History/French/Physics/Eng Lit/Economics A level (students) HELP!!!!

What course do you want to do at university?

Economics is soul crushingly boring if you aren't that interested in it or hell bent on becoming an investment banker, but at the same time it's actually applicable to real life and what you see on the news. I did AQA AS; it wasn't very difficult but there's a lot of exam technique to learn. You have to remember a lot of definitions and some basic diagrams.

I did AQA History for about 3 months. Make sure you like the topics you'll study before you choose History is all I can say.

Physics AS was good, but I think A2 is a fair deal harder. I liked the quantum stuff, electricity was basically a recap of IGCSE physics, and we'd already done mechanics in maths. Materials and optics was .
I wouldn't do it if you don't like it, unless you really need it for uni. It's also nice to have variety in your A level subjects. That being said, the exam is very straightforward.

I didn't do French, but I did German and language A levels are pretty similar. I like languages so they're the most fun for me, but you need to learn more than you would in other A levels. Speaking exams vary by exam board but aren't too bad. It's not an easy choice by any means, but you get genuinely useful and employable language skills, so I'd recommend doing a language A level.

With French with what you explained its similar markingbsort sort of but its more complicated when. You went through the process. Its hard to choose between history and French! What do you think?

I hope in proceeding a medicine or dentistry course,

I love history I find it interesting along with law.

I have biology, chemistry and maths definitely on the cards to take at Alevel I don't know if triple science is too much stress or hassle. I love biology and chemistry so much don't get me wrong but physics is just another level.

Is there a part you don't understand about it or is it just a little more detailed than at GCSE? I can't remember the marking criteria for GCSE so I'm not sure.


I personally prefer French over history but it depends on what you want to do. I don't want to do any history related degree or job and I think that French is slightly more useful in terms of getting jobs as languages are valued.

Yeah for medicine a combo of bio chem and maths is all you'll need. For your 4th subject just do whatever you like the most and think you'll do best in. I'm all for languages but honestly they're risky choices if you're set on medicine and need good grades since they require more effort than other subjects. History sounds like a good choice. I think UCL likes a fourth subject that isn't maths/a science for medicine, but otherwise it's up to you.

I hope in proceeding a medicine or dentistry course,

I love history I find it interesting along with law.

I have biology, chemistry and maths definitely on the cards to take at Alevel I don't know if triple science is too much stress or hassle. I love biology and chemistry so much don't get me wrong but physics is just another level.

If you're taking Biology, Chemistry and Maths and want to pursue Medicine / Dentistry then I don't think it matters much what 4th option you take, as long as it's "highly regarded". History, Physics and French all fall into that category. You don't seem to want to do Physics but you love History - to me that says you should take History! Don't do an A Level you don't think you're going to enjoy, because it will be horrendous.

I did both History and Physics and loved them both - but that's just me. I think they're both hard work in different ways. History will be a lot of essays, coursework and writing; whereas Physics will be a lot of practice, exams and studying the facts. History will give you something a bit different to the Science / Maths and you might find that a welcome change (I certainly did - I studied Physics, Maths and History). It might be a good idea to find out what periods you're going to be studying in History (if you can) as that may have a say in whether you take it.

At GCSE we did exam essay practise all the time so I'm use to essays and my teacher said (because we had a mock exam) I know how to use the certain techniques to writing essays that's why I had the top grade I had, so I'm used to all that boring essays haha I have my own workbooks where I do essays at home so i have had good practise.

I know the exam board is edexcel and the first year we are doing Russia and Henry VIII for AS which is all I am doing,

Well if you're used to essays and if you find Russia & Henry VIII interesting then I would go for History. No point putting yourself through Physics if it's going to be torture, as it's not necessary.

Physics has always been one of my weak subjects to be honest. In fact its my weakest! I'm just worried I won't like it at AS and even though I'm working hard in my GCSEs for physics but I find I don't enjoy the subject and I know I'll start slacking because I don't see the point. But I want to do so well so I can go to top universities but I just don't know. I know Oxbridge would love this but they only ask for 3 A-Levels but I think they ask to know the fourth AS you done. Do you know if universities ask about the fourth? I just don't want to mess up my education. Do you find the work load too much?

most unis like 4 AS levels but the fourth one doesn't have to be a hard subject, i.e it can be geography.

the work load wasn't that much, i only revised proper 1 month before the exam but i kept up to date with whats was going on in class throughout the year.

The only reason I am surviving French is because it will look good on my CV with B-A* next to it

If you feel like you're only surviving French just to put it on your CV I wouldn't consider that a good enough reason to choose it over another topic. I personally enjoy learning French and so having it on my CV is just an added bonus. If you don't feel like you're enjoying French I would stay clear away from it at A-level as it is a huge step up from GCSE and takes commitment to do well. If this is the case I would choose history over French, especially as it seems you find it quite interesting.

If you don't like Physics please don't take it under any circumstances!!!! And don't choose subjects based on how well you think it's respected by university admissions tutors because as long as you don't take something like General Studies, they really don't care very much and your UMS scores are far, far more important than the subjects you got the UMS marks in. Apart from taking the relevant subject at A level if you want to study it at university (e.g. English Lit if you want to study English at uni), subject choice matters far less to admissions tutors than I think you think it does. It will make your life a living hell for 2 years if you have to spend a lot of time doing a subject you detest.

I took History up to A2 level and am planning to study it at uni next year. I took Edexcel and followed the 16th Century History option.

