[amg_22]

just wondering

[Oh my Ms. Coffey]

Very important, I highly suggest you base a large proportion of your personal statement around it. In doing so you almost guarantee a place. If you are unfortunate enough to actually need an interview (whereby you clearly have not demonstrated your knowledge of general studies enough) then you must once again reinforce your understanding of general studies in the interview.


In all honesty, I got a B for writing that Katie Price is a slag, we should dump rubbish on the moon in fusion powered rockets and also look at digging a big hole to the centre of the earth and throwing it down the hole topped off with a communist style poster/sketch opposing battery hens. Speaks for itself really.

[amg_22]

.k

[Intriguing Alias]

(Original post by amg_22)
just wondering how significant general studies is as an a level for Cambridge

i do realise it is ignored in offers and considered a 'soft' subject but was just wondering if a college would reject you if you got a B/C in it.

personally i think its important in differentiating between the people who are naturally clever and those who learn the mark schemes/specification for a subject. do admission tutors look the same way or is it completely ignored.

They absolutely do not care.

[amg_22]

really my tudor told me someone 3 years ago who got 4 A's and a B in general was rejected pre-interview with the reason for the B in studies? my guess he had weak ps etc. and they said it was the B for simplicity but surely they do care if that was his reason for rejection.

(Original post by hassi94)
They absolutely do not care.

[Intriguing Alias]

(Original post by amg_22)
really my tudor told me someone 3 years ago who got 4 A's and a B in general was rejected pre-interview with the reason for the B in studies? my guess he had weak ps etc. and they said it was the B for simplicity but surely they do care if that was his reason for rejection.

Not calling you a liar but that sounds completely made up. The admissions office are not that stupid.

[Dont Tread On Me]

It's entirely pointless, most universities don't recognise it as a qualification.

[amg_22]

(Original post by hassi94)
Not calling you a liar but that sounds completely made up. The admissions office are not that stupid.

yes i do realise it is the stereotypical lie but i can assure it is true - hence my worry about it. the guy ending up taking a gap year and reapplied - got into trinity hall.

[Intriguing Alias]

(Original post by amg_22)
yes i do realise it is the stereotypical lie but i can assure it is true - hence my worry about it. the guy ending up taking a gap year and reapplied - got into trinity hall.

Stop worrying. He was rejected for something else, not for his B in General Studies.

[Veni Vidi Fugi]

They don't care about general studies, in any way. They'll do their assessment of you at interview, don't you worry :P

[mattbattison]

They don't care in the slightest. I got a B in general studies and still got an interview/offer. The only way I can see it coming into play is if they have two extremely similar candidates and there is absolutely nothing to set them apart except for general studies.

[Purple Giraffe]

I don't understand why it's regarded by the BBC here as the hardest non-science subject. As far as I'm concerned it's a ridiculous excuse for an A Level that colleges make mandatory so as to boost their place on the league tables.

My tutor also keeps drilling certain stories into us that "My student missed their uni offer but got in anyway because they had an A in General Studies", and to be honest this also happened to a friend of my sister. But other than it maybe making it that bit easier to get into uni, it has absolutely no worth, as employers won't see it as anything amazing.

[Tizzitrix]

(Original post by hassi94)
They absolutely do not care.

It's true. I participated in the Cambridge Shadowing Scheme last year, and I asked the overall admissions officer about general studies.

I QUOTE: "If you get an E in General Studies, we will ignore it, but if you get an A in General Studies... We will still ignore it."

So yeah.

[Intriguing Alias]

(Original post by Purple Giraffe)
I don't understand why it's regarded by the BBC here as the hardest non-science subject.

If that's true I did pretty well to own the AS with no revision It's a joke of a subject and nothing more.

[cmcjas]

same question here. since im not a native british and english is not my 1st lang, i often find subjects like GS quite tricky. i've no real understanding about the culture and the political system in this country, and i barely give a damn about media and tv. although occasionally i do watch news on the tv and read stuff on the internet, but idon't know anything about big brohters...soaps...etc. as a result, i did badly in one of the paper about society and culture and ended up geting an E overall in GS for AS.

now the question, is it worth to resit the paper? would it deeply affect my ucas application because of my grade in GS? because i don't want to waste 20 pounds to resit a paper that is considered as pointless.

please

[mattmattmatt]

Most universities don't care about it but they want to know why you have done badly in it if you have. If you're getting an E in pretty much the easiest A-level there is, which is more a test of common sense and writing ability than anything else, it doesn't look too good.

[Theflyingbarney]

I got an A* and I wrote crap for it. My mates and I had a game going on - we'd compile a list of words/phrases beforehand and see how many of them we could get into the exam. I won using such exemplary vocabulary as 'goblins and segways' in an essay about surveys, and 'dinosaurs running the Luftwaffe' in one about genetic engineering. Amazing what you can twist into a weird analogy/comparison if you try hard enough.

Another mate got an A despite writing two essays in the form of scripts for a sitcom we'd made up the day before...

[cmcjas]

(Original post by mattmattmatt)
Most universities don't care about it but they want to know why you have done badly in it if you have. If you're getting an E in pretty much the easiest A-level there is, which is more a test of common sense and writing ability than anything else, it doesn't look too good.

thanks, doesnt matter anyway I've designed to resit it since pretty much everyone in my school got C and above. However, my point is that the paper i failed was on about stuff about tv soaps + media. While im still learning the language and trying to adapt new things, in all honest i do not have any interest or any intention to care about everything around me other than reading some news.

My teacher told me the reason that i did not do well in the subject is because I don't talk to people much + lack of involvement in lessons whenever there is some kind of debates going on. I kind of agree with that, because i always feel like i want to back off whenever i was asked to debate something. the funny thing is that i've a very bad common sense, in essay questions i usually end up writing stuff that sound far too complicated with little logical common sense, while i guess most people are able to write relevant stuff in just a few words.

Although im not saying i can't do essay subjects as i did okay in gcses for english lang/lit (As) + history (2ums off A*). but the point im trying to put across is what's the best thing to do when im in a situation like this. if it's that important to do well in GS, then by all means it would be helpful to know a few tips. especially for some foreigner like me whose 1st lang is not eng, learning about so called 'common sense' can be tricky.

I know GS is arguably the easiest subject to get a top grade. well, i know someone who got an A in the module claimed that he only wrote about stuff that are partially relevent to the question + a few who got 100% in the module apparently had no preparation before the exam. while i bet someone who have written something sound more technical could've done worse. it seems that the mark scheme can be quite bias toward certain type of answers