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Economics or English Literature A level
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I'm in year 12 currently taking history, sociology, government & politics and english literature. I want to do law in university however my parents are against me taking english literature as I've never read a book that hasn't been compulsory to read for my gcses and are telling me to take economics.
I know that having achieved my GCSE grades through my teacher's opinion as well as the contribution of my mock grade has little to no correlation to whatever I achieve in my A levels, but I've been way more consistent in English literature (grade 8) than in economics (grade 7), despite putting in equal efforts.
Not to mention my equal interest in both subjects, as much as I enjoy analysing texts, I'm also interested in economics.
I understand there's a big jump from gcse to a level english literature, so perhaps the ease I felt during my gcse's is 100% invalid to my potential for A levels, and I may find economics easier. But I literally don't know.
Can anyone taking these subjects tell me which they prefer, or if taking only one, tell me difficult they find it (I know this is relative to how much you study but I'm interested in opinions).
Edit: I'm probably going to drop a subject eventually this year but I've chosen to take 4 initially because I wasn't sure which subjects I'd like despite having done a ton of research.
I know that having achieved my GCSE grades through my teacher's opinion as well as the contribution of my mock grade has little to no correlation to whatever I achieve in my A levels, but I've been way more consistent in English literature (grade 8) than in economics (grade 7), despite putting in equal efforts.
Not to mention my equal interest in both subjects, as much as I enjoy analysing texts, I'm also interested in economics.
I understand there's a big jump from gcse to a level english literature, so perhaps the ease I felt during my gcse's is 100% invalid to my potential for A levels, and I may find economics easier. But I literally don't know.
Can anyone taking these subjects tell me which they prefer, or if taking only one, tell me difficult they find it (I know this is relative to how much you study but I'm interested in opinions).
Edit: I'm probably going to drop a subject eventually this year but I've chosen to take 4 initially because I wasn't sure which subjects I'd like despite having done a ton of research.
Last edited by skahjs; 4 months ago
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#2
(Original post by skahjs)
I'm in year 12 currently taking history, sociology, government & politics and english literature. I want to do law in university however my parents are against me taking english literature as I've never read a book that hasn't been compulsory to read for my gcses and are telling me to take economics.
I know that having achieved my GCSE grades through my teacher's opinion as well as the contribution of my mock grade has little to no correlation to whatever I achieve in my A levels, but I've been way more consistent in English literature (grade 8) than in economics (grade 7), despite putting in equal efforts.
Not to mention my equal interest in both subjects, as much as I enjoy analysing texts, I'm also interested in economics.
I understand there's a big jump from gcse to a level english literature, so perhaps the ease I felt during my gcse's is 100% invalid to my potential for A levels, and I may find economics easier. But I literally don't know.
Can anyone taking these subjects tell me which they prefer, or if taking only one, tell me difficult they find it (I know this is relative to how much you study but I'm interested in opinions).
Edit: I'm probably going to drop a subject eventually this year but I've chosen to take 4 initially because I wasn't sure which subjects I'd like despite having done a ton of research.
I'm in year 12 currently taking history, sociology, government & politics and english literature. I want to do law in university however my parents are against me taking english literature as I've never read a book that hasn't been compulsory to read for my gcses and are telling me to take economics.
I know that having achieved my GCSE grades through my teacher's opinion as well as the contribution of my mock grade has little to no correlation to whatever I achieve in my A levels, but I've been way more consistent in English literature (grade 8) than in economics (grade 7), despite putting in equal efforts.
Not to mention my equal interest in both subjects, as much as I enjoy analysing texts, I'm also interested in economics.
I understand there's a big jump from gcse to a level english literature, so perhaps the ease I felt during my gcse's is 100% invalid to my potential for A levels, and I may find economics easier. But I literally don't know.
Can anyone taking these subjects tell me which they prefer, or if taking only one, tell me difficult they find it (I know this is relative to how much you study but I'm interested in opinions).
Edit: I'm probably going to drop a subject eventually this year but I've chosen to take 4 initially because I wasn't sure which subjects I'd like despite having done a ton of research.
