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sociology a level

hiiii i am considering taking geography, psychology and sociology a level! does anyone know whether this is a good idea? i am little concerned about content and the idea that in each subject we learn many case studies and it might overwhelming. but tbf there is nothing else i really wanna do so i think it would be good :smile:)) any comment would be amazing!

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Original post by laura.barrett13
hiiii i am considering taking geography, psychology and sociology a level! does anyone know whether this is a good idea? i am little concerned about content and the idea that in each subject we learn many case studies and it might overwhelming. but tbf there is nothing else i really wanna do so i think it would be good :smile:)) any comment would be amazing!


Personally i want to take sociology and psychology (not geography I find it boring lmao) but I've heard they are really interesting but I'd suggest you only take them if they are things you'd enjoy, sociology is the study of human behaviour in social interactions and psychology is.... well psychology.... I'd also recommend reading books about the subject and if you don't enjoy the, you probably shouldn't take the subject. (For psychology I'd recommend Philip Zimbardos "The lucifer effect")
Original post by Ollie_Senpai
Personally i want to take sociology and psychology (not geography I find it boring lmao) but I've heard they are really interesting but I'd suggest you only take them if they are things you'd enjoy, sociology is the study of human behaviour in social interactions and psychology is.... well psychology.... I'd also recommend reading books about the subject and if you don't enjoy the, you probably shouldn't take the subject. (For psychology I'd recommend Philip Zimbardos "The lucifer effect")

yeah i do psychology gcse and i really have a passion for it. however, i do not know whether sociology would be too similiar, are you in year 11 too? :smile:
Reply 3
I've chosen psychoology and sociology too along with business for my A-Levels and I'm super excited! Sociology and Psychology are a great combination in my opinion and I've seen some top tier students choose this combination along with another non-science subject. (Pssst, Ibz Mo if you've heard of him.)

I'm always very curious about how society works and psychological topics so those two should be fun for me!

Even I was going to take up Geography at A-Level (I planned to only sit for the AS because geography is very content heavy from what I heard and sociology and psychology is content heavy as it is!), but decided it would be better to choose one subject that's not science-ey haha :biggrin:

I think as long as we are mentally happy with our choice to study these subjects because we want to, everything should be A-okay!
(edited 3 years ago)
Go for it
Original post by laura.barrett13
yeah i do psychology gcse and i really have a passion for it. however, i do not know whether sociology would be too similiar, are you in year 11 too? :smile:


I am yeah, but sociology and psychology are similar but... different at the same time you know??? Haha idk how to explain it but there are significant differences if you look in to it
Original post by Vib_A
I've chosen psychoology and sociology too along with business for my A-Levels and I'm super excited! Sociology and Psychology are a great combination in my opinion and I've seen some top tier students choose this combination along with another non-science subject. (Pssst, Ibz Mo if you've heard of him.)

I'm always very curious about how society works and psychological topics so those two should be fun for me!

Even I was going to take up Geography at A-Level (I planned to only sit for the AS because geography is very content heavy from what I heard and sociology and psychology is content heavy as it is!), but decided it would be better to choose one subject that's not science-ey haha :biggrin:

I think as long as we are mentally happy with our choice to study these subjects because we want to, everything should be A-okay!

thank you so so much! I do have a worry that there will be SO much content studying sociology, psychology and geography but if i keep on top of it and work hard, it will be fine. I think i can do it :smile: . It's funny how we were gonna do similar subjects, im sure we will smash it! yeah I've heard of Ibz Mo, doesn't he have a youtube video?

I think I am going to take sociology, because I am not too sure what I wanna do for sure when I am older so now I just want to study what I enjoy you know! If I take those three, I will enjoy it and I want to be happy. Good luck with business :smile: Did you do geography gcse?
Original post by tinygirl96
Go for it

:biggrin: ty
Original post by Ollie_Senpai
I am yeah, but sociology and psychology are similar but... different at the same time you know??? Haha idk how to explain it but there are significant differences if you look in to it

yeah yeah igy, tysm for your help!
Reply 9
Original post by laura.barrett13
hiiii i am considering taking geography, psychology and sociology a level! does anyone know whether this is a good idea? i am little concerned about content and the idea that in each subject we learn many case studies and it might overwhelming. but tbf there is nothing else i really wanna do so i think it would be good :smile:)) any comment would be amazing!

