What A Level with English Language and History?

[UserAtRandom]

Thinking ahead here but DD (currently in Year 10) has started pondering about what she wants to study after GCSEs.
She is pretty sure she wants to study English Language and History.
She is totally unsure about a 3rd A Level.
She would like to go to university - possibly to study English or History or possibly Primary Education. But that might change.

I'm not sure there are any "wrong" answers but interested in thoughts.
Of the other GCSEs she's currently taking
Maths, Science and Spanish - she hates
Art - she loves but is too much of a time killer
RS - she is good at but a bit ambivalent about, a possible
English Lit - she finds very dry, but is a possible
Drama - she loves but she's not the strongest of performers (her view; her teacher is pretty positive about her) although will do well at the written/analytical bits. However her school doesn't currently offer at A Level (chance this might change) and there are personal reason why she would be reluctant to move to a different sixth form.

Another possibility (not studied at GCSE) is Sociology but I don't know if this would be too similar to her other choices. Might suit her in terms of playing to her strong analytical/writing strengths.

Any thoughts, or other suggestions for a 3rd A Level very welcome!

Psychology?

Rs is the best out of that lot IMO

Our school doesn’t require geography gcse for geography a level. Is that an option?

Politics or Law?

Does the school offer things like psychology, gov/pol, law or any other A levels not related to a GCSE?

BTW if she wants to study English at uni, that is more commonly Eng lit; tho Eng lang is offered it is often alongside eg linguistics. Eng lang A level is a bit dull IMHO but then it sounds as tho she feels like that about Eng lit!

School does offer both politics and law.
She is quite keen on the idea of psychology but I thought A Level would be too sciency for someone that didn't like science/maths. Is this not the case?

Her English Lang teacher waxed lyrical about the A Level which is partly why she is so keen!

I think there's a fair bit of maths in psychology. Get her to check out politics

RS or Politics. Drama is difficult to achieve top grades and is dependant on others in the group.

My understanding is that psychology and sociology are certainly not out of the question for someone who isn't so strong on science/ maths, and her strengths that you mentioned would be a real plus.

Her maths and science skills are ok (she's predicted 87 for science and 7 for maths). She just doesn't enjoy them (and would have chosen not to study them if that had been an option!). So if it's a question of you have to use some maths or scientific principles as part of the A Level, that would be fine I think. If the course becomes more like a science in terms of content/teaching, I think that would put her off.

DD1 has really enjoyed the combination of English, History and Sociology. All very complementary subjects, and Sociology is a bit less essay-based than the other two.

As I understand it, Sociology is much less sciency than Psychology BTW.

Psychology maths is statistics so she may want to look into it before committing. In fact Politics, Sociology and other social sciences also cover it.

Does the school offer Philosophy & Ethics at A-level?

Re Psychology, there's some, but not all that much in the way of maths or science - you don't have to be a whizz at either.

She might well find English lit a lot less dry at A level than at GCSE. If she hates reading and dislikes it because it centres on texts then no, but if it's the formulaic exam responses she dislikes then she might well find A level a lot more stimulating as there is greater emphasis on discussion of different interpretations of texts and a wider variety of texts are studied. Language is completely different from GCSE language - they look at child language acquisition, the history of the English language and language and identity (how language use is affected by gender, age, sexuality etc). Of course there is the usual text analysis as well but I wouldn't call it dry, biased as I am .

Film studies? Or Theatre Studies?

My child wasn’t brilliant at maths but managed an A in Psychology and really enjoyed it.

Thank you everyone - some good points in here and areas for her to explore.

So I think she needs to

• look at A Level content of English Lit vs English Lang to see which would suit her better
• Consider RS (which has a high component of philosophy/ethics) and sociology. And maybe politics, although she pulled a face at that idea.
• look into how much maths in psychology and whether that might suit her

For what it’s worth, I thought Politics was great at A Level (better than Sociology). But pretty hard so if she’s not into it she might not stick at it.

There is a Classical Civilisation GCSE which is basically ancient history of Romans and Greeks. Your DD could look into that one if she is leaning towards a history degree.

Duh, sorry it is a Classical History A level. No idea why I writes GCSE.

It’s good grounding if she’s thinking an archaeology degree might be a possibility.

That's what my DS will be doing English Literature, History and politics or sociology. He was interested in psychology but it is quite sciency and I'm not sure he'll get a high enough grade in biology.

Law is interesting but most students who do law at University don't have A level law. Although it's a good option I think.

Art shouldn't be a time killer...as long as you know how to use the mark scheme to your advantage. It's an easy subject in which a good grade can usually be guaranteed, and it also means less written exams in the summer.

This is 20+ years ago, but I did Eng Lang and Lit combined, Sociology and French and I wished I did an art subject. I found the French very hard compared to GCSE, and having two essay subjects plus something I struggled with was tough. I was desperate to do Art or Photography like a lot of my friends, just to get a mental break from essays. If she loves Art I might steer her towards that, though I agree it does take up a lot of time.

If she's considering Sociology I do think it's an interesting subject, and I've actually found what I learned in that more relevant to adult life than either of the others. Definitely no need for maths, I barely scraped my C at GCSE!

@Einszwei

Art shouldn't be a time killer...as long as you know how to use the mark scheme to your advantage. It's an easy subject in which a good grade can usually be guaranteed, and it also means less written exams in the summer.

That's interesting and I it's maybe worth a closer look. Unfortunately DD is a real perfectionist and spends hours and hours on GCSE Art - beyond what I think is expected (and her teacher has said the same). I think she knows she is likely to want to do the same at A Level even if everyone tells her she doesn't need to, so it's probably sensible to avoid. Though it is a good point about lack of exams especially as her subjects all look essay heavy.