What should you pick for A Levels?

 With GCSEs only a few months away, a lot of students are now thinking about what to pick for their A levels, assuming they choose to go down that route, and it’s a big decision; what you choose to study at sixth form will affect the trajectory of the rest of your life. This article will give you a guide on the most common A levels, and their advantages and disadvantages. 

Maths

Maths has consistently been the most common A level taken in the UK, with over 100,000 entries in 2025 alone, and it’s very easy to see why. Practically any career in a STEM field (anything to do with science, technology, engineering or maths) is helped by you studying maths. From medicine to engineering to psychology to finance, maths is an incredibly versatile subject. However, it’s also an incredibly difficult one to do well in - there’s an enormous amount of content that needs to be learned, dozens of different problems need to be solved in dozens of different ways, and it’s one of the few subjects where the content is both extensive and difficult to understand. However, if you can push through that and score a high grade, it's one of the most beneficial A levels out there.

English Literature

English Literature is another heavily versatile subject - it contributes to careers in law and politics, primarily, but is also heavily sought after by recruiters in marketing, teaching, media and journalism, and academia. If you’re good at essay writing, and have a passion for reading, it’s also a really enjoyable subject, and one that’s a lot easier to get through with passion and interest, rather than some other subjects where such things won’t get you that far at all. 

Biology & Chemistry

Biology and Chemistry are both highly specific subjects - the vast majority of people taking these subjects go into medicine or healthcare, and a small portion go into some form of engineering related to them. Their highly specialised nature means that they’re not as versatile as many of the other subjects that most sixth forms and colleges offer - however, this also means that they’re both immensely useful for someone who is dead-set on a career in healthcare. As a matter of fact, an overwhelming majority of universities offering medicine mandate that applicants have studied both of these subjects. 

History & Politics

History and Politics are two more incredibly versatile essay-based subjects - not only because of the skills they develop, but also because of the content that they learn about. Even for someone who’s not going into a humanities based field, learning about the history and political culture of the world is incredibly useful, because they’re the root causes of everything in our modern society. Not only that, but they also open pathways and prepare you for a huge number of careers in media, law, writing, business management, and the civil service. 

Physics

Like the other sciences, physics is a highly specialised subject, with most of its students going on to study either physics, engineering or maths at university. It’s also a particularly challenging A level, with it being ranked by many, including the Oxford Summer School programme, as the most difficult A level, mostly due to the simultaneously enormous content load and extremely challenging concepts that have to be understood to have any chance at succeeding in the subject. However, if a career in engineering or maths is something you’re looking for, physics is absolutely a must have. 

Psychology

At its heart, Psychology is a science. And many students drift towards being literature/creative-based students, or towards being more logical and scientific in their thinking. It isn’t often you find students who are equally balanced in both. Psychology requires a combination of both scientific theory and abstract reasoning, which can be tricky to master when you’re also trying to retain lots of information. It’s often underestimated as an easy subject, but in actuality it’s one of the most-dropped subjects - in 2025, only 73% of female students and 63% of male students persisted with the option until the exam. If you decide to pick it, know that while it’s one of the most versatile sciences for both STEM and humanities, it’s also one of the hardest. 

Overall, every A level will come with its own challenges and advantages for every student who takes them, but the most important thing is to choose subjects that you genuinely enjoy; if you loathe a subject, you will lack the passion and motivation required to put in the necessary effort and do well in it.