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classics or psychology a level??

hii, im in yr11 rn, and im picking my a level options soon, im pretty set on doing physics, maths and further maths (as my fourth cuz my skl dosent let u do fm as one of your 3 options), but idk if i should pick classics or psychology for my third option??
I do classics for gcse now and i really like it and i was thinking it would be a nice break from the stem subjects? and also everyone says not to do psychology cuz its basically memorising case studies and idk if ill enjoy it (i dont do psychology gcse)? it seems like an interesting subject but everyone keeps saying its rlly overhyped.
im leaning more towards classics cuz i enjoy it and i like my teacher but idkk, does anyone do either for a levels, can u pls tell me how it is?
thank uu

Reply 1

Original post
by mahishah1
hii, im in yr11 rn, and im picking my a level options soon, im pretty set on doing physics, maths and further maths (as my fourth cuz my skl dosent let u do fm as one of your 3 options), but idk if i should pick classics or psychology for my third option??
I do classics for gcse now and i really like it and i was thinking it would be a nice break from the stem subjects? and also everyone says not to do psychology cuz its basically memorising case studies and idk if ill enjoy it (i dont do psychology gcse)? it seems like an interesting subject but everyone keeps saying its rlly overhyped.
im leaning more towards classics cuz i enjoy it and i like my teacher but idkk, does anyone do either for a levels, can u pls tell me how it is?
thank uu

I do classics alevel and I think it’s really enjoyable, and would definitely be a nice break from stem.
I can’t advise on psychology, but I do have several friends that do really enjoy it. In the end, it’s down to you, but classics seems a good idea as you already do the subject at gcse and enjoy it.
The only problem I have with classics is that there are barely any resources online as hardly anyone does it, but this shouldn’t be an issue if you rate your teacher.
Hope you find this helpful :smile:
Original post
by mahishah1
hii, im in yr11 rn, and im picking my a level options soon, im pretty set on doing physics, maths and further maths (as my fourth cuz my skl dosent let u do fm as one of your 3 options), but idk if i should pick classics or psychology for my third option??
I do classics for gcse now and i really like it and i was thinking it would be a nice break from the stem subjects? and also everyone says not to do psychology cuz its basically memorising case studies and idk if ill enjoy it (i dont do psychology gcse)? it seems like an interesting subject but everyone keeps saying its rlly overhyped.
im leaning more towards classics cuz i enjoy it and i like my teacher but idkk, does anyone do either for a levels, can u pls tell me how it is?
thank uu

If you already know that you like classics, and are doing well in it, then i would do that.
And like you say, it will also be a nice change from your other subjects.

Reply 3

What do you intend to do with these A levels - if Uni, do you have any idea about possible subject area?

Reply 4

Original post
by McGinger
What do you intend to do with these A levels - if Uni, do you have any idea about possible subject area?

something related to engineering but i checked and unis only care about physics, maths and fm, and your 3rd option can be whatever u want

Reply 5

Original post
by alwaysfrustrated
I do classics alevel and I think it’s really enjoyable, and would definitely be a nice break from stem.
I can’t advise on psychology, but I do have several friends that do really enjoy it. In the end, it’s down to you, but classics seems a good idea as you already do the subject at gcse and enjoy it.
The only problem I have with classics is that there are barely any resources online as hardly anyone does it, but this shouldn’t be an issue if you rate your teacher.
Hope you find this helpful :smile:

thank youu for your reply, how do you find the essays in classics though?

Reply 6

Original post
by mahishah1
something related to engineering but i checked and unis only care about physics, maths and fm, and your 3rd option can be whatever u want

Then go for the subject that you will enjoy studying, and where you feel confident of a high grade.

Reply 7

Original post
by mahishah1
thank youu for your reply, how do you find the essays in classics though?

I find that the essays aren’t too bad for an essay subject. They can be quite formulaic and not as much thought needs to be put into them as -say- an english essay. It’s less about analysing words etc than understanding the core themes and being able to blurt stuff out

Reply 8

Original post
by mahishah1
hii, im in yr11 rn, and im picking my a level options soon, im pretty set on doing physics, maths and further maths (as my fourth cuz my skl dosent let u do fm as one of your 3 options), but idk if i should pick classics or psychology for my third option??
I do classics for gcse now and i really like it and i was thinking it would be a nice break from the stem subjects? and also everyone says not to do psychology cuz its basically memorising case studies and idk if ill enjoy it (i dont do psychology gcse)? it seems like an interesting subject but everyone keeps saying its rlly overhyped.
im leaning more towards classics cuz i enjoy it and i like my teacher but idkk, does anyone do either for a levels, can u pls tell me how it is?
thank uu

Right, if you don't need either of these two A-Levels for whatever you want to do afterwards, personally I'd say go with classics. I'd say as you said that classics is a break from your stem subjects because psych covers quite a bit of biology content and also if you enjoy it then its something to look forward to in your timetable. I'm in year 12 at the moment and started off the year doing Latin, classics and psych, however I now do art instead of psych because I just hated the subject (not to put you off or anything, it just wasn't for me) Psychology looks at the research methods used in experiments (yawn...its such a hefty part of the course), different experiments carried out on people and also bio psychology which is the biology stuff and the brain and nervous system etc etc. Maybe it was just the teachers at my school but after about six weeks we were still going over the same research methods again and again and weren't really progressing anywhere so I swapped my subjects to art. Classics on the other hand is such a fun subject and unlike psychology you actually get to look at lots of different things. I may be biased here as someone who wants to study classics at uni but personally I'd say pick classics as a fourth x

Reply 9

Original post
by Freyjam
Right, if you don't need either of these two A-Levels for whatever you want to do afterwards, personally I'd say go with classics. I'd say as you said that classics is a break from your stem subjects because psych covers quite a bit of biology content and also if you enjoy it then its something to look forward to in your timetable. I'm in year 12 at the moment and started off the year doing Latin, classics and psych, however I now do art instead of psych because I just hated the subject (not to put you off or anything, it just wasn't for me) Psychology looks at the research methods used in experiments (yawn...its such a hefty part of the course), different experiments carried out on people and also bio psychology which is the biology stuff and the brain and nervous system etc etc. Maybe it was just the teachers at my school but after about six weeks we were still going over the same research methods again and again and weren't really progressing anywhere so I swapped my subjects to art. Classics on the other hand is such a fun subject and unlike psychology you actually get to look at lots of different things. I may be biased here as someone who wants to study classics at uni but personally I'd say pick classics as a fourth x

thank youuu for ur reply :smile:, yh and thats why i was sort of leaning to classics cuz i hate bio at gcse and psychology seems similar to bio, but none of my friends r gonna pick classics but i feel like in a levels that dosent rlly matter cuz everyones gonna be focused on the work?
(edited 1 week ago)

Reply 10

Original post
by mahishah1
hii, im in yr11 rn, and im picking my a level options soon, im pretty set on doing physics, maths and further maths (as my fourth cuz my skl dosent let u do fm as one of your 3 options), but idk if i should pick classics or psychology for my third option??
I do classics for gcse now and i really like it and i was thinking it would be a nice break from the stem subjects? and also everyone says not to do psychology cuz its basically memorising case studies and idk if ill enjoy it (i dont do psychology gcse)? it seems like an interesting subject but everyone keeps saying its rlly overhyped.
im leaning more towards classics cuz i enjoy it and i like my teacher but idkk, does anyone do either for a levels, can u pls tell me how it is?
thank uu

i do both and i would definitely reccomend classics over psychology, psychology is just memorising ridiculous rubbish and i honestly cba anymore with it

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