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GCSE OPTIONS help

Would you recommend history , or is geography better?

Is Latin a good subject?

Computer science or business studies?
It depends on what you like, what you're good at, and what you might want to do in the future. Generally, try for a variety of subjects to keep things open down the line (e.g. geo, latin, computer science - lots of different skills and routes they could take you; or history, computing and business) and consider what A Levels/ career/ degree you think you might be interested. If you're not sure, then have a little think about it.
You don't need to know for certain, but if you think you might like to do something like economics, then business studies and geography would be useful. If you'd like to go down the medicine route, then Latin and History would be surprisingly useful.

Overall though, prioritise what you enjoy or think you will. If you have your first few lessons and hate it, most schools will be willing to facilitate a change in decision for the first few weeks, so try not to stress too much. Good luck!

Edit: I took all bar business out of those, and am now taking Economics and Geography (plus Maths) at A Level, so feel free to ask about any specifics - I might be able to help ^^
(edited 3 years ago)
Reply 2
Original post by OCorOOC6337
It depends on what you like, what you're good at, and what you might want to do in the future. Generally, try for a variety of subjects to keep things open down the line (e.g. geo, latin, computer science - lots of different skills and routes they could take you; or history, computing and business) and consider what A Levels/ career/ degree you think you might be interested. If you're not sure, then have a little think about it.
You don't need to know for certain, but if you think you might like to do something like economics, then business studies and geography would be useful. If you'd like to go down the medicine route, then Latin and History would be surprisingly useful.

Overall though, prioritise what you enjoy or think you will. If you have your first few lessons and hate it, most schools will be willing to facilitate a change in decision for the first few weeks, so try not to stress too much. Good luck!

Edit: I took all bar business out of those, and am now taking Economics and Geography (plus Maths) at A Level, so feel free to ask about any specifics - I might be able to help ^^


Thank you for the response!
Reply 3
Original post by OCorOOC6337
It depends on what you like, what you're good at, and what you might want to do in the future. Generally, try for a variety of subjects to keep things open down the line (e.g. geo, latin, computer science - lots of different skills and routes they could take you; or history, computing and business) and consider what A Levels/ career/ degree you think you might be interested. If you're not sure, then have a little think about it.
You don't need to know for certain, but if you think you might like to do something like economics, then business studies and geography would be useful. If you'd like to go down the medicine route, then Latin and History would be surprisingly useful.

Overall though, prioritise what you enjoy or think you will. If you have your first few lessons and hate it, most schools will be willing to facilitate a change in decision for the first few weeks, so try not to stress too much. Good luck!

Edit: I took all bar business out of those, and am now taking Economics and Geography (plus Maths) at A Level, so feel free to ask about any specifics - I might be able to help ^^


Did you enjoy Latin?
Reply 4
Original post by Joshjosh0
Did you enjoy Latin?

Latin is a lot of fun - I'm a STEM type student in general, but loved Latin GCSE so much that I ended up doing it at A level too (which led to a bit of a strange mix of A levels for me!). I would definitely recommend it if you have an option spare, it's a lot of fun and very logical, and really helps when you're trying to learn other European languages too.
Reply 5
Original post by Interea
Latin is a lot of fun - I'm a STEM type student in general, but loved Latin GCSE so much that I ended up doing it at A level too (which led to a bit of a strange mix of A levels for me!). I would definitely recommend it if you have an option spare, it's a lot of fun and very logical, and really helps when you're trying to learn other European languages too.


Is it an easy pass?
Reply 6
Original post by Joshjosh0
Is it an easy pass?

Depends on your mindset really, I found it very very easy but languages really click for me, and I know some people in my set found it more of a challenge. As long as you put consistent effort in over the two years and get the vocab under control relatively early on, you'll be absolutely fine.
Reply 7
Original post by Interea
Depends on your mindset really, I found it very very easy but languages really click for me, and I know some people in my set found it more of a challenge. As long as you put consistent effort in over the two years and get the vocab under control relatively early on, you'll be absolutely fine.


