A-level subjects: gov & politics, economics and history

[Lanky Wanker]

Anyone know anything about any of these A-level courses? I've recently left sixth form and will be starting college in September, so I need to know if I'm making good choices here or if I'll be bored/confused out of my mind.

[NewLeft]

Lank, I don't think there's much hope for you. :(:p

[Bronco]

Well I did history A-level and loved it but I'm a history nerd and I liked the stuff we were studying (Late Imperial Russia & Military warfare 1792-1945), depends a lot on what you're doing

[Lanky Wanker]

Lank, I don't think there's much hope for you. :(:p

NewLeft :)










Shut up.

[Lanky Wanker]

Well I did history A-level and loved it but I'm a history nerd and I liked the stuff we were studying (Late Imperial Russia & Military warfare 1792-1945), depends a lot on what you're doing

Yeah, the current A-level history thing is from the end of the Tsarist rule through to Stalin and all that after the revolution. I feel like a n00b for not knowing as much about all that as I probably should, so I think it'd be good for me. I used to read through bits the text books in school during form time and it looks interesting enough, but knowing my luck it'll turn boring as fuck before I know it.

[ForgedConscience]

I haven't done any of these, but I have friends currently doing the AS levels (as in the first year of A level) of all of those. Govt+P is awful apparently, focuses pretty much entirely on British and American politics from what I hear. History as usual carries the brainwashed liberal bias. Economics well... it's not exactly going to be a 'Marxian' analysis is it :p

That said hopefully you should glean something useful from history so long as you can ignore the opinionated crap.

If you are passionate about history do it, as for the others I think you would find philosophy (yeah I know, shamelessly plugging my favourite subject) a lot more interesting than those other two, in fact you get a pretty decent primer on politics within that if you are with AQA. Finally speaking of AQA, definitely find out if you can do philosophy with them and if so, that you will be studying a textbook co-written by Chris Horner. I'm fortunate enough to have Horner as my teacher and he is brilliant.

[Workers-Control-Over-Prod]

@Lanky Wanker
I am studying Economic History and i shall say that it is really the most interesting thing in my life. It is IMO the utter empirical proof of the accuracy of Materialist (and through this Dialectic materialist) philosophy of Marxism. I am quite sure that i will go on with this.

[Nox]

Yeah, the current A-level history thing is from the end of the Tsarist rule through to Stalin and all that after the revolution. I feel like a n00b for not knowing as much about all that as I probably should, so I think it'd be good for me. I used to read through bits the text books in school during form time and it looks interesting enough, but knowing my luck it'll turn boring as fuck before I know it.

We did that for GCSE. In my A-level history class we are doing a breadth study of the British Empire, and a depth study of Indian Independence.

[Lanky Wanker]

We did that for GCSE. In my A-level history class we are doing a breadth study of the British Empire, and a depth study of Indian Independence.

Lucky bastard. I had to suffer through the cold war... Hitler was fairly interesting though I guess.

[Vladimir Innit Lenin]

Current History A Level modules (or some of them) include: Cold War 1944-1990, Italy 1896-1914, British History 1830- 1855ish, Weimar Germany, Rise of the Nazis.

It's all very, very interesting stuff. Often the curriculum is a bit shit, but if you get a good teacher then it'll definitely stimulate you.

Govt and Politics often focuses on the theoretical aspects: the british 'constitution', electoral systems and a bit on parties. Again, very useful if you're interested in politics as it gives you a bit of knowledge and, again, it's quite interesting in general.

Economics is a waste of time. It won't help you at university (1st year uni is just an advanced A Level course with a few add ons and some more maths, essentially) and it's not really proper 'economics', it's just the very, very basics. I'm glad I didn't do it. You'd be better broadening your horizons if you're also doing History and Politics, maybe doing something more vocational or unrelated so you've got a good spread of subjects across the A Level course.

[Vladimir Innit Lenin]

@Lanky Wanker
I am studying Economic History and i shall say that it is really the most interesting thing in my life. It is IMO the utter empirical proof of the accuracy of Materialist (and through this Dialectic materialist) philosophy of Marxism. I am quite sure that i will go on with this.

Indeed, economic history is massively under-rated, especially within the discipline of History itself. I'm surprised when i talk to historians who express their dislike of economic history.

[Hit The North]

I think govn't and politics A levels can be quite dry. If you want to engage in political debate around various social issues, I'd suggest that sociology might be a better option.

