Compulsory Subjects

So, in my school you have to take 1 compulsory subject in addition to your 4 chosen ones and i was wondering if universities prefer 1 to the other. The options are:
General Studies
Citizenship
Certificate Of Personal Effectivness
Extended Project Qualification

Thanks for any help.

Reply 1

User237126

If those are the compulsory ones...wtf is your school thinking? Most of those are the kinds of A levels people walk in and take without ever having attended any actual classes for them and get As, according to what I've heard (we weren't allowed to choose them at my school).

I'd advise you to do none of them, and tell the school to shove each one of them up its arse.

EDIT: on second thoughts, maybe I was a little harsh including the EPQ in there...although you'd still be much better off doing a Cambridge Pre-U in Global Perspectives, which universities hold in much higher regard. If you have to do one of these though, do the EPQ.

(edited 12 years ago)

EPQ easily.

Yea, they're very strange subjects to be compulsory... but i suppose Extended Project Qualification is quite a good one but none of them are counted as full A levels so they're only seen as "extras" by unis.

Reply 4

Laureenox

ok, thanks. What compulsory subjects do your schools have?

Reply 5

chou246

Original post by Laureenox

ok, thanks. What compulsory subjects do your schools have?

Just general studies AS - EPQ and critical thinking is optional

Although you may need a general studies pass to do your EPQ? Or that might be something else. I'm sure somebody will know :smile:

Reply 6

Nymthae

EPQ will give you something to write about and do, you can make it relevant to what you want to study as well. If your course involves an interview process I imagine it can be a useful topic.

My school makes us do one of General Studies/Critical Thinking/EPQ

EPQ requires some effort though, I started it and couldn't be bothered, it didn't really make any difference to me. I wasn't going to be offered a place over it. So, I picked General Studies. Spend about 6 hours or so in exams over it and get an A-level? Sure thing :biggrin:

Depending on universities/courses General Studies may be allowed to make up your points, if you have a points offer from 3 or more A-levels. EPQ/Critical Thinking at my college are only AS equivalents so meh, doesn't help on that front. I have a couple of friends who will probably use General Studies to get into their universities though.

Reply 7

mirandaandhector

I would say EPQ - some unis may accept it as part of an offer if applying on UCAS points and with more prestigious unis it could act as a split between otherwise similar candidates

Reply 8

Manitude

Am I the only one who finds it extremely odd that there are any compulsory subjects???
I was given free choice of anything that could be timetabled.

Reply 9

emmakh123

Original post by Manitude

Am I the only one who finds it extremely odd that there are any compulsory subjects???
I was given free choice of anything that could be timetabled.

same here. we were given the choice of doing general studies and/or an EPQ if we so wished. however if people wanted to only do 3 AS-Levels they had to do an EPQ, everyone doing the standard 4 AS's didnt have to.

Reply 10

Manitude

Original post by emmakh123

We had the choice of doing Gen studies nobody in my year took it, which was apparently quite unusual.
Though I think we had to do at least 4AS levels and three A2s unless you had pretty exceptional circumstances.
I decided to hate myself and do an additional AS in further maths over the course of two years. In the first year this meant that for two days on our two week timetable I had no frees, then on one of those days I had mandarin lessons till 5:30. Monday week 1 was grim.

Reply 11

emmakh123

Original post by Manitude

i have a 2-week timetable too and monday week 1 is my worst day: triple math, double RS and biology after school. although friday week 2 was awesome: no lessons (:

Reply 12

Manitude

Original post by emmakh123

i have a 2-week timetable too and monday week 1 is my worst day: triple math, double RS and biology after school. although friday week 2 was awesome: no lessons (:

Three day weekend ftw. I was never lucky enough to have no lessons as standard. Sometimes by coincidence several lessons would be cancelled and I'd have maybe one or even just half a lesson a day.