Hi, I havn't been on here for a while and its the week end, so I can't ask anyone at school so I thought this would be an amazing place to ask this :') My secondary school doesn't do a Sociology and Psychology courses. I was wondering would I need to do these courses in GCSE before A-level or anyother higher degree? I'm from the UK by the way. Thanks
Nope! You can take psychology or sociology easily for A level without GCSEs in the subjects. And you can go on to take a degree in these subjects without an A level in them, usually so long as you have maths GCSE and one science-ish subject (maths counts) at A level. : ) When applying to university, I was accepted onto some good psychology degree courses with A levels in Religious Studies, Maths and Early Modern History.
I didn't even think that they offered those at GCSE :S But yeah, you don't need them for a-levels, and I'm pretty sure that if you want to do psychology at degree level then it's recommended you don't have a A-Level in it...
They're becoming more common to offer at GCSE level now. I think Sociology is still more common in high schools, but schools which have a sixth form attached are increasingly opening up their Psychology courses for GCSE students. The sixth form I attended also offered Psychology at GCSE level for students on Pre-Advanced courses. OP: As Ben said, it's not necessary to study either at GCSE before being accepted to study it at A-Level. It can make the jump from GCSE to A-Level that bit easier if you have knowledge already within the subject, but I studied both Psychology and Sociology for an A-Level without even studying it at GCSE (even though my high school offered Sociology) and I managed to settle in just fine. I'm even studying Sociology as my degree now, and a few people on my course didn't study it at all before joining university. Although I would still recommend perhaps reading a GCSE introduction book for Psychology and Sociology. If you're interested in them then you can read through it at your own pace, and it should give you some basic background knowledge on the subject before you start an AS/A2 course. Martin.
I'm in the first year of Sixth Form, and I take Psychology now, and I've never taken it before. Most schools don't offer those as GCSEs at all, but it's becoming more common.
