subject choices for a levels!!

[lusty zenith]

In igcse I chose: art and design, fle, math core, business, travel and tourism, enterprise, and global perspectives. Looking at my options, it makes sense for me to go through commerce or humanities; but considering my school only gives history and phycology for humanities, and that commerce is very content heavy, I'm not sure what 5-7 subjects to choose.

ALSO, I'd really love advice on how to study AS levels since it's very different than igcse, and expectations of exams, how much to study for each subject etc.

[flint island]

IGCSE requires more focus on theory while AS requires more practical work. So make sure to strengthen your basics and then keep practicing

[nova jacinth]

well since you didn’t take sciences and you only have core maths. you are truly limited to anything that isn’t sciences and maths

[lusty zenith]

okok tysmm

[sharp ridge]

Gave +1 Rep to @flint island (29)

[lusty zenith]

i knoww 😭

[nova jacinth]

what do you want to do in university

[lusty zenith]

nothing in particular

[nova jacinth]

and what are your favourite subjects in igcse

things that peak your interest

[lusty zenith]

global perspective, fle, and business

[nova jacinth]

also you shouldn’t be doing 5-7 a levels 😭 not with all being humanities

[lusty zenith]

I KNOWW i gen forgot what was the min and max of subjects

so i just put it there 😭

[nova jacinth]

what subjects does your school offer for a levels that you CAN take

[lusty zenith]

business, english general or first language, math, sciences, ICT, history, english lit (unsure if it will be there) phycology

evm, accounting, economics

[nova jacinth]

liking gp, lang, and business is very international relations esque and adjacent

in that aspect, subjects like eng lang/lit (NOT egp), psych, econ, business (potentially), and history (i personally don’t recommend) would be the subjects to go for

these subjects open doors for most humanity courses which don’t have a strong fixation on economics because certain universities will require you to take a level maths for that

for example i’m doing english lit, economics and history. with this, i originally wanted to do law but i switched to politics, philosophy, and economics (for university)

[nova jacinth]

now since you may do pure humanities, you need to really consider the workload

[lusty zenith]

about history, i heard similar opinions abt not being a good recommendation; i never really got a straight answer about why though

[lusty zenith]

workload wise, I'm willing to spend heavy time on my studies, but I'm also worried about how far off my expectations for getting an A or A* would be

and its something I have to aim to get for scholarships etc

[nova jacinth]

a level history is basically:

• the workload of two a levels
• very vague and indirect mark schemes
• scarce resources in terms of resources and notes
• is a subject that you should have a GOOD teacher for, without a competent teacher it makes it ten times harder

due to all of these factors, most people get a B and lower in the subject due to misguided learning or insufficient preparation

[lusty zenith]

oh i understandd

[nova jacinth]

with humanities, it’s not about being ‘willing’ to put in the effort like crazy, it’s about having no choice but to do so. from experience i wouldn’t recommend doing more than THREE humanities in a levels because the workload is already insane at three but a fourth humanity is academic suicide..

[lusty zenith]

got itt

[nova jacinth]

subjects like economics, business, and psychology are realistic A/A* (mainly A of course) but english and history are very risky

you can take a look at the cie a level results statistics each session every year to see how people usually score for humanities

[lusty zenith]

also for economics, with me being math core/no experience with eco in general, I heard taking it in as/a levels without basics would make it harder. Is it ideal to take it either way? Knowing my options are limited etc.

[nova jacinth]

yeah so usually when someone asks me if they should take history, i say no because in my eyes, it’s just not worth the crying and sleepless nights in order to even get an A (because A* is typically out of the picture for 98% of history takers)

[lusty zenith]

thats so sad, I rlly wanted history as a subject since I couldnt take it in igcse and my interest in it. it sucks when subjects are like that

[nova jacinth]

i never took igcse economics, only igcse business but i would say it’s not as “tough” of a jump as people would say. in fact the transition is pretty smooth because in a level economics you learn from the fundamentals so you don’t need to play the catch up game

also you having taken core maths won’t be an issue as a level economics is mainly diagrams and algebra

the maths is very simple, you learn the formulas in lessons so it’s just application

[nova jacinth]

i mean if you want to take a level history, you fully can! i’m just giving you the warnings ahead of time so you know what you’re getting yourself into if you were to take it

[lusty zenith]

is there analysing/evalution with case studies similar to business igcse?

