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Any views on these courses?
Former Member
Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
Ok, well I just finished my first year of GCSEs (year 10), and I've started looking into what to do for my a levels. So far, I think I'm gonna do Critical Thinking, Eng. Lit, Psychology, and maybe Media or Philosophy. There doesn't seem to be many courses I'm actually interested in, tbh. I don't think I'll have any problems with getting them, as I'm predicted mainly As for my GCSEs. Can anyone suggest anything they really enjoyed doing, but was useful to them? I'm thinking along the lines of a psychology/media career.
I'd love to do Hairdressing, but I'd never use it, so I've put that to the back of my mind for now :razz:.
P.S. I'm creative, but unenthusiastic when it comes to art - more imaginative and v. good at english (all As and A*s so far). The GCSEs I'm doing atm are History, R.E. long course, Spanish (but I don't want to take that any further), Art and Design, + all the usuals.
I'd love to do Hairdressing, but I'd never use it, so I've put that to the back of my mind for now :razz:.
P.S. I'm creative, but unenthusiastic when it comes to art - more imaginative and v. good at english (all As and A*s so far). The GCSEs I'm doing atm are History, R.E. long course, Spanish (but I don't want to take that any further), Art and Design, + all the usuals.
Post edited by JustV on
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I would be a traditionalist and say steer well clear of the "new" A'Level subjects, and stick with the classical ones.
The most important thing is to be good at it, so long as you enjoy it enough to be motivated. I'd suggest you do English Language, English Literature, History and a "modern" subject such as Media Studies.
I would agree, but some people on these discussion boards just think i'm totally stuck up.
*huggletight*
You are appearing stuck up, and you appear to know the cost of everything andf the value of nothing. I expect you are very young and you will need to learn about life the hard way.
RE might be an interesting one, or theology or whatever they do these days, especially given the political climate at the moment. it's also an essay based subject, so if you're good at english, you should sail through. and it'll keep you up to date with current affairs, which is a great asset.
media studies gets a lot of bad press, but i think it's mostly from people who don't know what you learn, or how the workplace is evolving. by the time you graduate, i would think that a fair whack of everything, from schools to hospitals to businesses to shops, to everything, will have a website. if you can say 'as part of my media studies coursework, i built and maintained a non-profit website for 6 months' (just an example - that's what i did) you have an advantage above people who have no evidence of their internet skills. i really enjoyed media studies, and it was more challenging than i thought it would be. it's also a good confidence booster, and you learn to give presentations (prepares you for uni - people who did solely bookish subjects got a HUGE shock when they learned about presentations).
in the end though, you do what you enjoy. you'll work harder and you'll achieve more.
For the very same reason I highly recommend that anbyone who gets the opportunity to should do the public speaking element of the General Studies course.
but haven't you just agreed?
Politics sounds interesting, but we're doing a lot of politics (i.e. the Cold War, democracy, communism etc) in History, and it bores the pants off me
Is History of Art a good course? My mum took a degree in it, and said it was really interesting, but she's an artist, so... yeah.
Trust me I've learnt about life. I just find it so frustrating that I work in area area which is crying out for suitable graduates but is struggling to find any.
And that university departments are closing down all over the country because people dont want to study sciences, etc. and that new courses are taking over - its not a way forward.
I didn't realise there was a public speaking element of General Studies. That was never offered or mentioned to me when I did it.
why the hell not?! i fail to see why a media degree will not give someone any employability. or any other unstructured (as you call it) degree for that matter.
Then your company should persuade people to do science degrees.
Who cares?
Not many schools offer it, which is a real shame.
Disclaimer: The ideas I have expressed are reflective of what I've been told and some personal opinions.No one beat me:p please.
sounds more fun than the attempt our college had at teaching General Studies
Who cares? Sorry to worry about the British universities here, but without science departments, which offer both pure and applied sciences, the country will fail to 'generate' enough graduates for the science based professions, any this will range from a lack of science teachers, to shortages in allied medical professions, e.g. radiographers, etc.
Any the science departments also employ more support staff than arts departments, such as lab technicians, etc, and these in term will become unemployed.
so what about if people stopped doing media degrees, surely we'd run out of people working for papers/tv etc?
No because media jobs dont require everyone to have media degrees, there are many vocational qualifications which would allow those who are desperate to 'get on telly' to get there way.
Well I'm sorry, hopefully I'll grow up one day and be just like you.
Sorry, I'll take that back, just checked out your profile, and i think i've experienced a little bit more of life than you.
How'd you work that one out ? You're near as dammit the same age, both married, both working, and you know almost fuck all else about him, yet you've "experienced more life"?
Sigh.
Well hopefully you will just grow up heres hoping.
But to your point are you arguing that a GNVQ is a better qualification than a degree? I mean seriously?
Why not do a course in radiography? Surely that would make sense :crazyeyes
Also like with most things it's a case of supply and demand. Computer Science is a rapidly growing area in universities but wait thats not a traditional science and obviously in no way affects the world does it? Surely Computer Science couldn't be invaluable in helping our country to continue to develop?
But wait you have life experiance that is obviously serving you well. Out of curiosity what qualifications do you hold that makes you feel you can ridicule others?
Aye, they are crying out for radiographers at one of our local hospitals, they were advertising for them in the waiting room.
i can almost guarantee you that anyone who wants to study media would never have been a science student anyway, as they are and entirely different interest.
the people i know who did media, or related subjects, if they had done a more traditional degree, would have chosen something like english, art, or design. if anything, they are stealing arts graduates.
you appear to believe that sciences are better, or more worthy in some way, but you're missing totally that we need a balance of skills to function as a society. if everyone had done a science degree, who'd have designed this website we're chatting on? who'd have taught us to write in the first place?
you will achieve nothing by trying to push people into an area of study they have no interest in.
Anyway back to the original point of the thread - we were also always told at school that its not worth doing new subjects at A-Level much better to specialise at university. Also as fiend said in many ways its not what you study at university that matters - unless you want to be something really specialised like a doctor - its more what university you go to and their reputation and then you can specialise at a later date.
People still are doing science degrees though. Plenty of people. There are more choices now so some departments will get smaller but the better departments keep getting bigger.