English Lit vs Politics vs History A-Level
Hi all!
I am currently in Year 11 and tackling GCSEs, but I really need to have my A-Level options finalised.
At this point, I’ve selected the following:
French
Geography
Politics
However, I keep going back and forth between Politics, English Literature and History.
I find all three of these subjects incredibly interesting, and at GCSE I am predicted (and achieved in mocks) 8s for both English Lit and History (hoping to achieve an 8 or 9 at GCSE).
The big issue for me is I am not entirely sure what I would want to study at university, but a lot of the courses I have looked at do not really have specific subject requirements (including politics and international relations degrees).
I’ve heard from a few people that History is almost too content heavy and a real struggle, as well as also having the highest grade boundaries out of the three.
English Literature (from what I have heard) has slightly less content but is equally, if not more, difficult than history when it comes to essay structures and exam technique.
Now this may be completely wrong, but I have heard that Politics A-Level is easier in terms of content… Now this didn’t influence my initial decision as I only heard that after I submitted my initial options, but it is something I have noted.
So if anyone has taken any of these subjects, any advice would be really greatly appreciated!
Thank you!
I am currently in Year 11 and tackling GCSEs, but I really need to have my A-Level options finalised.
At this point, I’ve selected the following:
French
Geography
Politics
However, I keep going back and forth between Politics, English Literature and History.
I find all three of these subjects incredibly interesting, and at GCSE I am predicted (and achieved in mocks) 8s for both English Lit and History (hoping to achieve an 8 or 9 at GCSE).
The big issue for me is I am not entirely sure what I would want to study at university, but a lot of the courses I have looked at do not really have specific subject requirements (including politics and international relations degrees).
I’ve heard from a few people that History is almost too content heavy and a real struggle, as well as also having the highest grade boundaries out of the three.
English Literature (from what I have heard) has slightly less content but is equally, if not more, difficult than history when it comes to essay structures and exam technique.
Now this may be completely wrong, but I have heard that Politics A-Level is easier in terms of content… Now this didn’t influence my initial decision as I only heard that after I submitted my initial options, but it is something I have noted.
So if anyone has taken any of these subjects, any advice would be really greatly appreciated!
Thank you!
I take politics, history and economics and am off to study Politics and IR in September
Politics is easier, in the sense that content is not especially difficult (nothing is complex), but there is a lot of it, and staying up to date with relative examples (which is quite important) can be quite time consuming, unlike history which is just the content in the textbook
History is a lot of content, but if you work hard relatively consistently its very much manageable, it will definitely be easier if you are doing content you are interested and engaged with, so I recommend checking what topics your school is doing
In terms of exam structure they are relatively similar, but politics does have some short answers which is nice
The other thing i think is worth considering is coursework, history and English lit require you to do an extended essay in year 13 which is 20% of your grade, I enjoyed this, but its not for everyone especially if you have to do coursework in another subject
I really enjoy both and think both are great, but if you are looking for an easier subject I would say politics
Politics is easier, in the sense that content is not especially difficult (nothing is complex), but there is a lot of it, and staying up to date with relative examples (which is quite important) can be quite time consuming, unlike history which is just the content in the textbook
History is a lot of content, but if you work hard relatively consistently its very much manageable, it will definitely be easier if you are doing content you are interested and engaged with, so I recommend checking what topics your school is doing
In terms of exam structure they are relatively similar, but politics does have some short answers which is nice
The other thing i think is worth considering is coursework, history and English lit require you to do an extended essay in year 13 which is 20% of your grade, I enjoyed this, but its not for everyone especially if you have to do coursework in another subject
I really enjoy both and think both are great, but if you are looking for an easier subject I would say politics
Reply 2
im doing history, politics and French and am going to study politics and French at uni!
Overall, I think its a very good combo and go together nicely. As long as you are motivated, make your resources as you go along and keep on top of stuff like NEA, you should be absolutely fine 🙂
feel free to ask any questions !
Overall, I think its a very good combo and go together nicely. As long as you are motivated, make your resources as you go along and keep on top of stuff like NEA, you should be absolutely fine 🙂
feel free to ask any questions !
Reply 3
Original post by erin11
im doing history, politics and French and am going to study politics and French at uni!
Overall, I think its a very good combo and go together nicely. As long as you are motivated, make your resources as you go along and keep on top of stuff like NEA, you should be absolutely fine 🙂
feel free to ask any questions !
Overall, I think its a very good combo and go together nicely. As long as you are motivated, make your resources as you go along and keep on top of stuff like NEA, you should be absolutely fine 🙂
feel free to ask any questions !
how do you find history? is there a large amount of content, and if so, is it manageable? Also, how was the coursework for History, as I have heard it is quite difficult
and thank you for the reply by the way!
