A Level Choices - Choosing a subject you didnt take at GCSE?

decmatt

decmatt

decmatt

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Hi

My A-Level choices are due in tomorrow and I need to decide between the following

geography
History
Pschology

I never did History at GCSE but this sounds the most enjoyable course out of the three, would the fact that i ddn't take it at GCSE make me unsuitable for taking it?

...or is one of the otehr two choices a better choice?

Thanks
 
Well I never did Psychology at GCSE but it's fine at AS. A friend of mine chose History without doing GCSE and he's doing alright in that too. Just means you'll probably have to do more background reading than those who have done GCSE before
 
I didn't do Psychology at GCSE (you can't anywhere afaik) but I'm in my A2 year doing it at College now.

It's pretty good, there's a lot of studies to learn, we're doing criminal psychology at the moment (2nd half of the course) we've just finished a large health module which covered loads of different topics.
 
I never did psychology GCSE either, but its fine (I'm doing A2 now) some place do do it though. I did history for GCSE, and A2, but it isn't requisite either. Not sure about gerography though.

loopstah said:
boring and was more about politics than anything interesting.
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Yeh same here... Go Liberals :p.
 
I'm doing History right now and I quite enjoy it :) (enough to be doing it at uni later this year)
I was in India before this so I never did GCSE History. I did do history at GCSE equivalent in India, but the course is different so it doesn't really help in what I did at AS.
basically, go for it :) it's not really a problem. Now and then the teacher makes references to waht some of the kids would have studied at GCSE, but nothing really important.
 
I did history at GCSE and spoke to a few people who did it at A-level.
As far as they were concerned it was just different topics that could have been covered at GCSE but weren't.
I guess that means that GCSE doesn't prepare you for the A-Level course so you'd be fine without it.
 
Dont worry about previous knowledge, its just some people have a slight (very little) advantage because they know some basics.
 
You should be fine. I know someone who needs to take geography at college to do the job he wants and the college were fine about it even though he hadn't taken it at GCSE :)
 
I did Ancient History at A Level having not studied it before (besides as a passing interest) and it was fine :) Very interesting subject too. Always preferred that period compared to regular History.
 
InsomniaCalls said:
The other half thinks you'd struggle without GCSE geography.
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I dunno why :confused: South Cheshire College were perfectly happy to allow one of my friends to do A-Level Geography without doing it at GCSE level. I'm doing it at GCSE level now and to be honest, it's all case studies and pointing out the obvious most of the time :) Have no intentions to carry it on though...
 
I did geography and now do a related subject as a career.

You might be ok, although i think you'll find it a struggle at first, more interesting than history though i did that as well, too much policitcs too little wars.
 
I did both and I didn't find the GCSE course knowledge to be much of a help, although it came in useful sometimes. You may struggle somewhat, however, as one does learn some useful source analysis and essay structuring skills during the GCSE course.
 
panthro said:
IMO geography is more useful than history. Geography will help you prepare for uni coursework as there can be a practical element to it.
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... unless you're doing History at Uni ;)

I study History A-Level and did History GCSE. If you didn't do GCSE you're unlikely to be at a disadvantage in terms of knowledge, as the subject areas will probably be different. You might be at a slight disadvantage in terms of techniques (structuring essays, analysing sources etc.) but if you're good at the subject then it needn't be a big problem.
 
I did Business Studies, History, Accounts and Economics for my A Levels without taking any of them for my GCSE's. I got A's in all of them simply because I enjoyed them all.

Choosing both history and geography will involve a lot of essays. If you think you're up for it, then go for it :)
 
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