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Anyone do History and English Lit A Level??

Which ones are better for the following categories:

Workload
Essay Writing
Difficulty
Interesting-ness
Fun-ness
Grade Boundaries

Thanks :P

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Original post by george_c00per
Which ones are better for the following categories:

Workload
Essay Writing
Difficulty
Interesting-ness
Fun-ness
Grade Boundaries

Thanks :P


Workload = History definitely requires more workload, the content is huge
Essay writing = English improves your essay writing by tenfold
Difficulty = Depends on who you ask
Interest = I personally found English more interesting but then again I'm doing it at university
Grade boundaries = circumstantial


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Coose the one you are most interested in books or events.
It was interesting to note on the thread ranking their A levels hard to easy, that History was quite frequently ranked as the hardest.
Original post by grassntai
Workload = History definitely requires more workload, the content is huge
Essay writing = English improves your essay writing by tenfold
Difficulty = Depends on who you ask
Interest = I personally found English more interesting but then again I'm doing it at university
Grade boundaries = circumstantial


Posted from TSR Mobile


Which one do you think would suit two modern language A Levels better? Would English Lit, French, and Spanish be a better combination than History, French & Spanish?

Thanks for your reply :tongue:
Original post by george_c00per
Which ones are better for the following categories:

Workload
Essay Writing
Difficulty
Interesting-ness
Fun-ness
Grade Boundaries

Thanks :P


English lit is definitely better than history, imo. History is a lot more difficult, and there is a lot more to remember - but for literature honing your writing style would ensure a great exam.
Plus you get to study a lot of interesting plays/prose/poems. :h:
Original post by 999tigger
Coose the one you are most interested in books or events.
It was interesting to note on the thread ranking their A levels hard to easy, that History was quite frequently ranked as the hardest.


That's the problem, I love learning about History so much but I really don't like the exams and my mind panics and I end up writing the wrong things. I do prefer learning about events but moving them into exam format, I struggle with more than writing about how a writer conveys their feelings through a poem.

I feel as though there is more freedom with English Literature exams than History exams, if that makes sense.
Original post by george_c00per
Which one do you think would suit two modern language A Levels better? Would English Lit, French, and Spanish be a better combination than History, French & Spanish?

Thanks for your reply :tongue:


English lit I guess? I know a level languages are quite taxing and history is a lot of work (so is English but in a different way). I think having English, Spanish and French looks better on a CV aesthetically as well lol.


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Original post by Pokémontrainer
English lit is definitely better than history, imo. History is a lot more difficult, and there is a lot more to remember - but for literature honing your writing style would ensure a great exam.
Plus you get to study a lot of interesting plays/prose/poems. :h:


What are the exams like? Like, which exams are more difficult? That's one big thing I'm kind of worried about, I know a lot of the final grade boils down to the exam performance. :s-smilie:
Original post by grassntai
English lit I guess? I know a level languages are quite taxing and history is a lot of work (so is English but in a different way). I think having English, Spanish and French looks better on a CV aesthetically as well lol.


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Haha I guess having 3 languages (English, French and Spanish) does seem to look better than History, French and Spanish in a list. :biggrin:
Original post by george_c00per
That's the problem, I love learning about History so much but I really don't like the exams and my mind panics and I end up writing the wrong things. I do prefer learning about events but moving them into exam format, I struggle with more than writing about how a writer conveys their feelings through a poem.

I feel as though there is more freedom with English Literature exams than History exams, if that makes sense.


Do the one that will get you the best grade. Thats normally the one you enjoy the most. Its hard to write the wrong things in a history exam. As long as you cna back up any argument with relevant points then its fine.

I suggest looking at the sylabus and see what books or periods you will be covering. Talk to the teachers.
Original post by 999tigger
Do the one that will get you the best grade. Thats normally the one you enjoy the most. Its hard to write the wrong things in a history exam. As long as you cna back up any argument with relevant points then its fine.

I suggest looking at the sylabus and see what books or periods you will be covering. Talk to the teachers.


I have talked to both teachers and they both say I'm fully capable of doing them. I've thought about doing both, instead of an EPQ but I feel as though the workload would be immense and stressful. I just kind of feel misled with History sometimes though as I loved the GCSE syllabus but the A Level one is about the Spanish Inquisition, French Revolution and England 1700s, things I've never covered. At least English kind of covers the same aspects, Shakespeare and poetry, etc.

