media studies A level?

I recently changed my A Level option from drama to media studies as I think i will enjoy it more. I'm predicted 7s in most of my CGSE's. Will I find media hard? and is it hard to get an A?

Hey, as someone who is about to sit their OCR Media A-Level paper 1 tomorrow, I can confidently say no you will not regret it. As someone who is not very academically smart, I find media very good in allowing students to showcase their creative skills alongside their acedemic skills. I only got 5/6s in my GCSE's as I am much more of a creative person and struggle in exams immensley. The actual learning side and the content you need to learn is - I would say - on the easier side compared to other A-Levels and the content is enjoyable in some places. It is the actual application of your knowledge in the exam which is the hard part - for OCR at least - the questions are not difficult but weirdly worded and it can be quite confusing when to apply what knowledge if you know what I mean. If you are a creative person then media is a thousand percent for you. The coursework ascept for OCR is 30 percent of your grade, where you get to create your own media product from a brief. I got 56/60 (full marks on my actual product) on the coursework aspect and it means for me I only need to get around a D in both exams to get a B overall. If you're someone who is creative in an English Language way, the exam contains a lot of analysing and applying theories in a creative way, similar to English. For example, in question 1 I have to analyse two covers of a newspapers and apply a theory. If you are not a creative person then you may struggle a bit, most of my class took media because they thought it would be a really easy subject, but many struggled on the coursework aspect and did not put any effort in, getting a mark less than 30, meaning they have to score a lot more in the actual exam to gain their grade, so if you are not a creative person and do not think you can carry a brief out and convert it into a media product (for example, I made 2 magazine covers and content pages) then you may struggle. Overall, if you are a creative person who enjoys English Language and would find it easy to create your own media product then YES! But if you are more of a maths person (which I assume you are not as you were going to do drama) then I would not suggest it. Just another note, the media spec changes quite often and the set texts you need to learn change, meaning revision material from even a few years ago is useless. I am the year where they rolled out a new spec, meaning the revision material out there, is when I say limited I mean limited. There is an offical text book; however, god it is wordy and bad, but it is one of the only revision materials out there. Regardless of the changing spec, material for media is limited anyways. Anyways, yes do it, I love media so so so much and it allows you to branch off into many courses at university. I would say in the modern word, media is an underrated but useful A-Level to have. Lots of luck xx

oh my gosh this is so helpful!! I'm so excited to take it now!! best of luck in your exams <3

Hey, glad you found it helpful. I do come back baring bad news... that exam was crazy lmao. I mean, it was not the hardest thing ever (thank god for my coursework) but OCR is evil. I am still glad I took media but that exam was so questionable, not to point the blame but I am just realising how bad my teacher was in not going over the possibilites of the types of questions lmao. In OCR for paper 1 question 1 and 2, we are given two sources which are contraditcing newspaper covers with left wing and right wing views, which I am pretty confident in analysing. In the exam the two sources were of tweets... TWEETS. It was weird and really through me off for the entire paper. But anyways we move on and hopefully it will be different for you lmao. Anyways glad I could help, don't let this put you off, Media is still a fantastic subject <3

Hey, glad you found it helpful. I do come back baring bad news... that exam was crazy lmao. I mean, it was not the hardest thing ever (thank god for my coursework) but OCR is evil. I am still glad I took media but that exam was so questionable, not to point the blame but I am just realising how bad my teacher was in not going over the possibilites of the types of questions lmao. In OCR for paper 1 question 1 and 2, we are given two sources which are contraditcing newspaper covers with left wing and right wing views, which I am pretty confident in analysing. In the exam the two sources were of tweets... TWEETS. It was weird and really through me off for the entire paper. But anyways we move on and hopefully it will be different for you lmao. Anyways glad I could help, don't let this put you off, Media is still a fantastic subject <3

haha yeah that paper ruined all chances of getting a high grade. hate it with a passion

how did ur coursework go? im just grateful my coursework will help me not fail. but omg that paper was awful.