Calling all A-level students (&those who have been there and done it)
Hey guys just wondering if a few of your could spare 5 or 10 minutes to give me a bit of an insight into various A-level subjects. To a degree I've only really decided what I won't be taking this time round after last years screw ups and realistically it doesnt matter how much you read about the subjects you need to hear it from the dogs mouth, so to speak.
So if you don't mind ... The subjects you do? What you like/dislike about them? The workload? the boredom levels etc
I'm particularly interested in any english language & history students opions but all are welcome.
Thanks guys
xxx
edit - Just so you know what I'm planning to avoid.
Last year I took Chem, Bio, Maths, Law & Psyc
Loved Chem entirely and the same for maths, really enjoyed them. I probably will take maths again but won't bother with Chem as it won't really "fit" in.
But Law, psyc and bio (exc the biochem module) I just found really relentless and boring, on several occasions law actually make me nod off ... my lectures monotone voice probably helped that one though.
Geography > Really like it, possibly becasue the department here is so good and they give us biscuits... but nah I find it genuinely interesting to be able to relate it all to things going on atm. Everything's Geography somehow really..
Psych > Can be interesting, can be boring, will do well if you can remember **** loads of names and figures and apply them all to an essay
Bio > Find it really hard, don't really like it.. but can be interesting if you like to know what's going on in your body etc..
Maths [last year] > Not much to say about it.. don't do it unless you like maths/are willing to put in the work I guess.
Critical Thinknig [compulsory] > Don't do it unless you have to. It can be interesting I guess, but I still have no belief that you can in any way teach someone to think critically.
Good luck on choosing.
"Be nice. Think happy thoughts. Champion silver linings. Love all things (not just cute things like babies and kittens) & when you do love - love like they do in power ballads (you know like on a cliff with the wind in your hair and your eyes shut, knowing you'll never know love like this). Watch out for dog poo. Smile at people - even grumpy ones. Remember anything is possible & whatever you do always try to look on the bright side."
a lot of people in my year took geography and find it incredibl;y boreing
a lot fo people took biology (90) and only 15 of them passed A -E (and our 5 A* - C grade GCSE percentage was really high, 88% or somehting, so it could jsut be our teachers)
maths and history are loved by universities. i took both (not for that reason). i love history, its relaly interestign and makes you think for yourself and be analytical. though i do knwo soem who find it boreing. maths is brilliant if you liek a challange.
i also took physics, which the firs tmodule is a very small jump form GCSE, but the jumps get bigger the more modules you do. it involves a bit of mahts, and logic. you need a lot of patients with physics.
art has a huge workload, but haveing a lesson where you get to be creative is very relaxing, and i find it relaly helps me get through the rest of the day.
chemestry, i didnt take it, but htose who did i knwo find it hard, btu they really enjoy it. its supposed to be the hardest science.
my main bit of adivce would be take the subjects you enjoy, otherwise these two years could be awful. whatever subjects you take, there will be a workload, but if you enjoy the subject, its a lot less stressful. remember, shcool is supposed ot be fun. i would also suggest takeign the subjects you enjoyed but got a good GCSE in too (i.e. the highest results you got) beucase it gives youa bit mroe confidence int he subject, and i would talk to the teahcers baout subjects you didnt do at GCSE.
i hope that helps, and PM me if you want nay mroe advice about it :)
i dotn bite :P
liz
"I would be almighty in my own world of art, even if I had to paint my pictures with my wet tongue on the dusty floor of my cell." -Picasso
"No, painting is not done to decorate apartments. It is an instrument of war." - Picasso
'I have scars becuase I have a past; but they, like my past, do not define my future'
At AS I took Biology, Chemistry, Art, Theology and Critical Thinking.
At A2 am doing Biology, Chemistry and Art.
CT = Holy hell. Mix between law, logic, theology, general studies, buisness. Not always credible when going to Uni so watch out if you decide to do it as A2. Wouldn't recommend it at all.
Theology = Like with any essay based subject A LOT of writing and reading to do although it combines religion, ethics, philosophy and logic so it's actually very interesting, if you're into those kinda subjects and don't mind having religion shoved in almost everywhere, might be worth looking into.
Art = a lot more difficult that you'd think. A lot of analysis goes into the work, a lot of writing in some cases and most importantly it's extremely time consuming. If you don't work consistently you will fall behind and trust me, it's not wasy to fill up the gaps. But. If you like art and being able to show off your skills then by all means look at it, it's great fun and it definitely helped me take my mind off things - science subjects especially.
