The Student Room Group

Struggling to pick A Level options?

I am stuck on how to narrow down my subjects to 4. At the moment, I'm caught between Government and Politics, Theatre Studies, English Literature, Philosophy and Ethics, Geography and History. Any background information on any of these topics would be extremely helpful.
Note: The only A Level I am 100% sure on is Literature.
Original post by jasmineafzal
I am stuck on how to narrow down my subjects to 4. At the moment, I'm caught between Government and Politics, Theatre Studies, English Literature, Philosophy and Ethics, Geography and History. Any background information on any of these topics would be extremely helpful.
Note: The only A Level I am 100% sure on is Literature.


Theatre Studies is the only A Level on your potential list that is seen as 'soft', but generally speaking having one 'soft' subject shouldn't really restrict your choice of universities and it'd perhaps be a welcome break from some other subjects, allowing you to develop different skills. It'd work well in combination with English Literature, of course.

As for the other subjects, I've studied three of them, so:

Government and Politics - It's not on the 'facilitating' list of subjects, but it may as well be because there's a huge emphasis on essay writing and analysis of political themes/topics. Switching from AS Biology to Government and Politics was one of the best choices I've ever made. I absolutely love it and if I wasn't so adamant on studying Geography at university, I most definitely would've gone down the Politics route instead.

The one downside, although you soon learn to adapt to it, is that you shouldn't express your own political opinion in essays. Despite this, there is usually great opportunities for debate during class, so don't let it put you off!

Works well in combination with Philosophy and Ethics, History, and even Geography to a certain extent. Studying it alongside English Literature means that you'd have strong essay writing and analysis skills which are essential for doing well in the subject.

Philosophy and Ethics - I studied this for a while, but dropped it because I didn't need an additional AS for university. It's a great subject though, it really encourages you to think outside of the box a lot more, which a lot of other A Levels really restrict you from doing.

Works very well in combination with Government and Politics.

Geography - My favourite subject, haha. One of the 'facilitating' subjects, and much like Government and Politics, there's huge emphasis on analysis and essay writing. It's a great subject to take if you want to learn more about some of the greatest challenges the world is facing in the 21st century, and if you've studied Geography at GCSE, much of the AS syllabus (at least on the Edexcel syllabus) is essentially just an 'enhanced' version of the content studied at GCSE, so it's pretty easy! Fieldwork opportunities (which no other subject except Biology offer at A Level) mean you can put the knowledge you've gained in the classroom into practice in the real world, and (fortunately) you only have to answer some questions on it in the exam as opposed to writing a dull piece of coursework on rivers!

Works well in combination with Government and Politics, and I've known of people to study History alongside it as well.
Reply 2
Original post by moggington
Theatre Studies is the only A Level on your potential list that is seen as 'soft', but generally speaking having one 'soft' subject shouldn't really restrict your choice of universities and it'd perhaps be a welcome break from some other subjects, allowing you to develop different skills. It'd work well in combination with English Literature, of course.

As for the other subjects, I've studied three of them, so:

Government and Politics - It's not on the 'facilitating' list of subjects, but it may as well be because there's a huge emphasis on essay writing and analysis of political themes/topics. Switching from AS Biology to Government and Politics was one of the best choices I've ever made. I absolutely love it and if I wasn't so adamant on studying Geography at university, I most definitely would've gone down the Politics route instead.

The one downside, although you soon learn to adapt to it, is that you shouldn't express your own political opinion in essays. Despite this, there is usually great opportunities for debate during class, so don't let it put you off!

Works well in combination with Philosophy and Ethics, History, and even Geography to a certain extent. Studying it alongside English Literature means that you'd have strong essay writing and analysis skills which are essential for doing well in the subject.

Philosophy and Ethics - I studied this for a while, but dropped it because I didn't need an additional AS for university. It's a great subject though, it really encourages you to think outside of the box a lot more, which a lot of other A Levels really restrict you from doing.

Works very well in combination with Government and Politics.

Geography - My favourite subject, haha. One of the 'facilitating' subjects, and much like Government and Politics, there's huge emphasis on analysis and essay writing. It's a great subject to take if you want to learn more about some of the greatest challenges the world is facing in the 21st century, and if you've studied Geography at GCSE, much of the AS syllabus (at least on the Edexcel syllabus) is essentially just an 'enhanced' version of the content studied at GCSE, so it's pretty easy! Fieldwork opportunities (which no other subject except Biology offer at A Level) mean you can put the knowledge you've gained in the classroom into practice in the real world, and (fortunately) you only have to answer some questions on it in the exam as opposed to writing a dull piece of coursework on rivers!

Works well in combination with Government and Politics, and I've known of people to study History alongside it as well.


Ah, thank you for such a detailed response! I think government and politics and philosophy and ethics are two subjects I'm almost definitely going to take - I feel like essay-based subjects are probably the way for me to go. Thank you, you helped a lot!!
Reply 3
Original post by jasmineafzal
I am stuck on how to narrow down my subjects to 4. At the moment, I'm caught between Government and Politics, Theatre Studies, English Literature, Philosophy and Ethics, Geography and History. Any background information on any of these topics would be extremely helpful.
Note: The only A Level I am 100% sure on is Literature.


Hi,

Have you any ideas on what you might want to do post 6th Form? If Uni is a potential route any thoughts on what you might want to study - early days I know but worth thinking about to help with your decision. And depending on where you might want to go do be aware of facilitating subjects

Fine choice with English Lit, I'm doing that at A2 plus History and Classiv. Did Geography at AS which again I'd recommend.

Don't know anything about G&P and E&P, except that there is not a lot of ethics in the former (eg with actual governments and politicians, not the course itself) which might make the two subjects a really interesting contrast to be studying.
I think any combination of those subjects would be good as they'd compliment each other well. However, if I were you, I'd probably pick Geography as one of my subjects as there appears to be a bit more data / research / science in it, providing contrast from your other (primarily essay writing) subjects. If you're thinking about History, look into what period(s) you'd be studying - do they interest you? (Everyone will have periods of History that they find the most interesting, but also ones that they find pretty dull...) :smile:

Quick Reply

Latest