Sociology - please give some hope!

[postitnot]

DD has just done the first 4 weeks of sociology A level at a new 6th form college. It had been her number one choice as she really liked the syllabus.
She's had a few tears tonight as she's really not enjoying it 😕. Please could some wise mumsnetter (piggwaspushed?) come along and reassure me that it should get better? I think she was imagining gritty discussions! And maybe as they all get to know each all better that will happen, but at the moment it's all a bit dry.

What other subjects is she doing?
And can she swap subjects?

My daughter did GCSE, A level & now degree in Sociology……she loves it…..!

My son did A level sociology - he absolutely loved it and got A*. There’s a lot of theoretical frameworks to learn and I got the impression that it’s a very structured course. He had a wonderful teacher who brought it all to life in the classroom and yes there were ‘gritty debates’ that we rehashed at home over dinner on many occasions 😆. He’s now studying sociology and politics at uni.

I think the teacher makes a huge difference here- what does your DD think of hers?

Yes I think the issue might be the teacher! And she says there's no option to swap classes, just subjects. There's nothing else she wants to do more!

I guess she'll just have to hang in there and hope it gets better. And the more she puts in, the more she'll get out! The high school she went to had young enthusiastic teachers and of course 5 years of knowing each other . No 6th form unfortunately.

Thanks for your replies

I hope it gets better. DS did the A level and loved it so much he’s just finished a degree in it and I didn’t think he’d ever really be enthusiastic about an academic subject! It’s tough to have a rubbish teacher though.

YP doing A level Sociology (2nd year) and says that surprisingly that class are the least involved in class or interested in debates than any of their other classes. So they just get their head down and do it. Doesn't know why it's like that.
Loves what they're learning though and talks about it a lot with us at home as a way of playing with and working through the topics and arguments. Definitely says having done it at GCSE helped though as they already had a good grasp of the topics.

I loved sociology GCSE and A level but it was so boring at university level and I did it as part of a joint honours at a RG university so definitely the teacher and delivery makes a huge amount of difference. Hope it gets better for your daughter. It’s really interesting if allowed to be as a subject.

Do they have another subject they were considering they could swap to? Lots do change within the first month so it’s not too late.
A Levels are hard though. My DC finds some of the depth hard and a bit of a bore & previously loved the subjects at GCSE.