Reply 4
Original post by Yanis Irtizaali
how do you find history? is there a large amount of content, and if so, is it manageable? Also, how was the coursework for History, as I have heard it is quite difficult
and thank you for the reply by the way!
and thank you for the reply by the way!
overall I love history, very happy that I picked it!! not gonna lie, there is a lot of content and a rather different exam style compared to gcse - definitely the subject that I found hardest to get my head round out of the 3. NEA is very interesting but at the same time can feel like a slog, and very time-consuming - as soon as your teacher/s introduce NEA to your class, I recommend starting to get all your research done and 1st draft started/done now and during y12 summer as it will save you a lot of time in y13 to just crack on with the final essay as it is 20% of your overall grade. Initially it feels quite hard but it gradually gets a bit easier over the course of writing it.
Reply 5
Original post by erin11
overall I love history, very happy that I picked it!! not gonna lie, there is a lot of content and a rather different exam style compared to gcse - definitely the subject that I found hardest to get my head round out of the 3. NEA is very interesting but at the same time can feel like a slog, and very time-consuming - as soon as your teacher/s introduce NEA to your class, I recommend starting to get all your research done and 1st draft started/done now and during y12 summer as it will save you a lot of time in y13 to just crack on with the final essay as it is 20% of your overall grade. Initially it feels quite hard but it gradually gets a bit easier over the course of writing it.
thanks so much! what about politics? how did you find it and how does it compare to history?
Reply 6
Original post by Yanis Irtizaali
thanks so much! what about politics? how did you find it and how does it compare to history?
I LOVE politics, defo my fav out of the 3. Also quite content heavy but no NEA so a little bit easier to handle. The topics are interesting and quite different from history, for AQA you do UK USA and political ideas (not sure about other exam boards)! also the marking criteria follows a very similar outline to history imo
Original post by feather28
I take politics, history and economics and am off to study Politics and IR in September
Politics is easier, in the sense that content is not especially difficult (nothing is complex), but there is a lot of it, and staying up to date with relative examples (which is quite important) can be quite time consuming, unlike history which is just the content in the textbook
History is a lot of content, but if you work hard relatively consistently its very much manageable, it will definitely be easier if you are doing content you are interested and engaged with, so I recommend checking what topics your school is doing
In terms of exam structure they are relatively similar, but politics does have some short answers which is nice
The other thing i think is worth considering is coursework, history and English lit require you to do an extended essay in year 13 which is 20% of your grade, I enjoyed this, but its not for everyone especially if you have to do coursework in another subject
I really enjoy both and think both are great, but if you are looking for an easier subject I would say politics
Politics is easier, in the sense that content is not especially difficult (nothing is complex), but there is a lot of it, and staying up to date with relative examples (which is quite important) can be quite time consuming, unlike history which is just the content in the textbook
History is a lot of content, but if you work hard relatively consistently its very much manageable, it will definitely be easier if you are doing content you are interested and engaged with, so I recommend checking what topics your school is doing
In terms of exam structure they are relatively similar, but politics does have some short answers which is nice
The other thing i think is worth considering is coursework, history and English lit require you to do an extended essay in year 13 which is 20% of your grade, I enjoyed this, but its not for everyone especially if you have to do coursework in another subject
I really enjoy both and think both are great, but if you are looking for an easier subject I would say politics
ooooh where you going to uni
Original post by hahaaddie
ooooh where you going to uni
Uni of Manchester firm Leeds insurance (but only politics as they don't do politics and IR)
Reply 10
Original post by swqit
If you want the easiest option do politics!! It's both interesting and easier than the other two. I do history and it's a lot harder imo
definitely leaning towards this! at the end of the day, a lot of the courses I’m looking at (which does include politics and international relations) do not necessarily require specific subjects at A Level, so I definitely want to use that to my advantage and take the subjects where I would be able to get the highest grades in
Reply 11
Original post by feather28
I take politics, history and economics and am off to study Politics and IR in September
Politics is easier, in the sense that content is not especially difficult (nothing is complex), but there is a lot of it, and staying up to date with relative examples (which is quite important) can be quite time consuming, unlike history which is just the content in the textbook
History is a lot of content, but if you work hard relatively consistently its very much manageable, it will definitely be easier if you are doing content you are interested and engaged with, so I recommend checking what topics your school is doing
In terms of exam structure they are relatively similar, but politics does have some short answers which is nice
The other thing i think is worth considering is coursework, history and English lit require you to do an extended essay in year 13 which is 20% of your grade, I enjoyed this, but its not for everyone especially if you have to do coursework in another subject
I really enjoy both and think both are great, but if you are looking for an easier subject I would say politics
Politics is easier, in the sense that content is not especially difficult (nothing is complex), but there is a lot of it, and staying up to date with relative examples (which is quite important) can be quite time consuming, unlike history which is just the content in the textbook
History is a lot of content, but if you work hard relatively consistently its very much manageable, it will definitely be easier if you are doing content you are interested and engaged with, so I recommend checking what topics your school is doing
In terms of exam structure they are relatively similar, but politics does have some short answers which is nice
The other thing i think is worth considering is coursework, history and English lit require you to do an extended essay in year 13 which is 20% of your grade, I enjoyed this, but its not for everyone especially if you have to do coursework in another subject
I really enjoy both and think both are great, but if you are looking for an easier subject I would say politics
Thank you so much for this! All super helpful!!