[nova jacinth]

there are data responses like what you’d do in igcse business but how you answer it is very different

[lusty zenith]

noo, hearing what you said made me instantly know I wouldn't survive well 😭 it sounds so similar to my experience with art and design, so I don't wanna double the experience

[lusty zenith]

alrightyy

ALSO

[nova jacinth]

💔 i’ve heard the horrors of AD, no one i knew back in igcse got an A in it

[lusty zenith]

about english first language, if I were to do the subjects we've talked about, would the workload be managable? I heard how different it is from egp

[nova jacinth]

i can’t say much because i never took a level language but i think it should be manageable yeah

if you’re very interested in it, that helps motivate you to learn and revise

[lusty zenith]

truee

[lusty zenith]

AJHWRGJ THANK YOU SO MUCH I FEEL SO MUCH MORE BETTER ON WHAT TO CHOOSE

[sharp ridge]

Gave +1 Rep to @nova jacinth (2002)

[lusty zenith]

i gen felt so confused earlier this rlly helped so muchh

[nova jacinth]

if you have any questions you can always ask mee

rare to see people take pure humanities anyways

[lusty zenith]

it is, but im like 1 in 4 other ppl in my batch whose doing humanities

but whatever i hate science anyway LOLOL

[nova jacinth]

real i think for me it was maybe 10 out of 400

10 is a stretch even it could’ve been like 7 people 😭 (for pure humanities)

[elfin verge]

yea tbf most people do a humanity with maths for ppe

[nova jacinth]

i mean for ppe, maths is required

[elfin verge]

not if u wanna go to a top university

most top unis have maths mandatory

and regardless its heavily preffered even at low ones if not mandatory

its like for medicine some unis js say u only need one of chem or biology

good luck getting in though

[nova jacinth]

yeah i typoed, i meant required

[nova jacinth]

i already did haha

i got my offer

[elfin verge]

dang u did medicine?

congrats

[nova jacinth]

no i meant ppe

medicine ain't for me

[elfin verge]

oh fairs also congrats still incredibly hard to get into

[elfin verge]

word the like 8 years of school

and junior doctors not even earning a lot

put me off

its also way more competitive than any other degree

[hearty sand]

hi do you mind sharing what grade you got in enterprise? it's really rare to see someone else who did it

[rancid ermine]

math, further math and physics and chem should be fine, and do you epq on nuclear fission

[elfin verge]

4 a levels and epq is insane workload 😭

Some of the hardest a levels asw

He clearly said he likes humanities asw

[nova jacinth]

i think it's satire

[elfin verge]

I mean it is a plausible combo for somebody that’s extremely smart

Couldn’t tell probs is satire though

[lusty zenith]

OH in my mock i got a pretty high B

it was two marks away from an A 😭

[lusty zenith]

[rancid ermine]

trust me

[elfin verge]

Setting bro up for suffering 😭

[hearty sand]

Does your mock account for the task1,2,3,4 report too?

[lusty zenith]

nope, just the testt

our batch was super slow with our task reports

everyone submitted task 4 in the last week of school, in march so that wouldn't be possible 😭

[rancid ermine]

absolutely, if i can’t be happy no one can

[lusty zenith]

bro 😭 🥀

[hearty sand]

could you send me your report you can remove confidential information

[lusty zenith]

ah so sorry for the late reply but i cant, the school doesn't allow us :')

[lusty zenith]

hii again

i wanted to ask about accounting actually, if you knew anything abt it

a subject block, for time tables, has accounting, history, evm, phys

and honestly, since there wasn't an option for eng lit in any subject block (though my mom requested the school for me to do it independentaly) I was actually considering history instead of accounting

because in all honesty, i hate math already--I was fine with eco but accounting sounds so scary, but history is too so

does accounting have introductory areas like you said for eco?