Thank you!
Reply 8
Original post by OCorOOC6337
It depends on what you like, what you're good at, and what you might want to do in the future. Generally, try for a variety of subjects to keep things open down the line (e.g. geo, latin, computer science - lots of different skills and routes they could take you; or history, computing and business) and consider what A Levels/ career/ degree you think you might be interested. If you're not sure, then have a little think about it.
You don't need to know for certain, but if you think you might like to do something like economics, then business studies and geography would be useful. If you'd like to go down the medicine route, then Latin and History would be surprisingly useful.

Overall though, prioritise what you enjoy or think you will. If you have your first few lessons and hate it, most schools will be willing to facilitate a change in decision for the first few weeks, so try not to stress too much. Good luck!

Edit: I took all bar business out of those, and am now taking Economics and Geography (plus Maths) at A Level, so feel free to ask about any specifics - I might be able to help ^^


Is history content heavy?
Original post by Joshjosh0
Did you enjoy Latin?


Personally I did, yes. It follows it's structure well (unlike most languages!) and some of the surrounding history and culture we learnt about was fascinating. Do be aware though, there's quite a lot of vocab and poetry/prose you'll have to be familiar with, a bit like in your English, if that contextualises it. It's perfectly doable and I loved it, but it's a relatively high workload to get a 7 or above. Hope that helps a bit!
Original post by Joshjosh0
Is history content heavy?

Definitely so. It's not difficult content, generally; it's more learning dates and the reasons behind things so if you're good at memorisation and can write answers well, it's a fairly easy subject despite the large content base.
Original post by Joshjosh0
Would you recommend history , or is geography better?

Is Latin a good subject?

Computer science or business studies?


haha I chose geo and it's shite. business is sooo good!!!! do it!!
Reply 12
Original post by OCorOOC6337
Personally I did, yes. It follows it's structure well (unlike most languages!) and some of the surrounding history and culture we learnt about was fascinating. Do be aware though, there's quite a lot of vocab and poetry/prose you'll have to be familiar with, a bit like in your English, if that contextualises it. It's perfectly doable and I loved it, but it's a relatively high workload to get a 7 or above. Hope that helps a bit!


Thank you!
Original post by Joshjosh0
Would you recommend history , or is geography better?

Is Latin a good subject?

Computer science or business studies?

I did both History and Geography hated them both, but then again, I hate every subject.
I did both history and geography, I got an 8 in history and a 7 in geography even though I did way more work for geography haha, I would say do history if you’re better at English and geography if you’re better at sciences
This is just my option so please don’t be offended haha :smile:

It all depends on what you enjoy so far and what you plan on doing in the future! I took History for GCSE and I really enjoyed it, however my essay skills in history wasn’t that good because I couldn’t really remember key dates and names, and also history is a very heavy content course for GCSE! Personally I wouldn’t choose Latin, mainly because it’s quite outdated now, but then again Latin is so handy for English and other languages as well seeing as it’s basically the base for all languages and it also links with history as well! Apparently Latin also looks good when it comes to universities, so I’ve been told haha! I’m not too sure about the other two, but don’t worry I’m sure you’ll make the right decision!!
Original post by lilycgbcd
This is just my option so please don’t be offended haha :smile:

It all depends on what you enjoy so far and what you plan on doing in the future! I took History for GCSE and I really enjoyed it, however my essay skills in history wasn’t that good because I couldn’t really remember key dates and names, and also history is a very heavy content course for GCSE! Personally I wouldn’t choose Latin, mainly because it’s quite outdated now, but then again Latin is so handy for English and other languages as well seeing as it’s basically the base for all languages and it also links with history as well! Apparently Latin also looks good when it comes to universities, so I’ve been told haha! I’m not too sure about the other two, but don’t worry I’m sure you’ll make the right decision!!

This is a fair point, if you're trying to pick a language then doing Latin instead of an actually modern language isn't the best idea. However, if you're just trying to pick extra subjects, you're far more likely to use the content and skills from Latin in the future than random geography case studies , so its usefulness really does depend on what the alternatives are :smile:

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