higher results for admission, so the pressure was on me to do well in my other four subjects which I was quite good at, but Maths I was always rubbish at and even though it was a level lower than my other subjects, I got so much homework and it really took up my time. In the end I stopped caring about Maths and focused on the other four subjects, got 4 A's in them (and in Maths too but the exam was piss easy, our teacher had been more or less scare mongering us that it would be awful, so props to him for working us so hard I guess..) and got four unconditional offers to uni and one rejection (from St Andrew's, they rejected me because I didn't do 5 Highers in one sitting)...

So to answer your question - if you want to go to the most prestigious sorts of universities then I wouldn't recommend dropping any subjects. The Oxfords, Durhams etc of this world won't look twice at your application. I'm at the University of Glasgow which is one of the better Scottish universities and I got in with four Highers no problem, so I'd say just try your best with your other subjects and if your Psychology teacher doesn't like it then so be it, you shouldn't be working yourself that hard.

[RichardG]

My GCSES results were really good, I was convinced that I would be going to one of the top universities once I got them on results day. However, my grades have took quite a hit since starting my A levels and so I'm no longer aiming for the top courses. I'd like to go to somewhere like Kent, Liverpool or East Anglia... I think they're around top 30 or so, so not too high up. I just don't know if I'll be at a disadvantage or not and whether I'll be seriously considered.

My other plan would be to do take a year out before applying to Uni and doing a fourth AS at my other local college, which is for people of all ages rather than just 16-18. My only concern there would be that I don't know whether that would be worth as much since it would be done separately to my other A Levels.

Ugh I've got no idea what to do. I just have this big fear that I'm going to do much worse in my other subjects just because of psychology. We have mock tests in three weeks and I've not even been able to revise yet because of psychology, it's literally ruining my life.

[MeMyselfAndI]

Practically worthless, I got a C in my fourth dropped AS Level and have got offers from all Russel Group Uni's

My friend got a D and the same also

[MTVN]

I wouldn't worry about it, the only people who it'd really help doing well in their 4th AS is those who are looking at Oxbridge, Durham etc. It's better to just concentrate on doing really well in 3 instead of worrying about the 4th one and it bringing you down in other subjects, pretty much all universites won't hold it against you at all

I did Psychology at AS as well and hated it, got a C and dropped it then did well in my other three so it didn't stop me getting offers from anywehre

[Jords]

Can I just say Psychology is not complete nonsense

On the whole the 4th AS level that you drop is not important, however its good to try and make the most of studying the subject and achieve at least a C, especially if perhaps somethiing goes wrong in one of the other subjects and you cannot progress into A2 level.

imo completely disregarding it would be the lazy thing to do.

[RichardG]

Originally Posted by MeMyselfAndI

My friend got a D and the same also

Originally Posted by MTVN

I did Psychology at AS as well and hated it, got a C and dropped it then did well in my other three so it didn't stop me getting offers from anywehre

This sounds promising

Maybe if I just do minimal psychology revision then I will just scrape a pass and leave it as that. I suppose it's better than not having an AS at all.

[Harry!]

For me having 4 A Level's wasn't important. I managed to get Into university with 2 full A Levels and 2 AS Levels. Good luck getting into your chosen university.

[Shaun]

It's probably only really necessary if you want to get into one of the top ten universities, but even then some of them have lower requirements.

[Marc]

I only had 3 A levels

[Brother Leon]

Depends on how many UCAS points you think you will be getting off your other 3 courses.

[King Gizzard]

I dropped from 4 to 3. But then I did really **** in my A levels anyway. Depends what you're applying for afterwards

[King Gizzard]

and yeah, I did psychology AS and got an E Lol, then dropped it, you didn't actually learn anything, you just learned how to pass the exam from the off. How to answers questions etc