anyone do critical thinking at alevels

hey i was wondering if anyone could avdise me on critical thinking, becuase im thinking of taking it but i dont no much like is it hard? what kind of person do you have to be to be good at it, can i manage it and do 5 AS? whats it all about? anyone got an A in it? any feeback on it would be great!

Reply 1

amzable

6

I did critical thinking at AS, did it as a 5th AS and somehow managed to get an A! I didn't find it particularly a strain managing it at all, although you need to find out how it will be taught as we did it on 2 50 min lessons a week. I wouldn't say there is anything specific that makes one person better at it than another, just an open mind i think.
It is quite challenging, but interesting at the same time- its a subject of learning skills, and practise really does pay off. You get better as you go along, and it comes in useful in other subjects and other things in general! Contentwise, you learn about flaws in arguments, their names and how to spot them, how to identify structures of arguments- a favourute question is identify the main conclusion in the passage! You also learn about how to identify how credible a piece of evidence is.

Hope this helps and anything else you want to know, ask away xx

Reply 2

becky.fm

18

Is it better to be good at English to do well in this subject? I am hoping for an A at GCSE English, but i do struggle with english and find it quite frustrating. I have been told my writing style isn't very advanced. I have been asked to CT as a 5th AS, but i really don't know if it's worth it. :smile:

Reply 3

amzable

6

it probs is good for CT to be good at english- you don't have to be fantastic though :smile:

Reply 4

becky.fm

18

amzable

it probs is good for CT to be good at english- you don't have to be fantastic though :smile:

Ok thanks

Reply 5

arpeggio

12

I'm doing Critical Thinking at the moment - we have a one-hour lesson per week, so it's really not that much extra. Some colleges don't even give their students lessons for it before making them sit the exam, so beware! I would say it's not that difficult, although some people struggle with it. A lot of it is common sense and pointing out the obvious! You don't need to be amazingly good at English, as long as you're able to say what you want to say clearly and succinctly. For AS, you sit two papers: Paper 1 is about the credibility of evidence and Paper 2 is about analysing arguments. You'll need to learn some terminology but it's really not that hard :smile:

Reply 6

horrorboy

zazjaz

hey i was wondering if anyone could avdise me on critical thinking, becuase im thinking of taking it but i dont no much like is it hard? what kind of person do you have to be to be good at it, can i manage it and do 5 AS? whats it all about? anyone got an A in it? any feeback on it would be great!

Im doing it, if you have reasonable debating skills and are good at essays you will be fine. Though even if your are not good you can still pass because thats what you learn.

Reply 7

-G-a-v-

16

Critical Thinking is pretty straighforward really. Once you know the terminology e.g. assumption, flaw, fallacy and so on paper 2 is pretty straightforward. We've only just started the stuff for paper 1 though - but it seems to be straightforward enough tbh.

Reply 8

Kolya

17

I would advise anybody who is just starting it to make sure that, when they come to the exam, they know exactly what type of answer each type of question is looking for. If you waffle, and your language is imprecise, then you may be disappointed when you receive your grade. :redface:

Reply 9

Andrew_2006

15

I'm doing it now... Personally I would strongly recommend NOT doing it...Much better to get a proper A level or concentrate on getting good grades in your other subjects.

I find it quite boring to be honest, maybe because is just so straight forward....There really isn't anything difficult about the subject except learning how to answer the questions in the right way.

Reply 10

ohyeahoh

3

I'm doing it...boring and easy I think...a good A though :biggrin:

Reply 11

tetedupet

11

I hated doing Critical Thinking, incredibly boring and I had it last on a Friday, when I had a free period and lunch before, so I couldn't go home, used to drive me mad!! I got a U, go me!

Reply 12

Beenybabe

i did the AS this year as an extra and haven't found it too bad - it is very easy though to get annoyed with it and just not turn up to the exam especially if your school is making you do general studies as well

The trick i found with it is to learn the basic terminology then do past papers because one of the papers is practically the same every year just with different basic material and after looking at a few mark schemes it all falls into place and a lot of the rubbish you've done beyond learning the fallacies etc looks irrelevant

if you arent doing it instead of a possible proper subject it looks good on your UCAS and a couple of unis will include A2 in an offer but i think this is very limited and the main ones i have heard of are Leeds and York other than that it doesnt seem to show anything more than how much stuff you can cope with at one time to most unis and becomes as relevant as extra currics really

Reply 13

No Future

17

I did the AS after taking it for a term. What a waste of time. I wish I'd spent more time on my other subjects instead.

Reply 14

The West Wing

18

I recommend against it. The tasks you have to do in it are so menial and pointless that it doesn't even seem remotely prodictive. I wish I was allowed to drop it.

Reply 15

vet in the making

1

I did it to AS but with a major issue in my chem I didnt do much revision for the CT exams (actually any) and pulled a C. I'd agree with everyone who said if you have aptitude for English then you'll take to it. We did it as an extra 90 mins after school on Tuesday. We didnt do any assignments out of class though so it was easy to keep the extra AS going. I'm told oxbridge like to see candidates who take it but I'm not sure how true that is....
Dropped it at A2 to rescue my chem.

Reply 16

free_the_mind

1

I'm taking it at the moment for my AS and am soo not enjoying it. But it doesn't seem to be too difficult considering i do no work on it outside class hours and i only get 1 hour per week. I guess practise papers and learning the vocabulary does help. For me personally i wouldn't have chosen it but i kind of have to do it now, however our teacher does say it will look good on our UCAS. I unfortunately also have to do general studies which doesn't exactly help :mad:

.

Reply 17

Kolya

17

free_the_mind

I unfortunately also have to do general studies which doesn't exactly help :mad:

.

From looking at the syllabus, I would have thought that General Studies would be a useful subject. Why do you think otherwise?

Reply 18

blue.flower

Yeah, im doing it. Im sitting it a year early as part of my schools gifted and talented thingy. It's not too bad, but i dont think i'll do too well as the teachers aren't really sure of what they are supposed to teach us and its all a bit pointless really.

How much work do you need to put in to get an A or B? Taking into acount that everyone's different and all. Just roughly? We only have one 50min period a week, and i dont feel like that's enough really.

Reply 19

free_the_mind

1

Originally Posted by Lusus Naturae

From looking at the syllabus, I would have thought that General Studies would be a useful subject. Why do you think otherwise?

Well firstly because it is mind numbingly boring...i mean i really could go on. I presume you don't do it. I don't enjoy it because i don't want to be there and neither do most people. I do not require it and the only reason i am doing it is because it is cumpulsory. I can see how it could possibly be called 'useful' but trust me it really isn't. I mean if you were given the choice to do it or something then that would be different i guess. And since most universities don't really take it into consideration i fail to see it's usefullness for myself.

anyone do critical thinking at alevels

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