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Geography or History GCSE?!

When submitting my options form for GCSE, I knew that I wanted to do history - it was one of my favourite subjects at the time- but since then I've lost interest and now I despise the topic of war. During the holidays I changed my mind and informed the school that I would now like to do geography.

However, after reading some similar articles, everyone seems to think history would be more enjoyable. How hard the subject will be doesn't bother me (I like a challenge). :biggrin:

I wouldn't say I have a lot of enthusiasm when it comes to geography, but I cannot stand the thought of studying war for the next two years. If the history course had been broader, I probably would have been more persuaded to do it. I know geography and history are equally respected by universities, but I cant help but feel I have made a mistake.

Should I do geography or switch back to history??!

Also, I don't have a specific future career in mind, but I do know that I would much prefer a geography-related career than history. :smile:

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It all depends on what you enjoy and what you want to do in the future. You saud you would preferea geography-related career more than history and that you are not enjoying history, so I think you should pick Geography.
This wont have a massive impact on career choices as you can take either subject at a-level without having done them at GCSE.. so just think about what you'd enjoy right now. You seem to quite like history.. but not the war bit! I did history about the world wars and tbh, it was quite interesting - but thats just me :tongue:
My advice is just choose what you'd prefer and enjoy the most right now. :smile:
Original post by francais45
When submitting my options form for GCSE, I knew that I wanted to do history - it was one of my favourite subjects at the time- but since then I've lost interest and now I despise the topic of war. During the holidays I changed my mind and informed the school that I would now like to do geography.

However, after reading some similar articles, everyone seems to think history would be more enjoyable. How hard the subject will be doesn't bother me (I like a challenge). :biggrin:

I wouldn't say I have a lot of enthusiasm when it comes to geography, but I cannot stand the thought of studying war for the next two years. If the history course had been broader, I probably would have been more persuaded to do it. I know geography and history are equally respected by universities, but I cant help but feel I have made a mistake.

Should I do geography or switch back to history??!

Also, I don't have a specific future career in mind, but I do know that I would much prefer a geography-related career than history. :smile:


First of all, don't worry about what universities think about Geography or History GCSE - They won't care, as long as you do at least one of them. They're pretty much equal at GCSE level, but History is more respected at A level. Why don't you look up the specification of the Geography and History course your school is doing and see what topics you shall be studying? I definitely do not recommend studying a subject if it completely bores you, as this will hugely impact your grade in that subject. This is coming from experience. Better to do something you enjoy rather than suffer for two years.
Reply 4
Avatar for izzaha
izzaha
2
im taking both history and geography at school, i love geography, history is quite boring...thats my opinion. just do which every you enjoy more.
Reply 5
Avatar for BWCW
BWCW
18
I take both and enjoy both, and doubt it will make too much difference if you don't have a career idea set in stone that's linked to either of them!

(But, if I had a choice, I'd do geography. More trips. :colone:)
Reply 6
Avatar for Reese
Reese
All my friends chose geog because they found it easier (no other reason :L) But I never did well in it and found it way more difficult than history! I liked history a lot more too, so I chose it :biggrin: Depends what board your doing I guess, but I really liked my syllabus (AQA B) and because of that, I tried harder in lessons and it should hopefully pay off when we get our results next week! :s-smilie:

But yeah depends on what you want to do as well (after school). Geog helps if you want to do something maths/finance related or if you want to do straight geography, history helps if you want to do law or want to show you have more depth if all your other a level options are sciency/mathsy. Kind of the reason I'm doing history next year- as much as I like it, there are other subjects I like just as much which might have less of a work load. But with the other subjects that I'm doing, it would hopefully help show uni's that I'm okay at english as well as the maths/science subjects. Saying that, it would only convey this to uni's if I do well in it next year so I guess it's quite a gamble :s-smilie: But I'll give it a go....
(edited 12 years ago)
I chose History and im choosing it as 1 of my alevel options..

But its upto you..if you've lost interest for it now..you can always pick geography now for gcse and come back to history at Alevels..

