Career Advice

Y

Yantorsen

Suspended / Banned
Messages
1,462
Edit My Images
No
Hello good people of TP. I would appreciate your opinions, advise, and knowledge.

I am at sixth form and doing my first year (year 12).

I have taken Maths, Physics, Art, and Psychology.

I was originally planning on taking Maths, Physics, and Art to A2, and drop Psychology after completing it at AS.

However I recently had a test for maths in which I got a mark of 13%, I then did a retake and got 8%. I did try and I've decided that basically maths is just not for me, it's too hard. I seem to have a mental block for it. So because of the test failure I have to drop it anyway.

So I went to see the head of sixth form. He told me that I cannot pick up History four weeks into the course to replace maths because they have already done too much work. He seems adamant I'm not doing History.

So basically I want to do Architecture at university. But is three A levels in Physics, Art, and Psychology going to be enough? I would have to take psychology to A2 even though I didn't want to.

Just want some advice and other options and stuff really.

Thanks in advance and sorry for the long post.
 
Last edited:
Universities are typically open to any qualifications to let you onto a course, especially if you can demonstrate to them that you're hard working and dedicated to what you want to do. Job experience and a well written personal statement will help show this ;)

IMHO, 6th form was a waste of 2 years of my life except my entry to university and even then I think a college degree would have been much more suitable for me if I had known at the time what I wanted to do. Still, move forth. :)
 
MikeeB said:
Universities are typically open to any qualifications to let you onto a course, especially if you can demonstrate to them that you're hard working and dedicated to what you want to do. Job experience and a well written personal statement will help show this ;)

IMHO, 6th form was a waste of 2 years of my life except my entry to university and even then I think a college degree would have been much more suitable for me if I had known at the time what I wanted to do. Still, move forth. :)
Click to expand...

so what do you think I should do?

Thanks for the reply.
 
I can't tell you what to do. It's up to you to decide. I'm just saying that personally I gained very little from my time at A-Level.

I think you are too late to leave now and join college so you could always do your AS level year, leave and join college and do a course on something you want to do rather than having to do maths, physics, art and psychology in areas which may not either interest you or have significant impact on your future.

Thats my opinion anyway, you may actually enjoy 6th form so best of luck with it if you do. As regards university, you should have no problem getting into your course so long as you work hard for it :)
 
Ok, so I enjoy sixth form, I'd like to stay on. But I was under the impression you needed a humanity if you did not take maths to do architecture?
 
Ah, that I can't answer sorry.

Best wait for someone who knows about architecture to come along and give an answer. :p

Failing that, get in contact with the university themselves? 1 email to the admissions office should get you an answer :thumbs:
 
MikeeB said:
Ah, that I can't answer sorry.

Best wait for someone who knows about architecture to come along and give an answer. :p

Failing that, get in contact with the university themselves? 1 email to the admissions office should get you an answer :thumbs:
Click to expand...

Ok mate.

Cheers for your input and time :)
 
I would have thought maths would be a prerequisite for architecture, being it involves angles and things like that :lol:

Having said that, basic english doesn't seem to be an essential for a degree these days, so what do I know :shrug:
 
just ignore whatever ** career teacher tells coz they are useless, and u will be ok. trust me. i did and im good. they dont know anything at all
 
best bet - get hold of the prospectuses/prospectii (?) for the unis that do architecture and see what the entry requirements are - your 6th form library should have them.

Failing that ring the places up and ask what they look for.

I have to say I'd expect maths and how do you manage physics if you are getting 8% in math tests?
 
who? said:
best bet - get hold of the prospectuses/prospectii (?) for the unis that do architecture and see what the entry requirements are - your 6th form library should have them.

Failing that ring the places up and ask what they look for.

I have to say I'd expect maths and how do you manage physics if you are getting 8% in math tests?
Click to expand...

It may have changed from my day, but I'm sure if you managed just to spell your own name right on the exam paper you got 10%......
 
I did architecture in uni, just get 3 A-Levels, they don't seem to mind which one, i had it in Math, Chemistry and Computing ! I would've thought Art would be preferred as most of the uni for architecture are designed base courses BA as opposed to BSc (Bath), but i still got in.

btw, i wouldn't do physics if you can't hack Math, i did math and i didn't want to do physics !
 
Interesting - I would have thought that math was a requirement just because of the complexity of structural design. Maybe its all done by computer program these days but making sure that your buildings are not going to fall down has a lot of maths in it. Force vectors being inside the building fabric, etc.
 
who? said:
Interesting - I would have thought that math was a requirement just because of the complexity of structural design. Maybe its all done by computer program these days but making sure that your buildings are not going to fall down has a lot of maths in it. Force vectors being inside the building fabric, etc.
Click to expand...

That's what structual engineers are for, in 3 years of Architecture i did 1 module in physics (bending moment..etc), the rest are design modules with conservation stuff, energy effeciency...etc
 
Raymond Lin said:
That's what structual engineers are for, in 3 years of Architecture i did 1 module in physics (bending moment..etc), the rest are design modules with conservation stuff, energy effeciency...etc
Click to expand...

Have you looked at the calcs for U values on composite structures with doors/windows?
Or ventilation/heating design?

Although, this is starting to make sense. You're telling me that architects can draw pretty pictures but don't understand the fundamentals of materials? That explains why we have problems with buildings starting to fail before they are complete.

My only puzzle now is that if all they do is the appearance and layout, why are so many buildings so boring and badly designed?
 
who? said:
Have you looked at the calcs for U values on composite structures with doors/windows?
Or ventilation/heating design?

Although, this is starting to make sense. You're telling me that architects can draw pretty pictures but don't understand the fundamentals of materials? That explains why we have problems with buildings starting to fail before they are complete.

My only puzzle now is that if all they do is the appearance and layout, why are so many buildings so boring and badly designed?
Click to expand...

You are supposed to understand U-Values and materials and more points if your design can apply those materials, but no one in a crit will ask you for specific numbers and figures. Say you select double glazing with argon filled gas and that shows you are paying attention to it will do. They are mostly concern on your concept of the design and how your design have been realised through that concept.

Sure you can't put a 1000 meter square feet flat roof without showing how it could be supported but you don't need the calculation to show how it could either. In the real world you would get advice from a structual engineer to tackle that problem and come up with a design, in the degree, you just find some precedent with a similar design and imitate it.
 
So I'm kinda confused.

Everyone with much epxerience seems to say you don't need maths, yet they did maths to get into it themselves.

Then most people say that maths would be fundamental.

Not a single uni I've looked at so far says on there prospectus that they require maths, only about 3 even mention maths, and I've looked at abut 30 architecture universities.
 
I think that those of us who are not architects are being amazed at how little architects seem to worry about the practicality of it.:thinking:

Those who are architects seem to be saying just draw pretty pictures and be aware that you need to drag an SE and various other specialists along with you to get the thing to stay up.:shrug:

If the uni doesn't care about maths then thats your answer. Maybe have a look at the syllabus and see how techy it looks.:woot:
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top