Is Religious Studies a good option to pick for GCSE?

Currently taking on RS GCSE. It's an extremely interesting course for both religious believers and staunch atheists alike (though if you're the latter, the 'Revelation and Enlightenment' topic will make you want to hang yourself ) and if you have a half decent teacher it can become a lovely subject in terms of debating and learning stuff outside the syllabus. It's not easy, exactly, but if you're naturally good at arguing then you should get through the exams fine. The actual concepts, like the Cosmological and Teleological arguments and certain laws/concepts of Christianity, are pretty easy to pick up.

But Philosophy and Ethics focuses almost solely on Christianity. If you want to experience different religions, do the World Religions course.

Thanks, this answer is really helpful.

I would argue against the 'easy GCSE' comments. There is a hell of a lot of work on my course which you have to know, but a lot of things like Catechism, bible, Jesus, all cover loads of topics.
It's a good laugh and really interesting-especially the life and death part of the course (that's less a laugh, more interesting) also, of you do Edexcel unit 3 you watch at least 4 films


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Glad to help! The references to it being 'easy' are slightly correct but not quite. Content is quite low, and, in the case of Ethics (not so much Philosophy), if you watch the news and have even a slight interest in current affairs/politics you can probably bull**** the paper and at least hit a B. But the grade boundaries are ridiculously high - 90% at least.

I think you should do it.

In year ten I completely ignored the subject. I didn't bother to revise and scraped along at the back of the class colouring in worksheets with a highlighter pen.

I still managed to do quite well in the year ten exams (an A* and a B) so when I came back in year eleven I decided to try and invest a little time in it.

I was amazed by how open the subject is. Yes, it's quite easy to get a good grade with minimal revision, but you can also really run away with it from a more philosophical perspective. Think about it, the study of religion is probably one of the most ancient subjects you can take!

I retook the B and ended up with full marks in that paper, as well an in my year eleven topics. So, in conclusion, you should take it. Case closed.

I am interested in Religion despite being an Atheist and like you said, I'm naturally good at arguing. Haha, so I think its the subject for me. What are you predicted to get in your RE GCSE?

if you're saying its not an easy gcse that's because your other subjects are probably photography/mediastudies etc. also I always thought it was compulsory said by the government right? iduno ^^


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By all means, go for it! I'm an agnostic atheist, but the course has still interested me - ethics is more interesting than philosophy though, you get topics like drugs, sex and sexuality, discrimination, euthanasia, medical technology...it's awesome.

I'm predicted an A* But English and RS are my subjects - pretty useful for hopeful future journalist! I usually get full marks on the ethics papers, just because I find the topics interesting. Philosophy's more hit and miss - some topics are epic (science and religion, afterlife), others...well...(characteristics of god, revelation and enlightenment).

surprised your school haven't made it compulsory, most schools do. its a ridiculously easy GCSE, you just write a load of waffle in the exam and get a free A*/A