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#3
Hey! I never did economics but as someone who has studied English Literature A Level and is now going on to study it at University this September, I hope I can be of help. I will be as unbiased as I can.
My advice would be that unless you REALLY enjoy English Literature (i.e. which involves reading books/plays/even watching movie and stage adaptations/ doing lots of research and reading lots of articles/ writing essays) then don't take the A Level. It is a huge jump from GCSE to A Level and my class and I did struggle. That being said, I did still enjoy the course but that's because I have a passion for books and theatre. If you don't enjoy that type of stuff then you might feel a bit lost and give up if you aren't doing as well as you hoped.
A lot of my class took it as an 'easy option' and boy did they regret that! I got an A* in my GCSE English Literature and full marks in all of my course work but, as I came to learn, top marks in your GCSE's does not mean that you are guaranteed an A (or even a B!) at A Level. You do have to work very hard for it!
However, I do not want to completely throw you off the subject as English Literature is brilliant to do if you are wanting to go into Law. I am thinking of doing a Law conversion course after my English Literature degree. It is an amazing subject but you do have to love books in order to not lose interest (after all, you're going to be sitting there talking about them all day!)
Hope this helped
My advice would be that unless you REALLY enjoy English Literature (i.e. which involves reading books/plays/even watching movie and stage adaptations/ doing lots of research and reading lots of articles/ writing essays) then don't take the A Level. It is a huge jump from GCSE to A Level and my class and I did struggle. That being said, I did still enjoy the course but that's because I have a passion for books and theatre. If you don't enjoy that type of stuff then you might feel a bit lost and give up if you aren't doing as well as you hoped.
A lot of my class took it as an 'easy option' and boy did they regret that! I got an A* in my GCSE English Literature and full marks in all of my course work but, as I came to learn, top marks in your GCSE's does not mean that you are guaranteed an A (or even a B!) at A Level. You do have to work very hard for it!
However, I do not want to completely throw you off the subject as English Literature is brilliant to do if you are wanting to go into Law. I am thinking of doing a Law conversion course after my English Literature degree. It is an amazing subject but you do have to love books in order to not lose interest (after all, you're going to be sitting there talking about them all day!)
Hope this helped
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#4
I am a year 12 student so this is not based on experience but if you want to do law I would personally choose English literature rather than economics. If you enjoy English literature more than economics your likely to get good grades requiring that you put the effort in.
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#5
At my school we found that english lit had the smallest jump up to a-level of any subject, it was very similar to the GCSE. I would highly recommend taking it, especially for a law application. But do whatever you enjoy as that's where you'll perform best 
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#6
(Original post by historynerd47)
At my school we found that english lit had the smallest jump up to a-level of any subject, it was very similar to the GCSE. I would highly recommend taking it, especially for a law application. But do whatever you enjoy as that's where you'll perform best
At my school we found that english lit had the smallest jump up to a-level of any subject, it was very similar to the GCSE. I would highly recommend taking it, especially for a law application. But do whatever you enjoy as that's where you'll perform best
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#7
(Original post by KateUpdate)
What exam board did yous do?
What exam board did yous do?
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#8
(Original post by historynerd47)
I actually can't remember tbh, it was a couple of years ago. But the skills were exactly the same- if you enjoy reading literature and analysing it, having debates and discussions about it then there's no weird surprises compared to other a-levels we took- for example, in French A-level (I remember that was Edexcel) we had to learn the French political system and do a lot of politics which I liked but others who weren't interested in politics found quite difficult. Not to say English lit is easy- it isn't- but it was more of a natural step up for our class- compared to other humanities like history, and language
I actually can't remember tbh, it was a couple of years ago. But the skills were exactly the same- if you enjoy reading literature and analysing it, having debates and discussions about it then there's no weird surprises compared to other a-levels we took- for example, in French A-level (I remember that was Edexcel) we had to learn the French political system and do a lot of politics which I liked but others who weren't interested in politics found quite difficult. Not to say English lit is easy- it isn't- but it was more of a natural step up for our class- compared to other humanities like history, and language
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