• Question: What did you take for GCSEs/ A levels and how does this help your career?

    Asked by ashleydensham to Mike, Matt, Dan, Ant, Steph on 14 Mar 2012. This question was also asked by danwoodell, laurenxoxo.
    • Photo: Matt Maddock

      Matt Maddock answered on 13 Mar 2012:

      I took as many sciency things as I could, because I enjoyed those most and I was good at them. Double science at GCSE, Physics and Chemistry at A-level. Maths at both levels.

      I also did Computer studies, French, German and History at GCSE…I think there must have been something else too, but I can’t remember what (it seems like a long time ago now!)…oh! English, of course. Lord of the Flies is a surprisingly good book, even if it is one your teachers force you to read against your will 🙂

      It helped to focus on science and maths because they let me get into University to study Physics, which was what I really wanted to do! Without that, I think it would have been hard to get into the job I’m in now, although I’m sure there are other routes you can take!

      …ohhh – and I forgot to add my A-levels! I did Physics, Chemistry, Maths and…erm…an AS that I can’t remember now :/

    • Photo: Dan Veal

      Dan Veal answered on 13 Mar 2012:

      I went to school in American so didn’t go GCSEs, still haven’t quite picked up on how the school system works here!

      I did take Calculus and physics, which were the most helpful things going into Uni,,, which is how i got my degree, which is how i got my job. So it all helps you get to the next step.

    • Photo: Mike Salter

      Mike Salter answered on 13 Mar 2012:

      At A-level I did Physics and Maths – I think these were required to do the course I wanted to do at University, but I really enjoyed them. I also did Computing (which was fairly usefull) and Further Maths too.

      I also did an AS-level in History which was great. You do lots of science and maths as an engineer so it’s great to work on your skills outside of that. It taught me how write essays properly, and let me improve my grammar and spelling. It was great as not many engineers do that sort of thing but they still need those skills to write reports etc. Plus I find History really interesting!

    • Photo: Anthony Hollingsworth

      Anthony Hollingsworth answered on 14 Mar 2012:

      I took a whole heap of stuff at GCSE, but the important ones are science (especially physics) and maths (unfortunately for me, because im not a fan). CDT is a good one too! For A levels I just went for physics and maths. Chemistry and electronics are pretty handy too though, and now even biology is important for some types of engineering depending on what you want to do. I would recommend taking waiting to see what you like at GCSE and then decide what suits you

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