A2 Geography

Hiya I'm just trying to decide which courses to carry on at A2. The only course I'm completely sure of is English Lit, because that's what I want to do at degree level. So Geography is one of my three choices, along with History and Theatre Studies. I just wanted some advice really on what the A2 is like. Is it much different to the AS? Is it alot harder? Any info at all would be much appreciated. Thanks

Reply 1

KgeoK

What exam board are you doing for Geography? I did AQA spec B for my A-level and actually found the A2 easier than the first year as I personally found the topics in year 13 really interesting. Your final choice on what to carry on should really be based on what you enjoy the most, how well you do in each subject when results come out (if you do well in them all then you could carry on with all 4 maybe?) and what you want to do at uni. If you are thinking of applying to the top unis then I'd probably drop theatre studies as I don't think it will be looked upon as favourably as history and geography (though I'm not entirely sure on that).
Good luck with whatever you chose to do and if you want anymore advice then just ask!

Reply 2

stratomaster

I did WJEC, the only difference really is you have a lot more writing in exams, and they ask more explain questions than describe if you know what I mean. In my A2 the module 4 consisted of 2 essays, module 5 was like a decision paper which was all writing for about 2 hours and there was a largish coursework which was all writing again lol (max was 2500 or 3500 words, cant remember properly). I found it all quite easy though so I wouldn't be put off at all.

Reply 3

welwyn

For OCR, I think the step forward into A2 is the biggest one out of all my A-Level subjects. It's no longer GCSE-ish little 2- and 4- mark questions with source material, but pure essay writing - you need to know what you're talking about.
The final exam in June is synoptic and is worth 120 marks - two 60-mark essays, for an hour and a half. There is a strong emphasis in the way they award marks for drawing together all aspects of the course you've studied, so it's pretty useless if you've thrown away all your AS notes!

However, there is a 90-mark coursework option which relieves the pressure a bit. People tend to take the coursework far too seriously, even though it carries less marks than the essays.

I found the teaching kind of slackened into A2 - it's more like University where you're presented with a variety of extracts, sheets etc and have to make your own notes and conclusions, while the teacher can only guide you; it's very different to AS in that respect.

Reply 4

Eskimo Melon

thanks for everyone's help. I'm did AQA but I don't know which spec? There were six modules - settlements, energy & life, economic, rivers, population, and climate. Three exams, one physical, one human, then one large skills exam in which we could choose from either questions on energy & life or settlements. Don't know if you can tell which spec I did from that? I did OCR at GCSE and I found the jump from one to the other quite big.

Reply 5

Jog.Ra.Fee.

I took Geog and history for A2, I would be biased saying that you should take geography as i personally got more and more bored and sick of the history

However, it looks like you will be doing a different course to what I did with tourism and hazards which were both really interesting

What history are you doing?

Your doing AQA A like me, just go onto the AQA website and look at past exam papers

Reply 8

Eskimo Melon

Jog.Ra.Fee.

Geography A2, I'll be doing hazards, tourism, coasts, and industrial cities i think.

History A2 will be Britain at war 1939-45, and then the nazi state again. Very boring I know.

Reply 9

KgeoK

I also did History and Geography and agree with what's been said about history to an extent. At times it drove me crazy, especially the Nazi module as I'd done that loads already. However, I found it quite an easy A-Level to do (though that obv depends on the person) and that helped me to put up with the boring bits.

Reply 10

sluggabed

do geog! I got an A at AS and am predicted an A at A2...but i didn't even take it at GCSE, which says a lot about GCSE geog i guess!

anyway, if you are on Edexcel and are happy writing essays and memorising case studies, then Geog should be a very pleasant and enjoyable walk in the park :smile:

Reply 11

Eskimo Melon

I have to do it now as it's the only subject I got an A in. I'l also have an A in history when I resit one of the modules - we weren't taught the stuff that came up! So I'll have to drop drama I guess.