[Lanky Wanker]

Current History A Level modules (or some of them) include: Cold War 1944-1990, Italy 1896-1914, British History 1830- 1855ish, Weimar Germany, Rise of the Nazis.

It's all very, very interesting stuff. Often the curriculum is a bit shit, but if you get a good teacher then it'll definitely stimulate you.

Govt and Politics often focuses on the theoretical aspects: the british 'constitution', electoral systems and a bit on parties. Again, very useful if you're interested in politics as it gives you a bit of knowledge and, again, it's quite interesting in general.

Economics is a waste of time. It won't help you at university (1st year uni is just an advanced A Level course with a few add ons and some more maths, essentially) and it's not really proper 'economics', it's just the very, very basics. I'm glad I didn't do it. You'd be better broadening your horizons if you're also doing History and Politics, maybe doing something more vocational or unrelated so you've got a good spread of subjects across the A Level course.

Ah right, I don't really know a lot about economics, I just thought it might help me become more of a world events nerd and give me the ability to pwn people in debates. And I'm having enough trouble picking as it is, I just found out gov & politics I can only pick for grid D of the first year, which apparently means I'll have to do four subjects in the first year just to study that one subject for one year.


I think govn't and politics A levels can be quite dry. If you want to engage in political debate around various social issues, I'd suggest that sociology might be a better option.

I was doing sociology in sixth form and I found it to be crap, plus it hardly focuses on politics. It's simply pointing out the obvious ("working class people can't afford good schools like rich people, lulz") and putting it into fancy words lol.

[Left Leanings]

I did A-Level Brititsh Government and Politics in 1987.

It considered things like changing patterns of class alignment and partisan support, groups like the CBI, and how much influence they had on the government, arguments in favour of and against privatization of state assets, the use of referenda, whether civil servants were neutral and non-political agents and so on.

So it was on the whole quite interesting, and there was plenty of scope for lively debate. Quite honestly, it's at this stage that I got politically involved - and shifted to the hard left.

So I would reccommend it. Of cos, what today's A-Level is like, I dunno.

But I thought I'd put it forward anyway.

[Lanky Wanker]

Looks like my plans are kinda screwed.

1. Gov & politics is a no no unless they change the grids for 2012 - 2013

2. History isn't the Russian revolution like it is at the moment for the school I just left, it's all the other stuff I don't care about

I should've just studied all this shit for my A-levels in the first place at school, maybe then I wouldn't have regretted not going to college enough to leave. I'm still glad I left though because school was fucking painful and college is a better environment.

[Railyon]

Economics is a waste of time.

Can't stress this enough. It is, once you get beyond the first year courses, highly ideologized obscurantism dressed up as equations and formulas. Absolutely no basis in real life, only superficially supported by empiricism if at all, and you hardly deal with what used to go by "political economy", which is what I hoped for but instead I got a degraded maths course...

So sick of my macro prof praising Friedman for shit Marx has said a good hundred years before lol

[Offbeat]

History is a hugely varied subject at A level, there are at least 4 different exam boards, each with a huge range of possible modules. It's one of the harder subjects, but you'll enjoy it if you like the periods you study. I think Government & Politics is similar in that what you focus on will depend on your exam board, with some courses looking mainly at British politics, and others being more varied and looking at the whole spectrum of ideologies rather than just the niche occupied by mainstream British parties.

[Nox]

. I'm still glad I left though because school was fucking painful and college is a better environment.

What was so bad about your school (that isn't going to be just as bad or worse in college)

[Lanky Wanker]

What was so bad about your school (that isn't going to be just as bad or worse in college)

Is your memory really that bad? lol I gave you a whole list in the PYHO thread.

[Nox]

Is your memory really that bad? lol I gave you a whole list in the PYHO thread.

Yeah but most of those are the same in college, no? Or is your Sixth Form just really really really really bad? :D

[Vladimir Innit Lenin]

Do History even if you don't like the content that much right now.

Chances are you'll find it interesting, and it's important to do stuff you're not that fussed about because it helps you understand history and historical technique/investigation.

[Lanky Wanker]

Yeah but most of those are the same in college, no? Or is your Sixth Form just really really really really bad? :D

Well everyone who went to college seems happy as a bunny, whereas people at sixth form never stop moaning about teachers and the way things run. Fuck my life if you're right though.