Competition - post a photo you've taken of nature >>

Are history, geography and economics equally respected?

Considering my options and wondering about each of the subjects above. Which is most valuable? Hardest/easiest? Thank you for your help :smile:

Reply 1

Bulbasaur

As A levels I'd say history and geography are stronger - as these are stated by the Russel Group univerisities as being 'facilitating' subjects that lead onto university study better. I'd say history is the hardest, then geography and then economics, although it varies from person to person. Economics has a very high rate of A/A* grades though. Something like 45% versus about 20-25% for the others if I recall correctly.

Reply 2

ChocolateFace123

Original post by Piergest

Considering my options and wondering about each of the subjects above. Which is most valuable? Hardest/easiest? Thank you for your help :smile:

Depends on the pupils aptitude. But I'd say in terms of difficulty generally speaking 1. History 2. Economics/Geography (same)

Reply 3

Academic Warrior

From my understanding it's completely subjective depending on your chosen prospective uni course?

Posted from TSR Mobile

Reply 4

tehforum

Original post by Piergest

Considering my options and wondering about each of the subjects above. Which is most valuable? Hardest/easiest? Thank you for your help :smile:

All very good facilitating subjects.

I'd know, because I did them.

Reply 5

p.formanko

hey - I do the last two for a levels.

They're all considered good subjects, miles above things like 'media studies' and other stuff top universities are beginning to turn a blind eye on.

It depends on which exam board you're on - I did AQA economics and Edexcel Geography. For economics on AQA you don't need to know any maths, and you'll learn the whole syllabus in about a term and spend the rest of the time refining it. A third of the exam is multiple choice, so once you know the drill with those, you should be set - the rest is just a definition and a few essays, none of which are too hard (its a bit like english - so long as you can back up your statement, you'll get credit for it). for someone who hates maths and dropped it at GCSE (and also dislikes the idea of finance, etc) economics was great, but I'm dropping it purely because I'm not interested in it.

Geography is what I've chosen to do at university, and it teaches you all-round skills which you can transfer from subject to subject. But if you do Edexcel, you will suffer - theres two units, and in the second exam, you have to do 6 essays in 75 mins! I find geography fascinating because you dig into politics, ethics, economics, different cultures, etc - especially in A2 where physical and human geography meet. So obviously I'm a bit bias, but geography id say is the best of the three because it teaches you teamwork, data analysis, presentation, timing yourself (in exams), graph/diagram presentation... the list goes on! Geography has had a bad image for being pretty boring but id say thats changing.

can't speak for history though, sorry!

hope this helps :smile:

Reply 6

Gunni098

History and Geography are academic subjects so universities will love those topics regardless, economics is not exactly loved as much as those, however it is better regarded than the 'studies' subjects, critical thinking ect and better than the 'arts' so it would be all right as long as the a levels are balanced out with academic subjects I wouldn't see what the problem would be! :smile:

Reply 7

Sheepish153

As far as I understand history has the heaviest load in terms of essay writing, so its perhaps more useful for artsy essay based degrees? Like someone said above, geography is epic in so many ways; I love it as it gives perspective on all your other subjects and how you may apply them. I know people who did economics in an exam board other than AQA and I think it's a lot more maths based, although there are essays as well. Apparently it's incredibly hard to get an A* in it :/

Reply 8

Piergest

Thanks for all your replies guys! So if History=Geography in terms of respect, and Geo is easier, I'm leaning towards Geo I guess.

Reply 9

MidnightSleeper

Original post by Piergest

Thanks for all your replies guys! So if History=Geography in terms of respect, and Geo is easier, I'm leaning towards Geo I guess.

Well next year im starting A-Levels in Geography (AQA), Maths (OCR), Psychology (AQA B) and English Literature (AQA). These subjects give me lots and lots of flexibility for uni. I'm currently looking at either Psychology, Accounting, Economics or Politics at uni. These subjects keep all of these options really open for me. So geography is good!