Spanish or Economics, which one should I choose for A level?

I'm planning to take maths, further maths, physics at a level for sure, and still uncertain about my fourth a level. I'm considering economics or Spanish. I am currently studying Spanish IGCSE and predicted as A*. (I'm not a native Spanish speaker)

I might study economics related degree at university. however I know that universities like LSE and UCL do not require previous experience of studying economics. for me I have the same amount of interest for Econ and Spanish. would it make me less competitive if I didn't study economics at a level when applying to university???

Does anyone study both Econ and Spanish? really hard to get A/A*?
I really need some advice, thanks.

Reply 1

thedavij

I study maths, fm, physics and economics and can safely say economics is my biggest regret. There’s very very little maths in it (percentage change, simple division) and a lot of essay writing and hypothetical situations. One side, macroeconomics is very political and based on the UK economy and global economics, and Microeconomics is a lot to do with individual businesses and firms and consumers which I actually don’t mind. If you aren’t into things like politics you may not enjoy it, however if you really know you want to study it at uni I’d choose it as despite them saying it’s not needed, it’d be really helpful and probably increase your chances

Reply 2

Ckrcc

Thank you! I'm studying Business studies IGCSE now and I found it really boring. I'm afraid that economics will be boring for me as well...
Btw does economics improve essay writing skill?

Original post by thedavij

Reply 3

thedavij

Economics will improve you’re essay writing skills for sure, but with a really specific structure. You must nail the exam technique (which I don’t like), for example if a question is 20 marks you must know that 14 marks will be for “knowledge, application and analysis” and 6 marks for “evaluation” so you’re essays will improve but only how they want them if that makes sense

Reply 4

Quick-use

Original post by Ckrcc

As someone who studied languages at uni, I can't help but recommend studying them. I realise that you might do something Economics related at uni but you won't need Econ at A level and having Spanish will show how diverse you are. Also, if you do A level Spanish, you'll get a good level of competency in it which will hopefully stay with you forever (even if you become rusty it'll be easier to brush up on it).

I highly doubt not studying Economics will make your application less viable. My close friend did A levels in Maths, Further Maths and Physics and he went to LSE and now he's a senior actuary.

Reply 5

Ckrcc

That sounds a bit similar to business studies. We also have to follow certain structure and apply knowledge, application and analysis to get full mark. Thanks, that's really helpful.

Original post by thedavij

Reply 6

Ckrcc

Thanks,very useful advice! I decide to take Spanish now!!!

Original post by Quick-use

Reply 7

ajj2000

Original post by Ckrcc

Thanks,very useful advice! I decide to take Spanish now!!!

What subjects might you chose for university? It can be worth looking early as there are some great opportunities to study in Spanish speaking countries and take some language classes with courses like maths/ engineering etc.

Reply 8

mohamadjamil03

I just wanna mention that, assuming Economics is with OCR, the specification for A-level is extremely similar to the GCSE spec so you might want to take this into consideration seeing as the other A-levels you’ve chosen (the same as mine) are quite difficult.

Reply 9

Ckrcc

I think I'm going to study a degree that has a combination of maths and economics. I'm particularly interested in the degree 'mathematics and statistics for finance' at Imperial College and 'mathematics and economics' at LSE.

Original post by ajj2000

Reply 10

Ckrcc

My school offers Edexcel economics, is it harder or easier?

Original post by mohamadjamil03

Reply 11

ajj2000

Original post by Ckrcc

Sounds great. Check MORSE at Warwick also if that interests you.

Reply 12

mohamadjamil03

Original post by Ckrcc

My school offers Edexcel economics, is it harder or easier?

Unfortunately, I don’t know much (if anything) about the their exam boards but I’m sure you can look up their specifications and compare the content.

Reply 13

Ckrcc

wowowow that's fabulous

Original post by ajj2000

Sounds great. Check MORSE at Warwick also if that interests you.

Reply 14

Eloiseknapman

I study economics and spanish and I prefer economics far more than spanish! It really depends how good you are already, however i got an A* at GCSE spanish which i feel hasn't benefitted me much at a level as I have found it very challenging and definitely the subject that has caused me the most stress and taken up most of my time. It depends what your'e good at, I find economics quite easy to understand as you constantly see examples of it in the real world and the theories are quite easy to understand, however spanish is a subject where you never feel like you've covered every topic as there will always be words that could come up in the exam that you have never seen before or tricky sentences when the tense that you should use is not clear. Again, this may just be me however I feel like economics is a much less stressful subject that is far easier to revise and understand. Hope this helps :smile: