• Question: Which a-levels did you take to lead you into your line of work and did you have a specific idea of the job you wanted to do from the point at which you chose them?

    Asked by to Becky, Clara, Daniel, Simon, Thomas on 12 Mar 2014. This question was also asked by .
    • Photo: Clara Nellist

      Clara Nellist answered on 12 Mar 2014:

      The a-levels I took that led directly to my work were physics, maths and chemistry, but because I also really enjoyed english I took that as well. I didn’t really know what I wanted to do at the time but I knew I liked science and that physics would still allow me to have a lot of options later. So while I was doing my a-levels I decided to go to uni to study physics. And then while I was there I realised I liked finding out new things about the way the world works so I decided to stay on a do a PhD.

      My best advice about choosing your a-levels is to make sure you enjoy the subject and that you’re happy to put the time into studying for it, since you’ll now be focusing on 3-5 subjects instead of 10-12. Also, check which subjects you need for the course you want to do later (if you decide to go to university) since there may be more than one you need. For example to study physics at university, you need to do physics a-level and a maths one because there’s a lot of maths in the physics course.

    • Photo: Daniel Roach

      Daniel Roach answered on 12 Mar 2014:

      A levels in maths, physics, chemistry. And I knew this when I took my GCSE options, so I did loads of science GCSEs.

      I knew I wanted to be a physicist from age 10 or so – so choosing was easy!

    • Photo: Thomas Elias Cocolios

      Thomas Elias Cocolios answered on 12 Mar 2014:

      I went through high-school in the French system, which is slightly different. As far as I can see the match, I had taken Drama & Mandarin to start with, but then upon changing school I could not keep doing those, so I ‘reverted’ to Math, Phys, Chem. In my last year, I did A* Math too. I simply loved it, without thinking too much about what to do with it until my last semester…

    • Photo: Simon Albright

      Simon Albright answered on 12 Mar 2014:

      I did Physics, Maths and Chemistry (noticing a theme here?). I knew for a long time I wanted to do science but it wasn’t until half way through my A-levels I’d settled on physics. Even then what I wanted to do with physics took a long time to decide, I wanted to be a teacher for a long time but now that I’m doing my PhD I find I love research so much I don’t want to stop!

    • Photo: Becky Martin

      Becky Martin answered on 12 Mar 2014:

      I studied Physics, Maths, Chemistry and Product Design, and to be honest I didn’t really have a clue what I wanted to do – I just knew I liked science! I thought geosciences would be interesting, and it was great fun. Field trips, volcanos, earthquakes – I really got into natural hazards!

      It’s great if you know what you want to do, but don’t worry if you don’t have a definite career plan or path yet. If you work hard and choose subjects that you enjoy then you’ll fall into the right thing for you, sooner or later. 🙂

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