Mumsnet Talk

To those whose DCs are in sixth form or beyond - do they have any regrets looking back on their choices three years ago ... benefit of hindsight etcetc...

Art's a lot of work and one suffers if they are not keen. Triple science took up an option that could have been better used elsewhere.

DS1 did 11 GCSEs all academic apart from PE which was a mistake, though not important.
DS1 also chose one BTEC , kind of forced as he did not want to do D&T. He found it boring and undemanding and in hindsight wishes he hadn't .

My experience would advise against asking two languages at GCSE (unless you're thinking about doing languages at A level and beyond of course)

Taking not asking!

DD regrets not doing History at GCSE, as she's now thinking of Law, and History would have been a good one to have apparently. I'm not sure what she'd have dropped though - maybe Geography - but she did very well in that and is currently doing it at A level, so it's hard to know.

Not a regret, but doing both art and textiles was a huge amount of work. If I'd have known I'd have built a studio extension instead of losing my lounge fro two years!!

DD1 regretted Art and I've only just recovered.

DD2 regretted Dance but that was more because she ended up doing it in one year instead of two and the choreography bit turned into a nightmarish rush.

DS is in year 11 and I wish he was doing fewer GCSEs - he's doing 11 plus an ICT thing that's equivalent to a GCSE so 12 effectively. Its just too many and we seem to be in a constant state of controlled assessment pile up. It isn't any particular subject - he could just do with ditching something!

Agree triple science wasn't worth it but luckily it didn't take up another option. ds1 dropped Spanish at Christmas of Y11 after the mock. (French is compulsory so he still had MFL) He didn't do particularly well and we figured 13 gcse's was far too many as it was, he didn't need a 14th

BlueStringPudding - history is good for Law? DS has just chosen geography - it won't matter that much will it?

ICT - both DS thought they would enjoy it, both ended up being bored in the lesson. Only positive was that as its all controlled coursework with no final exam it was one less subject to revise for & as it finished in Jan, gave them free periods to do homework/revise/work on Res Mat project.

Double GCSE science, DS1 did this as it was all they offered at the school (who knows why), but then had no trouble in taking 2 sciences through to A2 level.

Excellent question OP.

Could I hijack slightly and ask what people think about Drama for a DD who loves it and gets good grades but has no interest in acting in the future.

She is going for a lot of heavy academic subjects so would drama give a bit of balance? It's that or media.

DD regrets taking the double science option rather than the triple award, she feels the triple award would've been more useful.

Drama is great for confidence in speaking and can help literacy too. In terms of GCSE my daughter loved it as light relief. However, the exam production took a lot of work and rehearsals - watch the likely timing of that with other exams and assessments which your child has chosen. Pure luck and my daughters was perfect timing, but if that work ha come at a pressure point for other subjects, it might have been a different story.

In terms of regrets, my daughter decided in the middle of year 10 she wanted to go to a competitive art college. I suddenly worried that she hadnt taken GCSE art. It seemed like a hopeless case to me but she got in on the strength of a personal portfolio put together in her own time off her own initiative and an interview where she, I assume, managed to convince them she was a good bet.

I totally agree that GCSE drama is great for building confidence in speaking and presentation. It also supports and complements English with the study of plots and characters.

No big regrets here with GCSE choices. However, ds took GCSE Geography which he found quite dull (a mixture of teaching and syllabus I think) which completely put him off choosing it at A level. He now says he should have done A level Geog instead of Politics.

Drama is really time consuming, and the group work assessment component can put a lot of pressure on at time when the focus should be on exam prep for the core subjects.

I would go for media over Drama, as the work is completed as you go along and then an exam during normal exam 'season', rather than with one large assessment at the end, just before exams start.

LynetteScavo - I think History is supposed to be a good base subject for Law, but I don't think it's a requirement anywhere.