Good Luck :smile:
Reply 8
Avatar for stupefy!
stupefy!
1
Original post by francais45
When submitting my options form for GCSE, I knew that I wanted to do history - it was one of my favourite subjects at the time- but since then I've lost interest and now I despise the topic of war. During the holidays I changed my mind and informed the school that I would now like to do geography.

However, after reading some similar articles, everyone seems to think history would be more enjoyable. How hard the subject will be doesn't bother me (I like a challenge). :biggrin:

I wouldn't say I have a lot of enthusiasm when it comes to geography, but I cannot stand the thought of studying war for the next two years. If the history course had been broader, I probably would have been more persuaded to do it. I know geography and history are equally respected by universities, but I cant help but feel I have made a mistake.

Should I do geography or switch back to history??!

Also, I don't have a specific future career in mind, but I do know that I would much prefer a geography-related career than history. :smile:



I did geography for GCSE and I have to say I found it thoroughly enjoyable. The first year was alright, it was really interesting to learn how different countries reacted to natural hazards etc. However, the second year is definitely a lot better - you learn about globalisation, population change - all things relevant to the modern world. I hope I persuaded you a bit. :smile:
I found History more interesting; but Geography easier.
Original post by francais45
When submitting my options form for GCSE, I knew that I wanted to do history - it was one of my favourite subjects at the time- but since then I've lost interest and now I despise the topic of war. During the holidays I changed my mind and informed the school that I would now like to do geography.

However, after reading some similar articles, everyone seems to think history would be more enjoyable. How hard the subject will be doesn't bother me (I like a challenge). :biggrin:

I wouldn't say I have a lot of enthusiasm when it comes to geography, but I cannot stand the thought of studying war for the next two years. If the history course had been broader, I probably would have been more persuaded to do it. I know geography and history are equally respected by universities, but I cant help but feel I have made a mistake.

Should I do geography or switch back to history??!

Also, I don't have a specific future career in mind, but I do know that I would much prefer a geography-related career than history. :smile:


Pick History. :smile: Simply because I picked it and I enjoyed it. It depends on your school if you study the war. But my school studied the American West and Medicine Through Time. Anyway in general I think History is a better subject than Geography.
Reply 11
Avatar for Hullo
Hullo
8
I picked geography. Thought I regretted it but when I sat the exam, I'd never been so pleased with myself. The studying of geography may drive you to attempt suicide however; so boring. - Well in my school anyway.
BUT it looks easier than history and I enjoyed the exam. Also, human geography teaches a lot of up to date things and may help with economics in future.
Original post by francais45
When submitting my options form for GCSE, I knew that I wanted to do history - it was one of my favourite subjects at the time- but since then I've lost interest and now I despise the topic of war. During the holidays I changed my mind and informed the school that I would now like to do geography.

However, after reading some similar articles, everyone seems to think history would be more enjoyable. How hard the subject will be doesn't bother me (I like a challenge). :biggrin:

I wouldn't say I have a lot of enthusiasm when it comes to geography, but I cannot stand the thought of studying war for the next two years. If the history course had been broader, I probably would have been more persuaded to do it. I know geography and history are equally respected by universities, but I cant help but feel I have made a mistake.

Should I do geography or switch back to history??!

Also, I don't have a specific future career in mind, but I do know that I would much prefer a geography-related career than history. :smile:


I did both at GCSE (OCR) and got the same grade for both.

COUSEWORK AMOUNT- Geography has 1 large piece of coursework based on a fieldtrip of some sort. History has two smallish pieces of coursework. Overall, history has much less cw. In both cases, cw is worth 25% usually

EXAM: History has a knowledge based paper, usually worth 50% of the GCSE. And as long as u know all the info on the course, this should not be too difficult. For example, u will get 6/6 marks on a question if u explain 3 relevant points clearly.
It has a smaller source-based paper worth 25%. This is where u need to learn the exam technique in order to answer these qs successfully. U also need the knowledge (subject content) for this paper.

