Options for GCSE

[worsy]

Couldn't think of what forum fitted and Jobs seems to be the best.

My eldest is contemplating her option choices for GCSE. Advice from teachers seems to be rather selfishly aimed at getting as many students onto their courses as possible.

The choice comes down to doing Separate Sciences as opposed to a combined Science qualification plus one other or perhaps ICT or Business Studies.

Any other parents going through or recently gone through this experience?

[Pothole]

Does she have any idea what she wants to do after school?

[Tumbler]

Pick subjects she enjoys and that have teachers who she works well with.

You may also want to look at the amount of course work for each subject, too many course work heavy subjects may leave her struggling to meet deadlines, but if she is not great in exams then course work may benefit her.

Edited by Tumbler on Monday 9th February 15:39

[worsy]

Pothole, she says RAF but at 13 years I'm not sure a, it's a good idea, b, if it's due to the fact she enjoys air cadets, or c, if that will remain the choice.

Tumbler, she will be doing the new GCSE which is more exam orientated.

[mph1977]

GCSE is really the last chance to get a widespread of subjects in the England + Wales system

English and Maths are no brainers and generally conmpulsory as is a single award Science

I would suggest that double award sicence ought to be sound choice if her aims are not for sicence subjects at A level and beyond , seperate sciences if offered are a good choice if she has aspirations for STEM, Healthcare or teaching as further study / careers

People are quick to dismiss Geography as 'colouring in' but well taught it;s a very useful subject touching on economics, sociology, epidemiology , meteorology and hydrology a bit of agronomy and fieldwork skills useful for anything from archaeology to social sciences

I don't know what History syllabi are like these days but if it;s tuaght well it helps for critical analysis, essay composition etc ...

Creative subjects = depends on the individuals particular abilities and interests - the school i did GCSEs at encouraged everyone to do a mixed 'Expressive Arts' GCSE that had modules covering dance, drama, music, phtography + animation and 'proper' arts ...

[HonestIago]

Tell her to keep her options open as far as possible. FWIW I'd recommend doing at least the following:

- maths
- English
- 2 sciences
- history
- at least one foreign language

...and whatever else she fancies.

[worsy]

Thanks MPH

Core is Eng, Maths, Science, History OR Geography, a Language, PE (non exam) and Citizenship (Non Exam)

En becomes lang and lit.

Choices are 2 from:

Art
Business Studies
Computer Science
Drama
Food Tech
Geography
Graphics
History
ICT
Media
Music
PE
RE
Resistant Materials
Separate Sciences
Textiles

She likes and is good at Graphics,s o that fits the likable choice and wants to do Sciences. Just worried there is no IT element.

[Tumbler]

Of those choices how many consist of more than one exam?

The exam timetable it over a very short period of time, both my daughters ended up with more than one exam on some days, in all the eldest sat around 15 exams for 10 GCSEs and she already had English Language as she sat it a year early, she faired very well, but it is a challenging time, I'd steer her towards a subject with one exam only.

[mph1977]

worsy said:

Thanks MPH

Core is Eng, Maths, Science, History OR Geography, a Language, PE (non exam) and Citizenship (Non Exam)

En becomes lang and lit.

Choices are 2 from:

Art
Business Studies
Computer Science
Drama
Food Tech
Geography
Graphics
History
ICT
Media
Music
PE
RE
Resistant Materials
Separate Sciences
Textiles

She likes and is good at Graphics,s o that fits the likable choice and wants to do Sciences. Just worried there is no IT element.

IT element ?

Comp Sic will be a programming orientated course and ICT , depending on syllabus may be a waste of time - in that it will duplicate the work being done for other subjects and presented using IT skills

also drama / music /PE etc may end up being run as off timetable extras ....

[worsy]

mph1977 said:

worsy said:

Thanks MPH

Core is Eng, Maths, Science, History OR Geography, a Language, PE (non exam) and Citizenship (Non Exam)

En becomes lang and lit.

Choices are 2 from:

Art
Business Studies
Computer Science
Drama
Food Tech
Geography
Graphics
History
ICT
Media
Music
PE
RE
Resistant Materials
Separate Sciences
Textiles

She likes and is good at Graphics,s o that fits the likable choice and wants to do Sciences. Just worried there is no IT element.

IT element ?

Comp Sic will be a programming orientated course and ICT , depending on syllabus may be a waste of time - in that it will duplicate the work being done for other subjects and presented using IT skills

also drama / music /PE etc may end up being run as off timetable extras ....

Yes you're correct. Comp Sc is useless as all of that is off shored these days. ICT looks on paper to be fairly useless as they probably learn most oif it on facebook/instagram/ebay etc these days.

