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Sociology and English A level

Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
edited March 27 in Work & Study
I'm wanting to take phychology, sociology and english a levels.
Only i dunno if i should take english lang and lit or just english lit. Who here has done one or can give me advice?
Also, i didn't get a chance to talk to a sociology teacher - whats that like? I have an idea but i want opinions.
Post edited by JustV on

Comments

  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    Ballerina wrote:
    I'm wanting to take phychology, sociology and english a levels.
    Only i dunno if i should take english lang and lit or just english lit. Who here has done one or can give me advice?
    Also, i didn't get a chance to talk to a sociology teacher - whats that like? I have an idea but i want opinions.
    Does your school do English Language and Literature combined?
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    Randomgirl wrote:
    Does your school do English Language and Literature combined?
    the one im going to do them combined or just english lit on its own
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    Ballerina wrote:
    the one im going to do them combined or just english lit on its own
    Ok... I though that's what you meant but I just wanted to clarify.

    I didn't do any of those subjects so can't really advice you. My school told us if in doubt with English do the combined course though.

    Are you doing a fourth subject as an AS level? Any ideas what?
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    English language is quite technical, and looks at the routes of words, and studies the grammar etc. (i think)

    English literature is the analysis of literature, (poetry, plays, novels etc.) You look at how the author has constructed the prose and analyse symbolism, theme, intent etc.
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    im not doing a 4th because these all fit into the 3 of the option blocks, and the last block doesnt have a subject i want to do...there arent really any others i want to do anyway so im just doing 3 AS levels
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    i did english language and literature combined, as did most people at my school. i loved it, the language side is quite technical, there are a lot of terms to learn but i wouldnt say its particularly difficult. for literature i think we did 3 texts.. maybe 4.. and they were just usual literature questions. for me this option was best because it gave a more rounded view of everything, im not sure when im ever going to use the language side of things but it did teach me a lot.
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    I didn't like sociology at ALL. It seemed to me like a watered down version of psychology, with a lot of stating the obvious. The subject content overlaps with psychology alot, but the way of looking at it is totally different, most of which I didn't agree with at all.

    However, the subject is not hard to grasp and as long as you have a shred of common sense you should be able to get a good grade. Needless to say I dropped sociology after the 1st year and went on to study psychology at degree level :)
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    If you love books then I would advise against English Literature A Level. It took me a long time to actually enjoy reading again, but I cannot abide all that deconstructing and analysing and would much prefer to just enjoy the beauty of (some, selected) literature. I did have a clueless teacher though, and other people in my class actually looked forward to the lesson, so it's probably just me.

    In any case, I'd say go for combined. I didn't even know that was an option but it sounds bloody marvellous.

    I didn't do Sociology at A Level but we study it as part of my degree and I find it very interesting although not often all that in-depth. If you haven't studied it at GCSE or at all then I'd recommend talking to your potential teacher and maybe even asking if they can recommend some literature that might give you a better idea of what you'll be learning about.

    That said, it depends entirely what your plans are further down the road, if you even have any yet!
  • **helen****helen** Deactivated Posts: 9,235 Supreme Poster
    talia wrote:
    English language is quite technical, and looks at the routes of words, and studies the grammar etc. (i think)

    English literature is the analysis of literature, (poetry, plays, novels etc.) You look at how the author has constructed the prose and analyse symbolism, theme, intent etc.

    :yes: Also English language often has opportunities for doing creative writing, but English Literature only occasionally does. You should be able to look at course outlines from previous years which is a really good way of seeing the difference. It's something I really wish I'd done properly before I chose my A levels.
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    i really liked sociology! :heart:

    i did it at A-level and got a B.

    we did our units on education, crime and deviance, methodology, media and religion.

    i finished it 3 years ago now so i can't remember much of what i did but i found it really interesting.

    i now study criminology and social policy at uni.

    i started doing english language but hated it so switched to english combined and hated that too. much preferred it at GCSE level!
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    Ballerina wrote:
    I'm wanting to take phychology, sociology and english a levels.
    Only i dunno if i should take english lang and lit or just english lit. Who here has done one or can give me advice?
    I did English Literature at A Level. I hugely enjoyed it, much more than I thought I would. The downside for me was I didn't really like studying poetry, and reading Shakespeare could get incredibly dull from time to time. Assignments in this subject are pretty tough, but I would recommend this.

