Geography v. Psychology [AS]

Psychology:
1. It's ok, I don't enjoy it that much, but I'm dealing with it.
2. It's easier than my other subjects but there is a lot to remember and you need to know it all, otherwise you're screwed.
3. I'm not too sure. Probably not.
4. I would recommend Psychology as your other subjects seem harder so it would be a break for you.

Reply 3

CityOfMyHeart

Hey, just wondering if anyone here does:-

AS Geography [Edexcel]
and/or
AS Psychology [AQA]

I'm stuck on my options, and can't really decide which one of the above to choose. My other options are Biology, Chemistry and Maths... I don't know what I want to study at Uni or what career I want.

I like both Geography and Psychology the same, I think I'm slightly more inclined to take Psychology as it interests me that little bit more, but Geography is also interesting and is a more "respected" A-Level.

So my questions really, to the people who take either Geography or Psychology are:

Do you enjoy the subject?
What are the good/bad points of them?
If you could change Geography/Psychology for something else, would you?
Which would you recommend?

Thank you in advance :smile:

Geography:
Do you enjoy the subject? I enjoy the subject but the A-level can be quite tedious. Don't get me wrong, it's good, but one of my teachers just makes us do loads of sheet work etc. It is probably my most interesting A-level though.
What are the good/bad points of them? They are both kind of hybrids between arts and science subjects. You will do essays in both of them but there will also be quite a lot of "fact-learning" and short answer questions as they both have a scientific side to them (e.g. physical geog). There is a lot of facts to be learnt and regurgitated in both of them (case studies in geog and studies in psych). Both will allow you to develop essay writing skills (geography more so, but both of them aren't as essay based as say history). Geog is more respected (in general) but I wouldn't worry about respectability considering the other A-levels you are doing. Both A-levels don't open up many doors for you in terms of uni degrees. Geog is very often a requirement if you wanna do geog at uni but psych is never a required subject for anything.
If you could change Geography/Psychology for something else, would you? No. I wouldn't change geog for anything else. As I say, I find the A-level quite enjoyable (even if it can be a bit tedious) and I need it for university as I'm going on to do geography!
Which would you recommend? Geography, but I'm biased. Pick the one you think you will enjoy more and do well in.

Reply 4

fire2burn

17

I'm going to say Geography but that's because I do it for my degree :smile:

Reply 5

Malsy

18

Never done more than one lesson of Geography in my life and I don't think I'd have patience for it/it would interest me....I do think that my vote was biased as I do Psychology!

Do you enjoy the subject? Yes.
What are the good/bad points of them? Good are that it's easy if you know your stuff; bad is that there is a hell of a lot of stuff to know
If you could change Geography/Psychology for something else, would you? Nah...
Which would you recommend? Psychology /bias

Also who cares about ''respectedness'' I mean....you have other subjects that are respected so you don't need to worry...

Reply 6

Mattisabiologist

Geography complements Biology fairly well - when you do ecosystems and all the other ecology stuff it's all very easy. All of the other Geographers are sitting there saying "what the hell is NPP?" and you have a smug face. Other than that hazards are really interesting and it's a very broad subject. I'd definitely reccomend it.

True lol. But the science in geography A-level is piss easy :tongue:

Reply 7

OP

Grapevine

Geography:
Do you enjoy the subject? I enjoy the subject but the A-level can be quite tedious. Don't get me wrong, it's good, but one of my teachers just makes us do loads of sheet work etc. It is probably my most interesting A-level though.
What are the good/bad points of them? They are both kind of hybrids between arts and science subjects. You will do essays in both of them but there will also be quite a lot of "fact-learning" and short answer questions as they both have a scientific side to them (e.g. physical geog). There is a lot of facts to be learnt and regurgitated in both of them (case studies in geog and studies in psych). Both will allow you to develop essay writing skills (geography more so, but both of them aren't as essay based as say history). Geog is more respected (in general) but I wouldn't worry about respectability considering the other A-levels you are doing. Both A-levels don't open up many doors for you in terms of uni degrees. Geog is very often a requirement if you wanna do geog at uni but psych is never a required subject for anything.
If you could change Geography/Psychology for something else, would you? No. I wouldn't change geog for anything else. As I say, I find the A-level quite enjoyable (even if it can be a bit tedious) and I need it for university as I'm going on to do geography!
Which would you recommend? Geography, but I'm biased. Pick the one you think you will enjoy more and do well in.

