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RS or History GCSE?

Hi there,
I chose my GCSE options a while ago but since they’re still changeable for quite a while I wanted to ask whether it’d be worth changing from History to PRE / RS. I do like learning History but it’s a lot of work and I REALLY hate writing essays for it. I do alright but they’re a struggle for me and I never feel I have enough time when doing them in class or in an exam.

I find RS easier and far more straightforward when writing essays, so I think I’d do better in it at GCSE and it would be less work. My brother has also just done his GCSEs and from what he has told me he also thinks RS is easier (He did both). However I’m not that interested in learning Religion, it’s more the Philosophical side I like.

Does anyone who’s done either (or both) have any advice on what might be better to choose?
If you find RS easier and you think you will do better in it, then take RS as it will be less stressful when it comes to your exams.
I have done RS and i found the religion part boring but I liked the philosophical side like you, and I found it relatively easy. Some of my friends do history and they said it is quite difficult due to the amount of content you have to learn and memorise for the exams, but they have said some of it is quite interesting. Do RS in my opinion.
Original post by lantelomiles
Hi there,
I chose my GCSE options a while ago but since they’re still changeable for quite a while I wanted to ask whether it’d be worth changing from History to PRE / RS. I do like learning History but it’s a lot of work and I REALLY hate writing essays for it. I do alright but they’re a struggle for me and I never feel I have enough time when doing them in class or in an exam.

I find RS easier and far more straightforward when writing essays, so I think I’d do better in it at GCSE and it would be less work. My brother has also just done his GCSEs and from what he has told me he also thinks RS is easier (He did both). However I’m not that interested in learning Religion, it’s more the Philosophical side I like.

Does anyone who’s done either (or both) have any advice on what might be better to choose?

If you think that religion is easier then it may be worth doing religion.
Reply 3
history GCSE is surprisingly hard so do RS if u want an easy life i guess
but history is so interesting and you learn a lot of content. I think everyone should do history GCSE to have a good knowledge of the world tbh, although it does depend what options/ periods your school does
I was forced to do RS and chose history, imo I hated doing rs as I just found it really boring, and loved history, however I find both fairly easy. If you think you would prefer to do/do better in RS then deffo go for it!
(edited 1 year ago)
Original post by apples983
If you find RS easier and you think you will do better in it, then take RS as it will be less stressful when it comes to your exams.
I have done RS and i found the religion part boring but I liked the philosophical side like you, and I found it relatively easy. Some of my friends do history and they said it is quite difficult due to the amount of content you have to learn and memorise for the exams, but they have said some of it is quite interesting. Do RS in my opinion.


Original post by Emma:-)
If you think that religion is easier then it may be worth doing religion.


Original post by rebelo
history GCSE is surprisingly hard so do RS if u want an easy life i guess
but history is so interesting and you learn a lot of content. I think everyone should do history GCSE to have a good knowledge of the world tbh, although it does depend what options/ periods your school does


Original post by thrivingfrog
I was forced to do RS and chose history, imo I hated doing rs as I just found it really boring, and loved history, however I find both fairly easy. If you think you would prefer to do/do better in RS then deffo go for it!

Thank you all for your responses and advice. My brother did the exact same with being forced to do RS and then choosing history too. I don’t think he would choose RS if given the option but he still enjoyed it and found it quite interesting. He definitely likes history more but like I said he found it far more work than RS. My school allows us to do any humanity we want but we only need at least 1 so there’s be no reason to do both. I do love history and my school has picked some interesting topics but I think the struggle I have in essay writing outweighs it. My RS end of year exam which I had yesterday I feel went very well though so that’s further convinced me. I think I’ll do my history end of year (which is on Thursday) and then see how I feel and make a final decision.
(edited 1 year ago)
Original post by lantelomiles
Hi there,
I chose my GCSE options a while ago but since they’re still changeable for quite a while I wanted to ask whether it’d be worth changing from History to PRE / RS. I do like learning History but it’s a lot of work and I REALLY hate writing essays for it. I do alright but they’re a struggle for me and I never feel I have enough time when doing them in class or in an exam.

I find RS easier and far more straightforward when writing essays, so I think I’d do better in it at GCSE and it would be less work. My brother has also just done his GCSEs and from what he has told me he also thinks RS is easier (He did both). However I’m not that interested in learning Religion, it’s more the Philosophical side I like.

Does anyone who’s done either (or both) have any advice on what might be better to choose?


what's your exam board?

I did aqa for both and RS is simple and history essays aren't too bad, they look terrible but I hated essays and history's my favourite subject so...
Original post by astert1146
what's your exam board?

I did aqa for both and RS is simple and history essays aren't too bad, they look terrible but I hated essays and history's my favourite subject so...