1st year:
British History from 1509-1540 (25%) which ended with a source based paper,
Luther and the reformation in the Holy Roman Empire 1517-1555 (which I found by far the most enjoyable topic; it was really awesome so I thoroughly recommend it if you have the chance to take this option next year), as well as the revolts in the Netherlands from 1566-160? (sorry can't remember the year the course was wrapped up). Luther and the Netherlands Revolts was examined via 1 exam consisting of 2 essays (25%)

2nd year:
British History (30%) 1536-88 (examined via 1 paper, 1 non-source based essay required and 1 source based)
Coursework (20%): Spain and the Spanish Empire 1474-1598 (for me this was the best part of the course; we could choose our own questions and do all our own research so there was a long rein on it-this coursework structure isn't restricted to the 16th century option for Edexcel; it's the same for all the Edexcel History options)

I think for History it's very useful to look into the board your school does and how everything's assessed, as well as exactly what you'll be studying (which may or may not make a difference to your interest levels). All of this will vary HUGELY from board to board. For History there's a lot of information to digest and arrange/manipulate, so interest levels are crucial-if you're bored stiff by the subject matter it will be nigh on impossible to learn (at least this is my experience, e.g. when learning about financial reforms in the 1530s!). Having said that, it can be as interesting as you make it, depending on how engaged you are and what questions you ask. Personally I'd thoroughly recommend it, but take that recommendation with a pinch of salt as it depends on how interested you are in studying it in the first place-I think you should be able to gage this pretty well from how much you enjoyed GCSE History.

Difficulty rating (NB very subjective):
If you're really interested in and motivated by what you're studying, 5 or 6
if you're sort of interested/don't mind: 8 or 9
if you don't enjoy it very much, 9-10, if you've taken it as a soft option, 11 (out of 10 )

Hope this helps (although it's obviously only 1 opinion) and best of luck with the eventual decision!

Oh that's wonderful news; I recommend History with all my heart-go for it!

Yeah I can't just assume all teachers will be like this though however I find I am not the only one though in English who is constantly having problems with this teacher e.g. he shouted at my friend because of the "way she holds her pen" its majorly ridiculous and childish. What do you do in English literature for AS? Like does it mainly consist of reading or something else? I know you explained what you done but how did you do it if that makes sense!

Oh really? That seems ridiculous! He seems very backwards. Even though I have never had a male English teacher, they do seem to be the worst. In the whole of my educated career I have only had 15 male teachers, comparing to having 38-41 female teachers. I remember my year 10 English teacher, telling me off because I didn't put that vertical cross in my f's because I liked my joined writing. Some English teachers are so backwards, it does my head it!

Well it would really depend on the college/school etc as they would have different exam boards. Erm, for AS we studied WW1. For coursework we studied three texts; two dramas which we picked our own title and compared those two and then a standalone novel called Birdsong. In this one we had the option to either do traditional essay or a Recreational Writing, which was basically just adding in a chapter or alternative ending or something like that. I did that, however my teacher said it was very original but just wasn't sophisticated as to get the high bands you need to "sound as though you are the writer" so you needed a very high, technical writing style. I didn't argue with her because she was Head of English. But I'm glad she pushed be towards the traditional as you have to do that in your A2 year.

For exam, we got told 6 different possible themes of WW1 Lit. For example, Women and the Home Front, Comradeship, Realities of War, etc. From that, we had to buy our own WW1 Literature novels, drama, poetry and non-fiction stuff. We had to read, analyse and just pick out quotes that fit into those 6 themes. This was for Section A of the exam. Section B was set poetry. We had Oxford's Book of War Poetry as a set text. We had to remorise at least about 40 poems for the exam and we also had to link it with our own poetry as well as referring to Wider Reading in drama and prose.

How we did AS: we read in class, analysed all the set texts, with activities like group work, presentations, essays, timed essays and etc. When it came to the exam, we read Regeneration and Black Adder Goes Forth for Wider Reading with our teacher and just practised exam papers with that. With our other teacher, we did about 1 to two poems per lesson which started from January and lasted up until April. We mainly read, but depends on the school and teacher. We had A LOT of vocal debates about characters and etc with our teachers which made it a lot funny. I remember some of us called Isabelle in Birdsong a slut and our teacher just laughed and agreed that she was a "Jezebel". One of the teachers was a prude, she was fun though. English is the subject where it can really make or break you depending on the teacher you have!

Oh god xD I have memory deficiency problems and that dictionary is keeping my head just above water in French. I would like to take it but then again now learning you don't have the dictionary for the exams it's kind of putting me off! I use colours for revision at the moment and sometimes it doesn't work but some it does if you know what I mean?

For history medicine and treatment, we did something different we went through Greeks, Romans, medieval, industrial, 17th century to 21st century, pasteur with germ theory, DNA genes, pre history and many more. It was like a timeline of life progressing forwards all mainly to do with England but talks about important people who made discoveries which helped medicine, anatomy, technology and science ect. Like Hippocrates and theory of four humours and German called Koch who expanded Germ theory and so on.

If I'm honest I don't really feel up to doing the first few weeks because if I decide to change I don't want to catch up on any work I have missed!

It is bad without a dictionary, especially at the start :/ yeh I'm the same, it worked for French but not for history caus my notes just ended up being full on sentences and colour did nothing to help me remember them, with French I just wrote say 10 words in one colour that linked together etc.

That's like the stuff I studied in my medicine through time section, quite interesting tbf but yh I sort of touched on some of what I learnt at GCSE in the as level public health section, like the germ theory and Chadwick and Snow. I get that about the trial, there wasn't many at my school that did it.