choosing a-level help

hi

ok so i am extremely confused as i am soon to be going to college and where as i have a vague idea of what i wanna do i am so confused about what a levels to take so if someone can answer some/one/all of the following questions i will love you and express it through the use of reputation.

• what is the difference between eng literature and language and a-level?
• should you take law at a-level if you wanna do law at university?
• what is ICT like at a-level in comparison to gcse ICT? would you recommend it?
• is english literature going to be seen as a better a-level to do than english language if i want to do law at uni?
• what is gov and politics like at a-level?
• what is psychology like at a-level?
• what is english language like at a-leve?l
• what is english literature like at a-level?
• what is sociology like at a-level?

legit have no one to ask so i am turning to my beloved forum. if you can answer anything on there just know i actually do really appreciate and will use your answers to try n make the best choices lol. any general advice about colleges/a-levels in general i will be extremely grateful for

THIS IS A TL;DR SECTION SO ONLY READ IF YOU ARE BORED ENOUGH my current selection for most colleges i applied for is: eng lit, sociology, law and gov and politics but i think government and politics was prob and impulse choice and now i have thought it through i know nothing bout poltics lol... it's prob gonna be changed to ict as i enjoy it and i'm good at it - which is why i am asking bout it. english lit also no longer appeals to me as where as i am good at it - i find it extremely boring at gcse anyway so i prob wanna back out and change that to english language but since i want to do law at uni it might be kept??? any advice on this is cool too please

Law at A-Level is considered a soft A-Level, and some (not ALL) Unis choose not to count the UCAS points you get from it. As far as I know there's only 1 University in the UK that actually states they DISLIKE you taking A-Level Law for a Law Uni course. But most (if not all?) Unis don't require you to take A-Level Law to take Law at Uni.

I haven't done any of the A-Levels listed, so can't help you anymore :P

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Originally Posted by Sharon

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okay so i'll try to help as much as i can

Though I don't to eng lang/lit at A-level, I did both at GCSE. Language is about how the English language works, whereas Lit is about studying books and poems etc. I believe Lit is seen as the better A Level and is probably more interesting too :P

I wouldn't take law, as @Kardan; said, I think its seen as a pretty soft subject and doesn't really help for doing Law at Uni at all. I think the top unis look down on it.

For law at uni something like History would be fantastic, really well respected A level. I'd do one of History and Politics and then do Eng Lit, but Lang would do.

I overheard my schools uni advisor guy talking and he recommended doing a language like French as well but I'm not sure!

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Originally Posted by Sharon

what is the difference between eng literature and language and a-level?

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Literature is the analysis of written texts and their importance in the world, language is essentially two years of DIS R A NOUN and is a doss that no-one takes seriously. If you're into etymology you cover that sort of thing a lot in lit anyway

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should you take law at a-level if you wanna do law at university?

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No you should do it if it interests you as with all subjects. Not aware of any unis that require it but if that's what you like then why not

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Originally Posted by Sharon

what is ICT like at a-level in comparison to gcse ICT? would you recommend it?

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Just as much a doss and just as unimportant to every single employer ever since a month or so of self tutoring in computing will get you farther

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Originally Posted by Sharon

is english literature going to be seen as a better a-level to do than english language if i want to do law at uni?

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Almost certainly also you'll get more out of it as a person

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Originally Posted by Sharon

what is gov and politics like at a-level?

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Depends on the college obv but generally it's a pretty interesting current affairs type course with a decent amount of history so you can understand the context of things

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Originally Posted by Sharon

what is psychology like at a-level?

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A waste of time and resources where you learn about people who were wrong about everything but pretended they could write total and absolute laws on peoples' personalities

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what is english language like at a-level?

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Like those special classes where people go when they get relegated from bottom set and just do cutting and sticking

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Originally Posted by Sharon

what is english literature like at a-level?

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Depends on the texts you get to study but it does give you some very useful skills

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what is sociology like at a-level?

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Basically psychology but even more of a doss with even less useful stuff learned

hi i heard that some people do english literature and then do a law conversion at uni so maybe you could pick something more useful other than law at a level just a random thought xxx

looking like a level law isn't the route to go down

Sociology is v v v easy to doss and get a good grade in because its all very easy and as Tom has basically said a lot of it is really quite poor stuff LIKE half of the sociologists dont have a goddamn clue what they're talking about (this is at college level i imagine it's probably better at degree level) i had awful attendance in it and still got an a in the first year cuz it is SOOOOO EASY but very dull sometimes like research methods just killed me.

ICT is a doss yes its pretty pointless, computing is more difficult

English Literature is seen upon in a much much better light than English Language and is a very facilitating subject for uni

dunno much about rest minus the law thing thats been covered

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should you take law at a-level if you wanna do law at university?

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ive heard no

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what is sociology like at a-level?

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easy

I can only give advice on the following:

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Originally Posted by Sharon

• what is ICT like at a-level in comparison to gcse ICT? would you recommend it?

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It is more coursework related and if you didn't enjoy the coursework at GCSE ICT then you probably will struggle.
Dependent on what exam board it is, OCR is probably the best (in my opinion) and they do give you freedom to roam and as it is coursework you a pretty much guaranteed to walk away with an A Level.

english lit is awful. It's boring and dull and very difficult. You have to 'learn your own style of writing' yet also write how the examiners want you to write.. if you get me? it's horrid.
Sociology is easy, like everyone else has said. Second year's a bit harder but not because of the content just how much content there is! a bit confusing as to neo-marxists thoughts and marxists and then functionalists and so on. there's loads of theories and theorists and termonology. alos, you need to know how to write the essays. Apart from that nothing's hard to grasp.