I believe it’s AQA for RS and Edexcel for History, but I might be wrong. It’s good to know AQA RS is quite simple though. What religions did your school do for the GCSE? Mine does Christianity and Buddhism which doesn’t sound too bad.
(edited 1 year ago)
Original post by lantelomiles
I believe it’s AQA for RS and Edexcel for History, but I might be wrong. It’s good to know AQA RS is quite simple though. What religions did your school do for the GCSE? Mine does Christianity and Buddhism which doesn’t sound too bad.


same. Christianinty was simpler but a bit more content but buddhism isn't bad
I went to a catholic school so had to do RS, while I didn't enjoy it i found it easy and ended up with a 9. I chose history and It was my favourite subject (also got a 9), I'd recommend looking at your schools course and seeing if you like the units as if they don't interest you it would probably be a slog, the essays get easier with time and are quite formulaic.

In terms of RS cause it was a Catholic school we practically only studied Catholicism and Judaism with a tiny bit of Philosophy (like 1/10th of the course) so I'd also just look at the course. The essays are actually similar to History but just rely less on factual knowledge so I'd just choose the one you like most.
Original post by astert1146
same. Christianinty was simpler but a bit more content but buddhism isn't bad


That’s really helpful to know, thanks!
Original post by lantelomiles
That’s really helpful to know, thanks!


no worries xx
Original post by JackPeters_29
I went to a catholic school so had to do RS, while I didn't enjoy it i found it easy and ended up with a 9. I chose history and It was my favourite subject (also got a 9), I'd recommend looking at your schools course and seeing if you like the units as if they don't interest you it would probably be a slog, the essays get easier with time and are quite formulaic.

In terms of RS cause it was a Catholic school we practically only studied Catholicism and Judaism with a tiny bit of Philosophy (like 1/10th of the course) so I'd also just look at the course. The essays are actually similar to History but just rely less on factual knowledge so I'd just choose the one you like most.


Thanks for all the info. My school is not very religious and I think like half the course is philosophy which I quite like. Maybe that’ll mean even less factual knowledge in the essays. I can’t remember the history GCSE topics my school is doing off the top of my head but they did peak my interest when we went to a talk about them so I think I’ll see if I can find them again. It’d definitely be a good judge of whether to do the GCSE or not.
Original post by lantelomiles
Hi there,
I chose my GCSE options a while ago but since they’re still changeable for quite a while I wanted to ask whether it’d be worth changing from History to PRE / RS. I do like learning History but it’s a lot of work and I REALLY hate writing essays for it. I do alright but they’re a struggle for me and I never feel I have enough time when doing them in class or in an exam.

I find RS easier and far more straightforward when writing essays, so I think I’d do better in it at GCSE and it would be less work. My brother has also just done his GCSEs and from what he has told me he also thinks RS is easier (He did both). However I’m not that interested in learning Religion, it’s more the Philosophical side I like.

Does anyone who’s done either (or both) have any advice on what might be better to choose?


im a year 11 who does both!
for me, i much much much prefer history because the content is a lot more interesting than rs, especially as i (like you) am more interested in the philosophy side of RS (sadly, its very little in the gcse). but in my case, my rs teacher wasnt the best (ie rushing 1/4 of the course 2 weeks before the exam) so that is likely to be affecting my judgment lol.
to be a bit more objective, RS is a lot of waffle and quite easy to make things up for but i also found the writing technique for 12 markers harder than the 12 or 16 markers in history. the religion paper is alright but does need a fair bit of revision, however it is quite interesting (coming from an atheist). the themes paper is easier as a lot you will just naturally know, but even in the 12 markers you are restricted in how much you can talk about non-religious arguments and my school definitely oversold the amount of philosophy in it when i was choosing my options...
history is definitely more work than RS but the content is much more interesting (im my experience - check what options your school does to see if they interest you. if they include germany or power and the people, i can say with confidence that they are fascinating) so you will be more willing to put the work in. the essays are also easier to write and the 16 markers can honestly be fun to write. id just say that if you do choose history, make your revision stuff as you go along (condensed notes, flashcards, whatever works for you) so that its much less daunting to revise in year 11.
Original post by lantelomiles
Hi there,
I chose my GCSE options a while ago but since they’re still changeable for quite a while I wanted to ask whether it’d be worth changing from History to PRE / RS. I do like learning History but it’s a lot of work and I REALLY hate writing essays for it. I do alright but they’re a struggle for me and I never feel I have enough time when doing them in class or in an exam.

I find RS easier and far more straightforward when writing essays, so I think I’d do better in it at GCSE and it would be less work. My brother has also just done his GCSEs and from what he has told me he also thinks RS is easier (He did both). However I’m not that interested in learning Religion, it’s more the Philosophical side I like.

Does anyone who’s done either (or both) have any advice on what might be better to choose?


I say pick History, if you find more interest in a subject you'll find it easier to revise it!

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