19th September 2014 15:00
By Blue Tutors
At this time of year, many parents hire a tutor to help their children with their chosen AS and A level subjects, hoping that by helping them achieve the best grades they can, they will be securing their child’s future. But what many students are finding is that it is too late by the time they reach this stage – a tutor can help them secure excellent grades, but what if they were studying the wrong subjects in the first place? Many students are not aware that the subjects they choose to study for A level can have a significant impact on the opportunities available to them, both for university courses and for employment prospects. Consulted early enough, a tutor can not only help students achieve top grades, but also help them decide which subjects will be best for them to take.
Conventional wisdom states that students pick the subjects that they enjoy, and do best in. Moving from AS level to A2, students often drop the subject they are achieve the poorest results in. It is a simple formula which students have followed for decades, but many are increasingly finding that it isn’t that simple. University courses often have quite specific requirements as to what A Levels students must have studied in order to be considered favourable candidates. It is therefore no good to select A level courses based on preference alone. Students must look ahead to the university courses they may want to apply for, and choose their courses accordingly. It can be extremely tough for students who select two academic subjects and then take, for example, Art as something they enjoy. This seems an entirely reasonable choice to make, until they find that they won’t be considered for a host of university courses without three academic subjects. Where schools often fail to explain this to students, tutors can offer sympathetic advice to ensure that their students are not caught short come application time.
Many promising students who wish to apply for Oxbridge often find themselves at a disadvantage because they chose an A level in Law or Psychology. Again, this seems to make sense if they are applying for degrees in these subjects, but someone needs to tell them that these universities in fact do not look favorably on applications who have studied these A levels, preferring students to have studied more traditional subjects. The same goes for employers, who often prefer key academic subjects such as English and Maths over arts-based subjects. The message, unfortunately, is that studying a subject they are passionate about could cost them a lot. Tutors have been through the experience of choosing courses themselves, and are well placed to advise whilst remaining sympathetic to students’ individual interests. They may advise taking an AS level in a subject such as Art or Theatre Studies as a compromise, and then dropping it for A level where they can focus on the academic subjects they require for university. Whatever choices students make, they should have all the information they need to make them.