What's harder? AS Eng Lit or History?

Well AS level starts in september and I can't make up my mind between the two. So for people who did both, which did you find easier/got a higher a grade in? Replies would be greatly appreciated! :smile:

Reply 1

D.R.E

13

About equal? You don't need to do much revision for English Lit. if you've got the basics down though. Whereas in History, you are required a more intimate knowledge of your prescribed time period. Maybe History edges it. Plus, you have a coursework piece (which is easy as hell) in AS English instead of the 2 exams in History so that could make it easier.

History is harder I guess, but both are very enjoyable subjects.

Reply 2

Vampire90210

OP

9

D.R.E

About equal? You don't need to do much revision for English Lit. if you've got the basics down though. Whereas in History, you are required a more intimate knowledge of your prescribed time period. Maybe History edges it. Plus, you have a coursework piece (which is easy as hell) in AS English instead of the 2 exams in History so that could make it easier.

History is harder I guess, but both are very enjoyable subjects.

And you ended up with a higher grade in?

Reply 3

D.R.E

13

Vampire90210

And you ended up with a higher grade in?

As in both so...

Reply 4

starforsure

I did English A Level and found the AS quite easy. It was harder in Year 13.

My friend did both History and English A Level and got an A in English and B in history.

I think it depends on you really, where your interests lie and so on.

Reply 5

Certified_S

4

History is harder in my opinion ... I found that with History although you needed knowledge, it was more about the way you sctructured your exam answers that gave you higher marks rather than knowledge. It took me a while to realise that in History but it was a little too late & I ended up missing 5marks off a B in A Level History. The Historical Enquiry which is the coursework is REALL GOOD though, you get to pick your own subject in the context of a 100 years and do an analytical study - definitely boosts up grades! :biggrin:

Reply 6

Vampire90210

OP

9

Thanks for your replies everyone! Guess I\m leaning towards Lit a bit more now.

Reply 7

xoxAngel_Kxox

21

I did both and I found history harder just because there was so much you had to learn, whereas for lit, you just use your natural literary abilities to analyse the texts you read- which was much easier for me as an individual, but not always the same for everyone else.

Reply 8

Lilyful

Don't do Lit. It cost me my place at Uni. Have a look and see if you're doing AQA..if you are, run for the hills and do History. AQA Lit is notorious for anomalous/unexpected marks and odd situations..

Obviously go for the one you enjoy the most, but heed my advice! Also, to everyone saying 'there's no revision for Lit'........there is, actually. And lots of it. I revised the most for this exam out of all 3 of my subjects. For our exam at least, you were given 2 unseen extracts twice in the exam, and had to compare and contrast them using quotes you've learnt from heart from other literature which relate to them..at least 5ish quotes. Ugh.

Reply 9

casiogeek

8

Vampire90210

Well AS level starts in september and I can't make up my mind between the two. So for people who did both, which did you find easier/got a higher a grade in? Replies would be greatly appreciated! :smile:

well i do english lit and my friends do english literature and history. got our results back yesterday and alot of people did better in english literature. near enough everyone got E's or U's. But thats not saying you will, as some are lazy sods.

Reply 10

casiogeek

8

Lilyful

Don't do Lit. It cost me my place at Uni. Have a look and see if you're doing AQA..if you are, run for the hills and do History. AQA Lit is notorious for anomalous/unexpected marks and odd situations..

Obviously go for the one you enjoy the most, but heed my advice! Also, to everyone saying 'there's no revision for Lit'........there is, actually. And lots of it. I revised the most for this exam out of all 3 of my subjects. For our exam at least, you were given 2 unseen extracts twice in the exam, and had to compare and contrast them using quotes you've learnt from heart from other literature which relate to them..at least 5ish quotes. Ugh.

arhh im doing English literature AQA and its awful, but ive got to keep it! not looking forward to the A2 exam!

Reply 11

Lilyful

casiogeek

arhh im doing English literature AQA and its awful, but ive got to keep it! not looking forward to the A2 exam!

Aw, I feel for you, I really do! :p:

That's exactly how I felt! Don't let it get to you in the A2 exam though-give it your absolute best shot! Forget how much you hate it or it's utter crap or whatever and just work. your. absolute. ********** off for that exam!! Good luck! :wink:

Reply 12

flolily

well i took both and throughout the year found english 'easier' (not so much revision needed-or so i though). however yesterday i got my results and got a high a in history and a middling b in english. i expected it to be completely the other way round. for history i revised one half absolutely tonnes, and spent literally two hours on the morning of the exam on the other half.
what do you prefer at gcse?

Reply 13

TheDannyManCan

6

I did English Lit to AS level, but I dropped it a couple weeks ago - it's just not my thing. I did enjoy it, though, but I think it was pretty hard. There's a lot of things to include in the exam, but one section of it is formulaic, in a sense.

One reason I'm not so keen on it is because of the marking scheme. It seems to depend more on the examiners opinion of what a good point is rather than the point itself, and it just seems really subjective to him/her. I guess with something like History, there is a definate answer. History seems a little more academic, though.

Reply 14

lmfao

2

Very subjective but i found Lit to be really difficult if you procrastinate. It just isn't like the other subjects where i can do last minute revision. Dno why...

Reply 15

geekaymillay.

7

With lit you have to master exam technique which can only be achieved through practice essays which you can only get a high enough grade if you know the text. Though to be fair once you master exam technique lit is not that difficult.Not easy because it does take hard work to get an A.

Reply 16

AvocadoPenguin

Vampire90210

Well AS level starts in september and I can't make up my mind between the two. So for people who did both, which did you find easier/got a higher a grade in? Replies would be greatly appreciated! :smile:

You can probably tell from my sig that I'm a little biased on this topic, but I found English Literature AS easier and more enjoyable than History.

Consider your personal abilities and interests. For either subject you'll need an ability to interpret, analyse and argue.

In History you'll find that the conclusions you draw in your work are grounded in fact and balancing of evidence, whereas a well-argued opinion has more weight in English. As a result, you'll need to memorise a lot of dates and facts for History.

In English Lit it's okay to hate the text you're reading and to really lash out at the author's technique, characterisation, plotting and so on as long as you employ the right critical methods, whereas if you hate studying the American War of Independence you just shut up and get on with it.

Reply 17

03jenniferp

10

I did History and English Lit and even though I love History to pieces... English is definitely easier!
To get the top grades in History you need to know SO much detail, structure really good arguments and all that jazz and it just takes SO much work whilst you can blag a bit with English! Having said that I got my A2 results yesterday and got an A* in history (bloody fluke) and an A in English Lit when I was sure I'd do better in English! I also did better in History in the AS until I did my English Lit retake...
To be honest, it really is up to you but I certainly found history harder even if by continual chance I manage to do better in those exams!

Reply 18

letsdothetimewarpagain

19

I do both and have just finished AS, need to resit an exam for each but history is definitely the harder one. Although I did somehow only manage to drop 2 marks in one of the history exams I've just done :wtf:

The best thing about english AS is that there's coursework, which helps massively IMO :o:

History is far far more interesting though :yes:

Reply 19

Amy124

i found history way easier for AS. theres a lot to learn but if you know the material and technique you'll be fine. With english i found it quite hard to learn and struggled with the right technique. I was lucky to get As in both yesterday but for history got 198/200 and more than 50% of my class got above 190/200.
Both are widely respected though :smile:

What's harder? AS Eng Lit or History?

Related discussions

Latest

Trending

Trending

Articles for you