what is a-level politics like?

Hey, I do Edexcel Politics right now and I love it!

1) I do recommend it, it's super interesting especially when you do different ideologies.

2) I find that it links well to History because in all of my history units we look at the politics of the nation we're studying. Also links to economics and geography because some of the topics overlap (things on globalisation, IMF etc.) Also it's just great for your general knowledge ngl.

3) Well for Edexcel there's 3 papers and the first 2 have 3 essays (30 marks, 30 marks and 24 marks). The third paper I'm ngl idk how it's structured because we've only just started it. Good thing about the essays though is you always get a choice from 2 questions (at least for papers 1 and 2) and they're quite easy to structure (in comparison to history essays for example).

I would keep in mind for A Level politics its 95% just remembering a lot of facts and up to date evidence. Mainly theory which is hard if you have 2 other essay subjects

Hey, I do Edexcel Politics right now and I love it!

1) I do recommend it, it's super interesting especially when you do different ideologies.

2) I find that it links well to History because in all of my history units we look at the politics of the nation we're studying. Also links to economics and geography because some of the topics overlap (things on globalisation, IMF etc.) Also it's just great for your general knowledge ngl.

3) Well for Edexcel there's 3 papers and the first 2 have 3 essays (30 marks, 30 marks and 24 marks). The third paper I'm ngl idk how it's structured because we've only just started it. Good thing about the essays though is you always get a choice from 2 questions (at least for papers 1 and 2) and they're quite easy to structure (in comparison to history essays for example).

would you say it clashes with or contradicts history and/or english lit? i'm planning on doing them too hopefully

Do you think it's possible to self teach this subject? Are the essay structures very specific and need reviewing?

I know Edexcel give a lot of help in their mark schemes + exemplar essays on the structure (e.g. ranking points in your conclusion and stuff). One of my teachers for politics is quite bad lmfao so I'm basically self-teaching myself some of the course from the textbook and it's not too bad but I mean it's up to you really. Would you be self teaching it to yourself alongside other a-levels? because if so I think that would be a lot of work

Ah thanks lol that's v helpful. If I were to do it it'd be along other A levels as my school only teaches till AS for politics and I think a bit of support would be given by one teacher but that's the extent of it.

would you say it clashes with or contradicts history and/or english lit? i'm planning on doing them too hopefully

It doesn't 'contradict' either of them per say. It compliments history very well, especially if you do more political modules but no matter which modules you do you will be analysing political sides of the history as well. I'm sure it will help hone essay writing skills as well although I'm not too familiar with this. English Lit will probably compliment it less than history would but it would not be detrimental at all and may help you in terms fo formulating a strong argument.