For geog, I would say the exams are harder overall. There is a knowledge based paper, and the papers are split into the various topics I think, like one section is on physical geog (rivers), one is on human geog (cities)
However, there is slightly more info needed for this paper imo than in history's gen kno paper.
There is then a map skills paper worth 25% paper, which is not too difficult if u revise for it properly. This is probs the same difficulty as history's source paper.

CONTENT: For history, this really depends on the board that the school chooses to do its GCSE with, as well as the topics it chooses from that board.
U can get anything from the cold war, WW1, WW2, china, history of medicine, cotton mills, etc.

For geog, I think u will get roughly the same topics regardless of which board u do, e.g. rivers, volcanoes, cities, tourism, etc.
For each subject there will probs be subjects which u enjoy and do not enjoy.

I think these subjects rank quite high in workload, but if u have the option to, u could think bout doing both. If u are relatively organised, I would go for it.
Reply 13
Avatar for francais45
francais45
OP
Original post by spoinkytheduck
This wont have a massive impact on career choices as you can take either subject at a-level without having done them at GCSE.. so just think about what you'd enjoy right now. You seem to quite like history.. but not the war bit! I did history about the world wars and tbh, it was quite interesting - but thats just me :tongue:
My advice is just choose what you'd prefer and enjoy the most right now. :smile:


But what if I dont particularly enjoy either? I know that I will try just as hard in both subjects (regardless of the work load) but I'm still confused as to which one would benefit me more? :smile:
Reply 14
Avatar for francais45
francais45
OP
Original post by Hullo
I picked geography. Thought I regretted it but when I sat the exam, I'd never been so pleased with myself. The studying of geography may drive you to attempt suicide however; so boring. - Well in my school anyway.
BUT it looks easier than history and I enjoyed the exam. Also, human geography teaches a lot of up to date things and may help with economics in future.


This has probably been the most helpful post. I'm quite interested in economics and so if geography would help with that, its probably the best option. Thanks. :biggrin:
History.
I am doing both as they are good academic GCSE's in their own rights, however I too dislike the topic of war and I have found it is more focused on the effects of the war and the causes as opposed to the actual fighting... To answer your question, if you like geography (which I find as very boring at the moment) then do it. There is not as much work involved as people exaggerate- but I have a really lax teacher. History on the other hand is more comprehensive in essay writing and the exams focus in on how well you know the material whereas the geography GCSE often needs you to know the info and apply A LOT of exam technique. Hope this helps :smile:
(edited 12 years ago)
Reply 17
Avatar for JOR2010
JOR2010
14
History, depending on the exam board, at least with OCR, is just remembering a lot of contemporary knowledge and applying it to questions. Then there's a source paper which tests source skills, so if you like the sound of this, it's for you. Remembering dates and events is fairly easy, especially if you learn from things like films, televisions, or documentaries on history. The source paper requires little knowledge, just interpretation. As for Geography, I can't comment, but the people I've spoken to who took it at GCSE said it was a little dreary.
Reply 18
Avatar for francais45
francais45
OP
Original post by stupefy!
I did geography for GCSE and I have to say I found it thoroughly enjoyable. The first year was alright, it was really interesting to learn how different countries reacted to natural hazards etc. However, the second year is definitely a lot better - you learn about globalisation, population change - all things relevant to the modern world. I hope I persuaded you a bit. :smile:


thanks you kind of did. still a bit unsure though. everyone keeps saying geography is 'easier' than history, but i dont want to choose it for that reason. i want to choose it because it will be a beneficial subject.

also, a lot of similar threads say that history is more english-based and geography more maths/science related. if i was to consider going down an 'english' route, would history be more appropriate? :smile:
Reply 19
Avatar for zed963
zed963
16
I'm a GCSE student and I chose Geography over History due to the fact that I want to lead my career into science because I love it so much so I thought about which would benefit me more, Geography would overall benefit me more because it teaches you things like weathering, volcanoes, global warming etc. so I like that stuff it just depends what subjects you want to link in, people find geography harder because you have to link a lot of things. Some things can be nerve racking and you just feel like giving up, but you've just got to persevere with Geography. Hope this helps

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