History or Geography A Level???

I'm in Year 11 and have started to think about my options for Further Education. I know that I definitely want to do A Levels, but I am unsure as to which ones to take, so I just need your opinions!

Let me give you some background information : the GCSE's I am taking are Triple Science, English, Maths, Additional Maths, Geography, History, Art and French(I'm predicted A's and A*'s in all of them). My favourites are Maths, History, Geography and Physics. I think that I would enjoy some type of engineering as my future career, although I have never had any proper experience in it - I just know that I love Physics and Maths the most.

Back to my dilemma. So, as you can probably already tell, I am 99% sure I will take Maths and Physics for two of my A Levels. However, I am undecided on the third one. It will either be History or Geography but there are advantages and disadvantages for them both. With Geography, I find it much easier to retain and memorise the information, meaning I will probably do better in it. However, if I take Maths, Physics and Geography, I feel like my options for a future career will be limited to the engineering route, which is obviously not good if I decide that I would not enjoy that type of career when it comes to choosing universities. With History, I would show that I am capable of writing essays and am therefore an all-rounded student if I take it with Maths and Physics. Therefore, I have a broader range of options for my career. But, if I decide I definitely want to do some type of engineering, History doesn't quite sit right with Maths and Physics.

I'm just a bit of a mess right now haha. I have my school's Sixth Form Open Evening next week, so I will have a look at both subjects there and hopefully make up my mind. Also, although I said I would do better in Geography, if I put the work in, I could do just as well in History. It would just require that tiny bit more work.

I would just really love to have an outsider's perspective of things. Maybe you can share your experience if you had a similar one to mine, or even give me some information about each subject.

Thank you for taking the time to read this (if, indeed, you still are)

- Amy :smile:

(edited 6 years ago)

Reply 1

icelolly123

History is just amazing

Reply 2

SophieB123

I would suggest taking geography. It’s interesting and well respected and a lot of the content is just GCSE but in more detail which makes it easier to learn. The only difference between gcse geography and A level is that you have to write more essay style questions that are up to 18 marks long. So geography can still prove that your essay writing skills are up to scratch.

Reply 3

username1292215

I do both and I find History much easier :smile:

Reply 4

cookie1362

Original post by icelolly123

History is just amazing

it really is!! my sister takes history at uni and it seems really interesting

Reply 5

cookie1362

Original post by SuperHuman98

I do both and I find History much easier :smile:

do you? are the exams for history not really fast paced? that's what I struggle with most at GCSE level.

Reply 6

cookie1362

Original post by SophieB123

ahhh I didn't know about the essay style questions. I think I probably will take geography to be honest, I just keep changing my mind aha.

thanks for the reply btw :smile:

Reply 7

StevetheIcecube

History is a great subject and I love it!

history>geo

Original post by StevetheIcecube

History is a great subject and I love it!

it sure is!

Reply 10

HoldThisL

A Levels won't limit your career options.

I did both history and geography for AS Level but am now only doing geography because I didn't like the history taugh at my sixth form college. History AQA is purely 25 marks essay whereas geography OCR is short answer questions as well as 16, 20 and 33 mark essays so there really is no disadvantage to geography over history for you.

If you do want to be an engineer, I recommend geography for the same reason you're considering but it will make very little difference to your career options so, if you're leaning towards history and like the specification taught at your school/sixth form, it's not worth disregarding simply because you're worried it will restrict you becoming an engineer.

Reply 11

Federerr

Coursework for Geo is mad stress

Reply 12

cookie1362

Original post by HoldThisL

Thanks for the advice! I will have to check the specification that they teach at my school for history to see if I like it or not

Reply 13

cookie1362

Original post by Federerr

Coursework for Geo is mad stress

Ugh that's not good. Although for art GCSE, we were not told that the two projects we had done in year 10 were actually 60% of our grade, so now we're redoing everything within the space of 3-4 months. Pretty sure you can't get much more stressful than that haha