What is A level English Literature, Maths, Further Maths and Economics at A-level?

I was just wondering what the content of each subject was and how you found it/ still find it. I'm moving into year 11 after the summer term, and obviously need to pick carefully what A-levels I wish to study. I picked those due to my strengths and enjoyment. I also picked those because I know Uni's regard these subjects as 'facilitating' subjects - giving me the best possible advantage.

I just wanted to know what kind of things you studied/study, how hard it is, whether the workload is tideous and how you are/were coping with it.

Thanks

of the ones you've noted , i only did english literature. for me it was fine - AS i studied jane eyre and wide sargasso sea for the exam , for coursework measure for measure and a comparison text called the white devil. at A2 i studied the great gatsby , duffy's poem collection 'rapture' and metaphysical poets for my exam - in my coursework i studied othello and a streetcar named desire. at A2 there was a lot more freedom in what i chose for my coursework , and it is generally easier , although it depends on your exam board (i was on EDEXCEL).

the content is okay , but the extra work you have to put in to move from the B to the A and the A to the A* is significant. i probably wrote 20+ practice essays before the exam , which is a large amount as each would have taken me around about... 2 hours to complete. i also handwrote some to make it more authentic which was just **** considering my two other subjects were also essay based. for me , english literature was great because i love reading , i can remember quotes easily and i enjoyed learning about critics. but the time put in was a lot - it's not an easy subject if you want a good grade , although i'd name it my easiest as my others were psychology and spanish.

Aha thanks. I'm currently achieving straight A's in English and I'm relatively strong in it.
What exam board are you please?
How hard is it to remember specific quotes?
Would I need to revise? If so, how long for each day?
Is it a significant jump from GCSE?

Thanks

i was on EDEXCEL but i've finished now. i didn't find it hard remembering the quotes - i barely used my book in the exam because it's much faster regurgitating them by memory , but if you struggle you can look in the book , it's just it drains a lot of time. if you read the book enough , the key quotes should just kind of settle in you brain.

of course you need to revise - you need to revise for any A level. i did very little revision at AS and got A's in both my coursework and exam , but i'm sure that revision is required at A2 to get above a C , and a lot is required to move from a B to an A. I worked at english a lot - i can't say how much per day because i didn't do things like "okay so 2 hours of english today , then 2 for psychology , then 2 for spanish" and also because i was revising from september , but i probably revised way over 100 hours on english alone. that includes all the past papers and questions and reading the book and collecting quotes and criticisms etc. if you enjoy the subject , it's not hard to do , and as long as you listen to how to structure an argument and work on your essay from the very beginning of A2 (it's not as important at AS) you'll get it because it's so open. AS is a lot more stringent on what you have to write but it's okay.

i don't really remember what GCSE was like - it was like 2 years ago for me - but i don't think the jump is horrid. you just work more in all your subjects and it's what you have to do. and also remember that you only have 4 at AS and 3 at A2 - at GCSE you (or i at least) have like 12. so the time you've dropped in all those other subjects is directly subsumed into your new subjects.

How are the grade boundaries for EDEXCEL?


Ah, I've heard the jump from GCSE to a-level is quite significant, and the workload is tremendously relentless.

Well, surely having some sort of agenda for how long you'd revise for is relatively easier?

they're okay - not impossible but pretty sharp declines and not much difference between grades

i don't think the workload was unbearable or relentless - i did all of my work inside of school up until february when i started revising hard at home as well , and i kept up a social life (with my boyfriend etc) until study leave which was maybe two weeks before my first exam? you just need to stay on top of the work - loads of people leave their work until they get home and they don't use their free periods , or they leave it to the weekend but then they want to go out. instead , i used all of my free periods every time and i was a lot better for it

i didn't have an agenda because i had more a list of things i needed to do and however long it took me to do it was irrelevant as long as i did it. so i'd write down "collate all quotes from the great gatsby relating to daisy" and i'd do that until i'd finished , or if it was a particularly long task , i'd do tasks for other subjects when i got bored and return to it later. i'm more of a to do list person i guess

I am studying both Economics (Edexcel) and English Lit (AQA).

