What are the most useless A levels?
It’s difficult to say whether any A levels are ‘useless’ or not. A levels, whatever you may pick, will give you extra qualifications. Advanced qualifications can help you get onto a university course or be hired by an employer, making them very useful. After all, a candidate with A levels is more likely to get hired than a candidate with only GCSEs since they’d be more qualified. However, if you’re still concerned over the value of certain A levels, read on for a more detailed discussion.
A levels that aren't recognised by universities
Subjects such as General Studies and Critical Thinking are renowned for not being recognised by universities. If you’re a student seeking further study at any university, picking these subjects won’t be the wisest move. You might want to stick to more respected, facilitating subjects to make sure you’re accepted onto a further study course. Furthermore, picking two similar subjects will also be a bad move. Examples of this can include geography being paired with geology, and further maths being paired with maths. If you pick incredibly similar subjects, their specifications will overlap. This means that universities often won’t recognise them as different enough to accept you onto one of their undergraduate courses.
It depends on what career path you want to take
Deciding whether an A level is ‘useless’ or not really depends on what you would like to go into. For example, if you’d like to go into medicine or dentistry, maths, chemistry, and biology will be incredibly useful. For a medical, scientific career path, English and history could be deemed useless. However, English is useful for any student wanting to go into journalism or publishing, with the sciences being less useful.
With this in mind, it’s obvious that certain subjects are more useful and less useful for specific careers. It will be to your advantage if you know what career path you want to take. This is so that you can study things compatible with the specific career field and gain certain desired skills. With this being said, it’s obvious that your desired career will help you determine what subjects are useless to you.
Reputation
Some A levels are respected more than others. The sciences, maths, English, and history are commonly the most respected. This is due to their arguably advanced difficulty and the facilitating skills they provide students with. Other subjects, such as media studies, are less respected and recognised. This isn’t to say that these other subjects are useless, though. Many subjects are still recognised by universities that are deemed to be ‘easier than others. If you are concerned about the reputation of certain subjects, you could research what subjects Oxbridge accept. Additionally, reading up on student forums can give you an idea of a subject’s respectability and difficulty.
Overall, it’s difficult to say whether any A levels are useless since they can propel you into further education. Some are more respected than others, although, you should also keep your career path in mind to determine usefulness. Whichever A Level you are considering your aim ought to be picking subjects which you enjoy. This is important as well as getting the best grades. Attending a half term A Level revision course will certainly be of help.
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