History or Geography GCSE?

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OP, you should drop Business studies and take both. U dont need to take BS to do A level economics and both Geography and history are seen to be more academic lol. U can pick up economics quite quickly and the A level econometrics should be easy with good maths.

Wise move on the Music/Music Technology.

If u look at my academic u can see that i took geography as i had a spare place - I took geog as there is less writing and more colouring! I tend to mess around in lessons and am still predicted A* lol

Reply 41

Bulbasaur

Will7805

I really want to take business studies, though, and my mind is almost made up now anyway, I'm going to take history.

Thanks for the advice anyway.

Reply 42

Miss Mary

History, history, history.

Great subject.

Reply 43

Bulbasaur

Miss Mary

History, history, history.

Great subject.

Just as well then isn't it :smile:

Reply 44

x-pri-x

i didnt read your whole post but my reply to the thread title - do geography!! its much more fun more interesting and you probably go on a feild trip and it wont be tooo much work because its only gcse level
and history is essay writing and alot of people who did it for gcse told me they regretted it

Reply 45

JustRach

Having done both, I'd say do History. Geography was dull by comparison.

You say that you have more interest in History, so that's the logical choice.

Reply 46

jessyfantastic90

I say take geography... I did the ocr avery hill course soo easy if you know the techniques ,use good terminology and listen to your teacher. It was really easy to revise for especially with the right revision guides. The course work is an easy way to get good marks trust me.. its not to bad. For my course I did one course work in year 10 and one in year 11. The subject is muc different from ks3 ..I couldn't even remember what we did in year 9 and I still got a good grade.

Reply 47

MrGumby

joshphillips999

I really want to take business studies, though, and my mind is almost made up now anyway, I'm going to take history.

Thanks for the advice anyway.

Just like to add...nothing wrong with taking business studies. I took it, and one girl in my school did it as an A level and she's now doing Law in Oxford so don't worry about that. I did both Geography and History at GSCE and in terms on difficulty, I'd say there is little to choose between them as they were quite equal in what you needed to do. I had a really good geography teacher (no cut and stick :p:

) and this made me enjoy geography much more that I would have with another teacher. For history, I didn't enjoy as much at GSCE, but at AS and A Level it was great. Taking one or the other will not damage or help any future applications to university (unless of course you're applying for history or geography, but this is only at a few uni's who actually look for those GCSE's anyway) so just pick which one you feel you would enjoy more.

Reply 48

academic.fail

joshphillips999

I do like them both, and theres nothing else I like which I haven't already chosen/isn't a weak subject.

lol @ weak subject at GCSE level! unis really dont give a flying **** what you take as long as there is english, maths, sciences and a modern language!

Reply 49

rushhour72

do history, really interestin to learn

Reply 50

Ninja Student

Business Studies - Do it if you want to have a laugh with your grades
Triple Science - Only do this if you are really really serious about science, and maybe want to pursue a career in it. Otherwise, no x_x
German - NOOOOOOOO
Geography - See History
History - It's much more interesting, and is seen as an extreamly strong subject. I've finished my coursework for it, I have to say, even that got me interested.

Reply 51

Iheartnerds

I did Geography & History - History is a hell lotta work, tons to remember, and esp. boring if you have to study a topic that doesn't appeal to you (for me, it was the history of India :/ ). Geography I found was a breeze, straightforward and easy to remember - my exam was a question answer format, which I find much more easy than the essays you have to write in History.

But History was much more interesting than Geography, but then again, I'm the kinda girl who would rather learn about American politicians than hills and rocks :smile:

Reply 52

username244734

joshphillips999

Anyway, so because of this I want to change to either Geography or History. I enjoy both very much, maybe Geography slightly more although I would still be able to get through both of the courses easily.

My problem is that people say if your better at Science, then you would be better at Geography, and if your better at English, you would be better at History.

But my History teacher said I would probably be predicted an A in History if I took it, since he gave me a 7c/7b level in my report. And over the 3 years (and about 9 assessments) in Geography, my highest grade was only ever a 6c, but I rarely enjoyed the assessment tasks.

Y'know, I remember everyone trying to predict/guess which subjects they'd do well so that they'd take it for GCSE. My advice: dont do that.

I took both History and Geography because I wanted my careers door to be left wide open and I liked both of them. I was originally doing Drama instead of History because I thought I'd do better in Drama.

You can't realy guess how well you're going to do (I think, anyway) because you learn many techniques and things during the courses which make you better. At the start of year 10, I was getting B/C grades but by the end, I was predicted an A*.

