Planning in Advance

Some people leave the thought of Higher Education well into their A-levels or Highers which is a big mistake. Taking the wrong A-levels or Highers can severely limit your options when applying to HE institutions. The savvy student should have a reasonable idea of the type of subject area they want to go into as early as possible, this will mean they can choose the correct A-levels to enable them the best chance of getting on the course they want.

In an ideal world, you should be able to opt for the A-levels that interest you most and which you are likely to do best at, regardless of what you eventually want to study at university. At the age of 16, of course, relatively few youngsters have decided what degree course they would like to try to get on to, never mind their ultimate career at the end of that. The last thing you want to do while embarking on your two years of sixth-form study is to box yourself into a corner that allows you little flexibility later on should you have a dramatic switch in interests, from the arts to the sciences, for example.

But the reality is that many universities specify that applicants must have certain subjects at A-level or Higher - particularly those wanting to study specialist courses such as the sciences, medicine and languages. Ideally you should aim to keep your options open by taking on a broad range of subjects while including one or two that you might consider studying eventually. This can be tough, particularly when entrance requirements do vary so much between different institutions.

One option at this stage is to contact some universities that you think you might he interested in applying to in order to find out what their general requirements are. They all have websites with admissions information. Many will simply specify a minimum "tariff" of grades which you will have to meet regardless of the subjects you are taking, indicating the level of performance they are expecting rather than ability in any specific subject. That will take account of performance not only in A-levels and Highers, but also in other recognised qualifications, such as the International Baccalaureate.

If in doubt, ask your school or college for advice. They should have lots of experience of advising students from previous years and will save you the time and energy of having to make individual enquiries.

An advantage of Curriculum 2000 is that you have some flexibility to chop and change after taking your AS-levels at the end of the first year. So you can drop the subjects that you do badly in, or retake them to get a better grade, or even change the emphasis of your subject spread with your choice of A2s.

Specialist science degree courses inevitably tend to have the most specific requirements because of the need to have the basic knowledge before you start. Across the board, veterinary science and medicine remain the most popular courses, with applications typically exceeding more than 10 for every place. and where you will be expected to have already notched up an outstanding set of science results at GCSE. And that's without the relevant work experience you'll be assumed to have under your belt - and all those extra-curricular activities to prove you're not socially backward.

Generally speaking, for medicine, all entrants will he expected to have a minimum of three very strong A-levels (definitely biology and/or chemistry and preferably maths and physics), as well as a strong GCSE science back-ground. But medical schools have differing requirements; some may be willing to disregard a weak GCSE in biology in favour of strong A-level performance and solid evidence of commitment to the course (work experience perhaps).

Choosing a subject you may not have studied before - such as law or psychology, perhaps - would generally involve an impressive performance in two or three A-levels. Applicants for languages they have not studied before would be expected to show strong linguistic ability in other modern foreign languages.

What do university admissions tutors think of AS retakes or students chopping and changing during the sixth-form now that they are able to? Is it a bad thing? Not necessarily... some welcome signs that you have used the system to your advantage, making the most of the flexibility to end up with what suits you best.