Do what you love, or what you're good at?

I've had my AS results like many others, managing to get 4As which I was very pleased about but it has left me rather confused.

My aim has always been to study English at University because I love it, I love reading and I love analyzing, thinking critically about books and I also enjoy writing poetry.

But, I'm suddenly a bit confused. I've taken Geography up until A level simply because I'm good at it. I got 90 UMS out of 100 in G1 and 100 UMS out of 100 in G2.
English I got 80 UMS out of 80 for coursework but the exam I only got 90 UMS out of 120. Nobody in my school achieved an A in the exam but overall I managed to get an A.

My question is, do I study my passion at university or do I go with something I don't particularly like but that I'm good at?

I'd be grateful for any advice I can get!!

Do what you love. If it is your passion you should be good at it anyway...

Thank you, that's true but it seems I'm better at Geography :/

You should study what you enjoy. The fact that you got an A overall in English suggests that you're very good at it, and you'll enjoy the university experience much more if you like your subject.

Thanks for the advice, I think what worries me most is that I have no idea what job I'd want to do when I'm older and Geography has more of a direct route to a career, whereas English...haha not so much!

I have a lot of friends with English degrees who currently don't have a job that necessarily requires a degree, so unfortunately I know what you mean. The majority of careers in English seem to revolve around either teaching or journalism. Do you have any idea of the career path you would like?

If you believe that you would enjoy Geography then it may be worth looking into, but any degree you really have to enjoy to do well in (from what I've heard).

I've had my AS results like many others, managing to get 4As which I was very pleased about but it has left me rather confused.

My aim has always been to study English at University because I love it, I love reading and I love analyzing, thinking critically about books and I also enjoy writing poetry.

But, I'm suddenly a bit confused. I've taken Geography up until A level simply because I'm good at it. I got 90 UMS out of 100 in G1 and 100 UMS out of 100 in G2.
English I got 80 UMS out of 80 for coursework but the exam I only got 90 UMS out of 120. Nobody in my school achieved an A in the exam but overall I managed to get an A.

My question is, do I study my passion at university or do I go with something I don't particularly like but that I'm good at?

I'd be grateful for any advice I can get!!

No idea what I want to do! That's my problem, I'm sort of hoping I'll have some sort of epiphany at Uni and suddenly know what I want to do...or that something will pop up. Naive of me? Yes, I know it is! Thing is, I know I don't want to teach and don't particularly want to go into journalism, I had a week of work experience and a course and, nope not for me! I think I'm a lost cause :L

If you don't love geography then you will become a lot more bored of it at degree level. Being harder than AS level you have to work harder and longer on it. If you don't love it with a passion then you will become bored which means you will do bad in the finals.

YOU ARE GOOD AT ENGLISH! YOU GOT AN A OVERALL!! As this is your passion you will continue to put the hours in and continue to work hard at it meaning you will get a good degree in this subject.

ALWAYS DO WHAT YOU LOVE!

Was this AQA by any chance?

I'm going to tell you something about those two subjects. It is harder to get a good grade in English lit than it is geography (I'm just working off percentage of people who get the highest grades). I'm not saying geography is an easier subject by any stretch of the imagination. It is only for one reason. English is so subjective - the very material you're writing is not black and white, right or wrong whereas with geography, you can be working off facts.

You got an A in English lit and an A in geography - think of it that way.

I had a similar dilemma last year between history and English, I went for history despite knowing I wanted to apply for English. Now I'm regretting it but certain I want to do it more than ever - just wish I'd decided a year ago to go with my heart, not my head (as cheesy as that sounds :P but you get my point).

You're not a lost cause! Plenty of people don't know what they want to do career-wise at university. However, I'm not going to deny that an English degree leaves less options than some degrees - I have a friend with two MAs in English who works at a library because she can't find employment anywhere else. My cousin has an MA in English and is going back to university for a Computing-related degree because his current qualifications aren't taking him anywhere he wants to go.

HOWEVER, there are also plenty of success stories of people with English degrees so don't let that put you down! Areas like script writing and other things you can do with English are harder to break into but it is possible. You could also consider a course like Linguistics if you take English Language.

I was in a similar position to you! I really enjoy English, and it was the only subject that didn't bore me when I was revising. However, I found psychology easier as the answers are less subjective, so I knew what I needed to put in the exam. But on results day this year, I changed my mind, and it was so easy to change my course to an English one at a different university. So don't worry if you do change your mind later on!

As for worrying about job prospects, that was also something that bothered me. Now I realise that most graduate jobs just ask for any degree! So as long as you get yourself a place at a good university, I doubt you'll have any problems!