Is media alevel worth it

I’m half a term in and I’m regretting choosing media because I feel like the questions are so abstract and I have no idea what to write about or how to structure my awnsers to make it sound good

I’m sure it will come with time but I’m really struggling and I’m wondering if I should switch

I think a big factor is that I’m worried about the coursework because I don’t think I’ll do well at it. What is the coursework like?

Idek what I’d change to tho because I’d probably switch to physcology but I’ve missed a whole topic and it’s so much memorisation. I struggle with remembering names and details. But I feel like the structure of the questions makes more sense to me and also the content makes more sense as it’s more scientific

So yeah I’m wondering how hard is it to get an A in media and if it’s actually enjoyable or if it’ll be hell as I go through the year especially the coursework

Reply 1

MWorldwide19

Original post

by Caspcasp33

I’m half a term in and I’m regretting choosing media because I feel like the questions are so abstract and I have no idea what to write about or how to structure my awnsers to make it sound good
I’m sure it will come with time but I’m really struggling and I’m wondering if I should switch
I think a big factor is that I’m worried about the coursework because I don’t think I’ll do well at it. What is the coursework like?
Idek what I’d change to tho because I’d probably switch to physcology but I’ve missed a whole topic and it’s so much memorisation. I struggle with remembering names and details. But I feel like the structure of the questions makes more sense to me and also the content makes more sense as it’s more scientific
So yeah I’m wondering how hard is it to get an A in media and if it’s actually enjoyable or if it’ll be hell as I go through the year especially the coursework

Hey!

I did media at A-Level and im now doing it at University and I honestly think it is worth sticking through (maybe Im biased).

I get what you mean with the abstract questions and I did also struggle with them at first, but theres a lot of resources online that tell you a really good structure to follow or even hopefully your teacher should be able to teach a decent method. Plus, I always found the good part of media was that you kind of cant be wrong with your answers, since a lot of them are based on your thoughts and understanding of what youre studying, just as long as you use the right structure and evidence.

Coursework was quite a lot of work and im assuming its still to create a piece of media? Honestly, although its a heavy workload, once you get an idea of what you want to do it kind of becomes straightforward because youre basically just creating whatever you want. I've never really seen myself as a creative person, but I still managed to create something that id say was pretty decent. Plus, its marked by your teacher so if theyre super chill and you do the basics, youre sort of guaranteed to pass.

I also did Psychology at A-Level and its definitely a lot more memorisation and an insane amount of work. I cant even explain how many notebooks I went through. However I did still enjoy it, same with my media course.

I think it ultimately comes down to a personal choice. It definitely gets better as you go through the course and I found it pretty fun plus I found some of my all time favourite media pieces through it. Its also super useful just in the real world. In the end, I got an A and i definitely did not do as much revision as I probably should have so honestly as long as youre good at explaining, you should be okay.

Hope this was helpful :smile: