Why do people say GCSE Geography is just colouring in?

Arsenal2000

I've chosen my GCSE options recently my compulsories were:

Maths (have to sit in Y10 because i am top set), English Literature (Y10), English Language (Y11), Triple Science (have to do it because i am top set) and Spanish.

My three options were:

Geography, Computer Science and Resistant Materials

Now i am just wondering, i always see and hear people take the mick out of Geography asking stuff like "How is your colouring skills" when someone talks about geography. I can ultimately say that i have never ever coloured any map in at all in geography, never. So where do people get this idea from?

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Reply 1

fefssdf

I would assume that people think it is a soft subject and so compare it to ' colouring in ' as that is easy, but don't worry geography is a ' proper ' subject unlike something like film studies for instance or food tech :biggrin:

Reply 2

PugDevil

I never really understand it either to be honest! My sister used to tease me about it, even when I took it for A-Level. But believe me, A-Level is a bit harder than colouring in :redface:

Reply 3

sapphire79

It has a rep of being 'soft' but tbh its not it's a lot of work people dont know how many case studies you are required to learn :tongue:

Reply 4

Platopus

Original post by Arsenal2000

Don't worry, people say that about AS Geography too. And I can tell you there is a woeful lack of colouring in at A-level. I don't think I picked up a colouring pencil once!

Reply 5

Platopus

Original post by PugDevil

I never really understand it either to be honest! My sister used to tease me about it, even when I took it for A-Level. But believe me, A-Level is a bit harder than colouring in :redface:

Oh gosh yes. For AS, I had to learn over 100 case studies. I dropped it after AS although my other subjects were considered "harder" because I couldn't cope with the sheer amount of content! Employers certain,y don't see it as colouring in, thankfully.

Reply 6

PugDevil

Original post by Platopus

I dropped it at AS because it was my worst grade and then begged to be taken back after I realised A2 IT was horrible. Then after I got a U in a mock exam I told myself I needed to sort myself out... Got an A in the exam - was literally the hardest I've revised in my life!

But luckily I didn't have to remember that many case studies :redface:

for the A2 exam I had to remember 16 case studies, but really in depth. But yes, Uni is a bit better than that :biggrin:

Reply 7

Platopus

Original post by PugDevil

for the A2 exam I had to remember 16 case studies, but really in depth. But yes, Uni is a bit better than that :biggrin:

Oh wow, you did it at Uni? Respect!

I dropped it at AS, despite it being the subject in which I achieved the highest UMS. I still have no regrets as my friends who continued with it for A2 have told me all kinds of horror stories!

Reply 8

PugDevil

Original post by Platopus

Oh sorry, no I didn't! I'm doing History at University at the moment - apologies that's me thinking one thing and writing another :lol:

I meant that Uni doesn't seem to be as bad as having to remember case studies that indepth!

A2 Geography is v.hard though - managed to come out with a B so I was very happy with that! :biggrin:

Reply 9

Platopus

Original post by PugDevil

Oh sorry, no I didn't! I'm doing History at University at the moment - apologies that's me thinking one thing and writing another :lol:

I meant that Uni doesn't seem to be as bad as having to remember case studies that indepth!

A2 Geography is v.hard though - managed to come out with a B so I was very happy with that! :biggrin:

Congrats! And wow, I stuck with history through A2 and there was a lot of content in that too. I sort if wanted to do a history degree, but I thought that if there were a lot if dates to learn at A level, it would be hell at uni. Was I right?

Reply 10

PugDevil

Original post by Platopus

Apologies for the late reply! I would honestly say that University is just 10x better than college to be honest. So whilst there is quite a bit to learn at uni for history, you will pick it up quite easily :biggrin:

Instead of dates I would say its more about explaining processes and having good arguments and then finding the evidence to support your argument. (If you do it at Uni then prepare yourself for lots of reading :redface:

)

Reply 11

1420787

All I'm saying is I searched for "geography toolkit" in Google and got this:

Reply 12

PugDevil

Original post by offhegoes

All I'm saying is I searched for "geography toolkit" in Google and got this:

I actually double checked.. :redface:

You lie!

Reply 13

1420787

Original post by PugDevil

I actually double checked.. :redface:

You lie!

Although I can't say anything. I teach, and have that box in my classroom. Just lookin at those pens without lids on is giving me a headache...

Reply 14

B_9710

I did geography GCSE and it was a lot of colouring in, but mainly it was cutting and sticking. So make sure you practice these skills over the holiday.

Reply 15

PugDevil

Original post by offhegoes

Although I can't say anything. I teach, and have that box in my classroom. Just lookin at those pens without lids on is giving me a headache...

I understand that, always annoyed me at school! What do you teach if you don't mind me asking? And do you enjoy it? :biggrin:

Reply 16

1420787

Original post by PugDevil

I understand that, always annoyed me at school! What do you teach if you don't mind me asking? And do you enjoy it? :biggrin:

I teach maths and love the job! If you can enjoy the teaching part and not let yourself get stressed then it's a brilliant job - never dull and great holidays. If you let the stress get to you and don't enjoy the part with pupils then it's a terrible job that the holidays just don't make up for.

Reply 17

PugDevil

Original post by offhegoes

Ah that's brilliant to hear! As I do history, a lot of people ask if I'm going into teaching but I don't think that's for me unfortunately. But I can see what you mean about enjoying/not enjoying - you can normally easily tell which teachers are on which side of that spectrum :redface:

Reply 18

Platopus

Original post by PugDevil

)

Thanks, that's really helpful! I actually didn't aply to study history in the end but I am probably taking a gap year, so perhaps I will end up applying for history next year. I love reading and the coursework we did at A2 involved reading loads of books by historians to find evidence to back up our arguments - that was my favourite part of the course. It was just the prospect of learning hundreds of dates which put me off. I might look into history degrees now!

Reply 19

PugDevil

Original post by Platopus

Yeah definitely have a look - I would have loved to have done Ancient History but wanted to get away from my hometown and alas I ended up in Sussex :biggrin:

I'd just have a check at the modules that the unis you're interested in does. I don't particularly like the core modules that we do - they're very pro-West! So like looking at the Europe's role in the Industrial Revolution for example.

But on the other hand, the term modules are really interesting! In my second year (now in third) I've done American Civil War, The Holocaust, 20th century Middle East and North Africa and 20th century South Asia (Basically India and the British colonialism)

As for a gap year - I don't blame you! I dropped out of college so I had had my gap year already :redface: