What's better to pick at gcse geography or history

So I'm in year 9 and the time has come for us to choose our gcse options and I'm struggling whether to choose between geography or history
From your guy's experiences what would you suggest me choosing?

Reply 1

skitter12

14

So I do geography- in my opinion geography is easier, but harder to get a high grade in? In my school a lot more people taking history are getting 9s then in geography- this may be because geography has very harsh timings and history not so much. Either way, if you aren't planning to do anything related to them in the future it really doesnt matter. I picked geography because the exams seemed easier and we had a trip, unlike history.

Reply 2

s.248

10

Original post by Eyad1

So I'm in year 9 and the time has come for us to choose our gcse options and I'm struggling whether to choose between geography or history
From your guy's experiences what would you suggest me choosing?

i do aqa geography and i like it a lot as the content is really easy to remember and the stuff you learn seems quite simple and like almost general konwledge. my friends that do history do say the content is A LOT! like a lot. also it is alot more memorising and the longest question is a 16 marker compared to geos 9(+3 spg). i would deffo recommend geo i think it’s quite simple and not complex. however don’t forget it does have quite a lot of content and revision is of course necessary, likewise every subject. but at the same time pick the one you find more interesting! good luck!

Reply 3

beaaa171

7

Original post by Eyad1

So I'm in year 9 and the time has come for us to choose our gcse options and I'm struggling whether to choose between geography or history
From your guy's experiences what would you suggest me choosing?

in my opinion, definitely DEFINITELY geography. don't get me wrong I enjoy both, but history is a lot harder for me and most people i know that do history agree. it has so much content and its all a memorisation thing whereas in geography you can common sense most things and lots of answers will be the same across different topics.

obviously topics are dependent on your school and your exam board, but for me in geog we did natural hazards, rivers and coasts, changing economic world (bristol/rio de janeiro, uk/nigeria), arctic/rainforests, and resource management. all of these were pretty interesting but for me bristol/rio and rivers and coasts were my fav.
as i said, lots of the topics are very similar and answers link over across topics making them easier. theres not too much content, and i suppose physical geography like rivers and coasts might be harder to undertsand than history which is just facts, but the physical processes arent too hard to remember.

in history we've done:
germany 180-45. very interesting, quite dense content-wise but fun nonetheless.
cold war, bit more difficult but very interesting too.
power and the people. basically an overview of democracy in britain, 1066 to current day. very difficult, so much content, so boring, bane of my existence.
normans - some parts are interesting but a lot is boring and its all sooo content dense so very difficult.
(bear in mind i dont have the best teacher and i think some of the boredom is due to that, other classes have got on better with the normans than i did)

to conclude - history will take up the bulk of your revision time if you want to do well in it and leaves you with less time for things like maths and science which can be difficult to understand, let alone even memorising it. geogrpahy is much easier in my opinion but some people do find it boring, whereas history is mostly interesting.

hope my slightly biased answer helped you :smile:

Reply 4

lexistar

10

Original post by ELEPHANTRAT

So I do geography- in my opinion geography is easier, but harder to get a high grade in? In my school a lot more people taking history are getting 9s then in geography- this may be because geography has very harsh timings and history not so much. Either way, if you aren't planning to do anything related to them in the future it really doesnt matter. I picked geography because the exams seemed easier and we had a trip, unlike history.

out of interest what do you mean by harsher timings? because for history gcse the time for the exam is extremely low and almost impossible to answer every question on the paper fully and properly

Reply 5

skitter12

14

Original post by lexistar

out of interest what do you mean by harsher timings? because for history gcse the time for the exam is extremely low and almost impossible to answer every question on the paper fully and properly

Sorry, I don't take history so I'm really not trying to act like I know everything, but from people who take geography and history I've heard them say that geography is much worse in terms of timings, and personally geography is much worse than other exams for the amount of time I have left.

Reply 6

Hellopeople!

10

Original post by Eyad1

So I'm in year 9 and the time has come for us to choose our gcse options and I'm struggling whether to choose between geography or history
From your guy's experiences what would you suggest me choosing?

I do both because my dad made me but I do igcse edexcel geo and his because im in uae and geography is harder u have to learn definition and history is easier and more interesting. choose history - easier and more relatable and more fun to learn

Reply 7

lexistar

10

Original post by Hellopeople!

I do both because my dad made me but I do igcse edexcel geo and his because im in uae and geography is harder u have to learn definition and history is easier and more interesting. choose history - easier and more relatable and more fun to learn

is there anything else that you would say makes geo harder than history? because for definitions i already have at least forty or fifty written down for history

Reply 8

januarydancer

I'm also in year 9, finalised my options last week and was having the same history vs geography dilemma. I ended up going with geography. I feel like history would be too content heavy, stressful and difficult especially on top of sciences which I find really hard but if you really enjoy history you could make it work. Check your course description and consider which teachers you might have as well. At the end of the day I'm sure both are valuable subjects and neither will limit opportunities. I'm just hoping I won't regret my choice :p:

Reply 9

Hellopeople!

10

Original post by lexistar

is there anything else that you would say makes geo harder than history? because for definitions i already have at least forty or fifty written down for history

you have to memorise like a lot of formations and know concepts and more content and stuff its so hard and the exams are harder as well and the 8 markers are hard

Reply 10

Invy

8

Original post by Eyad1

So I'm in year 9 and the time has come for us to choose our gcse options and I'm struggling whether to choose between geography or history
From your guy's experiences what would you suggest me choosing?

Go for history it's an added advantage

Reply 11

lexistar

10

Original post by Hellopeople!

you have to memorise like a lot of formations and know concepts and more content and stuff its so hard and the exams are harder as well and the 8 markers are hard

fair but i would say history is heavier in content
from what i've heard about geo is that 8 markers are harder content but easier with the timings because those damn sasalto questions in history are something else