Fourth A Level; History or Biology?

I do both history and biology at GCSE however I do not do separate sciences. The A Levels I have chosen are: biology, history, sociology and psychology however I would like to change either history, or biology to law. Any suggestions as to which one I should change it to?

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Reply 1

User944645

What kind of uni course are you looking to do (assuming you want to go to uni)?

If you want to take something like psychology, keep biology as a scientific A-level will be a great help.
If you're more into humanities, history is better to keep.
And you probably know this, but a law A-level is generally not advised if you want to do a law degree.

Reply 2

User944645

Original post by Upper Echelons

Why would you change to law? Law is poor and not very well respected, nor is it rigorous. It's rubbish, and intelligent people would take better, real, A-levels. I know people who just strolled into the exam without any preparation and got an A (no joke).

History or Biology? Neither. They're both just fact learning, with no real thought involved. I could look up History/Biology material on Wikipedia if I actually cared. If you're intelligent then you'll want intellectually challenging material which is conceptually difficult.

Try Maths, Physics, Further Maths, Philosophy. Even if you're not interested in a mathematical degree, I'd still throw STEP in there to push you a bit, as the A-level syllabus can be very easy at times.

Probably not the most constructive advice...

Reply 3

iheartdjokovic

Original post by Upper Echelons

OP, ignore this! I can't speak for Biology but I do A level History and there is so much more to it than looking things up on Wikipedia, it's one of the most respected and traditional A levels so of course it's 'intellectually challenging' :rolleyes:

it will develop your skills of analysis, essay-writing and critical thinking. A level classes tend to be a lot smaller than GCSE (mine has 10 people) so there's a lot of historical debate and discussion which is stimulating and really helps when it comes to exam time. Obviously there's lots of content but it's so much more than that, you could literally learn the textbook by heart and still do terribly in the exam if you can't analyse material, argue your point of view throughout an essay and apply your knowledge appropriately to the question. Hope this helps :smile:

Reply 4

User944645

Original post by Upper Echelons

Don't talk rubbish. Even for humanities subjects, the top universities love intelligent students, hence why any smart cookie with mathematical A-levels can get into them.

Most people who don't take A-level Maths/FM do so because they can't cope, hence they're too stupid. Maths is just logical reasoning, and so these people who are so bad at Maths that they can't even get an A at AS-level.. will not make good lawyers or philosophers, let's get real.

And where did the OP say she was applying for a top university? Either way, STEP maths isn't helpful to the application of anyone not applying for a maths-related degree - I know; I'm taking it for fun.

(edited 11 years ago)

Reply 5

Plainview

Upper Echelons was right about one thing: law is not a good A-Level. Some universities even say that they discourage prospective law students from doing it because it's too simplistic and they need to reteach a lot of stuff. To be honest, biology and history are the two most respectable A-Levels you've got in that mix – if you want to change one, drop one of the other two.

Reply 6

BioIz

Don't listen to pretentious people OP, there is absolutely nothing wrong with doing the subjects you want to do and it's not necessarily your fault that you're not doing separate sciences... I know a few people who had to fight their schools at GCSE to let them do triple at all. think about what you want to do at uni and look up the entry requirements. If you're going for something sciencey like psych then keep biology. If you're going for something more essay based maybe keep history. If it won't affect your uni entry, just keep whichever you like the best. Job's a goodun.

(edited 11 years ago)

Reply 7

User944645

Original post by Upper Echelons

STEP is definitely helpful for people taking Law or Philosophy or History or any social sciences. I know, I took it.

Forgive me, I now realise that the OP is not applying to top universities. She's not taking separate sciences - if her school has already deemed her to be too stupid to take real Sciences, then she's not going to be good enough for the top universities.

More useful than further reading into law, or history, or social sciences?

Now you're just getting rude.

Reply 8

iheartdjokovic

Original post by Upper Echelons

Historical debate and discussion is not necessarily intelligent debate. Just like in every Politics/RS/History class, it'll be mindless debate of boring kids who wish they were intelligent but instead have to pretend that they are by speaking loudly.

To be quite frank, the OP would be better off taking something more rigorous like Economics or Philosophy in its place.

For someone who's been banging on about 'rigorous and logical thought', your connection between historical debate and mindless debate is remarkably unsubstantiated.

Reply 9

dragonkeeper999

Original post by harpreetbains

There seems to be a big debate going on about a load of irrelevant rubbish above me...
Anyway, I would recommend keeping both Biology and History. They are generally considered more academically rigorous than Law (which you may find some unis prefer you NOT to have to study law as a degree!). Doing a proper science subject (some unis don't consider Psychology as a science) such as Biology will definitely help your UCAS application for any science/ psychology related subject, as well as showing a different set of skills than those required by your other subjects. The same can be said for History, which would be excellent for any essay based or humanities subject (including a degree in Law). If you are really desperate about Law, I would say that Sociology is the one to drop from your A level choices as it is also sometimes considered a slightly 'soft' subject, particularly if you don't apply for a related degree.
If you really wanted to keep your options open, Maths may also be a good A level to consider (instead of Sociology/ Psychology/ maybe Biology).

Reply 10

Plainview

Original post by Upper Echelons

I don't disagree with you there - sociology and psychology are also pathetic, for students who couldn't make it onto Economics A-level as they lack rigorous thinking skills.

However, the OPs mix is poor as it is. If I saw someone with that combination I'd assume they were just a hard-working essay writer with very little talent for thinking.

I'll be honest, I never thought Economics was that reputable either. Maths is a much better choice.

I think you might be underestimating history. I take English, History, Latin, Maths and Further Maths, and I'm an essay person and I definitely have to put the most work into history. It's not just facts – quite a lot of it comes down to formation of argument and recognising trends, and close analysis of sources and language.