I'd say choose which you think you'll enjoy more.

History (OCR):
- a LOT of learning (it was the ONLY subject I actually revised for PROPERLY because otherwise I'd have flunked).
- you can't really make stuff up, you need to have at least a decent idea of what's going on to be able to answer the questions
- the exam can be quite long, but if you know what you're doing then it's easy.
- the course I was doing (Russia, International Relations and Britain before and after WW1) was extremely interesting. I never got bored but learning everything is a bit grrr.

Geography (Edexcel):
- not as much stuff to learn, some bits are just common sense
- you can make up some stuff, you can reuse ideas from one place to another
- the exam is okay - there are some long answers but some bits are multiple choice/short
- I didn't find it as interesting as the History course overall but it was by no means boring!

To end my babbling, I'd recommend both! They're an awesome combination and I'm really glad I took them. Hmm business studies. History was way more interesting but a lot more work. I say that, but then I am taking AS Geography next year. :p:

PM me if you need more info on the courses/what the subjects are like!

Reply 53

xoJessicaAnn

I do both subjects at GCSE.
For me, History is a hell of alot better and I enjoy it so much.
I was top of my Geography class in year 9 and seriously, the difference in KS3 and GCSE Geography is so so different, I'm really struggling with my Geography. Plus, its just a load of fieldwork tasks :/

Reply 54

Bulbasaur

I just came back from my holiday yesterday, didn't realise there were more replies. Thanks a lot. :smile:

And for those who commented on business studies, the only reason why is because I can't take economics since its not offered at my school and I want to have one subject in that area. A modern language is always really good, I am really interested in science and its probably my strongest subject so that would work well too, and of course History which is apparently a lot of work (which I don't mind doing), but extremely interesting and would be a lot better than Music (which in my school is actually Music Technology which I think is just basically writing and recording music, which A) I already know how to do and B) A much worse subject than the music course which was previously offered at my school).

So yeah, its definately going to be like this for me:

Business Studies
German
Triple Science
History.

Thanks again :smile:

Reply 55

milliondollarcorpse

I did Geography but regretted it, History just seems more interesting now I look back.

Saying that Geography was piss easy, we didn't really do much work in our class in Year 10 and 11 and I still (somehow) managed an A, a lot of the questions in the exam really only needed common sense.

Reply 56

rennythetoad16

History is so much better than Geography at GCSE - History coursework is a breeze if you plan well and do it pretty much as soon as it's set (it's only a couple of essays!)
Whereas Geography coursework takes up too much time, is ridiculously complicated and in general just incrediably boring!

Reply 57

makingamemory

HannahBabess

geography coursework is well easy for mine i went to town and made up answers to this survey we had then wrote about my results and i ended up getting an A. you do a few graphs with it and its all good :smile:

my mate took history and found the coursework so hard and she spent so long doing it and shes like really smart. so geographys better in my opinion :smile:

Same OCR A ftw!
Seriously Geography is a lot easier than History, although you have quite a lot to remember for the case studies a lot of the people who got level 4s or so in KS3 were getting As and Bs in the mocks. Geography is a lot of common sense. The coursework isn't that bad either, it's tedious, but then what coursework isn't? It's really straight forward.

Reply 58

Kingbradley6

Ok, obviously this choice is down to what you enjoy most, but I'll still give my thoughts...

I went into the GCSE course thinking Geography would be my best as from years 7 to 9 I had ALWAYS got an A in my report cards for geography whereas I only ever got a B in History.

However, maybe it was the teacher maybe my attitude I don't know, if you know the technique of how to write an essay right, history is easier at GCSE in the exam.

Oh and btw this thing you heard about if you're better at science then take geography, is complete nonsense. I'm definately better at science than english (taking all scienes and further maths for a-level) but geography has nothing to do with them at all (except maybe one unit of chemistry).

Go for history (it's also slightly more reputed...i think)

Reply 59

NDW2009

Well I took both History and Geography for GCSE, and personally I found Geography to be more interesting.

Firstly talk to your teachers about what is involved with the GCSE e.g. with my History, we studied : The American West and Medicine through Time.

I love history, but I found it rather challenging, where-as Geography, I had a profound interest in it, I was in the Air Cadets during my GCSE's and the Map reading really helped with my GCSE, and even better I achieved a A* in my Geog. Coursework.

So I would advise to speak to your tutor/teacher and also to you which one do you really prefer, if you take either one because all your friends are, you won't enjoy it as much as you could.

Hope this Helps.