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Soft A level Subjects

Reply 80

Cephalus

OP

Original post by RKM

I wish I could positively rate all of your comments to these people <3

Well thank you very much :biggrin:

Reply 81

bm127

10

Original post by Cephalus

There always seems to be a hesitation when saying whether or not a subject is soft because of a fear of offending people. But this is a serious issue that could potentially ruin people.

The general consensus for soft A level subjects are:

Media Studies (no explanation necessary)
Business studies
Accounting
Health and social care
Accounting
Information and Communication Technology
Business and Management
Art and Design
Leisure Studies
Design and Technology
Communication Studies
Music Technology
Theatre Arts
Dance
Performance Studies
Visual Arts
Design and Technology
Performing Arts
Drama/Theatre Studies
Photography
Film Studies
Physical Education
Sports Studies
Home Economics

Also, subjects like sociology and psychology are also a pretty weak.

I hope this helps.

Dance, Music etc aren't soft subjects if you are applying to dance/performing arts degrees etc, and some of those courses have amongst the highest applicant to place ratios.

Don't agree with psychology, it was probably the hardest of my 3 A2's because of all the stuff you have to remember and the specific technique you had to apply to answers (my other two were geography and english lit).

Reply 82

Bardem

1

I know someone who got into Cambridge for English with media studies A level. For sciences I think choices are obvious, bio-chem-maths-phys etc. For arts I don't think the relevancy extends so far, short of taking something for the sake of it. I know people who took A levels they thought were more 'advisable' and flopped, at the end of the day an A in sociology looks better than a B/C in Chemistry if its not essential to the course.

Reply 83

phil1093

9

anything except,
maths edexcel
physics aqa b
Chemistry
:P

Reply 84

SpicyStrawberry

18

Original post by Cephalus

Anybody with an iota of sense would know that these subjects are damaging to an application to uni

Entirely depends on the course and university.

If, for example, you were applying for a course at a decent university that did not specify subjects required at A-level it is irrelevant what you actually studied as long as you get the grades and can demonstrate your interest in the uni course in your personal statement. What you're claiming is damaging to future applicants because it's incorrect and may lead to people choosing traditional subjects they struggle with and end up doing badly in when they could excel at other subjects.

Studying entirely traditional subjects like Maths, the sciences, English, languages etc. is only essential/highly recommended for top universities like Cambridge and Oxford, UCL etc. Plenty of people get into decent Russell Group unis without completing entirely 'traditional' A-level subjects.

Reply 85

Cephalus

OP

Original post by SpicyStrawberry

Entirely depends on the course and university.

If, for example, you were applying for a course at a decent university that did not specify subjects required at A-level it is irrelevant what you actually studied as long as you get the grades and can demonstrate your interest in the uni course in your personal statement. What you're claiming is damaging to future applicants because it's incorrect and may lead to people choosing traditional subjects they struggle with and end up doing badly in when they could excel at other subjects.

Studying entirely traditional subjects like Maths, the sciences, English, languages etc. is only essential/highly recommended for top universities like Cambridge and Oxford, UCL etc. Plenty of people get into decent Russell Group unis without completing entirely 'traditional' A-level subjects.

But you're missing the point somewhat. Getting into university with so and so A levels is not in itself a good criteria of whether or not a subject is soft.compared to traditional subjects

Ask yourself why these are called soft in the first place? Because they do not serve as the best preparation for an undergrad course

Reply 86

SpicyStrawberry

18

Original post by Cephalus

But you're missing the point somewhat. Getting into university with so and so A levels is not in itself a good criteria of whether or not a subject is soft.compared to traditional subjects

Ask yourself why these are called soft in the first place? Because they do not serve as the best preparation for an undergrad course

I disagree; it's up to you personally if you feel prepared for university or not. Personally I don't think A-levels in general prepare you for university because they are spoon-fed and don't teach you how to reference, research independently or write reports etc. Quite often the degree doesn't correspond at all with its A-level counterpart. It's up to you how well you apply yourself when you get to uni to learn the techniques required. Some of the content may well overlap but the style of writing and technique is very different (at least in my experience).

Reply 87

ChoznPenn

1

Original post by Cephalus

You mean to say that there are some colleges which dont offer courses such as english, maths, all sciences, history, geog, religious studies, any modern or ancient language?

outside of england...? yups! I LEARNED to like my subjects. I had no choice. When I began a levels I remember being fixated on Spanish, Eng. Lit. and the idea of Math was tempting. The school didn't offer it. How it works in trinidad is you usually do what they have or you go looking elsewhere. I couldn't do any of the three because 1. they dropped spanish and lit before the school started so I had to pick new subs. and sell my texts and they didn't get a math teacher or something...so law. soc. and psych. it became... w/e.

