General Studies A-level?

Hello, I have a few questions about General Studies A-level. I know many people say its pointless and the majority of unis don't consider it, but as its compulsory at my school, I'm wondering what it actually is, in what format are the exams and how would I prepare for them? Also, would it take up a lot of time I could be using to study my other four main subjects? And usually how many hours of lessons a week is it, and how much revision time does it take up? Any help would be greatly appreciated, thanks!

It was compulsory for me too, I got an E as I really didn't care and knew my unis wouldn't accept it general studies for me consisted of one lesson a week, with the exam having a section of multiple choice questions based on a provided article and the next half being essay style. I randomly ticked the multiple choice ones and stopped halfway through my essay, that's how pointless I found it but that's bad advice.

If you want to do well in it, listen in lessons, perhaps keep up with current affairs. Read up on things. Questions on my papers were things such as behaviour in schools, organ transplants etc, so a lot of it is basically common sense, as are most of the multiple choice questions. I wouldn't do too much revision for it as you don't want to sacrifice any of your other grades. Perhaps look at a few past papers to get a feel for the exam style; to get an idea of the topics they'll test you on

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It was compulsory for me too, I got an E as I really didn't care and knew my unis wouldn't accept it general studies for me consisted of one lesson a week, with the exam having a section of multiple choice questions based on a provided article and the next half being essay style. I randomly ticked the multiple choice ones and stopped halfway through my essay, that's how pointless I found it but that's bad advice.

If you want to do well in it, listen in lessons, perhaps keep up with current affairs. Read up on things. Questions on my papers were things such as behaviour in schools, organ transplants etc, so a lot of it is basically common sense, as are most of the multiple choice questions. I wouldn't do too much revision for it as you don't want to sacrifice any of your other grades. Perhaps look at a few past papers to get a feel for the exam style; to get an idea of the topics they'll test you on

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General studies is a joke but I guess it's useful if you're looking for a points offer. No-one at my school revised for it and quite a few people got As in it with like 0 revision. Honestly I wouldn't worry about it!

I'd say the same but put serious emphasis on keeping up with current affairs including documentaries on BBC (Story of Women and Art saved me in one of the exams)

Hey, thanks for your replies!!

I'm wondering what the results sheet for A-levels look like - I know most unis don't care about general studies, but will it matter if say I got AAB and then an E for general studies? Or could I fail it and pretend that I never took it (or is it stuck on my results sheet forever?) If it is, I'd want to do well, so apart from keeping up with current events (and also what are general studies lessons like?) do I need to put in a lot of time and effort for revision? I'm concerned that this will affect revision time for my other subjects, how many hours do you think is required to get an A/B in general studies? Thanks.

Hey, thanks for your replies!!

I'm wondering what the results sheet for A-levels look like - I know most unis don't care about general studies, but will it matter if say I got AAB and then an E for general studies? Or could I fail it and pretend that I never took it (or is it stuck on my results sheet forever?) If it is, I'd want to do well, so apart from keeping up with current events (and also what are general studies lessons like?) do I need to put in a lot of time and effort for revision? I'm concerned that this will affect revision time for my other subjects, how many hours do you think is required to get an A/B in general studies? Thanks.

Even if you get a U, you have to declare it on UCAS so do the best you can. I read through some revision material a few times and did a couple of essays (I'm terrible at them) but that's it (I got a B but I'm sure one of my exams was marked wrong). General studies lessons were good for me because I was able to contribute; if no one contributes, it will be significantly more tedious

Thank you!! So around how many hours of revision time would you say General Studies took? And for the A-level exam results, is it one page for each separate subject or are all subjects on one sheet? And would you suggest reading the news once a week to keep up with current affairs to prepare or just cramming stuff in before the exam so I can use the time to revise for other subjects? And did you feel that preparing for General Studies gave you less time for other revision? Thanks!

Thank you!! So around how many hours of revision time would you say General Studies took? And for the A-level exam results, is it one page for each separate subject or are all subjects on one sheet? And would you suggest reading the news once a week to keep up with current affairs to prepare or just cramming stuff in before the exam so I can use the time to revise for other subjects? And did you feel that preparing for General Studies gave you less time for other revision? Thanks!

Oh and results are on the same page, listing modules

Hey, thanks for your replies! So this all comes down to my dilema: I can either choose to go to a sixth form fifteen to twenty mintues walking distance from my home with compulsory RE lessons and General Studies A-level (which I'm really worried about failing and having it stuck on my results sheet forever) or go to a school around an hour bus journey with no compulsory re lessons or general studies. I'd be a new student to both schools, and both are equally good. I know this may sound a silly question, but if it were you, which school would you choose? Thanks.

Eh, you'd have to declare it but I had an E in it as well as an E in AS Chemistry and got 5 offers from Durham, York, Exeter, Liverpool, and Kent, so they don't really care you won't have to put much effort in at all, honestly

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Jesus, that sounds horrible! My advice would be to go to the further one if you don't think you can deal with the extra subjects. How much RE do they make you do and how many AS do you sit? I go to a sixth form 40mins away which makes us do general studies but my other options (which are closer) aren't as good and doesn't make any compulsory subjects. Put your education before the amount of time you spend on a bus.

Well, the further school has a specialist science school status (no idea what difference that makes, but I'm studying all three sciences, four subjects in total) but the school closer to my home (the one with compulsory re and general studies) is higher up on the top state school league tables (its a grammar school) so I'm guessing their science department isn't that bad either. However, do you think travelling for two hours by bus to and from school is worth it just to avoid compulsory RE lessons (don't know how many hours a week) and General Studies or would you suggest enduring the general studies and re to conveniently walk to and from school? Any suggestions, thanks

Hey, thanks for your replies!!

I'm wondering what the results sheet for A-levels look like - I know most unis don't care about general studies, but will it matter if say I got AAB and then an E for general studies? Or could I fail it and pretend that I never took it (or is it stuck on my results sheet forever?) If it is, I'd want to do well, so apart from keeping up with current events (and also what are general studies lessons like?) do I need to put in a lot of time and effort for revision? I'm concerned that this will affect revision time for my other subjects, how many hours do you think is required to get an A/B in general studies? Thanks.

I have heard that if you get a U (but not anything higher), you needn't declare it on UCAS! However as others are saying differently and I've never done this myself you should t probably take that with a pinch of salt...

Actually think General studies sounds kind of interesting though! Sounds a lot like the LNAT really.

At my school they don't make people declare it if they get worse than a C.