The obvious question is what A-levels are you studying and if programming is your passion, why does it sound like none of your A-levels are geared towards it? Surely in this day and age there must be some decent computer/programming A-levels? Clearly some courses such as Maths and Physics will be beneficial, so I would expect you'd be doing at least Maths A level too?

However even if none of your A levels are geared towards programming I still don't see why you have to drop it. Plenty of spare time to keep development of your programming skills up.

As to what is more relevant it depends as to what field of programming employment you want to get into. For the more creative side (games etc) I still believe that you can get much further pushing yourself, creating demo's , showing off your abilities, than any current education can do. However for more commercial side (say banking) then I would guess grades and qualifications are more important.

One thing though, whilst this is an important time in your life and getting good grades can open opportunists further down the line, don't feel that your life is dependant upon what you do now. You can always go back to education, or gain certifications later in life. Indeed myself and many people I know didn't really have a clue at 18 yrs what they wanted to do or indeed where they'd end up. So self-education, further education and putting yourself through certifications is common place later in life. As long as you have drive you'll be fine.

I will state though I have personally be massively disappointed in terms of the education I was provided. Granted at the time programming and computing wasn't see as valid or important as it is nowadays, but even so, O-levels and A-levels seemed geared to learning to pass the exams, whilst University was better, I still feel much if not all of the benefits I got from it was due to putting in the extra work to learn stuff on my own. I'd say in terms of my skills, knowledge and experience in programming, that has all be self- taught and hugely benefited from the internet. It has done me well, though that is partly also due to the 'work ethic' and drive I have, which I think also goes to show that its not simply about grades.

The obvious question is what A-levels are you studying and if programming is your passion, why does it sound like none of your A-levels are geared towards it? Surely in this day and age there must be some decent computer/programming A-levels? Clearly some courses such as Maths and Physics will be beneficial, so I would expect you'd be doing at least Maths A level too?

However even if none of your A levels are geared towards programming I still don't see why you have to drop it. Plenty of spare time to keep development of your programming skills up.

As to what is more relevant it depends as to what field of programming employment you want to get into. For the more creative side (games etc) I still believe that you can get much further pushing yourself, creating demo's , showing off your abilities, than any current education can do. However for more commercial side (say banking) then I would guess grades and qualifications are more important.

One thing though, whilst this is an important time in your life and getting good grades can open opportunists further down the line, don't feel that your life is dependant upon what you do now. You can always go back to education, or gain certifications later in life. Indeed myself and many people I know didn't really have a clue at 18 yrs what they wanted to do or indeed where they'd end up. So self-education, further education and putting yourself through certifications is common place later in life. As long as you have drive you'll be fine.