A level Geography

Hello! I’m an international student considering changing one of my A level options to A level Geography. Could someone please let me know what it is like study Geography at A level?

Reply 1

strong-pedestria

Original post by raymiae

Hello! I’m an international student considering changing one of my A level options to A level Geography. Could someone please let me know what it is like study Geography at A level?

Hi I've just finished my A-Levels this year and studied maths, physics and geography in the UK and will be studying aerospace engineering.

Geography is definitely an interesting subject with so many sub topics to choose from which made it all the more interesting however, it is for this reason that I struggled quite a bit. There is SO much content you are expected to learn in so much depth, on top of the many case study's that you will learn along the course. As expected you will be doing lots of essay writing. I'm not quite sure about international A-Levels but in OCR paper 3 we had to 33 markers to write which can be quite long. A 33 marker would be structured differently from a 12 or 16 marker but this is a skill you will pick up on during the course. As for NEA, its a fun project you get to do on any topic linking to the specification. Its structured like a university style dissertation which gives you a good opportunity to practise ahead. I don't want to say too much as I'm not sure how International A Levels work but my experience with this subject wasn't the best as I prefer mathematical based subjects. I'd say with NEA its best to start thinking about it as early as possible. I also wanted to add that geography is a synoptic subject. The content you'll learn in different topics aren't independent of each other. Try to constantly make links between different topics in lesson. This will enable you to make better links in essays.

All the best! Choose geography if you like it. No A-Level is too hard if you don't put in the work, however, there'll be times when you will be burnt out and have zero motivation. In these times the only thing that will keep you going is your passion for the subject.