I'm picking my GCSE options next year, and want to ask which humanities subject I should choose. Can you help?

Question

By humanities I mean geography or history. Please could I get some advice from people who are currently or have taken both of these subjects for GCSE to find out which subject they prefer of find easier. I am fairly good at both of these subjects. Thanks.

P.S. I don't want to take both!

Answer 1

I'm taking GCSE Geography at the moment and It's really good :)
My best friend is taking both Geog & History, and she prefers Geography..
But at the end of the day, go with the subject you're most comfortable doing and the one you enjoy most. Don't decide on what teachers teach it, what pupils in the class, whether it's a boyish/girly choice..etc..
:)

Answer 2

I'm doing history but my best friend does both, so I have a fairly good idea of what geography is like. History seems to be more work but a more enjoyable subject. If you prefer physical geography, don't take it for GCSE - my friend has been doing only human geography for the whole of year 10.

Answer 3

Hi!
I have just finished my GCSEs. I found choosing my options really difficult and I ended up taking an extra subject! I took both history and geography though, and enjoyed them both. I'm now struggling to decide which to take at A-level!

I won't lie - they are both 'big' subjects with a lot of work, but it all depends what you prefer, and also what sylabus your school uses.

I took OCR Modern World History - I reccomend this if you are interested in 20th Century History i.e. Britain, America, Cold War, Nazis etc. There is a lot of writing involved.

I took AQA B Geography - This is very closely linked to science in many areas so makes it easier but requires a lot of revision.

Hope this helps - good luck!

Answer 4

The easiest humanities GCSE is Religious Studies; it is much less work for the others, and prepares you more for further studies in social sciences (I later took anthropology in college and media studies in university and found links back to R.S.). I am an atheist but I think R.S. is a useful subject as it helps you compare people's ideas as impartially as possible.

I also took History GCSE and found that it helped me to understand current affairs, but it was so much work it nearly killed me and there is so much to remember! It would be a useful subject to take if you plan to study something like international studies, media studies or (obviously) history in further education.

I didn't take Geography GCSE but I have friends who did. It is a good subject to prepare you for environmental sciences and urban planning/ architecture. You learn to do surveys which would also benefit you if you wanted to work in statistics or a more study a more researched-based aspect of the humanities in further education.

I think that the best thing to do when picking your GCSE subjects is just choose the ones you like best and enjoy; that's the only way you'll find the motivation to do well, and let's face it, you don't want to qualify in something that you will not ever enjoy working in.

Answer 5

Truthfully you'll want to take the one your best at. I was just as good and was just as unintrested in both. I flipped a coin. Tails was history. I got heads. I found geography very good. My best mate done history and looking at his work it looked about the same as geography as far as memorising facts. Geography use case studies which a dead boring, but it is a more factual based subject, u can see logic in stuff, e.g. the formation of an arch from erosion. However if you porefer inerpreting stuff definitely go for history.

Answer 6

hi, I am in the exact same position as you are right now. I would advize you to choose the subject that you enjoy more and are good at. If you do something you don't really like, then what's the point? I am leaning more towards geography just because history was the past and geography was and always will be. Hope this helps, just remember, it should be something YOU like

Answer 7

If you're good at memorizing information, geography is the way to go, but if you find history more interesting, do that. Pick what YOU would be best at. What is hard for some people is easier for others.

Answer 8

go with the one your most likely to need, in 10 years time do you see yourself as a history or geography teacher? A geologist or historian? And also with the one you LIKE the most, dont just go with whatever your friends pick, you'll see them outside of school, whichever you choose good luck in the exam. (even though it is 2 years away! LOL)

Answer 9

From my experience ( a few years back) Geography seemed fairly easy to get through to me (a lot of it was just common sense) wheras those doing history seemed to be a lot more stressed about memorising facts and figures,

Answer 10

i took GCSE History, and i really enjoyed it, i found it fascinating and not that hard, although there was a fair amount of writing involved. I'm now studying a history degree and aiming for a pgce in history, to teach. History was great!!