A level choices

I am in year 11 and I have just finished my GCSEs. I have currently put down for my A level choices as English, psychology and history but I am debating whether to change to economics instead of English. Till this point I have really enjoyed the English gcse but I am concerned that I would not be up to the A level standard, in my mock I got a 6 (B). However I do not know enough about economics or what it will be like to confidently switch. Any advice or suggestions to which subjects would be better for the choices I already have? Whether if you have done economics or even English what are they like? Also I am not sure what I would like to do at uni which is probably making the decision more difficult.

Reply 1

AnIndianGuy

Economics is a subject that's about how good you are at comprehension and applying awareness of global events to business decisions/consequences of decisions made, both in a microeconomic (businesses in general) and macroeconomic context (e.g. the UK economy as a whole). You don't need to have taken Business Studies GCSEs to excel in it as I did not, but it is recommended that your essay writing skills are sufficient. If your History GCSE grade or other humanities are strong too, you may wish to contemplate Economics. My peers who took English found the workload to be double Economics, but ultimately enjoyment may prove to be more important than how much work you're willing to do. Try to think about how both subjects relate to your degree too.

Reply 2

artful_lounger

Universities Forum Helper

The best thing is to consider, do you enjoy reading and analysing texts academically? Keep in mind you don't get to necessarily choose the texts you will be reading; you'll definitely do some Shakespeare, and probably some (a lot usually) of late-modern British novelists. If you don't enjoy e.g. the Bronte sisters and similar era novels then, you'll probably get frustrated by A-level English Lit.

Economics it's hard to say whether you'll "enjoy" the subject, but it's undeniably interesting in giving some insight into current political affairs which are often legislated under the guise of economic reasoning. While not required for most Economics courses at uni, you will usually enter into a slightly more advanced Economics module in first year if you've already done A-level Economics - which may allow more options later or enable you to take some options earlier (if anything it will make things mildly easier as you'll be familiar with some of the concepts.

Both options are acceptable by universities equally and neither is preferred for any general course, although most English Literature courses prefer English and some Economics courses may prefe Economics. English will probably offer slightly more options if you still have no idea what you want to do, while Economics won't offer as much choice but gives you a chance to start a new subject and you may realise earlier you want to specialise in this area at uni. However, if you did end up wanting to continue to do Economics (or PPE) at uni, A-level Maths would be highly recommended (History, Maths and Economics being a fairly common combination for applicants to these courses, which also allows you a fair bit of flexibility in other options).