AS level choices

[bourboncreme]

DS1 is shoosing his A and AS levels,currently under coinsideration are English and history,philosophy,classical studies and RE.

If he does RE and also philosophy are these too close together,he is concerned that they may overlap too much ,his RE teacher thinks this is an advantage.At the moment he is thinking of going RE ,hist and Eng lit with philosophy as his fourth which he will probably drop after AS ,I just wonder if he finds that say english is his weakest at the end of year 12 he will still have to drop philosophy or RE because otherwise the spread will be too narrow.

DH thinks he needs to do three completely different subjects (he did Eng,French and maths)to show he has a broad spread,I get the impression that this is a bit old fashioned now,also DS is very definately a humanities man ,he hasn't ruled out Geography but only because he kows his Dad would like it!

Sorry this isa bit of a ramble but any advice would be helpful.The school are good but sometimes an outsiders opinion is helpful

I don't think it is necessary to show a broad spread but I would be more concerned about the workload of lots of essay subjects. RE, History and English Lit sit well together but your son might life a bit easier if he adds a different sort of subject for his fourth AS.

My DD does maths, further maths, chemistry and history for AS - she enjoys history because it is completely different from her other subjects and the extra reading and essay writing is a contrast to what is essentially a lot of Maths. This suits her skills but she has contemporaries who have chosen to do the same combination of maths, further maths and chemistry but have added physics as a fourth subject which is much narrower.

Also it depends on whether your DS wants to keep his options open.

DS1 is doing RS A level and although his school don't do Philosophy he has friends at other schools who are doing it and has discussed the philosophy aspect of RS with them. There is an overlap and it might be a bit 'samey'. If your son is interested in doing philosophy at university he could consider a Maths A level and then choose RS or philosophy. RS, english and history are a very popular and well thought of combination with the humanities bunch and combined with a fourth of his choice couldn't go wrong really.

The main strength of A levels over IB is that you can specialise or show breadth as you prefer. If he enjoys and is good at humanities and can cope with the essays and is certain that's the way he wants to go, then his choice sounds good to me although I don't know about how much overlap there might be between subjects.

Actually some overlap isn't necessarily a bad thing. Maths and Physics overlap quite a lot and are often seen in combination for example.

Maths would definately not be his choice,counting down the number of lessons frankly.Idon't think he will do straight philosophy at university precisely because of this but may do it with something else.

My feeling is just that he should firstly play to his strenghts and secondly enjoy the subjects he is doing as much as is possible

Good point snorkie about the overlap with say physics and maths .I did 3 subjects that whilst they didn't overlap as such they did have common themes and I do feel it helped me to develop a greater breadth of understanding iyswim

I teach AS RS which in my school is Philosophy and Ethics. It is Philosophy of Religion rather than pure Philosophy but there would be an overlap.

Quite a few of my students are also doing either Physics or Biology and have found them to be complementary but different.

It is the RE course,rather than the one which is philosophy of religion and ethics,some of DS's friends at another school do the other course and consequently the school does not offer a separate Philosophy course.He does st johns gospel I think but also some philosophy of religion and ethics,currently it is his best subject and the dept are keen on him doing it so it looks like he will

Did your ds decide about ecomomics snorkie,I speak as a veteren of economics A level and a degree in economics!

Yes bourboncreme - he's settled on maths, f. maths, physics, economics & chemistry (in that order - choices have to be numbered!) He's filled out the form and will hand it in tomorrow I think. He seems very comfortable with that choice now & is looking forward to it - actually really excited by the prospect of having 16 maths lessons a week . I have caught him reading the economist lately as well!

Do you know what exam board, you could look them up and compare to see how much of a cross over there is.

At degree level pure philosophy is very different from Philosophy of Religion.

I teach both 'A' level Philosophy (AQA - Pure - the only exam board that does 'A' level philosophy) and RS (Philosophy and ethics). Whilst there is some overlap (my RS board is EDEXCEL), most students who do both find that it is to their advantage. Philosophy is quite a bit harder than the RS course - it tends to cover a lot more topics, and goes at a much faster pace than the RS course, but students who do both find that the RS course tends to add more detail to the philosophy A level, which does tend to skim more topics, but they also find that the broader nature of the philosophy 'A' level can help them to contextualise their RS studies.

In actual fact, there is not that much content overlap between the two 'A' levels (EDEXCEL RS and AQA Philosophy) - as many of the subjects they do at AS in RS (cosmological argument, religious experience and miracles) are not covered until A2 in Philosophy, but conversely some AS topics in philosophy are not covered until A2 in RS (Religious Language, Ontological argument, God as a human construct). Further, there are some aspects studied in the philosophy 'A' level that do not even come up in the RS course (such as innate knowledge of God) and vice versa.

Also, it is worth looking at what he would be studying in Philosophy, as there are lots of different specialisms. Your child would have to study Epistemology and then the school would choose from the following options: religion, ethics, tolerance and art.

I specialise in teaching 'A' level RS / Philosophy - it is all I teach! So feel free to ask any more questions, if you want to.
HTH

Thanks Ello Kitty thats really helpful and i think bears out the advice he has been given by his RS teacher.They are quite selective about who can do the philosophy course ,although he is predicted A*s in rs and several other humanities it does seem to be quite a difficult subject,that said he is fascinated by it and has a shelf full of potted philosophy books already.I did some philosophy at university and I do think heis skills would suit it but i worry about him taking on too much!or opting for a subject where a good grade is very difficult to get,harder marking,more subjective subject etc.

Snorkie the applied econimics was definately helped in my day by a good general eeconomic knowledge so the economist probably a good thing!The econometrics is obviously very mathmaticalalthough I am not sure how much they do at a level ,one of my dhs cousins is an econometrician for one of the big think thanks,director now I think,and he has had a fascinating career,he read economics and econometrics at LSE.,a few years ago now!

Sorry about the typing I have a new keyboard and it is driving me mad!!

sounds like its the same mix as at your school Ellokitty,we have just checked the boards and it is AQA for philosophy and Edexcel for Religious studies.

In that case, it is a really nice mix of the two subjects. With the EDEXCEL exam board, all topics mostly come up, which allows students to focus down their revision. So, your son could choose to focus his revision on the design argument and evil - which will almost certainly come up on the RS exam (although he won't know the exact question) and these two questions also make up 2/3 of one topic on the Unit 2 Philosophy paper. This is the advice I give to my students who study both RS and Philosophy, as it allows them to play to their strengths.

Doing both subjects, will really be to his advantage as he can play the RS exam paper to the benefit of both subjects, yet there is enough difference between the two subjects so that he will not be repeating too much material. I find I cover about 33% of the same material in both subjects. 66% of the material is different.

Thanks such a lot ellokitty thats really helpful,I will pass the message on.