A-Levels ?? - yr 11 student

Hey there! I was just wondering, if anyone does English Literature, History, Sociology or Art, what it is like at A-Level?
I am a Year 11 student just thinking about my options for September. I’ve seen quite a few times where people say how much harder it is than Gcse, and I was just thinking of how different it is in Sixth Form.

Reply 1

subbhy

18

Original post by gabriellarockx

Hey there! I was just wondering, if anyone does English Literature, History, Sociology or Art, what it is like at A-Level?
I am a Year 11 student just thinking about my options for September. I’ve seen quite a few times where people say how much harder it is than Gcse, and I was just thinking of how different it is in Sixth Form.

I don’t do any of those but A levels are harder than GCSEs!!

From what I know, History has quite a bit of content and there are quite a few books/ poem anthologies for English!

Reply 2

beeeeppp

8

hi, I do sociology at a level and enjoy it so much. It’s super interesting especially the education topic e.g you learn about class, gender and ethnicity and how it affects educational achievement(I do AQA). I love this topic as you start to realise how much of an impact this can have on a persons achievement which is something I’ve never really thought about before in detail! It’s also not super challenging and if you enjoy essay writing then you’ll do great. It also doesn’t feel challenging to get an A or A* as long as you put in effort. I hope you enjoy the subject just as much as I have :smile:

Reply 3

gabriellarockx

OP

8

Original post by subbhy

I don’t do any of those but A levels are harder than GCSEs!!
From what I know, History has quite a bit of content and there are quite a few books/ poem anthologies for English!

thank you! i’m excited to cut out a bunch of my current subjects honestly for a fresh start but not the work load lol

Reply 4

gabriellarockx

OP

8

Original post by beeeeppp

hi, I do sociology at a level and enjoy it so much. It’s super interesting especially the education topic e.g you learn about class, gender and ethnicity and how it affects educational achievement(I do AQA). I love this topic as you start to realise how much of an impact this can have on a persons achievement which is something I’ve never really thought about before in detail! It’s also not super challenging and if you enjoy essay writing then you’ll do great. It also doesn’t feel challenging to get an A or A* as long as you put in effort. I hope you enjoy the subject just as much as I have :smile:

thanks! my sister did Sociology for a-level a while ago but said that it was one of her favourite subjects and that it was her easiest one. The things you mentioned sound interesting and I do like essay-writing in what I do atm so that sounds good!
:smile:

Reply 5

subbhy

18

Original post by gabriellarockx

thank you! i’m excited to cut out a bunch of my current subjects honestly for a fresh start but not the work load lol

I was excited too but am missing the variety now!! Good luck :smile:

Reply 6

erin11

Volunteer Team

19

Original post by gabriellarockx

Hey there! I was just wondering, if anyone does English Literature, History, Sociology or Art, what it is like at A-Level?
I am a Year 11 student just thinking about my options for September. I’ve seen quite a few times where people say how much harder it is than Gcse, and I was just thinking of how different it is in Sixth Form.

@emm4nuella @kayleigh_t.27 :smile:

Reply 7

kayleigh_t.27

Study Forum Helper

16

Original post by gabriellarockx

Hey there! I was just wondering, if anyone does English Literature, History, Sociology or Art, what it is like at A-Level?
I am a Year 11 student just thinking about my options for September. I’ve seen quite a few times where people say how much harder it is than Gcse, and I was just thinking of how different it is in Sixth Form.

Hiya, I do alevel lit and history! Definitely a lot of content involved, but if you are good at staying on top of making revision materials and you have good time management you should be fine! Any subject is naturally going to be harder at alevel than at gcse, but really they're not that much harder, just more content and a different essay writing style! Hope this helps 🙂

Reply 8

emm4nuella

Debate & Current Affairs Helper, Study Forum Helper

19

Original post by gabriellarockx

Hey there! I was just wondering, if anyone does English Literature, History, Sociology or Art, what it is like at A-Level?
I am a Year 11 student just thinking about my options for September. I’ve seen quite a few times where people say how much harder it is than Gcse, and I was just thinking of how different it is in Sixth Form.

sociology is quite content heavy, but the topics are very interesting! what exam board does your school offer - then i can tailor the answer to that!

Reply 9

m0thman_

3

Original post by gabriellarockx

Hey there! I was just wondering, if anyone does English Literature, History, Sociology or Art, what it is like at A-Level?
I am a Year 11 student just thinking about my options for September. I’ve seen quite a few times where people say how much harder it is than Gcse, and I was just thinking of how different it is in Sixth Form.

not me, but my sister took history, english lit and sociology and really enjoyed all three subjects. they match together pretty well, especially english lit and sociology because a lot of the stuff you learn in sociology can help inform your work in english lit.

Reply 10

tiredartist21

10

Original post by gabriellarockx

Hey there! I was just wondering, if anyone does English Literature, History, Sociology or Art, what it is like at A-Level?
I am a Year 11 student just thinking about my options for September. I’ve seen quite a few times where people say how much harder it is than Gcse, and I was just thinking of how different it is in Sixth Form.

Hi. I do all four of those (a lot I know). History is definitely a big step up from GCSE and so is English Literature. Both really place emphasis on quality over quantity. I never did GCSE Sociology so I was worried that I would do as well as the people who did but honestly you really don’t need any prior knowledge. I’ve gotten A*s from just doing class work and the homework set.

Now Art is probably the most troublesome of them all. You really can’t afford to be behind for even one day. I was behind for a few weeks at one point and it really consumed every hour I had free.

Tldr is each subject is definitely harder at A level due to the depth involved but it’ll be manageable with a good work ethic.

Reply 11

YoungPoet

13

Original post by gabriellarockx

Hey there! I was just wondering, if anyone does English Literature, History, Sociology or Art, what it is like at A-Level?
I am a Year 11 student just thinking about my options for September. I’ve seen quite a few times where people say how much harder it is than Gcse, and I was just thinking of how different it is in Sixth Form.

Hey, I am currently in year 12 and taking AQA A level English Literature and I am absolutely loving it! It is a lot more challenging than the GCSE. You also need to research a lot around the texts, and reference critics of them in your essays, something that I did not have to do for GCSE. Like all other A-levels, the workload is significantly higher at A-level however, in my opinion, the jump from GCSE to A-level with English is not quite as high as with some other subjects (I have friends who do maths who went from getting 8s and 9s at GCSE to getting Ds on mock exams).

I think, if you are enjoying the subject at GCSE, then the A-level would be a good choice for you. I would say that you need to make sure that you pick subjects that you genuinely love, as you get so many more lessons of each subject at A-level, so if you don't enjoy it it can be very dull (I do economics and I hate it, I'm really struggling to find the motivation to revise it). In this way, the difficulty almost isn't a huge problem because, if you like the subject, you will be willing to put in the effort needed to get the grades :smile:

Reply 12

vanillacandles

10

Original post by gabriellarockx

Hey there! I was just wondering, if anyone does English Literature, History, Sociology or Art, what it is like at A-Level?
I am a Year 11 student just thinking about my options for September. I’ve seen quite a few times where people say how much harder it is than Gcse, and I was just thinking of how different it is in Sixth Form.

I might be replying too late now but I take sociology and I love it!! I didn't take it at gcse so can't fully tell you how much harder it is at alevel than gcse but one of my friends did it at gcse and found it quite helpful because he had already covered some of the topics - but I still found it fine without that knowledge.
In general though a-levels are harder than gcses because of the amount of content + the type of content as well as a lot more self-led stuff, but as long as you keep ontop of revision straight away then you're all good

A-Levels ?? - yr 11 student

Quick Reply

Related discussions

Articles for you