Do you recommend waiting for GCSE Results day to see which I get higher in? I know it is a bit late but maybe by then I can see which I performed better in.
Original post by george_c00per
Which ones are better for the following categories:

Workload
Essay Writing
Difficulty
Interesting-ness
Fun-ness
Grade Boundaries

Thanks :P


Workload: History has more. There's so much to learn. Lit still requires a lot of time, but it's more skills based, while History is mostly knowledge
Essay writing: they're both about the same. Skills are different but transferable. Having English has helped my History essay styles (and source skills), but also vice versa.
Difficulty: personally I find English more difficult, but different people have different views. There's a tonne to learn for History, but if you know it, you'll probably be fine, while Lit is about skills and often how you use your skills under pressure in the exam. Both are all about independent study.
Interesting-ness: both are equally interesting. Some aspects of History are more interesting than others, and some texts in Lit are more interesting than others. Because of History I'm now really interested in Russian History, and because of Literature I'm more into poetry. It depends on your exam board, but there's more freedom in Literature - I chose my coursework texts, and I do my independent wider reading, so I choose texts that I have a passion for, whereas in History there's still some freedom for the coursework, but with limits (e.g. I could choose something to write about, but it had to be a turning point in Germany in the 20th century).
Fun-ness: depends on your teacher mainly
Grade boundaries: hard to answer this one! Grade boundaries are set after everyone sits the exam, but in both it's usually 80% for an A.
Original post by george_c00per
What are the exams like? Like, which exams are more difficult? That's one big thing I'm kind of worried about, I know a lot of the final grade boils down to the exam performance. :s-smilie:


Some people struggle with literature's subjectiveness, but honestly, there is nothing to get stressed out about. My teacher showed me some examples of A grade answers and there wasn't anything difficult or that advanced about them. Literature does have coursework (at least I do) in AS+A2, but I think history has A2 coursework. Which one are you more inclined towards?

My AS lit exam took less prep and effort than history, yet I got a high A with minimal revision and I obtained a far lower grade in history.
Original post by george_c00per
I have talked to both teachers and they both say I'm fully capable of doing them. I've thought about doing both, instead of an EPQ but I feel as though the workload would be immense and stressful. I just kind of feel misled with History sometimes though as I loved the GCSE syllabus but the A Level one is about the Spanish Inquisition, French Revolution and England 1700s, things I've never covered. At least English kind of covers the same aspects, Shakespeare and poetry, etc.

Do you recommend waiting for GCSE Results day to see which I get higher in? I know it is a bit late but maybe by then I can see which I performed better in.


Its just people and places.

Its the one you stand the chance of getting the best grade that you need to take. Obviously there are several factors.

Wont do you any harm waiting for results and carry on asking.
Original post by doctorwhofan98
Workload: History has more. There's so much to learn. Lit still requires a lot of time, but it's more skills based, while History is mostly knowledge
Essay writing: they're both about the same. Skills are different but transferable. Having English has helped my History essay styles (and source skills), but also vice versa.
Difficulty: personally I find English more difficult, but different people have different views. There's a tonne to learn for History, but if you know it, you'll probably be fine, while Lit is about skills and often how you use your skills under pressure in the exam. Both are all about independent study.
Interesting-ness: both are equally interesting. Some aspects of History are more interesting than others, and some texts in Lit are more interesting than others. Because of History I'm now really interested in Russian History, and because of Literature I'm more into poetry. It depends on your exam board, but there's more freedom in Literature - I chose my coursework texts, and I do my independent wider reading, so I choose texts that I have a passion for, whereas in History there's still some freedom for the coursework, but with limits (e.g. I could choose something to write about, but it had to be a turning point in Germany in the 20th century).
Fun-ness: depends on your teacher mainly
Grade boundaries: hard to answer this one! Grade boundaries are set after everyone sits the exam, but in both it's usually 80% for an A.


Thank you -- this is really helpful. I'll be doing OCR for both if I do them for A Level - whether or not this helps, I mean it probably wont as all the subjects have reformed anyway :tongue:

Quick(ish) question - I know this depends on the teacher but I'm sure it's more or less similar everywhere - how is each subject taught? I know how English Literature is taught as a whole but is History similarly taught to GCSE? (Teacher writes info on board, we copy into books, sometimes look at sources, do practice questions etc.)
Original post by Pokémontrainer
Some people struggle with literature's subjectiveness, but honestly, there is nothing to get stressed out about. My teacher showed me some examples of A grade answers and there wasn't anything difficult or that advanced about them. Literature does have coursework (at least I do) in AS+A2, but I think history has A2 coursework. Which one are you more inclined towards?

My AS lit exam took less prep and effort than history, yet I got a high A with minimal revision and I obtained a far lower grade in history.


I like coursework as a whole and received a high A* for my English Literature coursework (40%) for GCSE (told by my teacher). We did controlled assessments for History which accounted for 25% of the GCSE. I enjoyed History for the topic for coursework (Vietnam) but the actual essays we had to write were not fun. For English, it was kind of the other way around. I preferred writing the essay, but reading Beowulf and LOTF and comparing them during lessons sometimes bored me. For A Level, English Literature has coursework as does History, but for History it's a topic essay on a time period of your choice. This sounds better than Lit coursework but I am obviously capable of doing Literature coursework to a high extent?
I am in the process of revising for History ATM but even with revision exams don't always go well. For Lit, I literally went over key themes for R+J and looked at some past questions, and the exam went well (I think).

