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Choosing AS Levels

Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
edited March 27 in Work & Study
I have already searched for this, but didn't find what I wanted. I'm choosing what to do for AS/A2 soon, and I was wondering if anyone could give me some info.

I'm thinking about possibly
  • Psychology
  • Biology
  • Geography
  • ICT

What are these courses like? What do you actually study? And as I don't have a GCSE in ICT, (although apparently I don't need one for the course) would it be harder?

Thanx :)
Post edited by JustV on

Comments

  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    I've just started Psychology as an AS. I find it really interesting & quite easy. At the moment we are doing Social Psychology & we're looking at why people obey & conform. That is for the AQA syllabus. I know we also do things like Memory & Eating Disorders as well which should be interesting. :)
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    I took AS psychology in 2001. The course content was ok, I thought the A2 stuff sounded a hellava lot more interesting. But it was pretty easy to learn it, it wasn't really what I would call 'application of knowledge', all you had to do was memorise really, but it was a nice course. You can check the exam board websites on the net to see whats in the syllabus.

    I'm also doing A2 biology. I think the biggest mistake people make is that they assume that the course is quite easy. Fair enough, it's not impossible, but there is quite a volume of work to remember and it's not just a case of learning the work, there is a lot of 'application of knowledge' stuff in the exam (AQA in my case) :)
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    I chose Economics, Geography, English lit and Latin for my AS's and I dropped Latin at A2. I reccommend that you do Geography, it has definetely been the most straight-forward of my A levels ie. just learning facts mainly, although at A2 it is all essay writing.
    I've sat in on a couple of AS Psychology lessons as I want to do that at uni, and it seems an interesting subject. There is alot of focus on how psychology can be applied to contemporary issues.
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    Biology at full a-level was HARD.

    But...saying that...don't panic about choosing the "right courses"...For personal reasons I ended up choosing my A-levels (way back then!) by picking at random from the courses that still had spaces on them. I had the best two years of my life and got in to my first choice Uni! You'll do fine whichever ones you choose...just pick ones you enjoy/ are interested in.

    Good Luck;)
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    I chose English Lit, Geography, German and Biology for AS - so far, English Lit has been quite good, the others are interesting, but i'm finding biology quite hard, and will probably drop it at the end of the year!
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    I'm doing Geography,Geology and English Lang and Literature.
    Geography is OK.Ur basically just doing things on Coasts and Rivers,and Rural and Urbanisation in AS. I'm now doing stuff on Population and Globalisation in A2. I hope this was a bit helpful.:wave:
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    took me all of 2 seconds to decided which AS levels to do......but its really hard to decide what college to do them at..i have looked at 5 different ones so far and im still not totally clear which one to go to...... they are all the same distance away aswell
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    I've just started my AS levels
    I'm doing
    Law (really good)
    English Lit & Lang
    Comunication studies (excellent)
    Theatre studies

    I don't hink it should be a problem that you didn't do ICT at GCSE, my friend did it as a short course at GCSE and took it at college and she really like it.

    Dunno, where in West Midlands you are, but, there are a lot of excellent colleges in our area, I'm at King Edward VI in Stourbridge and its great, I'm really loving it. College is so much better than school, oh and don't worry about GCSEs they're really not that bad!
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    Thanks for all the replies :)
    Originally posted by ju_ju_marie
    Dunno, where in West Midlands you are, but, there are a lot of excellent colleges in our area, I'm at King Edward VI in Stourbridge and its great, I'm really loving it. College is so much better than school, oh and don't worry about GCSEs they're really not that bad!


    I'm in Wolverhampton...I went to the open evening for King Edwards, it looked quite good, but I'm lazy, don't like the idea of a long journey in the morning heh...plus I'm shy, the idea of making new friends...well, it just scares me!

    Thing is though, I really hate my school, not looking forward to another two years there, but it looks like I'm gonna be staying there :(
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    If you are in Wolverhampton it shouldn't be too bad, there is a bus that goes directly to Stourbridge from the bus station.

    As for making new friends, honestly, don't worry about it, everyone here is really lovely, and the teachers are great.

    Good luck whatever you decide!

    :)

    x x x
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    If you are in Wolverhampton it shouldn't be too bad, there is a bus that goes directly to Stourbridge from the bus station.

    As for making new friends, honestly, don't worry about it, everyone here is really lovely, and the teachers are great.

    Good luck whatever you decide!

    :)

    x x x
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    heh theres three people in wolverhampton!
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    hey hellie, have u done about milgram or zimbardo yet?
    very cool experiments.....mean but cool.:lol:
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    Originally posted by northern_scum
    hey hellie, have u done about milgram or zimbardo yet?
    very cool experiments.....mean but cool.:lol:

    Hehe. Yeah we have, good thing about experiments like that means I will actually remember them for the exam. :D

    Really wish i'd taken up Psychology last year so I could of continued with it to A2 this year. I find it really interesting & apparantly A2 is even more interesting. *sigh* Trust me to pick stupid subjects I hated last year.
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    I know hellie, i took AS psych last year and i hated it - and now the stuff everyone's doing for A2 looks really interesting and i wish i hadn't dropped it! Like people have said before, Biology AS/A2 aren't impossible, but there IS a lot of learning and things like that to do for it.

    I wouldn't have thought that ICT would be a problem if you didn't have a GCSE in it.
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    to goby natz where bouts have u looked at in cornwall what alevels u planning on doing then
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