Unless it is a university which is called a college

If you are planning on going to the UK, you should not choose AUSMAT. After all, you know where you want to go, why not take the most appropriate (i.e. A level or IB) and straightforward way? The admissions people will have to pour themselves over your results if they even consider your application, compared to easily passing over someone with A*A*A*A* in A level or 40+ in IB. Conversely, if you are not sure, then A levels or IB is still right because you can then go to Australia if you wish (or New Zealand, or Ireland, or Singapore, or Hong Kong, or wherever).

Hikari is right, business is competitive at the competitive universities. Economics is a business related subject. Economics is one of the most competitive courses (in terms of entry) in the UK, just like Medicine, Veterinary Science, and Law. Subjects like Finance and Accounting would be nowhere near as competitive, but would still be highly competitive at Oxbridge, Top10 schools, and specialist institutions. Choose wisely.

You better call, they start in abt a week I think.

Also, don't put it to the school to offer sound career advice.

If you wanted to study Engineering you should know what you need to do.

Take O levels/IGCSE/GCSE/SPM with science subjects and maths this time.

Proceed with A levels/IB/STPM or what have you.

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Added on January 13, 2011, 8:47 pmTake O levels/IGCSE/GCSE/SPM with science subjects and maths this time.

Proceed with A levels/IB/STPM or what have you.

This post has been edited by LightningFist: Jan 13 2011, 08:47 PM

Those exams are just exams. Take them at any exam center in the country if you wish.

They are not difficult, but obviously not super easy. People who have background can struggle, but someone with no background can do well with some hard work - after all, Medicine is far from the easiest thing to study.

Cambridge and Edexcel (or OCR or AQA) are the exam boards. GCE A Level is the exam they sell.

Look up the schools' websites and go through there.

There is no centralised system (i.e. UCAS for the UK), so all applications are separate.

There are agents and channels you could go through (during some events they subsidise or waive application fees) but doing it on your own (applying online, possibly mailing documents to Australia) works the same (because unfortunately the reality is not all agents/channels are competent enough).

I think you can do STPM Biology without SPM Biology.

Actually I meant it would not be difficult to do well... because as hard as STPM Biology could be, it matters not (even with relevant SPM Biology knowledge) as long as the student eventually learns how to answer the exam questions.

Requirements are important too but here you'd probably find another school if you got denied.

The thing with A Levels are that their main feature is to allow easy access to overseas universities. Plenty of other Pre-Us exist that can do that (ICPU, SAM, AUSMAT etc) but A Level and IB are unrivaled in their almost universal recognition and acceptability.

If you intend to study locally, then you needn't choose A Level specifically since various Foundations (more oriented towards the degree you wish to pursue) exist, or you could use shorter international Pre-Us if you so wish.

I'm generalising beyond Medicine, obviously Medicine is going to be far more competitive than your average Arts subject.

Several years ago some people would have said 3.

Indeed, the current absolute minimum is still around 3 for most schools.

But many schools want 3.5.

I think 4 good grades will serve you well when you consider those British students who think themselves able (or students outside the UK aiming for the UK) often take 5 or more (sounds extreme but when they get 2 years to do 5+, and we get maybe 1.33 years to do 4, it's not that extreme), and you have more than those who only go for the minimum or less than the minimum.

Definitely take Chemistry, Biology, most schools would prefer another Science such as Maths (obviously Physics is also a Science but it's strange if you take Physics but don't do Maths/haven't done Maths). That covers the essentials, and a great 4th subject would be Physics. Not forgetting Physics' relevance to Medicine, they will almost always prefer strong science subjects, but if you chose a good subject as Economics as your fourth, you probably need to work a little harder to show a strong interest in Medicine (Economics is important in any line of work but does not have much relevance to Physics, Mathematics, Chemistry, Biology at A Level).