Reply 11

defeatedmac

Original post by Upper Echelons

You just offended like 85% of the university educated and bound population. kudos.

Reply 12

lolface32

Original post by Upper Echelons

But I picked Maths, Psychology, Chemistry and Biology. :eek:

Do I lack rigorous thinking skills? :confused:

(edited 11 years ago)

Reply 13

Plainview

Original post by DavidH20

More useful than further reading into law, or history, or social sciences?

Now you're just getting rude.

Yeah, probably the former and latter. Maths is about as good as it gets. History, psychology and sociology are pretty soft. Think about the competition for places – the universities want to see general, core intelligence. You can apply what you know when you get there.

Reply 14

Midlander

Original post by Upper Echelons

This is one of the most arrogant posts I've ever seen.

This was posted from The Student Room's iPhone/iPad App

Reply 15

Eloades11

Original post by Upper Echelons

That really is some poor poor advice. STEP is a Cambridge Maths admissions test, which even the most talented maths applicants struggle with, it would be a waste of time for someone taking law or philosophy. Just ignore what this guy has said OP.

Biology is one of the hardest and most respected A-levels, and history is also a very challenging A-level. History is more essay based, whereas biology is more of an exam based subject. It entirely depends on what career you want to take after your A-levels and which A-level you'd enjoy more.

Reply 16

Vian

As others have already said, Law is seen as a poor A-Level in general, but if you're going to switch either Biology or History then it all depends on what course you wish to do at university.

@Upper Echelons: For all your talk on how History and Biology are for idiots, you seem to ignore the fact that (for those studying science subjects) many students find A-Level Maths incredibly easy. More so than many humanities, at any rate. Of course, you don't care and assume any subject that captures your interest must be the most intellectually rigorous of all subjects, much like a troll.

Reply 17

User990473

Upper Echelons

Studies have shown that rote learning is just as important as intellectually challenging stimuli. The facts you learn help you make connections between things much more easily. After all, unless you can make new connections between things you are just going to be spurting out what others have already said a thousand times before you which is useless.

Thus, I think that your pretentious attitude towards subjects like maths, physics and philosophy is redundant. In fact, in the case of philosophy at a level, the whole subject is pretty much rote learning anyway.

Having a balance of a difficult workload and difficult concepts is probably better for cognitive strengthening and intellectual dexterity.
----------//----------

OP: Your A Level choices are pretty rubbish atm. In terms of subjects, you should probably chose some out of this list:

•

Maths and Further Maths

•

English Literature

•

Physics

•

Biology

•

Chemistry

•

Geography

•

History

•

Languages (Classical and Modern)

They are generally regarded as the better A Levels. (Trinity college, Cambridge have a 'preferred subjects' list comprising of these subjects, Russell Group have a booklet recommending these subjects as 'facilitating' and LSE also have a similar list. Look on-line and see for yourself).

Taking biology and history is a good start. Perhaps look at a language or English literature for law. Otherwise, if you want to keep your options open, something like chemistry or maths would be useful.

Sources:http://www.russellgroup.ac.uk/media/informed-choices/InformedChoices-latest.pdf
http://www.trin.cam.ac.uk/index.php?pageid=604
http://www.thestudentroom.co.uk/wiki/Respected_A_Levels
http://www.thestudentroom.co.uk/showthread.php?t=810355

(edited 11 years ago)

Reply 18

Kenan and Kel

Original post by harpreetbains

Change Sociology to Law.

Reply 19

Millie_J

Original post by harpreetbains

Ok, so ignoring all the crap that's being posted about people being stupid for taking separate sciences (?!) and going back to the actual question. Law isn't the most respected a level out there, but there sure as hell are some worse ones. If you want to do law though, then either history or biology are better a levels to take than the law a level (I don't even know, sometimes the education system just needs to take a step back and look at its choices).

But, if you are set on choosing law then it really depends on what your skill set is as to which of history or biology you drop. I take both, and enjoy them both equally, but personally I find history a lot harder. With history there is lots of fact-learning but at the same time, a lot of it is thinking out your opinion and how to support it with the evidence you've got. I'm doing coursework at the moment, and they mark it on 2 separate mark schemes; one for knowledge and one for use of sources etc. So it's not entirely fact-based and it does require you to be opinionated and to be able to analyse historical evidence (basically, use historical techniques).

Also, you have a hell of a lot of reading to do out of lesson. Which sucks, but if you actually do it, then it makes such a difference. In short, it's definitely not easy, but then, that's why it's one of the most highly respected qualifications I guess? :P

Biology is the one I'm better at and that's probably because a) I find essay writing so hard and b) I like it when the answer is either right or wrong, and there are no in-betweens.
With history, if you argue your case then you can always be right, but in biology, if you say that the trachea is a bone in your leg then no matter how much argument you give, you're still wrong :wink:

There's loads of fact-learning in biology too, but at the same time, if you don't understand the processes then you won't be able to get a good grade, regardless of how much stuff you've memorised. You have to understand the chemical nature of molecules and how to relate the different processes you learn together. Also, if you just memorise the picture and then they give you an applied question in the exam then you're screwed :L

I don't want to scare you off either; they're both do-able (honestly, I mean, I'm doing ok so far) and they're both really interesting a levels. In terms of 'prestigiousness' they're both worth the same, so it's entirely up to which you think you'd be better at. Good at writing essays, like reading and opinionated - choose history. Like thinking in a scientific way, working with facts and willing to work at learning a process until you understand it (meiosis took forever) - choose biology.

Or, if everyone on here has put you off law altogether, then go with both and you could always drop the one you don't like later on :smile: