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A2 General Studies
Former Member
Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
Anyone else do this today? What a random subject........... Guess the name is a slight giveaway.
Post edited by JustV on
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I think at a lot of schools A/S is compulsory, but A2 isn't compulsory at many at all. Very few students do A2 General studies, around 1000 I believe.
Yeah. we do that one. And no genetic engineering!
We all had to do AS in january, and we had to specifically say if we didnt want to do A2. My courses wont accept it, but as they pointed out, it might come in useful should i happen to drop a grade.
The only thing they taught us that was relevent was the types of arguement and knowledge- and that was only a photocopied A4 sheet! There were some optional lessons, but the ones I went to werent very relevent but I figured the time had come to actually learn abit about the way the country is run!
I quite enjoyed it actually. :eek2:
Seriously though, unless you're using it to get into uni, what is the point?
On 'Have I got news for you' they compared general studies to cycling proffiency or the 25 metres swimming badge. Heh, I thought it was very fitting.
Heh, that was such a funny HIGNFY!
Yeah, i did A2 General Studies yesterday, but with AQA specification A. I ddin't think it was too bad, but i mean, please, half of it was multiple choice! Wasn't too hard...
I find it pretty interesting. I like debating my point, even though i'm not all that good at it. And the point is to broaden your knowledge of the world. All my school basically said was learn the types of knowledge and read a decent newspaper (or more than one to get a more balanced view) every week to keep track which is what i try to do anyway- Its a good school full of surposedly intelligent young people, they dont see the need for us to do any more.
I got a B at AS (missed an A by one mark :mad:) by knowing the difference between a deductive and inductive arguement and applying my general knowledge. No one who actually attempted the exam (rather than doodling/writing an essay on the pointlessness of the subject) got below a D. Its hardly hard- you just apply what you probably should know about the world by the time you're 18.
One of my friends considers it a chance to practice her creatice writing
The essays were fine, except the scientific ones. All my subjects are essay based, but I'm not confident mathematically.
I went to one general studies class for twenty minutes, in which time we concluded that the War against Iraq was wrong. I like to debate, but not for four and a half hours in exam conditions.
Just out of interest, was it questions aimed specificaly at the science behind how they do it, or was it about the moral and social reasons why genetic engineering should/shouldnt be allowed?
I'm relying on general studies if my biology grade slips - Nottingham have said that if I get a high gs grade then I will be accepted with a C in biology rather than a B.
I can also use general studies to get into Leicester (as Museman said) if I don't get into Nottingham.
Even if the unis you've applied to don't accept it, it'll be taken into consideration when you apply, especially if you only do maths and sciences cos it shows you can write essays.
If you can do it as an option alongside your other three A levels (like at my school) that's even better. That way you have an advantage over people who are doing three A levels or less.
Dont have a clue how i did though as we dont really know what the examiner is looking for- apart from 6 marks for clearly showing which arguements etc you used.
If anyone else did it I did 1 and 2- the ciminal one and the one with Einstein mentioned.
Although a few universities do accept General Studies the vast majority don't, and there are some people who have achieved such good grades and participate in so much outside of school that they just don't need the General Studies qualification. I can understand taking it if perhaps you think you may need it (because you're not going to do as well in your other subjects, for example), but the choice should be yours.
Personally I attended every General Studies lesson given before my AS exam, and I still found I had difficulity in answering a lot of the questions, especially the maths and science based ones. I just think the whole subject is a waste of time for those that it is enforced upon when they have absoloutely no interest in taking it whatsoever.
As for general studies, once again, people think it is going to be piss easy yet people who don't have much general knowledge take it just to have another A Level under their belt. At my school you had to take a past paper to be allowed to do the A-Level because they only wanted people how were likely to pass to do it. I got a top grade in that too, even though it is (as admited by the examiners) an exam designed for English Language, maths, science and geography students and I didn't do anything like that.
Anyway, ramble over. No sympathy.
Lol, was 'Contemporary World' (apparently....not quite sure how it fitted in to the essay questions! :eek2: )
I did the cultural heritage and media essays....wish I'd done the criminal one instead of heritage though!
At least they're over - no more general studies, yay!
Yeah, thats the one! :thumb:
We were just told to add a paragraph towards the end saying
"I believe i have presented a ______ conclusion based on an in/de-ductive arguement. I have used ______ knowledge in such and such a place, and argued from such and such here."
So i just put that. Dont know if it'll work though, since i didnt really make it clear where I used the knowledge or anything, just said that I did and vaguely said where...
I'll hold my hand up as a the last two... And I think Bussiness playes a large part in it aswell, bigger than Geography. For our syllabus anyway.
Only one exam left
Luckily knew them from the other papers...but found it hard to phrase it without just saying "I included this type of knowledge because it's better" etc....oh well....
ah i had that one, my answer to einstein one was "it is moments in time that last forever and change the future,and mathematical equations only model things, and therefore can change over time!" thats my whole answer for a 25mark question!!!!
gneral studies is that important i didnt mention it on my ucas, (im doing chemistry with maths at ucl) and i still got a great offer, BBC which im quite certain i killed from how i done in my exams and what the tutors showed us after :P