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Stuck on whether to do A-level Psychology

I'm stuck on whether to do a-level psychology or do english literature. I don't know which subject is better to do and I know english literature is a facilitating subject and you know need to know alot of content but has anyone done one of these subjects as I need to know which one to choose.

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Original post by DeItaReality
I'm stuck on whether to do a-level psychology or do english literature. I don't know which subject is better to do and I know english literature is a facilitating subject and you know need to know alot of content but has anyone done one of these subjects as I need to know which one to choose.


you've said it yourself, English A level will be a lot harder work but if you already have 2 facilitating subjects you won't need a third
Original post by A Rolling Stone
you've said it yourself, English A level will be a lot harder work but if you already have 2 facilitating subjects you won't need a third

I'm planning to pick a-level history, geography and eng literature or psychology. I know english literature will be quite hard as you will need to know alot of content but I want to go to a good russel group univeristy. If I choose Psychology will this course make me not go to a russel group university as it's not a facilitating subject and I also want to know how is it at a level and if people like studying it.
Original post by DeItaReality
I'm planning to pick a-level history, geography and eng literature or psychology. I know english literature will be quite hard as you will need to know alot of content but I want to go to a good russel group univeristy. If I choose Psychology will this course make me not go to a russel group university as it's not a facilitating subject and I also want to know how is it at a level and if people like studying it.

no no, you only need 2 facilitating subjects, and these days you don't even always need that tbh. hist geog and psych is perfect
Original post by A Rolling Stone
no no, you only need 2 facilitating subjects, and these days you don't even always need that tbh. hist geog and psych is perfect


Is A-level geography hard and does it include aspects of maths and science? Sorry for disturbing you as I'm worried about the choices I make.
Original post by DeItaReality
Is A-level geography hard and does it include aspects of maths and science? Sorry for disturbing you as I'm worried about the choices I make.

you're not disturbing me haha, i'm a graduate on here so i give advice happily :smile: i didn't take the A level but the concepts should be familiar from GCSE tbh, it's not like the difference between some subjects at uni which are completely different to their A levels!
Original post by A Rolling Stone
you're not disturbing me haha, i'm a graduate on here so i give advice happily :smile: i didn't take the A level but the concepts should be familiar from GCSE tbh, it's not like the difference between some subjects at uni which are completely different to their A levels!

Yeah true but I studied GCSE History at GCSE level and I didn't do Geography so will that impact my learning at a level as the concepts may be similar and I won't know the stuff from GCSE level.
Original post by DeItaReality
Yeah true but I studied GCSE History at GCSE level and I didn't do Geography so will that impact my learning at a level as the concepts may be similar and I won't know the stuff from GCSE level.

you will catch up fast, just use the officia/exam board-certified textbook (not CGP crap) and you will learn everything. no maths in geography, mostly just essay writing on physical and human aspects of geography. good luck! also note there are some equally good unis not in the Russell Group :smile:
Original post by A Rolling Stone
you will catch up fast, just use the officia/exam board-certified textbook (not CGP crap) and you will learn everything. no maths in geography, mostly just essay writing on physical and human aspects of geography. good luck! also note there are some equally good unis not in the Russell Group :smile:

Thank you for helping.
Original post by A Rolling Stone
you will catch up fast, just use the officia/exam board-certified textbook (not CGP crap) and you will learn everything. no maths in geography, mostly just essay writing on physical and human aspects of geography. good luck! also note there are some equally good unis not in the Russell Group :smile:

There is maths in geography, for example the chi-squared test, and (with AQA at least) the coursework should involve a lot of statistics if you want the top marks.

The CGP book is also very good. If you want more detail and get the top marks, use another book as well, but you can get a good grade with CGP.
Original post by DeItaReality
Thank you for helping.


Original post by Treetop321
There is maths in geography, for example the chi-squared test, and (with AQA at least) the coursework should involve a lot of statistics if you want the top marks.

The CGP book is also very good. If you want more detail and get the top marks, use another book as well, but you can get a good grade with CGP.

ah yes sorry my mistake there is stats involved but nothing like algebra or calculus which is what i meant!

CGP guides should be banned imo.
Original post by A Rolling Stone
CGP guides should be banned imo.

Although I wouldn't have got any of my A*s and As in my (very important) mocks without them.
Original post by Treetop321
There is maths in geography, for example the chi-squared test, and (with AQA at least) the coursework should involve a lot of statistics if you want the top marks.

The CGP book is also very good. If you want more detail and get the top marks, use another book as well, but you can get a good grade with CGP.

Is there basic maths in it or complicated as I don't know what the chi-squared test is and what do you mean by statistics?
Original post by DeItaReality
Is there basic maths in it or complicated as I don't know what the chi-squared test is and what do you mean by statistics?

The chi-squared test itself has easy maths but you just need to make sure you know what to do and what the symbols mean.