Really wish I'd had the chance to do law or english language tbh they both seem really interesting

i wish i had the chance to do govt and politics but they cancelled it :(


your choices seem appropriate and subjects become x10000 more interesting at a-level

In my personal experience, if you want to get into a top top uni to do Law, stick to the subjects that impress old, middle class men.

I really really enjoyed English Lit A Level. The board I did it on was great because it was much more like a university course. It depended on how much work you decided to do, so you could do the bare minimum - as in what you cover in class, or you could do loads of wider reading and thinking in your own time. It actually exercised your brain and made you think in ways you wouldn't normally do.

However, I HATED psychology. People see it as a very easy and light subject, but I found it really hard. It was so so so content heavy and really was just REMEMBERING rather than having any actual intellectual application involved. Also my teacher was a complete ***** so that didn't help.

I'm sure Law will help you with your degree, at least for the first year, but it's definitely not necessary to get in.

Honestly though, your personal statement is going to be just as important as what subjects you chose, and your grades are the thing that really really matters. As long as you work hard, you'll definitely get in somewhere good.

Government and politics is really interesting, I personally loved it. It helps you keep up to date with current affairs, really great you questioning things and you learn quite a lot of history as well. Its great if you love your debates.

law wise, they apparently really like you to do history, but honestly i've never looked into it because it doesn't interest me. Sometimes it is best to have a small discussion with your teachers, they may know a bit about it. But otherwise do pick things you enjoy to do but also be careful as they can end up completely different at a level.

Hi this is a bit of a late reply and I can't remember if it's too late or what but:

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what is the difference between eng literature and language and a-level?

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English literature is very much more book-based. You have to do a LOT of reading and a LOT of essays. If you're not a fan of either of those things, you definitely definitely definitely don't want to be taking literature.

I don't take language, but from what I can tell it's basically more like HOW language is used in lots of different styles of texts (e.g speeches, novels, magazines, etc).

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should you take law at a-level if you wanna do law at university?

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You don't have to! My plan so far is to hopefully go to university and take a wider subject like english literature or history and then convert to do something more specific like law if I want to. I went to a Russell Group talk about choosing A-levels to go on to University and they said it's almost always best to take subjects that will keep your options open (languages, history, english, and something else but I forget what sorry!), rather than subjects that will close lots of doors (archaeology, film studies, PE, subjects like that).

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what is ICT like at a-level in comparison to gcse ICT? would you recommend it?

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Can't say much about this one as I don't take it, but I know a few people who chose ICT because their secondary schools told them how important ICT was and how you won't get anywhere in the world without it. If that's what you've been told, ignore it entirely as it's definitely not the case! I don't actually know what A-level ICT is like though :'(

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is english literature going to be seen as a better a-level to do than english language if i want to do law at uni?

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I initially thought this but, like I said, I went along to this Russell Group talk and they made it very clear that that's wrong. You should take whatever subject you're more interested in. If you can't decide, do(es) the place(s) you want to go to offer to do both in one subject? I know my college does so people can get a mix of both. Otherwise, talk to your English teacher and get them to talk you through the exact differences between the subjects.

**No idea about the next two questions as I don't take either subjects**

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what is english language like at a-level?

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what is english literature like at a-level?

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Honestly, although I don't take the subject, the classes for English Language look a lot more fun. I know they get to have a lot more interactive discussions and things and get to look at all sorts of different types of text instead of just novels, poems and plays. However I still prefer literature because I really don't like talking out loud and I spend most of my free time reading anyway.

And it'll depend on the college you go to as well, of course :P

**Can't answer the last question either, sorry!**

Hope that helped hehe

The only subject I didn't do out of your list is gov and politics so I can't say much about that sorry. I did ICT and Sociology at AS level then decided to drop them both. I found ICT pretty easy and there's not much of a difference from GCSE imo, there's a fair amount of coursework but it's pretty straight forward and for the exam as long as you revise past papers i'm sure you'll do well. I found it quite dull though, the only part I found interesting was how ICT can be used for health purposes which was one of the topics for the exam. If you wanted to do law though I would probably pick a more academic subject over ICT as it is very competitive degree to get into. Sociology I found really interesting so I would recommend taking it, but when I took it I probably didn't try as hard as I could so decided to drop it after the first year. I wish I did carry it on now though. Currently I'm doing A2 psychology, probably my most preferred subject out of the a levels I've studied, i do find it interesting but I found there to a massive jump from AS to A2 psychology, its all essay based for A2. English language I finished last year (I'm currently doing a third year at sixth form if your wandering why I've done so many subjects). I think lang is alot easier than lit, if you don't enjoy reading books I would definitely do language over literature. However I think because of this lit is probably more recognised at unis than lang. I enjoyed my classes though and the coursework was fairly straight forward. Don't really know what else to say about the subjects really unless you want to know what exact topics you cover haha. If you want to know more about any of the subjects though just message me. Hope this has helped abit.

Just realised I'm like a month behind oops.