Hmm my friends who are currently doing AS Geog are completely divided. They all say it's not so hard but some find it boring as it's just a repeat of GCSE Geog with more detail... Is that true?

Reply 8

Mattisabiologist

8

Grapevine

True lol. But the science in geography A-level is piss easy :tongue:

lol, yeah it is. In our Geography class there is a real divide between the people who take sciences and the people who take arts. We just started the climate section of our course and all the arts students were baffled when we were talking about how refraction causes rainbows. :biggrin:

Reply 9

OP

Malsi101

Also who cares about ''respectedness'' I mean....you have other subjects that are respected so you don't need to worry...

I don't care about how respected either of the two are, but I asked because everyone always seems to go on about how taking respected A-Levels are the way forward and blahh..

I get where that's coming from, but I wonder how important it actually is... :rolleyes:

Reply 10

Cowtipper

12

Psychology is not a real subject, so go for Geography.

Reply 11

OP

Hmm most of the posts say "go for geog" but the poll results show it's pretty even.

I basically have two "paths".. One of which is people-related ie. social worker, scientist who works on discovering new things about the body/mind

orrrr

geography-biology related stuff, likeee the earth, animals, habitats, the atmosphere etc etc

And because I don't know which kinda path I want to follow, I can't choose between the options. And I don't want to take one, and then regret it =\

Reply 12

Cowtipper

Psychology is not a real subject, so go for Geography.

Reply 13

Malsy

18

CityOfMyHeart

I don't care about how respected either of the two are, but I asked because everyone always seems to go on about how taking respected A-Levels are the way forward and blahh..

I get where that's coming from, but I wonder how important it actually is... :rolleyes:

Like I said don't care too much because you have well respected subjects to balance it :tongue:

Seriously though that combo is fine whatever you choose; but please don't choose on how respected one is because like I said you have subjects that are really respected so all is well.

Reply 14

CityOfMyHeart

I don't care about how respected either of the two are, but I asked because everyone always seems to go on about how taking respected A-Levels are the way forward and blahh..

I get where that's coming from, but I wonder how important it actually is... :rolleyes:

Taking respected subjects? Not really that important at all. As long as you have 1-2 traditional subjects and are not applying to the very top 5 or so universities you will be fine. People still get into Oxford/UCL etc. with "soft" A-levels. TSR has a habit of blowing things out of proportion, and the whole "soft A-level" thing is one of those. Anyway, you are doing chem, biol and maths, thus there is no need for you to worry about it at all. Seriously.

Reply 15

OP

Grapevine

Taking respected subjects? Not really that important at all. As long as you have 1-2 traditional subjects and are not applying to the very top 5 or so universities you will be fine. People still get into Oxford/UCL etc. with "soft" A-levels. TSR has a habit of blowing things out of proportion, and the whole "soft A-level" thing is one of those. Anyway, you are doing chem, biol and maths, thus there is no need for you to worry about it at all. Seriously.

Thanks. I was never gonna choose based soley on how respected they are, because I don't give two hoots. I was just curious, I guess..

Again with the Unis, I don't even know where to start with that but I don't need to worry about it for a few months :p:

Having 4 subjects would be a good start though XD

Reply 16

lucasarar

9

Do what you think you'll enjoy the most. Traditional subjects are only essential for places like Oxbridge. Four trads will give u a better chance of getting in there, but even they say that 2/3 is enough. Your other subjects are strong enough to enable you to choose psychology if you wish. It is important to have some subjects which genuinely interest you in order to keep your motivation up throughout A level. Perhaps have a look at the course outlines or some notes from students doing those subjects now to give you a better idea of what the courses entail.

Reply 17

Citizen Zero

I took both Geog and Psych at AS level through to A level (on those same exam boards), and I thought Psych was far more interesting than Geog. But that may be because I'd been doing Geog since Year 7 and Psych was a new subject. :tongue:

Reply 18

OP