Hi! I'm actually currently in year 13 and take geo psych and socio. I can easily say they are such a good combo together cuz they all link in some sort of way. Personally, I don't think learning geo case studies is too hard as you go into such depth that it's practically impossible to forget about a case study. For sociology, you barely need to know any studies (I only know like 2 and have been predicted an A and on my reference they said I have a high probability of getting an A*) and its such an easy subject with low grade boundaries cuz half the questions are just common sense but so interesting. Psychology is the only subject I'm struggling with to remember studies cuz each evaluation point usually has a study to remember, but if it's your passion then that shouldn't matter. Overall, you just need to be aware that they are all heavy essay based subjects but you could look at that as a good thing cuz if you understand the topic then you can get 20-30 marks easy just off one essay in the exam.
Hope this helps!
I'm in year 13 and in year 12 I took philosophy, maths, spanish and sociology, I ended up dropping sociology in the first few weeks because of how much I hated it. But if you really love sociology then go for it! It was just really different to what I expected. Good luck with your options :smile:
Reply 11
Original post by laura.barrett13
thank you so so much! I do have a worry that there will be SO much content studying sociology, psychology and geography but if i keep on top of it and work hard, it will be fine. I think i can do it :smile: . It's funny how we were gonna do similar subjects, im sure we will smash it! yeah I've heard of Ibz Mo, doesn't he have a youtube video?

I think I am going to take sociology, because I am not too sure what I wanna do for sure when I am older so now I just want to study what I enjoy you know! If I take those three, I will enjoy it and I want to be happy. Good luck with business :smile: Did you do geography gcse?

Have you submitted your subject choices yet? What other options did you have? Tbh, I think if you know you're going to struggle with so much content it could maybe be beneficial to do the AS only in geo, then another AS in another subject. I think 2 AS subjects counts up to a full A2 credit in the UCAS system.

I did do geo in my gcse's! I did my IGCSE's actually. The subject was very interesting, but the grade boundaries were ruthless the year I gave them and I didn't perform as well as I was hoping. That also gave me a cue as to why perhaps geo might not be the best option for me in my Y12 and Y13.
i loved sociology! i now do it as a degree. :yep:
Reply 13
Original post by laura.barrett13
hiiii i am considering taking geography, psychology and sociology a level! does anyone know whether this is a good idea? i am little concerned about content and the idea that in each subject we learn many case studies and it might overwhelming. but tbf there is nothing else i really wanna do so i think it would be good :smile:)) any comment would be amazing!


Hi, I’m in year 13 and I take both sociology and psychology. I really enjoy them both and don’t regret taking them at all. Both have a lot to remember but I don’t have any particular case studies to remember for sociology, it’s more about what individual sociologists think. Psychology has case studies but these are honestly bearable, I have a book where I write the key points from the different studies and case studies and it’s easy to keep track of them this way. I think taking both would be a great idea, if you have any questions feel free to ask. Good luck!
Original post by Caz1234567
I'm in year 13 and in year 12 I took philosophy, maths, spanish and sociology, I ended up dropping sociology in the first few weeks because of how much I hated it. But if you really love sociology then go for it! It was just really different to what I expected. Good luck with your options :smile:

hiii, that is a shame. how is it different from what you expected? in what way?
Original post by ava1308
Hi! I'm actually currently in year 13 and take geo psych and socio. I can easily say they are such a good combo together cuz they all link in some sort of way. Personally, I don't think learning geo case studies is too hard as you go into such depth that it's practically impossible to forget about a case study. For sociology, you barely need to know any studies (I only know like 2 and have been predicted an A and on my reference they said I have a high probability of getting an A*) and its such an easy subject with low grade boundaries cuz half the questions are just common sense but so interesting. Psychology is the only subject I'm struggling with to remember studies cuz each evaluation point usually has a study to remember, but if it's your passion then that shouldn't matter. Overall, you just need to be aware that they are all heavy essay based subjects but you could look at that as a good thing cuz if you understand the topic then you can get 20-30 marks easy just off one essay in the exam.
Hope this helps!

