History or Geography?

[DoctorNicoleWatterson]

Which would you choose at GCSE?

Dd1 choosing options, enjoys and is equally competent in both History and Geography, likes all the teachers. Has to do one, but doesn't want to do both as this would limit other subjects she knows she wants to take.

I would go for History, purely because I find it more interesting, DH would choose Geography as he thinks it's more useful.

Just interested in which you'd choose and why?

Geographers have much better job prospects longer term. She will have a much wider range of skills but should choose her favourite. Never choose a subject for the teacher-they leave!

I love history. Interesting, develops research and critical thinking, helps to present balanced summaries.

I did geography back in the day. I like the "human geography" bit but not the more scientific physical geography. Yawn.

Mrs Burt
Yes ! My children are probably fed up of my school field trip tales ( edited ! )
Did geog degree too and the trips got better . Happy days

Geography. Every time. I did both and ended up hating history by the end of it. Mind you the fact that the history teacher was a nasty sarcastic bitch might also have had something to do with it.

I started off tilting towards history, now I'm swinging the other way. Dd has gone to bed now, her last words 'History or Geography?!'. She is adamant she doesn't have a favourite. She also has no idea whether she's likely to head the scientific or arts route in the future, so that's useful

I did both Geography and History at A level (a long time ago). The History syllabus shown above would have put me right off being far too disjointed.

She is the least decisive person I know, it takes her half an hour to choose between a twirl or cadbury caramel.

History every time! It teaches you how to think, how to write persuasively, and how to wing it when you don't know the answer. All valuable life skills, and the further you take it the more opportunity you have to spend lessons arguing with the teacher.

Geography gets you a field trip where you count visitors to a tourist attraction. It will almost certainly rain.

(My degree is in History. I might not be presenting an objective view here.)

Peregrina, it does feel a little that way, I did history GCSE and A level and don't remember covering such a range, in fact I think we only did the Industrial Revolution for GCSE, at least that's all I remember.

I'm signing off now, thank you for all your views, I'll show Dd this thread in the morning to see if it confuses helps her any.

Get her to toss a coin. I find doing that nearly always shows you what you really want to do.

I don’t think history=arts and geography=science at all!
I’m the least sciencey person and loved geography!
At my uni you could do geography as a ba or bsc??

Is RS an option? Good for critical thinking and analysis

I would pick both.

She’s enjoys both and I disagree they’re too similar - rather they complement each other. Eldest DC studied both right through to A level and then onto study geography at uni and has said often how history helped them in geography and vice versa.

How many options does DD have? History, geography, something creative/technical and a language would leave a lot of doors open.

Incidentally, on DC’s course at uni around 60% of the geography students came from private schools (possible the highest number of all courses at their uni) - I’ve always wondered if that’s down to the pressure to choose between geography and history at an early age and history more often than not winning out. Whatever the reason, geography is often a much maligned subject which is worrying in today’s climate (pardon the pun!)

Do not choose a subject based on who is teaching it or which other children are taking it. Teachers leave, new ones arrive and you can’t guarantee that the ones you have in Year 9 will be there in years 10 and 11.

Choose a subject because you really enjoy it, or because it will be useful for future plans. Since your daughter is 12 and hasn’t firm thoughts about a future career, the subject she most enjoys seems best.

It also depends on what other subjects she’s taking. History is an awful lot of essay writing, so take that into consideration. The Geography syllabus looks useful from the point of view of climate change and economic resources. I’d also enjoy the History syllabus, except for the Norman and Saxon bit.

So, I’d think about what other subjects and their workload and what really ‘speaks’ to her interests.

History is considered a better subject as it's more rigorous especially at a level

What, by historians? 😂

I did a geography degree. Our field trips included southern Spain (coasts), Florida Everglades (wetland ecosystems), Indian himalaya (glacial geomorphology), Kenya (development), and wine tasting in Burgundy - I kid you not - (Viticulture). To be fair there was also some trekking around in thick fog trying and failing to draw landscape features of the Brecon Beacons, and standing waist deep in a Scottish bog taking cores for pollen analysis, but it was still fun! Meanwhile, friends studying history spent three years in the library with a massive reading list.

I love history, but I love that I can read a landscape wherever I go. It has stayed with me and enriched my life. I think history is something you can read about at any point in your life, but most people would be less likely to pick up a geography text book and teach themselves about plate tectonics or population migrations. These are things that are better taught and brought to life by a good teacher and field trips.

Foxyloxy1plus1, that's the problem, she enjoys both and can't decide which she prefers.

InspirationUnavailable, she can't do both and also do the subjects she knows she definitely wants. She has to do the sciences, english lit and lang, maths and spanish, she then has a choice of three more, she has alreay chosen two, then has space for either History or Geography. That fills the ten slots.

We think she has made a decision, form needs handing in on Monday, at present she is going for Geography.

Hi there, I wonder how the choice went? Did she enjoy it? No regrets? I am sitting here with my DD aged 14 who has put down geography but now thinks maybe she should swap to history!! Have read the whole thread out to her (with funny voices for variety) and she still cannot decide what to do! Help!!!!

It doesn't help that back in the day I did geography but sometimes wish I did history as the geog teacher was pants.

Geography is known as easier.

This with bells on

Well, ‘oxbow’ came up in one of my crosswords the other day!

So it really does look like she wants to do history. All the posts here were incredibly useful. We also had a discussion with chatgpt! She loves everything about it except all the writing but, in the end, said "maybe if i do history my writing will get better". So with that, its done. History it is.

I was in the same position 45 years ago! I was going to choose history as I have always had an interest in social history, (the people bit rather than the political bit). We had to do end of year exams, I scored twice as highly in Geography as History, so I went for Geography. It turns out that the syllabus for History was all about the parts I didn't find interesting, so just as well!

Geography has a lot of transferable knowledge, I think. It's quite possible that it has changed a lot, but remembering back to when I took it for A level as a mature student we learned about where natural resources were found and the effect of that on national economies, about transport networks and why they were where they were, some science bits on hydrographics and weather systems etc. I do still like history but I read about the bits that interest me, picking up some of the political/economic bits on the way, rather than slogging through all the boring bits trying to sort out some things of interest.