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Secondary education

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A Level Geography or History

32 replies

ResearchedOut · 31/08/2023 23:21

DS is finding it impossible to choose between these 2 A Levels.
Advice from those with experience in this area would be much appreciated!
His choice was geography but over the summer he has had a wobble (he has always loved history).
He has read the syllabus for both in detail and finds an even match of what he would enjoy on both. He did equally well on both at GCSE. Likes both sets of teachers the same. His other A’levels are economics, maths and german (will drop one of the 4 in Year 12).
He is academic but has no idea what degree he wants to do, nor what career he will go into.
I think geography will be more useful for a job - and the history topics don’t cover the last 300 years - so relevance to modern day tenuous?! However I’m not confident enough to advise him - I’ll beat the brunt if he makes the wrong decision!

OP posts:
Piggywaspushed · 02/09/2023 14:52

I really don't think it matters but just wanted to mention that history also complements economics!

cptartapp · 02/09/2023 15:12

Do what he will likely get the best grade in.
DS1 is at uni studying Geog. He did Maths and Business at A level.
Maths A level is hard btw. Both my DS have done it and loads dropped in before the end of the year. What GCSE grade did he get?

AliMonkey · 02/09/2023 15:19

I did Maths/Economics/Geography, DS is about to start Maths/Economics/History, I think both are good combinations with German. Personally, I preferred geography as you get the mix of science/social science and was a good mix of essays and shorter questions. Everyone I've spoken to about History says it's really hard and you have to be a confident essay writer. Interesting what you say about the syllabus having nothing about last 300 years, whereas DS's syllabus is almost entirely last 300 years, with much of it being 20th century history.

Bovrilly · 05/09/2023 19:58

If he wants to keep maximum doors open maybe he should do both and drop economics, as that's less likely to be required for a uni course. He could still do an economics degree with his maths A level.

A good mix of degrees open to him, social sciences including economics, degrees which need an essay subject, MFL and linguistics degrees, the world is (almost) his oyster.

(I realise that economics might be his absolute fave though!)

thefemaleJoshLyman · 05/09/2023 20:01

Geography all the time. So relevant to the challenges facing the world at the moment. Works well for arts and science/maths students and very high (higher than history) employability skills. Geography degrees are very broad with lots of choice.

Fluffywabbits · 05/09/2023 20:10

Geography is appealing to employers as it requires students to demonstrate both numeracy and literacy - there's a reason it is available as both an arts and a science degree. However, if he plans to go to uni, employers will be more interested in what degree he did rather than school subjects so neither here nor there unless it's likely he'd want to do either at uni.

That said, he wouldn't necessarily be sacrificing the opportunity to pursue history later if he took geography at A-Level - historical geography is a big field in its own right and many courses include modules on this.

ResearchedOut · 23/09/2023 13:12

Just an update - DS eventually stuck with geography - his original choice. 3 weeks into term he still couldn’t decide - but an early field trip was probably the last chance to swap. He may yet come back from that, begging to swap 😂😩.
All the mumsnet advice was very helpful - confirming that there was no strong argument in favour of one or the other.

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