[lusty zenith]

but i really want to do SOME sort of humanities suject if I cant do eng lit, and I cant do psyc bcuz its in the same subject block as eco

idk im going into a spiral about accounting or history basically

[nova jacinth]

i unfortunately know too much about accounting 🫩 the bane of my existence

[nova jacinth]

yes i think a level accounting kind of does start from scratch somewhat but you would struggle A LOT more than history in my opinion because everything in igcse accounting is in a level accounting so you're at a disadvantage in that sense

accounting isn't really math. you do maths yes but it's nothing complex

if you're interested in what accounting is, you should look at the syllabus and maybe notes on the first unit of AS to give you an idea on what you'd do

in my experience, if i had to pick between a level history or accounting (which i had to), i picked history because i could never do accounting again HOWEVER i don't want this to influence your decision

[lusty zenith]

I think I'm at a disadvantage for either, bcuz ive done niether in igcse which I just realised

but would catching up for accounting be manageable?

[nova jacinth]

you don't need to take taken igcse history to do a level history

you won't be disadvantaged but for accounting i'd say you would be

[nova jacinth]

if you invest a good amount of time then yes

but i mean a lot of effort

[lusty zenith]

i looked at the syllabus for both, and now i dont wanna do either

i rlly understood what you meant about history now, there are so many topics and i can only imagine the content

accounting seemed more familiar since i did business, like i saw terms i recognised, but that was literally in like 1.1 to 1.3 then it went downhill

and the accounting part of business igcse never stuck in my head, like none of the formulas, methods etc. just knowing myself it still wont.

and i worked really well in global perspectives and going into depth and analysing/evaluations. so I might acc choose history

ill still think over it a bit more

[lusty zenith]

thank you so muchh for answering againn <3

[sharp ridge]

Gave +1 Rep to @nova jacinth (2011)

[nova jacinth]

yes do think it over

[nova jacinth]

yeah and the content shown in the syllabus is VAGUE

they just give you a general overview yet cie tends to ask obscure ahh questions, primarily in AS

[lusty zenith]

so erm crazy thing happened

they just flat out refused to give me eco AND history

they said that since i didnt do them in igcse i wasn't allowed

which is crazy bcuz ppl who didn't do accounting, or business igcse got to choose them in AS level

im quite literally forced to choose physc, business, and english lang ONLY

because the other two blocks have subjects i havent done in igcse, so i can't even do a fourth subject

i'd understand if it made sense, but the eco and history teacher (both very sweet and awesome) were more than willing to let me take it bcuz I GOT GOOD GRADES IN FEBMARCH??

and its just me

no one else got this treatment from my vice principal, who was so rude to me abt the whole thing

[lusty zenith]

like no one batted an eye, but this vice guy just shoved it in my face abt how i didn't qualify for it

even when i pointed it out that others did, he no joke just stared at me and told me to just talk to the career counsler

and kicked me out without any hesitation 🥹

srry for the rant but im gen so frustrated and i thought abt how u gave me so much advice

and now its all gone 😭

[nova jacinth]

this is moronic what the hell

the fact you don't even need it to have done it in igcse but they're refusing you anyways

shoddy school 😥😥😥😥

[nova jacinth]

this is such an odd combo

[nova jacinth]

odd animosity

i hope you can fight to take both econ and history

[lusty zenith]

tried to convince me it was the best to know how to market my 'art' or 'writing' which i never planned to do as a career 🫩

[lusty zenith]

🫂

[nova jacinth]

it's absolute buffoonery