I am currently taking my GCSE’s and I have to start choosing my A-level options. Would French, Law, Goverment & Politics and Btec Business be suitable?
I am currently taking my GCSE’s and I have to start choosing my A-level options. Would French, Law, Goverment & Politics and Btec Business be suitable? Or should I take English? A few people have said that top universities don’t take Btecs.. Any advice?
I would be more worried about your other A Level options than your BTEC.
Do you know where you want to study at university? Some places dont (or didnt when I was a lad) like you to do A Level Law – check with their admissions office. In my opinion it is a waste of time studying A Level Law – you are going to have to do it all again and often tutors prefer to start from scratch with you.
Also, think about what law firms are going to want from you. They will love French. I did Government & Politics and enjoyed it. But many people will look on it as a less meaty subject than, say, History. I’d say Law or Government & Politics, definitely not both.
If you want to go to a good university you need to choose traditional subjects – doing Law A level will be frowned upon by just about everyone (including law firms if you want a legal career one day) and I would be sceptical about gov & poitics as well. Best a levels for a law degree are french (any mfl), english, history, economics. Even sciences would be more highly regarded than Law (I did biology and read law at a top uni). I would avoid BTEC as well. Post any follow up questions and I’d be happy to help.
Any from : English, History, Classics, Latin, Geography, Economics, Maths, Modern Lang or RE and you’re ok.,
Too much from : Design, Business Studies, Sociology, Law, ICT and that’s not too positive.
Although French is a good, solid subject, Universities will not be thrilled with your other choice of subjects as they are not considered particularly dense topics. It is always better to stick with the traditional subjects if you want to go to a good university.
Also, a Btec does not count as an A level, so you will rely even more heavily on your other subjects to get to the required results by universities.
I don’t understand why people are so negative about government and politics as an A Level. It’s a solid academic subject and there are tons of politics graduates who become successful lawyers after the conversion course.
But I agree that top universities don’t know what to do wtih BTECs and are law faculties (and law firms) are not wild about business studies or even law as A Level/post-16 subjects.
Not Law, not Business. Govt & Politics if you drop it at AS.
History, English, Languages, Sciences, Maths, Classics, Geography only. You can argue about what is and is not hard but these are the only viable uni subjects. If you want to do others, fine, but you will only get into a poly.
I think the issue is more why you want to do BTEC Business, and not A-Level Business (or Economics/etc).
BTECs are assessed 100% by coursework, which is nearly the complete opposite to law degrees at top unis, which are usually mainly exams with a couple of coursework essays as well.
Taking the bTEC in Business is only going to suggest to those universities that you don’t feel too confident about taking exams and remembering information, which is not going to endear them towards you.
Working at a law firm also requires you to remember large amounts of information, so having a BTEC rather than an A-level isn’t going to send positive messages to them either.
Why not think about taking Economics A-level instead? It’s a respected subject, and it’ll give you basic economics knowledge, so that you’ll be able to read newspaper articles and commercial awareness books much more easily – and thus be much better prepared for eventual training contract interviews.
I think the issue is more why you want to do BTEC Business, and not A-Level Business (or Economics/etc).
BTECs are assessed 100% by coursework, which is nearly the complete opposite to law degrees at top unis, which are usually mainly exams with a couple of coursework essays as well.
Taking the bTEC in Business is only going to suggest to those universities that you don’t feel too confident about taking exams and remembering information, which is not going to endear them towards you.
Working at a law firm also requires you to remember large amounts of information, so having a BTEC rather than an A-level isn’t going to send positive messages to them either.
Why not think about taking Economics A-level instead? It’s a respected subject, and it’ll give you basic economics knowledge, so that you’ll be able to read newspaper articles and commercial awareness books much more easily – and thus be much better prepared for eventual training contract interviews.
I think it depends on which unis you plan on going to. I am currently studying Law at the University of Leicester and i did a BTEC Diploma in Business at college. Birmingham were the only uni that wouldn’t take me on because of this & Nottingham offered me a place on the foundation degree first before i could get on the Law degree program. I would however, suggest you contact the unis you plan on going to first (if you already have an idea of where you want to go) and confirm whether they take on BTEC students on the course.
There’s too much bullshit and conflicting views on which A Levels you take, I mean, yes don’t take something like Food Tech, Sport, Health and Social if you wanna do Law, but take subjects you enjoy as you will do well in them, find a balance.
Don’t take English, History and Maths and get CCC, when you’d rather do Politics, Business, Sociology and because you enjoy it, are more likely to get AAA.
Fyi, I did, English, Business and Media and I’m at UCL studying Law. So it’s not all about the elitist views and stereotypical ideologies!
My twopence anyway!
I think you should study whatever you want to, Universities are not overly concerned with what topics you have decided to undertake at College/Sixth Form unless you require certain subjects for the degree; i.e. medicine.
As for Law I do not understand why so many are recommending you not to study it, the reason for Uni’s preferring you not to is so you do not lack in that subject should you study it later. Law firms do not look down on it either as it shows commitment to wanting a career in law.
As for the BTEC I agree with others that you should consider why you are studying. I also from the experience of my sister believe that top Universities may not be as accepting as they should be. Therefore would suggest just doing A-Levels, as for the subject the post above is very true, study what you want as you will get the most out of it.
I completely agree with the post above – I took A-Level Law, Business Studies, Sociology, Maths and Critical Thinking and am studying Law at the University of Warwick. I’ve also already gained a training contract in a top 10 City firm and didn’t get any negative comments about my A-Levels. As long as you think you will do well in your chosen subjects and can explain why you took them if asked (e.g. about how they gel well together etc.) then you should be fine. It’s more about how well you do than what you’ve taken.
Good luck with your decision!