11 Plus Exams Forum

DD is trying to decide between English literature and Economics. Just wanted to check if Economics is seen as a soft subject?

No. Whilst it is not needed at A level to progress to an Economics degree, it is not often found on the “not counted” list (like Critical thinking/General Studies, which are mainly accepted as a 4th.)

What's the third subject?

What's the third subject?

Absolutely not.

It also is really helpful for Geography. My dd2 did A level Geography and felt the Geography students also doing A level Economics had a real advantage over the ones who were not. DG

Not a soft subject at all.
DG is absolutely right about it complementing Geography well.

kenyancowgirl wrote:No. Whilst it is not needed at A level to progress to an Economics degree, it is not often found on the “not counted” list (like Critical thinking/General Studies, which are mainly accepted as a 4th.)

While Economics is not required to study for Economics degree, is there any Uni which doesn't count Economics as one of the acceptable A2 subjects?

I would think that as an essay subject, involving lot of Maths, it would be a quite demanding subject and would combine very well with other Science or Humanities subjects

Edited to remove mod blue

I couldn't think of any as I was typing on my phone, on a rugby pitch, however, going back 15 years, it did appear on some lists (alongside PE, Psychology, Business Studies and some others) as they were still (to some institutions) seen as new subjects. Things change and now most of these subjects are accepted absolutely (although not always in combination with others from the list)

I didn't want to categorically say it was absolutely accepted yesterday, as I had not checked every institution in the country, as I was posting, and felt sure, if there was one who didn't accept it, someone would pick me up on false information!!

I took O level and A level Economics over 40 years ago. No idea how 'new' they were then, but as far as I can remember, our Economics teacher was part time, teaching just that subject . Not sure for how much longer after our year, though - I got an A for the O level, taken in one year, but a D for the A level, that pattern being the experience of others in the group as well. We also had some unexpected results in Geography, although my friend who took both and was one of the 'unexpected' ones, still got her university place.

Thank you very much for all your replies. They are very helpful.

I forgot to mention the other subjects are: FM, Maths and Physics.

Before I spark the 4 subjects debate, our school does not encourage 4 subjects but if a DC is choosing Further Maths then they will ask for a 4th subject. This is to ensure that DCs are covered for those Unis that do not recognise FM as a separate A level. Also, she can drop FM at A level if things become stressful.

Her English is consistently good, right form primary school. She loves reading and writes poems. However, she has this idea that the exams will not give her much creative freedom. They will mostly be content analysis type.

She is also very interested in Economics related topics - land, labour, capital, financial crisis, Brexit impact, gender pay gap, globalisation, monopolies, oligopolies .... But she wasn't sure if this is seen as a soft subject as compared to English Language. This is making the choice slightly harder.