Reply 12
I take all three
English is the most interesting + not as much content in my opinion. You only really end up referencing the same parts of the book / the same key quotes. You just have to be smart and memorise quotes and scenes and interpretations that are versatile.
Cram ability: paper one (poetry / Shakespeare) 6/10 LOT of content though
Paper two : 7/10. You get three questions to choose from on vague gothic topics so sometimes you’ve studied will come up. Plus unseen extract which you don’t really need to study for. If you’re taking alevel English you can definitely analyse some language. Paper two is also context heavy so you can get away with making some generalisations about society as long as you link it well
Mark scheme / grade boundaries : 0/10.
History (AQA) Has a lot of content and is by far my worst subject but that’s because I don’t study much lol. It can be quite interesting or dull depending on what period you study. I do nazis and and tudors and nazis is far more interesting. Questions are pretty difficult and often make you write about a specific period (breadth paper is usually an entire reign or about a decade or so, depth paper can make you write an entire essay on just one year sometimes) so you have to know your ****. Harder too
NEA is a big boost, u can flop a paper and scrape a B because of the extra boost from the NEA (as long as you do good in your other ones!) I did my NEA 2 months late and in one night and got 35/40 so it’s kind of like…a free full mark essay if you think about it
Cram-ability: 5/10
Mark scheme / grade boundaries: 7/10 fair
Politics Is interesting but there is an insane amount of content. Like actually crazy. I do Aqa for this one too, btw. Mark scheme / grade boundaries are pretty lax. I’ve gotten 3/9 marks on a question before, and 17/25 on an essay in the same paper and still got an A quite comfortably. It is pretty easy though, lots of synoptic links so once you know about the constitution and judiciary, you can basically answer any question on rights.
Cram-ability
Paper 1: 7/10
Paper 2: 5/10
Paper 3: Not sure yet but it’s honestly easy but quite abstract and questions are phrased weird
Mark scheme/boundaries: 9/10
English is the most interesting + not as much content in my opinion. You only really end up referencing the same parts of the book / the same key quotes. You just have to be smart and memorise quotes and scenes and interpretations that are versatile.
Cram ability: paper one (poetry / Shakespeare) 6/10 LOT of content though
Paper two : 7/10. You get three questions to choose from on vague gothic topics so sometimes you’ve studied will come up. Plus unseen extract which you don’t really need to study for. If you’re taking alevel English you can definitely analyse some language. Paper two is also context heavy so you can get away with making some generalisations about society as long as you link it well
Mark scheme / grade boundaries : 0/10.
History (AQA) Has a lot of content and is by far my worst subject but that’s because I don’t study much lol. It can be quite interesting or dull depending on what period you study. I do nazis and and tudors and nazis is far more interesting. Questions are pretty difficult and often make you write about a specific period (breadth paper is usually an entire reign or about a decade or so, depth paper can make you write an entire essay on just one year sometimes) so you have to know your ****. Harder too
NEA is a big boost, u can flop a paper and scrape a B because of the extra boost from the NEA (as long as you do good in your other ones!) I did my NEA 2 months late and in one night and got 35/40 so it’s kind of like…a free full mark essay if you think about it
Cram-ability: 5/10
Mark scheme / grade boundaries: 7/10 fair
Politics Is interesting but there is an insane amount of content. Like actually crazy. I do Aqa for this one too, btw. Mark scheme / grade boundaries are pretty lax. I’ve gotten 3/9 marks on a question before, and 17/25 on an essay in the same paper and still got an A quite comfortably. It is pretty easy though, lots of synoptic links so once you know about the constitution and judiciary, you can basically answer any question on rights.
Cram-ability
Paper 1: 7/10
Paper 2: 5/10
Paper 3: Not sure yet but it’s honestly easy but quite abstract and questions are phrased weird
Mark scheme/boundaries: 9/10
(edited 10 months ago)
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