Aqa sociology A level

Is it hard to do well in sociology.Also are the exam structures for the essays difficult?

I personally found that achieving high marks/grades was very manageable
In terms of the exam structure, each topic has a key question within it and the core debates can be applied to each topic so as long as you are able to identify these then the longer questions are straightforward
There is a slight paragraph structure though you have the flexibility to adapt it
There's a range of types of questions ranging from 4 marks to 30 marks so there is a balance between short answers and essays
Hope this answers your question

I also didn’t do sociology as a gcse completely. I chose it at first but it was soooo boring so I left after 1 week. I then chose it for alevel and it turns out it became my favourite subject. The content is straightforward and despite not doing it for gcses I still got the highest marks. Essay wise if you’re confident in producing essays, perhaps you’re planning on taking essay based subjects, it’s really easy. And even though I didn’t work hard at all I managed so I think you should be fine. At first I was a little confused partly because one of my teachers wasn’t that great but overtime it got really easy. Good luck! Also I’m not sure what topics your school covers, mine were crime, beliefs (which is probably the hardest in comparison, family and education which were the easiest.

So would it go well with other essay subjects.

also doing 3 essay subjects and i love writing so it isn’t too much of a problem for me, but make sure you know your limits. gcse to a level is possibly the biggest jump in your education, the amount of content is insane and it wont be easy, dont put too much pressure on yourself!

what subjects do you do?

So would it go well with other essay subjects.

Definitely at least for me since I did geography (my other sub was art so kind of useless). I’ve linked so many aspects as part of ao2.

As another user commented learning sociologists names is difficult. In year 12 I really struggled but towards the end of yr13 u begin to remember since most of the sociologist reappear and have associations with certain school of thoughts. Also even if u don’t remeber their names you can still get ao2 marks if you give examples or just use a generic name such as Marx for Marxist concepts. Usually mark schemes only have a few sociologist names most of which I’ve never heard of so I actually don’t think it’s the end of the world if u put the wrong name since I’ve done that multiple times in my mocks in major sections. Also I tend to scribble the name since I have terrible handwriting so it blends in (I wouldn’t recommend this but last resort, I know for psych you definitely cannot do this).

If you do end up taking it I’d love to offer help (where it’s possible (same topics), other than that good luck on ur choice.

What other subs are you planning on taking?

English language and law.

English language and law.

these subjects might actually work quite well, english language has quite a few crossovers with sociology on the theory & child language side and there is a crime unit in sociology which links to law, the only thing is the heaviness of law & sociology together but i’m sure you would adjust by year 13 and the writing skills would be very beneficial in uni

How is it like doing both English language and sociology.

i love it! i do enjoy writing so the amount of essays don’t bother me, and there is a lot of crossover between the two. the theory side of english language is largely about how society influences language which is obviously very prevalent in sociology and the child language in y13 is also a lot of sociology. the analysing side for paper 1 one of the features you look at is lexis which is the reasons behind word choice which are usually very much based on their social standing etc. the writing in english really helps prepare for sociology’s essays too. you also get to do your own language investigation as part of the coursework in english which you can do on pretty much anything and is usually about identifying features and why they are used due to social theory reasons.

i find it really fun and i think its a great combo