as politics in year 11?

as politics in year 11?

hi, i’m in year 10 starting year 11 in september. i did my english lang and citizenship studies (like gcse politics) exams in june- i’m bagging two nines.
i was wondering if you think it would be good to take as politics in year 11! with the two gcse’s i’ve got a few free periods a week.
about the rest of my exams, i did decent in my mocks (all 9-7), so i’ll keep up with my study habits.
also, it won’t be like i’m the first to ever do this- a guy a year older than me did his maths a-level in year 11.
all in all, having experience with english and elementary politics puts me in great stead for as politics. i’m heavily interested in it (already started studying the syllabus) and will devote all the time i possibly can.
i’m always top in humanities too. it would stop me from feeling so underwhelmed at school
thank you for any insight

Reply 1

DerDracologe

Study Forum Helper

I would say to focus on your GCSEs because unis don’t care about as levels and it could be difficult to convince sixth forms you apply to to let you take the full a level a year year if that is your intention or if not you’d have to learn all the content again. It would also mean more exams at the end of year 11 and the ones you’ll have already is enough to stress most people out.
By all means, look over the content and explore topics of interest to you! Keep up with current events and things like that. If nothing else it will help with your sixth form application to demonstrate an interest if you plan to take politics at sixth form.
So I would say you should focus on your GCSE subejcts, the jump in workload from year 10 to year 11 can be quite tricky as it basically feels like you’ve always got another set of mocks or class tests around the corner so you’ll always be revising for at least one subject and keeping up with homework- use your free slots for that so you can get your GCSE grades because they matter more.
That’s just my opinion and im by no means an expert on the subject so feel free to do whatever feels right for you but i thought id give you things to think about. I did FSMQ add maths in year 11 (content covers a lot of year 12 maths) and Im sure that will be helpful when I start sixth form in September but it did mean more exams and workload as it was harder than my other subjects to get my head around (taught myself the vast majority of it) so some of my other subjects got less revision time.
Hope this helps, have a great day :smile:

Reply 2

Mireya01

Perhaps look at the curriculum first and see how difficult or easy it is. If you're going to continue and do a2 politics then it might be worthwhile. However you do have to consider all of your other subjects. As I say to most people, everything is dependant on you and what you believe you are capable of. I'll be honest, I found juggling all of my subjects a bit tricky at the beginning and I know that a levels are harder. For me, my school had mocks after literally every holiday so it was pretty busy. You might want to consider doing some extra curriculum clubs whether outside or in school instead of as politics as universities really care about them and it could help boost your personal statement.