Tumbler said:

Of those choices how many consist of more than one exam?

The exam timetable it over a very short period of time, both my daughters ended up with more than one exam on some days, in all the eldest sat around 15 exams for 10 GCSEs and she already had English Language as she sat it a year early, she faired very well, but it is a challenging time, I'd steer her towards a subject with one exam only.

Worth investigating thanks.

[liner33]

My son is in yr 10 he wants to study computer science at uni and work in the it industry.

He is doing the following

English language - takes English Lit next year
Maths - poss further maths next year
Physics
Biology
Chemistry
History
German
Computer science
Performing arts - btec

He is very academic, I mean geeky

[popegregory]

Advice from teachers will be to do their course.

Advice from this one is to do the ones you'll get an A in. As a bonus they'll usually turn out to be the ones you like the most.

Get the grades and, more importantly, get into the routine of passing exams well prior to a-levels

[hondafanatic]

popegregory said:

Advice from teachers will be to do their course.

Advice from this one is to do the ones you'll get an A in. As a bonus they'll usually turn out to be the ones you like the most.

Get the grades and, more importantly, get into the routine of passing exams well prior to a-levels

I'll say what I say to all my students and parents and has already been mentioned. Pick the ones she's interested in... It's two years of hell if a pupil picks a subject that they've now interest/heart in it.

Once gcses are completed then results in A-level are more important. Once a degree is completed that result becomes more important than A-levels... And so on and so forth.

So do the ones she's got the best chance of enjoying and more than likely will get a better result in. I've got year 11 boys and girls that are buckling under the pressure as they've just done their mocks... The ones that don't like the subject are suffering the most. (You couldn't pay me to be a year 11 student despite what the media reports on how easy gcses are)

I currently teach Computer Science, ICT and Business at GCSE so if you've any specific questions I'll be happy to try and help.

Cheers
David

[worsy]

Thanks David, just one question. I was always under the impression that Business studies could be studies at A or Degree level without prior study. The Business teacher says no. Your opinion?

[johnfm]

Whatever she chooses, results all boil down to hard work. My kids got into the habit of 3-ish hours a day; they just came home and got on with it without fail and without being asked or hassled.

Paid off. Good results = choices later in life.

[spud989]

Avoid everything BTEC and 'vocational' at 16. They're all worthless. Vocational stuff only comes into its own after that, unfortunately.

Pick traditional subjects and concentrate on the basics - branch out later.

[liner33]

You can't avoid BTEC at my sons school you need to do at least one , that's why we chose something that my son would enjoy rather than something that would benefit him in future life

[hondafanatic]

worsy said:

Thanks David, just one question. I was always under the impression that Business studies could be studies at A or Degree level without prior study. The Business teacher says no. Your opinion?

My school doesn't offer A-Levels so I asked a couple of colleagues from other schools of their opinion to your question.

To be perfectly honest I would say yes. There is a massive step up from GCSE to A-Level, and in my opinion it's a bigger step up that A-Level to Degree.

So my answer would be yes, but there may be as school policy that stops that if A-Levels are taken at their current school...or check with the local college if that's where A-Levels are to be taken.

[toon10]

My boy is selecting his now. Strangely enough, he wants to go down the RAF route too with a view to becoming an airline pilot in the future. I'm not convinced but don't want to squash his dreams. I'm just pleased he's picking a broad range of subjects that will leave him some choices later in life. He's taking IT, Geography and business studies. I think he has to do a language so he's going for Spanish.

[worsy]

toon10 said:

My boy is selecting his now. Strangely enough, he wants to go down the RAF route too with a view to becoming an airline pilot in the future. I'm not convinced but don't want to squash his dreams. I'm just pleased he's picking a broad range of subjects that will leave him some choices later in life. He's taking IT, Geography and business studies. I think he has to do a language so he's going for Spanish.

Yes, not wishing to crush dreams at this point My eldest is going for Geography, Spanish, and then the two options she likes best is Science and Graphics. Am thinking that Science and Business might be better, or Business and Graphics reducing the workload.

hondafanatic said:

worsy said:

Thanks David, just one question. I was always under the impression that Business studies could be studies at A or Degree level without prior study. The Business teacher says no. Your opinion?

My school doesn't offer A-Levels so I asked a couple of colleagues from other schools of their opinion to your question.

To be perfectly honest I would say yes. There is a massive step up from GCSE to A-Level, and in my opinion it's a bigger step up that A-Level to Degree.

So my answer would be yes, but there may be as school policy that stops that if A-Levels are taken at their current school...or check with the local college if that's where A-Levels are to be taken.

Thanks very much for that. This complicates things more as I don't want her to be restricted to Sciences. Business Studies would be very useful.