    Sociology's an equally interesting one. It's a very complex subject, though. To do this subject, you'll need to have some idea of the world around you, you'll need to be prepared to do plenty of your own research, too. That is, if you want to get more than the average grades for essays. I would recommend it as well.
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    I never did English lit at GCSE but did it for A-level and loved it.

    You have to ask yourself some questions like...do you enjoy reading Shakespeare? Do you like poetry? Do you like plays? Are you interested in the technical aspects of the English language? I liked all of them.
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    Hoping to do Eng. Lang, Psychology, and Art for A Level.. plus two extension courses on the Theory of Knowledge (critical thinking AS) and Political Awareness. I chose Eng Lang, because I've hated the texts we've been made to do in Eng Lit so far - I don't wanna spend all my time reading Dickens. Plus, Eng Lang is a bit of a doss for me :p.

    I really wish my college did Sociology :(
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    I did English Lit at A level and loved it to bits. Actually surprised i enjoyed reading shakespeare and found it interesting. On the downside the exams involve remembering lots of quotes from different texts and so can get quite confusing.
    Never did English language A level at my school so didnt get a choice.
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    i did psychology for a term and hated it. i dropped it in the end to avoid having to remove my brain with a pencil in lessons.

    the lesson here is that there's not a whole lot of point asking other people's opinions on stuff. better to ask what kind of things you'll study, or fish out the syllabus.

    one person's idea of interesting is another's idea of academic torture.
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    I liked sociology, and found it quite intresting. I coudlnt stand english lit, It just used to annoy me so I dropped at As level. I took the enjoyment out of reading for me for some time.
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    kaffrin wrote:
    one person's idea of interesting is another's idea of academic torture.

    :yes: very true.
    you'll need to be prepared to do plenty of your own research, too. That is, if you want to get more than the average grades for essays.

    Isn't it basically like this with any subject which involves essay writing? We always get told to do this for Law, but the last questions we were given, hardly anyone could find anything else on that particular unit, apart from what was already in the textbook.
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    I'm doing sociology now it's an easyish and very interesting subject as you can relate to it a lot the only problem i have with it is the coursework probably because my teacher never shows up for the lessons but anyway overall a good subject
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    I am currently doing both sociology and psychology for A level, and did English Lit last year for AS. I absolutely hated every minute of Eng Lit, really not for me as I don't enjoy reading at all so the workload was too much. Even so, I managed to get an A in it so can't have been as crap as I thought I was. Socio is an alright subject, lots of essay writing is involved though. Like some others have said, it involves a lot of stating the obvious. With both socio and psych there is a lot of stuff to remember, dates and studies etc. so helps if you have a particularly good memory for this kinda stuff.
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    I did lit/lang a level. It was ace, I aced it. When I started my degree, it was combined with english but I hated it :( I think a lot of your enjoyment of a subject comes from your teacher.
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    I did English lit A-level an i really enjoyed it :yes: My school didn't have the option of English lag in 6th form though so it was an easier choice to make, plus i love reading and really enjoyed it at GCSE. As Katralla said, alot of the enjoyment does come from the teachers. If you've got a fab teacher, you are more likely to enjoy the subject. It's only you that can decide what you prefer though. Will either lang or lit be more useful to you in the future...uni/job plans etc? :)
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    At the minute im doing AS sociology and english language and there is alot of work involved (specialy english lang). As someone else said, english lang is very detailed about grammar, media language, words in general etc and you need to be very dedicated, as with any subject.

    Sociology is quite intersting but you need to be able to remember names, dates and theories - this is where my downfall is....
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    NiK NaK wrote:
    Sociology is quite intersting but you need to be able to remember names, dates and theories - this is where my downfall is....
    All that, you also need to learn about the methodology of research, different theories about the running of society, (remember the Marxist theory at all?) it's an incredibly complicated subject to study.
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