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General Studies

I have a bit of a problem because i am trying to decide whether to go to college or 6th form. At the college i have to do general studies so the A Levels that i would doing are:
Chemistry AS/A2
Maths AS
Biology AS/A2
Geography AS/A2
General Studies AS/A2

So many people have told me that doing 5 AS and 4 A2 Levels is really difficult so for all of you who do it, is general studies really difficult and would it be difficult on top of the other subjects

Reply 1

Morgan141

2

General studies is considered to be the easiest A-level in existence, it's virtually no extra work. It's also not valued as a proper A-level either by universities so don't expect it to hold any weight.

Reply 2

cabeza_loca

Yeah, general studies is virtually no work at all... maybe a past paper or two and thats about where your revision gets.... :smile:

Reply 3

Ywiss

15

General Studies is seriously blah...we were forced to do the AS in L6 and no one got below a B. And one girl got 300/300. By doing absolutely nothing.

It's okay for AS, but I wouldn't necessarily advise that you take it on to A2...because many universities will not count it as part of your degree offer.

Though I suppose if it's so little work, there's no point in not taking it.

Reply 4

g2da3

11

i Hateddd that silly subject MAN i was like wdf IS THIS i droped it like a leaft on a tree :smile:

Reply 5

Mustard-man

18

Yeah, some schools don't even provide lessons for GS

Reply 6

240920

9

Yeah. We had one lesson a week for A Level. I thought some of it was quite interesting *nerd*, but it wasnt challenging in any way.

Reply 7

Xtrm2Matt

We don't have General Studies lessons, but we've gone over a few past papers. I can't even see how you can revise for such an exam as there is no way telling what your paper will be on.

Oh well :wink:

Reply 8

Horatio Caine

12

It's really easy and quite pointless imo. I am doing it for AS and we hardly do any work. Our teacher told us that we could turn up for the exam by teaching ourselves without going to lessons and still pass, it's really easy so you've got nothing to worry about.

Reply 9

luke88

11

Many people at my 6th form college failed General Studies, it is not as 'easy' as many believe it is.

73% of my year group, when sat the first module failed it with a U grade. My year group has well over 1,000 students and I'd reckon around 500 took g.s.

It's an extra A level which can imrpove your essay and analytical skills. It is excepted by most universities regardless of the contrary opinion. If you're hoping to apply to the very top universities, it won't be included in an offer but it isn't totally dismissed though.

If it is as esay as many say it is then why not add it to the rest of your A Levels.

Reply 10

kellywood_5

17

General Studies isn't considered a proper A-level by the majority of students, let alone universities, so it won't be much work at all. You might not even have lessons for it, and if you do, you'll have much fewer than you would for a proper subject. For a lot of people, it seems to be the case of 'turn up to the exams with few/no lessons and no preparation other than a few past papers.'

Reply 11

.Laura. <3

11

If you have a bit of general knowledge under your belt, read a newspaper/catch the TV news and have basic chart/maths skills you should be fine from what I've seen on past papers. :smile:

Reply 12

Imperium

'Twas compulsary in AS yet there were no lessons for it last year at my 6th Form, i seriously doubt whether people even revised for the exams? All which were sat in the June/July period. It's not as easy as you might think, possibly me and another got an A? Majority failed or scraped low grades. This year we're getting one lesson a week which, to be honest, is fairly interesting and the type of thing which i think should be compulsary throughout Pre 16 education.

Reply 13

vendettagirl

6

I've got my first GS module next week, never had a lesson on it and I've only looked at one past paper of my own volition. Methinks it's not taken very seriously...

But it's mandatory at my college, and technically is my 6th subject, but I can hardly say it's made any difference to my workload =p

Reply 14

Andy H

6

Don't take general studies seriously!

Consider it a bit of light relief from you other subjects in which you could consider holding competitions amongst classmates to still pass but try to get the lowest UMS score possible.

Well there had to be at least some point in doing General Studies!

Reply 15

Morgan141

2

luke88

Many people at my 6th form college failed General Studies, it is not as 'easy' as many believe it is.

73% of my year group, when sat the first module failed it with a U grade. My year group has well over 1,000 students and I'd reckon around 500 took g.s.

It's an extra A level which can imrpove your essay and analytical skills. It is excepted by most universities regardless of the contrary opinion. If you're hoping to apply to the very top universities, it won't be included in an offer but it isn't totally dismissed though.

If it is as esay as many say it is then why not add it to the rest of your A Levels.

Any figures involving GS though are incredibly misleading. Many people get Us because they just sit in the exam and do nothing, or write something completely stupid, as opposed to it being difficult.

And it is by no means the 'very top' universities that reject GS, the majority of moderately good universities will not accept GS as anything worth considering when making an offer. Basically, 9 times out of ten a student who isn't taking GS or CT is in no worse a position than one who did.

Reply 16

esmaraldo

There are two contrasting opinions on this thread, one which makes me feel incredibly stupid, and the other which makes me feel slightly better about my self.

I take all three sciences and maths, which should mean that Unit 2, the maths and technology paper should be fairly straight forward for me, but I just did a paper, and it wasn't. The paper's so different to what I expected and I found that I had to really think hard and reason answers out as it's not that much knowladge based. However, from another perspective it is not impossible, as I've had no lessons in it, and got 42/50 for my first paper, which is an A, I think. But I'd say that 300/300 from no work is a hyperbole.

You diffinitely need to familiarise yourself with the questions as they're completely different to anything I've done before. Even the maths bit is much wider ranging, and more subtle and basically weird than Core 1 which is sane an logical in comparison. Timing's also an issue, as I found that I just finnished in the alloted time.

My exam is on Monday, so I definitely need to do more practice papers this week end, as well as revise my other 5 subjects, which add up to 5 and a half modules for mocks next week. What fun!

Edit: on the usefullness of the subject- I think it might help in in Ukat and Bmat prep, which I need for medicine, so it's not a complete waste of time, and the skills will definitely be applicable in data interpretation in the future, and will probably make your other science subject easier.

Reply 17

Straggler

13

..

(edited 11 years ago)

Reply 18

~ems~

Manchester Uni accepts it if one of four alevels passed in the same sitting - so yeah it can help.

Oh, and apparently it's the best predictor of what you'll get for your university degree. though i don;t know if they mean out of your alevels so it still goes gcses-gen studies-all other A levels or gen studies-GCSEs-all other a levels in predicting your end degree.

Reply 19

no1mohsin

13

GS is seriously easy. We don't even have lessons in it. It's no extra work at all. You just have to have general nouse really; keep up with current affairs, know the world you're living in really. Just turn up and do the exam.

General Studies

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