Do you think "soft subjects" exist in education?

[Kardan]

Do you think in school/college/university there are some subjects/qualifications that are considered less impressive/worthy than others?

For example, Cambridge University says they are extremely unlikely to accept students that have 2 or more "soft" A-Levels, including Accounting, Design and Technology, Film Studies, Information and Communication Technology, Media Studies, Photography, and Sports studies.

Do you agree with this? What subjects do you view in this way? Why?

[Yawn]

media and film i always hear about as being less academic

if u want to get into a top uni like cambridge then it matters a lot but the more average places its not a big deal
i havent done any of those subjects so i have no idea if they are easy

[Inseriousity.]

There are but I don't think there should be. To me, education is more about skills you learn rather than necessarily knowledge content and soft subjects still demonstrate valuable life skills so I'm not sure why they're seen as less impressive.

[Aiden]

I think photography isn't worthy for things which don't include it.

The only subjects that I feel are the hardest that I do are drama, maths and science.

[MKR&*42]

Erghhhh yes there are but I'm sure the russell group call them facilitating/non facilitating subjects. The only reason for the division is because skills in English Literature for example, are supposedly able to be transferred to a much larger variety of subjects than, let's say food technology. I don't think it's down to impressiveness, just how easily transferable the skills are. (ok only just finding out transferable has one r??)

I won't deny some subjects are certainly much harder to gain high marks in than others, but if a person wants to do ''soft'' subjects because they enjoy them and want to study something related to their ''soft'' subjects at uni then they should go for it. I've seen this discussion come up many a time on thestudentroom forum and for anyone who panicks they've chosen ''soft'' subjects, the best piece of advice they give is "Well wouldn't you rather get an A in a subject that you enjoy albeit "soft", than let's say get an E at a subject that's "hard" and you never wanted to do?"

[Cassiieee]

God, yeah. I find that art is a pretty useless subject and just fun for us to draw on a bit of paper. and chck paint around the room.

[FlyingJesus]

Travel and tourism

[Jurv]

no i don't believe soft subjects exist. i suppose you could say there are less academic subjects but i don't think they should be treated any differently. it all depends on the person and what they're planning to do with the qualifications afterwards. obvs if you want to do something that requires you going to a uni to do a course that specialises in maths or something you're not, or shouldn't have chosen to do one of the less academic subjects as you can't really relate film, media, photography, whatever to any of that (i don't think? lol). but if you're planning on going to a uni to do a course that specialises in one of the less academic course then it's fine

[dbgtz]

Yes there are soft subjects, including every single BTEC which has ever existed. I think there are subjects which will always hold more prestige, namely maths, English and the sciences. You can see the first two's prestige demonstrated in most places where jobs or universities require a fair grade in them. Then there is a middle ground whereby they will get you in a lot of things, but additionally some restrict you from doing otherwise.

I wouldn't go as far as to say soft subjects are less impressive (unless it's a BTEC vs GCSE equivalent kind of comparison), but they will probably only impress those who have a direct link to the subject e.g. photography the subject and a photographers etc.

Grammar throughout that was probably poor so I do apologise.

[Daltron]

Yes because at Uni I doing a double degree BA / LLB.

My BA subjects are a freaking walk in the park, calling them soft would be an insult to soft subjects.
Subjects in my LLB schedule are VERY hard.

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Also during High School the NSW Government ranks different subjects on the difficulty ie. a 90 in Early Childhood is ranked considerably lower that say a 90 in Extension Mathematics which in turn pushes up or down your overall state rank.

[Ekelektra]

Like what Daltron; said, here subjects are scaled so the harder ones give you more points and 'easy' subjects are scaled down and aren't worth as much for your final score.

Eg. While my school had a really good new food tech kitchen, no one ever did it through to year 12 because it gets scaled down by like 10 points because it's really easy to score high in. Here basically all subjects that were scaled down were kind of thought to be 'soft', that didn't stop people doing them though, we were told if it's what you're good at might as well do it and get a high score instead of doing terribly in a hard subject and getting a low score.

Universities here don't really look at all of your subjects and think 'she did 5 soft subjects! We don't want her!!!' they only care about your final score and whether you achieved the prerequisites.

[Kardan]

Like what Daltron; said, here subjects are scaled so the harder ones give you more points and 'easy' subjects are scaled down and aren't worth as much for your final score.

Eg. While my school had a really good new food tech kitchen, no one ever did it through to year 12 because it gets scaled down by like 10 points because it's really easy to score high in. Here basically all subjects that were scaled down were kind of thought to be 'soft', that didn't stop people doing them though, we were told if it's what you're good at might as well do it and get a high score instead of doing terribly in a hard subject and getting a low score.

Universities here don't really look at all of your subjects and think 'she did 5 soft subjects! We don't want her!!!' they only care about your final score and whether you achieved the prerequisites.

But surely that's because they have already accounted for soft subjects in the final score by scaling them down?

[iJim.]

Yes they do.

Obviously, it doesn't really matter as the subjects you pick are ones you enjoy and likewise are helping you towards a job you want to achieve. So yes soft subjects exist. Some of us, me included, aren't Oxbridge material :( However, if you're happy in what you are doing then there is no issue!

[Charz777]

I think when it comes to degree level, some degrees are pointless. Especially considering the cost to do a degree. I think worthwhile degrees are ones that are 'of the mind' so to speak. Things that require a lot of thought and really do need to be taught to be understood; maths, sciences, languages etc. are the sort of things that are useful to study to degree level. I think if something is skill-based, taking a degree in it is pointless, because success is based primarily around practice than being taught, such as arts. I think things like hairdressing or photography etc are better taught and learned 'on the job' through experience rather than being told how to do something instead of doing it.

I'd say it's not such a big deal for GCSEs as for many student it will be the first time they get to experience some of these subjects which I don't think make worthwhile degrees, and I suppose the foundations have to be taught somewhere.

I'd say for A-levels, this is where people should make their choice as to which path they should take. If they want to do a 'hard' subject or a 'knowledge-based' subject then they need to go to uni. I would advise them to take all 'hard' A-Levels. I took an Art A-Level (and wanted to go on to do Maths at uni) and nobody took it seriously as you don't need to be intelligent to do art, you need to be talented or skilled. If you want a career in a 'soft', skill-based subject I'd take all skill-based subjects to make up good portfolios in a variety of areas. Like I said, practice makes perfect. Additionally, when it comes to A-Levels I think picking similar subjects is very beneficial. I took Maths, Further Maths, English Lit, Fine Art and Citizenship. It's difficult to find time to study for Maths when you've got Art and Literature demanding paintings and essays. If I'd have taken science subjects at least I would have been applying Maths and using it at least some of the time.

[-:Undertaker:-]

There are softer subjects, yeah.

Somebody who knows Mathematics is more valuable to society than somebody who has taken media, travel or drama.