Sociology

Exam Board: AQA

In the first year of the Sociology course you will study:

• Education and methods in context: You’ll consider the role of education in society. For example, as part of your studies you’ll look into gender and ethnicity differences in school achievement. You’ll also learn how to apply your own sociology research methods to the study of education.
• Research methods: You’ll learn how to conduct your own sociological research, from interviews to reviewing documents and official statistics.
• Families and households

In the second year of the A-level you’ll broaden your understanding of society. You’ll study:

• Crime and deviance with theory and methods: You’ll learn about criminal and deviant behaviour, including factors that might lead a person to follow this path in life and how the media portrays them 
• Theory and methods: you’ll expand on your knowledge of research methods and study theory and methods.
• Beliefs in society

Assessment

• There are 3 exams, each accounting for one third of your A Level grade
• Each exam lasts 2 hours and is worth 80 marks each
• The exams consist of a mixture of short answer and extended writing questions

Requirements

Sixth Form entry requirements and grade 5 or higher at English GCSE.

Where can it lead?

Many students go on to study Sociology at university or related courses such as Criminology, Social Policy or Psychology. Sociology is a great choice of subject for students who want a career in social work, nursing or medicine. But the subject is also useful in a number of other careers, like marketing, advertising, PR, journalism, law or teaching.