Biology = I'm lucky enough to have the hardest syllabus of all, but generally a lot of difficult and specialist material is packed into it, a lot of terminology and detailed processes have to be learnt and used when answering exam questions. You actually need to have a passion for this and work consistently, read and learn the stuff you get in lesson cos' most of it is hard enough to just fly over your head first time you hear it. Aside from that, it's actually a fascinating subject and really helps you understand everything around you so if you like finding out how things work, look into it.
Chemistry = I am unfortrunately completely biased about this because I generally love Chemistry so for me the work load is light and the material is fascinating enough not to cause any problems but like with any science subject you will be learning a lot of difficult processes, theories and terminology, writing up your own investigations, doing experiments etc. I would recommend you do it though, it's great and makes everything make so much more sense if you wanna relate it to everyday life.
Geography > Really like it, possibly becasue the department here is so good and they give us biscuits... but nah I find it genuinely interesting to be able to relate it all to things going on atm. Everything's Geography somehow really..
Thank the lorrrddd Alex! I think so many people seriously underestimate the importance/relevance of geography. I mean some of the topics (RIVERS!?) are seriously dull and repetitive but I've found that when you get into A Level it's honestly a lot more interesting and there's a lot more depth and information on current stuff. Lots of things to think about.
I also do politics. I find politics really interesting too. Last year we did sort of.. political systems etc but this year we're doing political ideologies and it really makes you think about some fundamental questions and there's a lot of scope to develop your own opinions.
Philosophy and ethics again, is really good for making you think about things, and is interesting, but sometimes it gets a bit frustrating (I find). Particularly ethics where the theories mostly end up saying along the lines of 'we can never know really..' so it's not good if you don't like that sort of thing. Also involves a lot of essays.
I did biology AS which was good.. but I didn't particularly like the parts which were plant biology. The human biology parts were enjoyable though. It's good to know how things work.
I suppose I would be no good to you, I was just about to sing the praises of Psychology and law. I think they are fantastic, I also have taken Environmental science and Business studies to A2 level before (though no longer doing BS) and I find them rather boring and tedious.
Let me be the one you call
If you jump i'll break your fall
Lift you up and fly away with you into the night
If you need to fall apart
I can mend a broken heart
If you need to crash then crash and burn YOU'RE NOT ALONE
The subjects i took were: History, psychology, economics and geography.
Geography: Liz was talking about me and others when she said about it been boring and repetaitve. It's general knowledge and then simply case studies to remember. For A2, i aim to drop this or...
Economics: It is liked by universities (so my teacher says) and i personally have gone through the first half of the year not understanding much. Everything is starting to click together with not that long till my exams. The year above my had no-one pass anywhere near well, they're all resitting. You have to be pretty determine to force your way through the sylabus. (if everyone who plans to drops economics, they'll be one person left in the subject LOL)
Psychology: Great if you have a passion for it, or plan to use it in the future. I took psychology to find out more about myself, but have come to love the subject for its diversity and many intellectual conversations that can be sparked from it. There's alot to remember but for my course, the first paper is the worst. Unfortunately, i dont have a knack for names (no matter how funny some of them are!!)
History: The greatest subject ever. This is recognised and loved by universities. I havn't heard anything bad been said about it in my school; no matter how bad a teacher, the subject has always been brilliant to me. I utterly biased here, but when helping the economics department with encouraging people to take the subject, i kept sending people to history simply because it ticks many boxes with university and employers. The worload isn't huge as long as you can take out the important information.
I can't resist this, but LOL @ all those in my school who took bioligy thinking it would be easy :D
And Liz doesn't bite, but has an awful bark!!! On a serious note, a mixture of what you like and what you're good at is the best option. It's a general rule of thumb to never take more than two new subjects (Y)
Photography at A-level was good. We learnt quite alot in a year.
But after a year of Alevels I quit and am now doing B-Tech photography and I really like how we are given lots of freedom within breifs but there is quite alot of sketchbook work and presenting finals et cetera but it is deffinately interesting and worth doing if its something your interested in.
The world is just illusion always trying to change me.
You will find wonder wherever you can, and spread joy whenever you are able.
I felt emotions of gentleness and pleasure, that had long appeared dead, divide within me. - Frankenstein.
I think with English lang you've got to be willing to write an awful lot, in detail and stuff like that. The subject itself does have some really interesting aspects to it and I think you might actually do well in it....
Um..yeah. Any questions, you know where I am.
Edit: I just realised that's not helpful at all...sorry
The only time you will find real light is when you're searching in the dark..
I'm in Scotland and taking advanced highers, so I probably won't be too much help to you.
