Academic/Subject Departments

General Studies

All students joining Year 12 take AS-level General Studies as part of their curriculum enrichment programme.

A GCE in General Studies encourages students to develop analytical and critical thinking skills. Students may also draw upon knowledge developed in their other GCE subjects and demonstrate their understanding of contemporary issues.

Aims

Students on our AS-level General Studies course are encouraged to –

• Develop a greater awareness of human knowledge, understanding and behaviour

• Integrate knowledge from a range of disciplines in order to develop a synoptic view of how they relate to one another and how each may contribute to the understanding of the issues being studied

• Appreciate that there are various ways of interpreting different types of information and assess the relative merit of evidence in order to understand such concepts as objectivity, neutrality and bias

• Think critically, logically and constructively about significant problems, acquire an appreciation of the strengths and limitations of different approaches and demonstrate an ability to justify their own opinions

• Develop a critical awareness and understanding of perennial and contemporary issues and develop a greater awareness of their historical and contemporary contexts in order to enhance skills of evaluation

• Communicate with coherence and clarity in an appropriate format and style

Achievement in AS and A-level General Studies is considered by many universities as a clear indicator of likely success at degree level in a wide range of subjects and is frequently rumoured to swing their decision if students have not met their offer grades.