You will have to do statistics for your coursework which can involve graphs, charts etc. as well as statistical tests such as the chi-squared test, spearman's rank. The maths in these are generally easy but it can be confusing what you do with the data and what the conclusions are. As most of this is coursework, you can use help from the internet if you're stuck.

I can only remember 2 maths questions being on AQA papers - one being the interquartile range and mean, and the other being to complete the chi-squared test.

What exam board would you be doing?
Original post by Treetop321
The chi-squared test itself has easy maths but you just need to make sure you know what to do and what the symbols mean.

You will have to do statistics for your coursework which can involve graphs, charts etc. as well as statistical tests such as the chi-squared test, spearman's rank. The maths in these are generally easy but it can be confusing what you do with the data and what the conclusions are. As most of this is coursework, you can use help from the internet if you're stuck.

I can only remember 2 maths questions being on AQA papers - one being the interquartile range and mean, and the other being to complete the chi-squared test.

What exam board would you be doing?

Eduqas. Is this exam board easy or is it hard?
Original post by crazzzzy
Hi I did both a level psychology and English literature so if you have any specific questions regarding the two, please ask away! i hope i can help :smile:

So I'm stuck on doing psychology or english literature and I want to know which one shall I do as my first choice is History. I want to know more about the subject and how it is and I know english literature that you have to learn lots of texts and poems and answer big questions but I don't know about psychology.
Reply 16
I’d be concerned about you doing geography without the GCSE. Although psychology is offered at GCSE, it’s a rare subject and the teachers at A level work on the assumption that no one has done it before. The same won’t be the case for Geography and you may end up being all at sea if you’re not able to follow the classes. I had to do a module at uni where the lecturer assumed that everyone had A level biology (we didn’t) and ended up only effectively teaching about 6/45 people. He did not slow down or change his material because teachers generally just don’t. He recycled the same materials for us (allied health professional students from diverse educational backgrounds) as he used for medics, dentists and physiology students. It was a pain in the neck and as the exam was multiple choice we ended up just ignoring his material because it was impenetrable.
I would advise extreme caution with geography. You’re not setting yourself up for an easy two years.
Original post by giella
I’d be concerned about you doing geography without the GCSE. Although psychology is offered at GCSE, it’s a rare subject and the teachers at A level work on the assumption that no one has done it before. The same won’t be the case for Geography and you may end up being all at sea if you’re not able to follow the classes. I had to do a module at uni where the lecturer assumed that everyone had A level biology (we didn’t) and ended up only effectively teaching about 6/45 people. He did not slow down or change his material because teachers generally just don’t. He recycled the same materials for us (allied health professional students from diverse educational backgrounds) as he used for medics, dentists and physiology students. It was a pain in the neck and as the exam was multiple choice we ended up just ignoring his material because it was impenetrable.
I would advise extreme caution with geography. You’re not setting yourself up for an easy two years.

You are right because geography is going to be hard without the GCSE but if I do all the content now and finish it of, do you still think that I should do it. Although I didn't pick it at GCSE, it would be a pain that I choose 2 humanity subjects and don't do well in one but I'll try and find out more about the subject and make a final decision on whether to do it as it's a science related subject.
I'm currently doing Psych Edexcel and Cambridge English Lit. I like both subjects equally so I am simply going to explain how I view them so you can decide based on your personal skills :smile:

Psychology is very theory heavy - you must know all the psychological explanations off by heart in order to be able to apply them, then you have a set list of studies that you must memorise since you might be asked to write an 8 mark essay on one. There is a tad of statistics in the syllabus but it's nothing I personally found challenging. The essays themselves have a very specific structure that you must follow in order to get the points, so once you get enough practice you're good to go. I'd say aside from knowing the basic theories very well it is extremely important to know a lot of smaller studies, info on the topics to be able to use as evidence in your strengths and weaknesses portion of the essay. NOTES NOTES NOTES!!! It seems like a waste of time but tailoring your own notes on each topic, especially on the studies saved me for my unit 1 paper in January (I'm an international student so we do modular a levels). I also did the igcse which I believe helped a lot, but there are people in my class who took psychology for the first time and managed to get As. Personally I always felt less stressed for Psychology mocks/ the exam because if you know your facts it's kind of hard not to do well, the low boundaries help with that as well

As of Literature you must be able to think critically in the moment. No matter how many themes you are able to analyse etc you will always have to twist it in a different way depending on the topic given. It sounds kind of scary but it can be quite interesting, especially if you find your own articles and do some personal research. I find that going beyond what your teachers provide you with helps a lot because your essays can have something personal to them, which you can relate to yourself. It's important that you stay very organised with this subject. Once you put things into categories it becomes much easier for your brain to draw info and you will see that writing essays will become much easier. Time-wise it can be quite time consuming, at least for me, but it can be quite satisfying once you have your final product in front of you

Both exams are quite difficult but from what I know in the past, psych was viewed as a secondary a level, however I am not sure if it is still true. Regardless, you should chose the subject that you think would be more enjoyable to you. There is nothing worse than having to deal with immense loads of work for a subject you hate
What are you looking at studying at university?

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