I absolutely love economic all the time - it goes perfectly with History and Government and Politics. If you are interested in the humanities, or at least that side of them, then I cannot recommend it highly enough. It is incredibly useful.

English Lit I love some of the time. Perhaps I slightly regret not taking maths instead (because I will struggle to study Econ at a good uni without it). But maybe I don't regret it. I just don't like war poetry that much, to be honest. So just check out the syllabus of whatever board you will be going with, and see what you think. I enjoyed GCSE Lit much more, but only because I prefer the stuff I studied. Basically there was no pretentious Wilfred ****ing Owen.

Seems like people are fans of English Lit! Aha.
Is the content in economics mathsy (if that's a word)?

Is there a time in English Literature where you chose which poems you wish to study or something?

Cheers

A lot of the time I am a fan! And I am only halfway through the first unit, so maybe the rest is even better.

In economics there is barely any maths at all. There is only one formula I have had to learn so far. As I understand it, at degree level there is a lot of large maths models etc, which is why they want A level maths. So if you think you might really like economics and want to go on with it, maths is a good idea.

Haha, I know I will be!

Ah, I thought Economics had quite a large content of maths in it.

Do you want a Economics degree?
What career do you hope to pursue?

Cheers

I want to study History or History and Politics, but I would have seriously considered doing some sort of joint school with Economics, like PPE or with History.

I did want to go into some sort of journalism but not sure now.......more likely something to do with politics/policy etc. I'll see.

I was just wondering what the content of each subject was and how you found it/ still find it. I'm moving into year 11 after the summer term, and obviously need to pick carefully what A-levels I wish to study. I picked those due to my strengths and enjoyment. I also picked those because I know Uni's regard these subjects as 'facilitating' subjects - giving me the best possible advantage.<br>
<br>
I just wanted to know what kind of things you studied/study, how hard it is, whether the workload is tideous and how you are/were coping with it.<br>
<br>
Thanks

I think anybody who enjoys maths will find Maths and FM at college a hell of a lot better than GCSE; I did 8 maths modules in my first year, which I am now waiting for the results on, and self taught most of the content in each- if you're good at maths you'll be fine with both!

Yeah, hopefully my enjoyment for maths will continue. However, I have heard from past Maths A-level students that Maths can get a bit boring. And obviously if a subject is boring, it's not going to be that interesting to learn.
But yeah, I even self -teach myself now, because I'm past my class. I find it way ore understandable when you self-teach because you're going at your own pace. I'm relatively good at maths, so maths A-level wouldn't be an extreme challenge.

But I am worried because I've heard that further maths is so HARD, and even some students drop it. I know I probably wouldn't come out with an A* but an A because I ALWAYS lose marks stupidly.

Did you take Further Maths?

I took maths and further maths, but at my college we do the entire A-level in maths in the first year, then do the entire FM A-level in second year; I self-taught D1 and FP1 this year and sat those exams to make next year easier, 'cos I don't really want to drop anything.

The only issue I had this year is that I worked far ahead the pace of the class, like I went into college having learnt C1, C2 and C3, and therefore I was bored in all of the lessons, especially once I'd learnt C4 as well. I don't think you would get bored of maths unless either you did what I did and learnt everything ahead of time, or if it turned out you struggled with the content. Take a good look at C1 and C2, particularly the calculus, as whilst all the numerical methods and algebra are pretty straightforward, you don't want to get stuck with bits of calculus 'cos you have a teacher who doesn't explain it thoroughly, or doesn't explain it in a way you understand.

How hard was further maths? Because I'm thinking of taking Maths, Economics, English Literature and Psychology/History so I could have a varied pathway for careers in the Business/Finance industry or Law, because I feel that I would struggle with Further Maths, and probably wouldn't get the hang of it.