thank you SO much. this has been so so helpful, i appreciate this :smile: yeah i think geography case studies are quite good to learn but it is more about the specific figures yk like deaths and all. i do psychology gcse so i think i will find it fine! yeah they are all essay based subjects but i think i generally quite good at writing essays so i am sure that will be fine and each subject help one another. do you enjoy sociology? it is most likely i will take it as i am not sure what i would do instead..... are you planning on going to uni? if so what are you going to study? I am thinking of studying psychology so therefore, i am considering sociology as the uni i am interested in only needs me to take one science and they include geography. thanks again x
Original post by ek2003
Hi, I’m in year 13 and I take both sociology and psychology. I really enjoy them both and don’t regret taking them at all. Both have a lot to remember but I don’t have any particular case studies to remember for sociology, it’s more about what individual sociologists think. Psychology has case studies but these are honestly bearable, I have a book where I write the key points from the different studies and case studies and it’s easy to keep track of them this way. I think taking both would be a great idea, if you have any questions feel free to ask. Good luck!

Thank you so much for this. I did not know there aren't many case studies in sociology which honestly is great news. It would be AMAZING if you could give an overview of what you learn and the type of questions you get in an exam. This would give me a great insight. :smile:
Original post by laura.barrett13
hiiii i am considering taking geography, psychology and sociology a level! does anyone know whether this is a good idea? i am little concerned about content and the idea that in each subject we learn many case studies and it might overwhelming. but tbf there is nothing else i really wanna do so i think it would be good :smile:)) any comment would be amazing!

Hi @laura.barrett13
I have a degree in Sociology and I am doing a Masters in Psychology at Arden University. It sounds like a great mix of subjects. Some students prefer Psychology at GCSE / A level because it is based a lot more on experimental studies such as Milgram, Asch and Zimbardo, so people feel like they are learning something a little more concrete and scientific. I prefer Sociology (which actually does have similar methods) but I found Sociology a bit easier to get into at level 2 and 3. In terms of employability, I have found that my Psychology qualification seems a bit more impressive to employers because they are not always sure what Sociology is

If you like geography as well, you might be interested in a Sociology / Anthropology combined honours degree - although anthropology on its own has a very poor graduation to job ratio

Marc
Arden University Student Ambassador
Reply 18
Original post by laura.barrett13
Thank you so much for this. I did not know there aren't many case studies in sociology which honestly is great news. It would be AMAZING if you could give an overview of what you learn and the type of questions you get in an exam. This would give me a great insight. :smile:

Yeah sure, I do AQA and on that exam board you do education, educational policy, research methods, family and households, crime and deviance, and currently I’m on religion and beliefs, factors of class, ethnicity, and gender are usually covered. There’s a combination of 4 mark, 6 mark, 10 mark, 20 mark and 30 mark questions across the 3 papers. In these topics it’s mainly about different sociologist’s views and theories on different areas, you’ll take points from Marxists, feminists, functionalists, the new right, left realists and other groups, writing about what a certain person from one of these categories said and then evaluating it. For example, a question could be analyse female patterns in crime if this was a 30 marker you should aim to write about 4-5 different theories, an introduction and a conclusion. 30 markers and 20 markers are quite a lot of writing but after doing a few essays you should get used to it.
Original post by Arden University
Hi @laura.barrett13
I have a degree in Sociology and I am doing a Masters in Psychology at Arden University. It sounds like a great mix of subjects. Some students prefer Psychology at GCSE / A level because it is based a lot more on experimental studies such as Milgram, Asch and Zimbardo, so people feel like they are learning something a little more concrete and scientific. I prefer Sociology (which actually does have similar methods) but I found Sociology a bit easier to get into at level 2 and 3. In terms of employability, I have found that my Psychology qualification seems a bit more impressive to employers because they are not always sure what Sociology is

If you like geography as well, you might be interested in a Sociology / Anthropology combined honours degree - although anthropology on its own has a very poor graduation to job ratio

Marc
Arden University Student Ambassador

Thank you for this Marc, really appreciate it :smile: