[Andicate]

I don't mean to belittle any A Level philosophers here, but I'm thinking of taking a 4th AS to study alongside 3 A2s, and Philosophy is on my list.

So my question is: is Philosophy AS relatively easy and reasonable to study along side 3 A2s? Does it require lots of effort?

Can you please rate it on a scale of 1 - 10 on effort, difficulty and enjoyment. Or if it's complicated, or you can't be bothered: just write a paragraph or so!

Thanks!

[Smarty93]

It's a interesting subject but it is extremely time consuming! You will need to spend vasts amount of time reading and practicing exam technique.

I have 88.5% from AS but A2 is on a different level!

Effort: 8
Difficulty: 8 (at first, and then it becomes easier)
Enjoyment: 10

[DemolitionLovers]

(Original post by Andicate)
I don't mean to belittle any A Level philosophers here, but I'm thinking of taking a 4th AS to study alongside 3 A2s, and Philosophy is on my list.

So my question is: is Philosophy AS relatively easy and reasonable to study along side 3 A2s? Does it require lots of effort?

Can you please rate it on a scale of 1 - 10 on effort, difficulty and enjoyment. Or if it's complicated, or you can't be bothered: just write a paragraph or so!

Thanks!

It depends on whether you understand it and whether you can write well. It is incredibly hard sometimes to understand and get your head around what people are saying. You also have to remember a massive amount of stuff.

It is in no way relatively easy and requires a lot of effort. A lot of people seem to have to resit at least once from my experience. For example in summer I got 83/100 UMS in Phil2 but 64/100 UMS in Phil1. I was really upset because I'd never got less than an A on anything I'd done that year. However, I resat Phil1 this January and got 97/100 UMS. I put a massive amount of work in for that and my other exams suffered but I was pleased with my result. Just shows that if you put the work in you can get a good grade as long as you understand it.

With enjoyment, I really enjoy it but you might not, I don't know what you like. I find it really interesting and have applied for it at university.

Also, it depends on your exam board, mine's AQA.

[FudgeMonkeys]

Effort: 8
Difficulty: 8
Enjoyment: 10

I made the mistake of thinking it was going to be a doss and got a real shock once the year started. It's by no means easy at the start. To write well in the exam and get a good grade you need to genuinely understand what you're talking about rather than just regurgitate it, and for me it was an entirely new way of thinking about the world. So it is interesting, but a lot to get your head around at first. The biggest problem I had was understanding the exam technique. It gets easier though

[05038bj]

Effort:6
Difficulty:7
Enjoyment:10

Philosophy is definitely a marmite subject. People either love it or hate it and its very rare you'll find someone who's just ambivalent. I personally found AS extremely enjoyable. The content is hard, and you won't necessarily understand the theory first time (or sometimes the second) but once you've got it everything somehow falls into place. The content of the course isn't as large as say history but this is kind of necessary given the craziness of some of the concepts that you have to grapple with e.g. repressive desublimation You spend a lot of time criticising arguments, which is fun and also aids your understanding of the arguments themselves.
The exams unfortunately are often very subjectively marked, but equally you can do incredibly well

[Crawfords]

I personally really enjoy Philosophy, which is good because i took religious studies as well Its not too hard if you have solid essay structure and then put in as many scholars/ ideas in with examples as you can, i read a lot of summarised introductions to philosophy which are still relevant in my A2s - i didnt drop a mark in my as levels but as i said i did really enjoy it - A2 is a bit harder - i think that mainly what gets to people is the amount of jargon that has to be tackled, there can be quite a lot to remember but its not that difficult, gooood luck

[Andicate]

Thanks guys! I don't think I'll be taking it :/ Eng lit probably!

[Kalliope]

(Original post by Andicate)
I don't mean to belittle any A Level philosophers here, but I'm thinking of taking a 4th AS to study alongside 3 A2s, and Philosophy is on my list.

So my question is: is Philosophy AS relatively easy and reasonable to study along side 3 A2s? Does it require lots of effort?

Can you please rate it on a scale of 1 - 10 on effort, difficulty and enjoyment. Or if it's complicated, or you can't be bothered: just write a paragraph or so!

Thanks!

Just in case this would help even though you posted a few weeks ago.

Effort: 6
Difficulty: 6
Enjoyment: 10

That's how I'd rate it relative to my other subjects I find English Lit a lot more satisfying () but about 50x harder!

[Andicate]

(Original post by Kalliope)
Just in case this would help even though you posted a few weeks ago.

Effort: 6
Difficulty: 6
Enjoyment: 10

That's how I'd rate it relative to my other subjects I find English Lit a lot more satisfying () but about 50x harder!

:O! OCR exam board for Eng Lit?

[Kalliope]

(Original post by Andicate)
:O! OCR exam board for Eng Lit?

AQA A. Don't worry though - the coursework is easy and lovely and it's really only half of the exam paper which is a killer (and you're on a different spec!) English can just be tricky for being so subjective but the skills aren't that much harder per se and it's very enjoyable and useful

What other A levels are you doing?

[Andicate]

(Original post by Kalliope)
AQA A. Don't worry though - the coursework is easy and lovely and it's really only half of the exam paper which is a killer (and you're on a different spec!) English can just be tricky for being so subjective but the skills aren't that much harder per se and it's very enjoyable and useful

What other A levels are you doing?

Ah I see. Thanks! I'm doing Psychology, Law and Eng Lang. Many people at my college said that it's easier than Eng Lang (we're on the OCR exam board) and Eng Lang AQA is quite... weirdly managable. It's basically linguistics + psychology, so on the basis Eng Lit is easier than Eng Lang, I think I'll take it next year!

[Kalliope]

(Original post by Andicate)
Ah I see. Thanks! I'm doing Psychology, Law and Eng Lang. Many people at my college said that it's easier than Eng Lang (we're on the OCR exam board) and Eng Lang AQA is quite... weirdly managable. It's basically linguistics + psychology, so on the basis Eng Lit is easier than Eng Lang, I think I'll take it next year!

I'm veery surprised to hear that people think that as that is very definitely the opposite of what my school thinks! Good choices though

[Andicate]

(Original post by Kalliope)
I'm veery surprised to hear that people think that as that is very definitely the opposite of what my school thinks! Good choices though

Ooh what subjects do you do? Eng Lang too? Is it the AQA A Exam board? I think the difficulty of the subject is heavily dependent on the exam board. I think there should be just one exam board for everything. It'd make life so much easier -.- (eg. I could revise with my friends at my school's Sixth Form who're on a different exam board than mine but are studying the same subject)

and thanks!

[Kalliope]

(Original post by Andicate)
Ooh what subjects do you do? Eng Lang too? Is it the AQA A Exam board? I think the difficulty of the subject is heavily dependent on the exam board. I think there should be just one exam board for everything. It'd make life so much easier -.- (eg. I could revise with my friends at my school's Sixth Form who're on a different exam board than mine but are studying the same subject)

and thanks!

I know my school do AQA for English Lang, but I don't do it personally. Just passing on what friends/class mates have said. It would indeed!

[Andicate]

(Original post by Kalliope)
I know my school do AQA for English Lang, but I don't do it personally. Just passing on what friends/class mates have said. It would indeed!

I see! I think we're just on a good exam board for Eng Lit... :P