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History or Geography? - Which is better and why?

Which do you find more enjoyable?

Are they both rigorous academic subjects and valued the same by universities?

I'm thinking of doing either law or english literature at university. I know for law history is liked but I have english literature there anyway.

I am doing As at the moment. Wanting to do:

A2: English lit, Sociology, History OR Geography
As: Philosophy (got a grade C already)

I have never done GCSE Geography but the topics look quite interesting compared to history. Any thoughts? :smile:

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Reply 1
I would go for History, although its harder. Geog is just colouring in as I see it :P
Reply 2
Also I reckon History is rated more highly.
Geography, history is in the past, look to the future.
Reply 4
Zig
Also I reckon History is rated more highly.


That is what I thought but i'm not sure. I did history GCSE I found it pretty hard even though i'm good at english. The course i'd be doing is like half political history and i find it pretty dry and boring. Never done geography past year 9. Is it very sciencey/mathsy?
Reply 5
History, in my college the number of Geography students went down from three classes at AS, to half a class at A2. The ones who stayed with it hated it. I think out of the.. Nine? One chose it for their uni choice, the others complained about it non-stop. That might just be our course though! The history one was good, most people enjoyed it.
Reply 6
Trouser Snake
Geography, history is in the past, look to the future.


I was thinking along those lines.
Reply 7
Both have equal respectability imo. :confused:

But go for what you're more interested in, op.
Reply 8
Jinxy
That is what I thought but i'm not sure. I did history GCSE I found it pretty hard even though i'm good at english. The course i'd be doing is like half political history and i find it pretty dry and boring. Never done geography past year 9. Is it very sciencey/mathsy?

I dropped Geo in year 9 as well lol. Was never my thing.
Reply 9
in contrast to Kasphlam, at my 6th form only 4 people dropped it, 2 because they dropped out from 6th form, and the other 2 were studying world development(taught by the geography dept). and out of about 20 students 6 are doing it at university, and 10 are doing courses related. none of which are me by the way.
=] choose which one you enjoy, i found my geography course enjoyable, not the most demanding, but it made a change from my other science based subjects. also the course was very little maths and science based, most of the maths is pre GCSE and it was only in the coursework or a analytical paper.
Reply 10
Geography because...
All Historians Are Sad.

There was about 5 students that took Geography onto A2, most of them ended up taking a form of geography based course. We basically studied about population, settlement, a little about NICs, industralization and then there was the physical geography parts which focused on rivers, glaziation and such. Then combined parts such as flooding and environmental damage.

It's quite different really. I'd suggest just going with what you like best.
Reply 11
Tombola


It's quite different really. I'd suggest just going with what you like best.


I reckon i might like geography better as its more cultural and environmental. Is it classed as a 'rigorous academic subject?'
Reply 12
History always repeats itself, having a good knowledge of history gives you the ability the see patterns and almost foresee the future (almost). Just because it's in the past doesn't mean it isn't relevant.

Geography is just drainage basins, sea walls and types of rock :dontknow:

Edit: I did had my university course in mind, and thought that I was probably in the History camp ... but thinking about it, I'm probably halfway inbetween.
Reply 13
Craig_D
History always repeats itself, having a good knowledge of history gives you the ability the see patterns and almost foresee the future (almost). Just because it's in the past doesn't mean it isn't relevant.

Geography is just drainage basins, sea walls and types of rock :dontknow:


I think they are both useful... I'm just trying to work out which I might enjoy more and be likely to get the better grade in.. :cry:
Reply 14
Jinxy
I reckon i might like geography better as its more cultural and environmental. Is it classed as a 'rigorous academic subject?'


Hm... I wouldn't put it in the same categories as the sciences. But some places do consider it as a psuedoscience, so it's definitely not looked down upon.
Reply 15
Craig_D
History always repeats itself, having a good knowledge of history gives you the ability the see patterns and almost foresee the future (almost). Just because it's in the past doesn't mean it isn't relevant.

Geography is just drainage basins, sea walls and types of rock :dontknow:

Edit: I did had my university course in mind, and thought that I was probably in the History camp ... but thinking about it, I'm probably halfway inbetween.


Geology looks back billion of years and is still connected to the present.
History looks back... a few thousand years at most.

:p:
Reply 16
Craig_D


Geography is just drainage basins, sea walls and types of rock :dontknow:



What geoggers course did you do?
Mine was about much more than that lmao, sounds like a module of GCSE geoggers there.
If anything I'd say geography has a large spread of topics, just that you never really get too in depth with many of them.
it's not looked down on, but it isn't seen as difficult as the sciences. =]
Reply 17
Tombola
Geology looks back billion of years and is still connected to the present.
History looks back... a few thousand years at most.

:p:


That's because that's the most interesting bit :biggrin:

And I guess also because the very definition of 'History' means a period that has been recorded, before that being 'pre-Historic' :dontknow:
Reply 18
jjaacckk__
What geoggers course did you do?
Mine was about much more than that lmao, sounds like a module of GCSE geoggers there.
If anything I'd say geography has a large spread of topics, just that you never really get too in depth with many of them.
it's not looked down on, but it isn't seen as difficult as the sciences. =]


Well, yeeah, I was thinking of part of my GCSE course there. Admittedly I haven't done A level Geography.

:biggrin:
I'm going to be biased and say pick geography. In my 6th form all of the Historians got bored and switched to my Geography class :cool:

We started with 5 Geographers at the beginning of the year and ended up with 19 by the end of it :woo:

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