Talk to me about A level Spanish and Sociology.

[MrsRobertDuvallHasRosacea]

Dd in year 11 and planning to do A level drama and English literature.

She is thinking about sociology...I did it at Uni for a year back in the seventies, and can't remember much about it.

She enjoys Spanish and is currently forecast a low A /high B.
But I hear it's much harder at A level...lots of grammar.

If anyone has any experience of these subjects Please share..
She wants to go to Guildford School of Acting eventually.

Zero experience in either of them, but why sociology? Wouldn't psychology be closer to acting? Of sociology is better received in GSoA?

I did joint sociology and psychology, just graduated 2009. ( I was a MATURE student) DD is now doing sociology in 6th year , and she is doing all the modern sociologists, whereas I did Marx and Durkheim etc so Im no bloody use to her at all.

Goffman is who you want to study if you want to do acting. Genius.

When you visit 6 forms ask them what grade they predict from past experience in Spanish for her likely GCSE grade.

My friend (who got an A in French) gave up A level last year within the first term because it was just so hard. Speaking, in particular. She said the group was not that big and seemed to be taken by those who had a lot of experience of the language - holiday homes in France, or grandparents there, or had lived there for a while themselves as they grew up. She said the pressure was just too much for her in what was a small group. Please don't let this put her off but do, maybe, use it to help ask questions when you go to the open days/evenings to find out more.

Spanish is a big jump from GCSE to AS level, and then again to A2. Is not just the language itself, and there is very little tolerance in the marking scheme for silly mistakes - its the topics they have to discuss and the essays they have to write.

At A2 level at least, it really helps to have English lit as another A level, as the work is almost like doing literature but in a foreign language.

And for AS, I remember my DS having to write what was basically a politics essay in Spanish.

So it's hard, but if she's doing english lit and sociology I personally think they'd work well as a set.

Psychology is too science based for dd...she hates science.

Luckily her school really support them with choices this year...I do think Spanish is going to be too hard for her.

ds did A level sociology - lots of discussion based lessons and tons of essays but he loved it. He also did English Lit.

The Sociology course he did (AQA) had 4 units with choices for each unit. The choices were
Unit 1: Culture and Identity or Families and Households or Wealth, Poverty and Welfare
Unit 2: Education with Research Methods or Health with Research Methods
Unit 3: Beliefs in Society or Global Development or Mass Media or Power and Politics
Unit 4: Crime and Deviance with Theory and Methods or Stratification and Differentiation with Theory and Methods

I too did the A level many many moons ago and from what I remember from my course - his was far more interesting.

She loves discussion based stuff and is strong on essays.
Sounds good!
She loved RE at gcse for that reason.