Reply 88

hazel_jg

Trust me, Psychology is NOT weak, especially if your on the WJEC exam boards and not that into writing essays

Reply 89

Scumbaggio

12

Original post by Cephalus

There always seems to be a hesitation when saying whether or not a subject is soft because of a fear of offending people. But this is a serious issue that could potentially ruin people.

The general consensus for soft A level subjects are:

Media Studies (no explanation necessary)
Business studies
Accounting
Health and social care
Accounting
Information and Communication Technology
Business and Management
Art and Design
Leisure Studies
Design and Technology
Communication Studies
Music Technology
Theatre Arts
Dance
Performance Studies
Visual Arts
Design and Technology
Performing Arts
Drama/Theatre Studies
Photography
Film Studies
Physical Education
Sports Studies
Home Economics

Also, subjects like sociology and psychology are also a pretty weak.

I hope this helps.

Pretty funny.

I'd agree with some of these....

I would love to see you take sociology or accounting a level having studied neither and then explain how soft they are.

Lost count of the number of people who say sociology is really easy but when you ask them what grade they got at A level they say D or E or U or something highly amusing.

also if ICT is anything like GCSE then it's totally soul destroying.

(edited 11 years ago)

Reply 90

Cephalus

OP

Original post by Scumbaggio

Pretty funny.

I'd agree with some of these....

I would love to see you take sociology or accounting a level having studied neither and then explain how soft they are.

Lost count of the number of people who say sociology is really easy but when you ask them what grade they got at A level they say D or E or U or something highly amusing.

also if ICT is anything like GCSE then it's totally soul destroying.

Ah I wanted to do IT. But all I could do was BTEC Gcse :colone:

Reply 91

Scumbaggio

12

Original post by Cephalus

Ah I wanted to do IT. But all I could do was BTEC Gcse :colone:

The GCSE was horrible just endless screenshots of excel etc, really boring.

Reply 92

TimmonaPortella

21

Original post by Scumbaggio

Pretty funny.

I'd agree with some of these....

I would love to see you take sociology or accounting a level having studied neither and then explain how soft they are.

Lost count of the number of people who say sociology is really easy but when you ask them what grade they got at A level they say D or E or U or something highly amusing.

also if ICT is anything like GCSE then it's totally soul destroying.

None of this is at all to the point. These subjects may take many hours of work, but they're still "soft", because they don't take much thought.

Reply 93

ellieHA

14

Original post by tazarooni89

So then the question is, why study Psychology at A-Level if no university course actually wants it? Surely your just limiting your future options for no reason then?

I suppose the usual response to this question would be "because I find it interesting". But in that case, wouldn't it be even more strategic to take an A-Level that's going to strengthen your university application/keep your university options open instead of Psychology, and then read about/study Psychology in your own time?
The way I see it, the purpose of taking A-Level exams in a subject is not to learn about something your interested in. It is merely to prove that you've learnt something, so that a university or employer etc. will take you. A person solely wanting to learn for interest's sake should be able to buy a book and read it for themselves (in fact many people self-teach A-Levels this way) without ever needing to worry about the exams for that subject.

I took Psychology at A level to prepare myself for studying it at uni and to show that, unlike many who take Psychology, I actually knew that I wanted to study it and have proven that I have an interest in it early on as opposed to taking it as a last-minute option.

Reply 94

Scumbaggio

12

Original post by TimmonaPortella

None of this is at all to the point. These subjects may take many hours of work, but they're still "soft", because they don't take much thought.

The same could be said of literally any subject.

How can you say psychology doesn't take much thought?

Reply 95

Kiss

2

I guess that means all arts and humanities are useless then. Cheers OP. Brb, just gonna go kill myself and save 2 more years of pointlessness.

Reply 96

Cephalus

OP

Original post by Kiss

I guess that means all arts and humanities are useless then. Cheers OP. Brb, just gonna go kill myself and save 2 more years of pointlessness.

Not at all. Some arts and humanities are very valuable

Reply 97

Kiss

2

Original post by Cephalus

Not at all. Some arts and humanities are very valuable

No it's okay! I think you made it perfectly clear that my degree, my time and to a large extension my life is worthless. Thank you for clarifying that! :smile:

I'll just be off to the nearest cliff since you've made it clear my life is useless.

Reply 98

Cephalus

OP

Original post by Kiss

No it's okay! I think you made it perfectly clear that my degree, my time and to a large extension my life is worthless. Thank you for clarifying that! :smile:

I'll just be off to the nearest cliff since you've made it clear my life is useless.