Spoiler

Original post by george_c00per
x


Hi! I'm doing the reformed/new A Levels (currently in Year 12) so hopefully I'll be able to offer some insight!

Workload: History has more. I spent a lot of my time reading the textbook and making notes on it just to ensure I knew all of the information - and that's before learning how to structure my answers appropriately (the exam is very different to the GCSE exam, at least with the way mine went).
Essay Writing: English Literature. You really need to know how to properly form an analysis essay and do it well.
Difficulty: I found both as equally difficult in all honesty - I'm predicted the same grade for both. But English Literature can become challenging in needing to memorise critics, quotes, etc, whilst History can become challenging with memorising dates.
Interesting-ness: History - definitely. I used to love English Literature at GCSE, but now I absolutely hate the subject. History feels more relevant to me; what happened in the past forms how we live now, and that's incredibly interesting to me. Studying Hamlet just isn't. But remember this is completely subjective and everyone is different.
Fun-ness: History for the above reasons
Grade Boundaries: As my year are the first year to do the new specs, there are no Grade Boundaries - plus, it's an irrelevant factor.

All things considered, is it possible for you to do the four as AS Levels and then drop one after Year 12, as was common to do before the reforms? Obviously it depends if your 6th form/college is doing AS Levels, but it may help you decide to actually see what each subject is like over Year 12 and will give you the added benefit of an extra AS. I also did 4 AS Levels (incl. History and English Lit) and an EPQ this year, and didn't find the workload to be too immense, if that's what you were worried about (I still have a life!)

It is entirely possible for you to decide which to do on GCSE results day (that's what I did).
Workload: History has more of a workload
Essay Writing: History essays were easier to structure
Difficulty: English Literature is far easier in my opinion
Interesting-ness: I found both equally interesting
Fun-ness: English Literature
Grade Boundaries: English Literature boundaries were ridiculously low for my course

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Original post by celloel
Hi! I'm doing the reformed/new A Levels (currently in Year 12) so hopefully I'll be able to offer some insight!

Workload: History has more. I spent a lot of my time reading the textbook and making notes on it just to ensure I knew all of the information - and that's before learning how to structure my answers appropriately (the exam is very different to the GCSE exam, at least with the way mine went).
Essay Writing: English Literature. You really need to know how to properly form an analysis essay and do it well.
Difficulty: I found both as equally difficult in all honesty - I'm predicted the same grade for both. But English Literature can become challenging in needing to memorise critics, quotes, etc, whilst History can become challenging with memorising dates.
Interesting-ness: History - definitely. I used to love English Literature at GCSE, but now I absolutely hate the subject. History feels more relevant to me; what happened in the past forms how we live now, and that's incredibly interesting to me. Studying Hamlet just isn't. But remember this is completely subjective and everyone is different.
Fun-ness: History for the above reasons
Grade Boundaries: As my year are the first year to do the new specs, there are no Grade Boundaries - plus, it's an irrelevant factor.

All things considered, is it possible for you to do the four as AS Levels and then drop one after Year 12, as was common to do before the reforms? Obviously it depends if your 6th form/college is doing AS Levels, but it may help you decide to actually see what each subject is like over Year 12 and will give you the added benefit of an extra AS. I also did 4 AS Levels (incl. History and English Lit) and an EPQ this year, and didn't find the workload to be too immense, if that's what you were worried about (I still have a life!)

It is entirely possible for you to decide which to do on GCSE results day (that's what I did).


Thank you for your reply!

Unfortunately my school doesn't do AS Levels for the new spec unless you are doing an A Level in Maths, FM, Classics, Latin or DT. That means if I want to take both History and English, I'll have to do so for the whole two years unless I can decide which one I dislike within the first few weeks and drop it then, in September.

I do, as a whole, prefer History as I'm into politics and history (duh) but it's honestly the test formats that put me off. I'm intrigued by how open(?) you can sometimes be with English Literature, whereas sometimes in History tests you can tell that they are looking for a specific answer (however this might not apply at A Level). Same goes with Lit, what I'm saying might not even apply for A Level either.

I think it's probably just the best idea to wait until results day to choose. :wink:
Original post by Changing Skies
Workload: History has more of a workload
Essay Writing: History essays were easier to structure
Difficulty: English Literature is far easier in my opinion
Interesting-ness: I found both equally interesting
Fun-ness: English Literature
Grade Boundaries: English Literature boundaries were ridiculously low for my course

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Cool, thanks!

May I ask which exam board you were on for both?

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