However, I did also take AS Philosophy (AQA exam board) this year (our school offers it instead of Higher because the course is better, apparently). I would really recommend you to avoid it at all costs unless you enjoy studying rather abstract ideas that are of little to no use to anyone. The moral philosophy section is fun, but epistemology is bloody awful. It's full of absolutely ridiculous theories and much of it appears to be nothing more than semantics (orr maybe I'm just too stupid to get it!)There are many areas of philosophy that are really interesting and relevant, but unfortunately they don't seem to be included in this course.
I shall stop ranting now, but you can probably tell that I hate this course and wish I hadn't taken it.
My friend is taking AS Science for Public Understanding and I keep stealing her material to read - it's much more interesting! But I think it's kind of seen as an 'easy subject'? I don't know. It looks fun though!
Anyway, if you enjoyed chemistry and maths, maybe you'd be better off sticking to the more maths-y, science-y side of things? Just take what you think you're likely to enjoy.
Thanks to everyone is muchly appreciated and to everyong else keep expressing, at the end of the day the more opinions the better.
[quote=Platinum;622418]Have you thought about doing any BTEC?
quote]
I have a BTec in Art&Design ... I took it while I was still in school so it's at the eqiv level to GCSE's and it drained all the fun and life out of art for me, before I took it I used to draw constantly and within 3 months I stopped entirely because it wasn't relaxing anymore just stressful. I think it's more to do with the teachers etc then the course itself though. Another problem with them is I couldn't focus on one subject because I do need variety.
I want to do A levels because I want to keep my options open to a slighter larger degree then a BTec would allow as with 4 or 5 As-Alevels I have more choice with which area to progress into. By all means correct me if my views on this are inaccurate.
I took Geography, Media and English Language and Literature (combined)
Geography was (and still is!) absolutely fantastic. You can relate anything you learn in it to everyday life. I love it an awful lot which is why I'm now doing human geography at uni! There can be a lot of writing involved and you do have to remember diagrams/theories/models/specific geographers in order to obtain the higher grades but it is easy to understand (well I found it to be.)
Media was incredibly simple. It is seen as the 'easy' A Level and I do agree but there is also a lot of writing for essay questions and you do have to remember specific scenes of films and TV shows in detail to back up the points you are making. But if you like watching films and TV and things and want to analyse every single thing then you'll love it.
English language and literature was brilliant but then I think it was the teachers I had which made it good. Again like the other two there was a lot of essay writing involved and also a lot of reading but I loved analysing poems and books so it was alright. Plus with the combined course you get elements of both language and literature which is really good as I found it hard to just focus on one because they are both interlinked.
PM me if you/anyone else need some more info or stuff :)
Hmmm....I do English Lit too - that's good but can sometimes be challenging - as long as you do lots of exam practice leading up to the exams it's fiune though :) I love our A2 course for English as we get to choose 2 books of our own choice to do our coursework on.
Music is the best subject ever to exist - it beats everything....but then you have to be special (ie...play an instrument) to take it. If you do then go for it!! It takes up a hell of a lot of time and is MUCH harder than people think (music is NOT a doss subject at A level!!), but is really worth it. There's nothing more amazing than the sight and sound of having a full orchestra performing something you've written :)
At AS I did: English Literature, ICT, Psychology & Sociology.
At A2 I did: English Literature & Sociology [started the RE A-level in a year course, but it was making me lose it, so I dropped it].
English Literature [AS/A2] was enjoyable at times, but at other times it was pretty dire. It depends what books you're doing & how the teacher is/whether you get on with them. I didn't find it as difficult as I was expecting to though.
ICT [AS] was difficult because we'd just started on a new course which they'd never taught before, so practically everyone in the class failed & gave up.
Psychology [AS] was interesting, but I barely completed any work because I was sat next to two mates & we just talked the whole time & I didn't learn the work outside class, so I scraped an E in the end. I wish I'd paid more attention in that class.
Sociology [AS/A2] was interesting. It depends on the modules your teachers decide that you should do, but I found most of it really interesting. Again, it depends how the teachers put it across & whether you're interested in that sort of thing, but it was my favourite subject at A-level, even though there's ****-loads to learn.
& as for RE [A-level in a year course], don't even go there. It was at a different base-site for a start, so I barely knew anyone in the class. The teachers expected a very high standard of work from the beginning & put the pressure on a lot. By the time I dropped out, I was having panic attacks over the work, crying in class, the whole shebang.. So I dropped out (Y).
Good luck with whatever you choose to do.
x
Last edited by Accidentally Abstract : 12-03-2008 at 10:57 PM.
Reason: Slight edit of spacing.
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