Sorry, I know this might seem a bit irrelevant, but out of the subjects I listed above (Maths, Economics, English Literature and Psychology) which one would you consider to drop at A2?

Thanks

Haha, I did exactly these as my A2 subjects - FM was an AS I took in year two.

English: very reasonable subject, the essay questions in my board (and probably most if not all) can be chosen from a pair or a larger group of questions - they ask very wide questions (especially in A2), which gives you a lot of space to run with whatever you have revised best - so long as you have covered the work in reasonable detail. Don't expect much of a jump from GCSEs to AS - from AS to A2 the exam format changes considerably (closed book - so no text allowed into the exam hall), but if you actually revise like you are supposed to, not having a book to be distracted by actually helps you focus your response - you're not tempted to run off and look for slightly more applicable quotes, for instance.

Maths: I'd say this probably has the largest jump from GCSE to A level. Know your GCSE stuff before you start. Our college made a huge emphasis on getting everyone up to speed with GCSE material right at the beginning of AS because they knew some of us were from ****e secondary schools that couldn't teach maths properly (I could rant for longer).

Economics: Really simple subject at A level throughout A2 and AS. Get your head around the theory by applying it to practice questions where you can and you'll be fine. For AS, memorisation is actually quite important: definitions and basic analysis make up a considerable part of the AS marks. In A2, that sort of drops away and it becomes a question of you being able to apply knowledge. Also, A2 (at least under OCR) is very synoptic, meaning that a good deal of your AS knowledge will be required for A2 - don't be put off by this, it actually means you don't have to learn too much in year two, you just need to get really comfortable applying what you already know to given contexts. For OCR, they do a stimulus material pack for their A2 macro exam. This was released last September for this summer's A2 macro exam; if you learn how to read it properly, you can guess a good number of the questions that will come up - I did this for the 20 marker and had preplanned it, so that in the exam, I don't think I would have missed out on more than two or three marks on the essay.

Further maths: Don't do this unless you are able to juggle 5 subjects at AS or 4 subjects at A2. Many of the courses that actually require FM at A2 recognise FM and Maths as one A level, rather than two. So you'll likely be taking up 5 AS subjects and 4 A2 subjects. I thought I could handle that this year, I was proved horribly wrong - luckily it didn't count towards my offer. AS further maths, despite my failures, is actually relatively easy. I've heard that FP2 and FP3 is where it gets tricky, however, so be warned. If your college offers FM as an express maths type thing, where you complete your A2 mathematics in the first year and then work through further maths, remember that you will be applying to universities with the final grade you score in that summer in A2 maths. If you flop your A2 maths, even though you can resit, it will already be a black mark against your application. Whereas, if you can only do AS maths and AS further maths, if you are able to juggle, as I've mentioned, you should be able to score two solid grades in these - actually bolstering your application by giving you the advantage of an additional AS.

My subject recommendations for various degree entries:

Economics: Economics, Mathematics, English Literature + Further Maths AS (or, if you are applying to LSE/Oxford/Cambridge) FM A2
Law: English Literature, History, Mathematics - you may also want to consider just doing law as a subject. People on here slate it by claiming that universities that offer law will teach it from scratch, and that the law A level is a bit of a soft one. I would call bull**** on that - I know of two people who have offers for Law from Oxford and LSE respectively who both took law through to A2.

Business/Finance: Don't do these subjects if you can really help it. In terms of gaining a job in banking/finance, employers are more interested in your skill set than your pre-existing knowledge of the industry. That's why a lot of people who take maths and physics gain highly quantitative jobs in finance - even though they'd probably never heard of equities or fixed-income until Goldman Sachs paid a visit to their campus and mentioned the starting salaries they offer. That's why I'd argue it'd be a better choice to pick something that forces you to improve these skills, rather than something that is highly applied content-wise. (Note: your knowledge/experience of the industry can be gained through internships etc.)