Choosing A-Level Subjects Before You've Chosen a Degree

The real risk is closing doors you cannot see

Very few sixteen-year-olds know what they want to study at university, and pretending otherwise produces bad subject choices. The useful goal at this stage is not to pick the perfect combination for a course you have not chosen. It is to avoid quietly ruling out large groups of courses without noticing. Some degrees have hard requirements. Medicine and most health-related courses require Chemistry, usually with Biology. Engineering requires Mathematics and usually Physics. Mathematics degrees require Mathematics, and many prefer or require Further Mathematics. Economics degrees at competitive universities frequently require Mathematics. What these have in common is that they are all effectively decided by whether a student takes Mathematics and a science. That single choice opens or closes more doors than any other at A-Level.

What replaced the facilitating subjects list

For years, students were pointed at a Russell Group list of facilitating subjects and told to take two of them. That list was retired in 2019 and replaced with guidance organised by degree course rather than by subject, precisely because the old framing pushed students away from subjects that were perfectly good choices. The practical implication is that there is no longer a short list of approved subjects. There are courses with requirements, and the only reliable way to find them is to look at the entry requirements for the specific courses a student might want, at several universities, and see what repeats. That exercise takes an afternoon and is worth more than any general advice, including this article.

There is no longer a list of approved subjects. There are courses with requirements — and the only way to find them is to read the entry requirements for the courses you might actually want.

Combinations that work harder than they look

Some pairings do more than the sum of their parts. Mathematics with Physics is the standard route into engineering and physical sciences, and the two reinforce each other week by week. Biology with Chemistry covers essentially every health-related course. Mathematics with Economics is the combination competitive economics departments are looking for. Further Mathematics is worth naming separately. It is taken alongside Mathematics, never instead of it, and it is required or strongly preferred by a large number of mathematics and engineering departments. Students who might want either should treat it as a live option rather than an extension. One combination to think carefully about is three subjects that all assess the same skill in the same way. Three essay subjects, or three heavily quantitative subjects, can make an exam season much harder than a mixed set.

Availability is a real constraint, and worth checking early

Not every subject is available from every awarding body, and this catches people out when they move institution or study privately. A-Level Statistics is currently offered by Pearson and no one else. A-Level Computer Science is available from AQA and OCR, but Pearson does not offer a domestic version. If a student wants a subject that only one board offers, the choice of centre matters more than usual, because that centre has to be approved for that board. Specifications also change. In May 2026 OCR announced that Biology B and Physics B would have their final assessment in June 2028, and that AS Psychology would finish in June 2027. Anyone starting a two-year course should check that the specification they are starting will still be running when they sit it.