Gcse choice 10 or more

[goingtobefree]

My Dd has choose her GCSE this year
English Lang,lit, maths, three sciences, history, french, music and Latin.
She would like to do two more which would be DT/ something else? Spanish ? Astronomy
I have told her that doing 10 is enough but one of my friend whose daughter is in a well known academic school told me that she is better off doing 11 if she is going to try for good universities.
Is there any truth in it, am I advising her wrongly?
She plays two instruments and is a member of county orchestra, swims for a local club( not competitively) once a week and has started to army cadets and enjoys it.
I think doing 10 will give her adequate time to do other extra curricular stuff as I have seen children giving up their ec activities once they start their GCSE.
She is very capable but not that organised .
She would like to physics /maths but agree this may change.

[OhYouBadBadKitten]

Won't the school tell her how many she needs to do?

[goingtobefree]

The school recommends 10 so I have gone with it but since then I have heard that some children are doing 11,12 and someone 13!

[TeaAndALemonTart]

10 is absolutely enough.

[meditrina]

In our school, it's normally 10.

It's only if a pupil wants to take a 'home' language that it goes to 11.

[Roisin]

Some universities look at the average of your top 8 GCSE grades, some look at your average across all taken. I've not heard of any university giving credit for the number of GCSEs (over and above 8 or 9).

Obviously if you only do 8 or 9 it narrows your experience and narrows the subjects you could pursue to a higher level.

But generally a candidate with 8 or 9 stellar GCSE grades is more attractive than one with 11 or 12 mediocre ones. Remember too that some subjects require a lot of hard work, so limiting the number may in itself improve the grades.

[happygardening]

At my DS2's school they only do 9 they don't do history or Lit at IGCSE they get approx 35% into Oxbridge every year and all the rest go to the Ivies and RG universities.

[summerends]

goingtobefree if your DD is a strong mathematician she will probably do add maths or similar which is counted as an extra GCSE by many so she may well be doing 11 anyway. Some children may do more but with easier subjects like ICT. I agree with everybody, don't listen to your friend, let her concentrate on quality not quantity.

[summerends]

Also if she loves DT why not do that instead of music (unless she particularly wants to compose).

[goingtobefree]

I will advise her to stick to 10 then. She is a sensible girl and hopefully listen to the advice.
she is very good in music on grade 8 and grade 7 in her instruments and I can't see he giving up music for DT.
It is very reassuring that you don't have to do so many GCSEs maybe she felt the peer pressure when she went back to school.
Do you all think the options seems ok and not very narrow?
I was not educated in this country and panic that may be I am not giving her the best advice.


Just for clarification. Do I ask for extra maths as GCSE or will it be offered as default

[Leeds2]

10 is enough.

Be very wary of schools pushing to do more, especially if these are twilight subjects (done at lunchtime/after school). Your DD doesn't need them.

[summerends]

If her school does it, then it will be offered as a default to those thought capable, you don't need to request it.
Regarding music GCSE a note of caution (from perspective of 2 DCs who were post grade 8 in year 9 so had a reasonable amount of musical experience) there is a lot of factual learning for the essays of the listening section in at least one of the exam boards ( not IGCSE). This is not helped greatly by being a musician or particularly enjoyable when it comes to exam preparation. The performing is no different to what your DD will be doing anyway so the main pleasure from it would be for doing some composition. Worth checking the exam board requirements before making a final decision.

[Phaedra11]

I agree with the general advice here than 10 GCSEs is enough.

It is possible, as summerends says that a Further Maths or Additional Maths GCSE will be mentioned later on, if your DD is good at at Maths. However, assuming that she's taking her exams on 2017, it's also possible that some schools won't use these extensions any more and will concentrate instead on getting the more able mathematicians to achieve the new GCSE grade 9 (which will apparently be more difficult to achieve than the previous top grade of A*).

[summerends]

Phaedra one of my DCs' schools teaches Additional maths in parallel with the GCSE syllabus to their able mathematicians (rather than take the GCSE early and then do Add/ further maths year 11) with great success. I wonder if that approach will become more frequent as it also allow a better chance of achieving the top grade 9.

[bigTillyMint]

10 is definitely enough. DD took two last year (Y10) and is taking 11 more this year. She would have been taking 12, but she dropped drama. I am hoping she can drop ICT too, so then it would be 10 this year.

[goingtobefree]

Thanks all, I will reason it with her that there is no real advantage with her doing so many GCSEs.
She wants to do maths or physics, if given a choice she will have her nose down a book all the time. It is one of the reasons that I want her to continue with her EC activities.

[TooSpotty]

DS's school has the more able kids doing 15, which I think is insane.

[littledrummergirl]

Ds1 is doing 11. His school timetables them so it hasnt created any additional commitments.
Most are igcse so mainly exam based.
They have said something about parts being half on top of the whole qualification which doesnt mean a lot to me, but as his teachers are relaxed about it all then I am not concerned.