Are GCSE choices as complicated as they seem? Is there an idiot's guide?

However, you - as a pupil or a parent- are trapped by the system that is run by the school your dc attend.
'options' are, as others have said, usually a case of selecting one choice out of each 'box'. the Yr you take them / the exam board you study / etc., are all determined by the school.
My ds's school decided all pupils would take (both) English at the end of Yr 10. Now, they've realised it wasn't such a good plan and it's not being repeated, but that still leaves everyone in his year a grade or two lower than they probably would have got had they taken it at the 'right' time. It might matter, it might not, but we as parents got no say.

Completely agree with webwiz. The real test is to sit all GCSEs in one go and still get decent results. The culture of staggering GCSEs means that fair comparisons can't be made either, as senua says. I'm all for sitting all GCSEs in Y10 for more able students, or all in Y11 for those who need a bit of extra time to achieve their potential - but not the current mish mash we have now.

Well "revision" is supposed to be revisiting material you have already studied rather than cramming things into your head. I still remember things I learnt for my O levels in 1982 so they must have passed into long term memory

DS is in year 10 at the moment and he will take one paper of his RE GCSE this summer, he has covered the topics in class and done essays for homework but I would still expect him to spend a reasonable amount of time revising before he takes the exam but its only when you thoroughly "know" something that you can see the links within the material and can move onto the higher skills that will get the highest grades. The same for the science exams he is taking.

I agree that there is the presentation of a last minute culture at university but my experience is that most people that I studied with were actually getting on with stuff as it was set but a the same time running around complaining about having an essay crisis. I have two DD's at university and they certainly do the work as it comes in and then revise for the exams as well. DD1 is studying in america at the moment and she is finding it easy to do well under the constant assessment of the american system but she she does prefer the English system as she says you never get the chance to think about what you've learnt you are to busy preparing for the next quiz.

Well we'll have to agree to disagree ragged because I think studying a course for two years and the combination of controlled assessments and exams at the end requires in depth learning and solid understanding. You'd find it quite difficult to cram for 11 subjects and do really well. I think that taking repeated exams over a long period involves a constant low level stress that is draining for kids and takes away any joy in learning.

I would love someone to be able to give me a good argument for having lots of GCSEs spread over three years as opposed to building skills over years 9 and 10 and then taking the majority of exams in year 11.

Years 7,8&9 are Key Stage 3; they used to take a SAT test at the end of it. Since they abolished the Y9 SAT test an increasing number of schools have squashed the KS3 syllabus into two years and now do GCSEs over three years instead of two. Hence you get systems like yours where they take subjects early. You mark my words - it will end in tears!

In my day, the exams weren't just an indicator that you were grade A good at English and grade C in Geography. They also showed that you could juggle several subjects at the same time. Taking a few subjects a year over consecutive years is not at all the same.

The next change to the league tables, to highlight stuff like this, is to make them state how many were taken at the same time. You mark my words!

It's about time that they introduced a minimum age to enter for GCSEs.

If you want to do a competitive course at university then taking GCSEs in year 9 can put you at a serious disadvantage compared to those who took the same exam two years later. It also makes sense that if you are going to take an A level in something then you will find it easier if you continue straight on from GCSEs rather than having a gap of a year or even two.

Is there a choice as to what is taken in which year ragged ? I think if mine where forced into a spread out system of taking GCSEs then I would try to make sure they "saved" any subjects that my DCs might want to carry on with and any that I thought needed some extra maturity such as essay type subjects.

Dd has to choose her options this week and she is 12. She has to take maths, english, sciences, re, ict, pshe and also pe. She then chooses three others from a stupid list of three boxes. Unfortunately they are not set out that well and she can find the two that she wants (history and german) but nothing in the third box. She is very academic and the subjects available are not. She also has to put a reserve subject by each one and this is proving to be even more difficult. How can she put a reserve if she can't pick a first choice! Other parents have been up in arms about it but there is nothing we can do. I thought it would have been better just to pick three subjects and then let school see whats what. Probably too easy to do that. Just so annoying. Anyone else having trouble?

I would say that the best thing to do, if your child is capable, is to do the combination of subjects that doesn't start closing doors for them.

I cannot think of a single career that you would reduce your chances of being able to enter if you didn't have a BTEC at 16. If you want to do a particular course - childcare, performing arts, plumbing at post 16, you don't need a particular BTEC to do that. If you want to do a particular course - dentistry, medicine, foreign languages post 16, you do need particular GCSEs to do that.

So if a child is capable, I would suggest they do Maths, Eng Lang, Eng Lit, MFL, triple or double science, two academic subjects (History, Geography, another language etc) and one subject that shows fine motor skills - Art, Music, certain technology courses or possibly Drama (but you can do LAMBDA and RAD qualifications out of school).

DS (year 9) is sure what he wants to do, but he is still being told by the school and me to do a broad range of subjects so that no door closes to him at 14.

Your child probably won't get that much choice. Mine get to choose 3 subjects, the rest are compulsory; so a Mfl which they may have chosen earlier, two English, Maths, two or three science, and RE. Then three options.

It is quite bizarre how some people endlessly claim that BTECs are just as good as GCSEs. They aren't worse - but they are DIFFERENT!

Ds's comprehensive school only offers one BTEC - that's in Performing Arts and it's only available to certain pupils.

I have heard of schools/teachers who for some reason refuse to make any distinction between exams - something which is more likely to have an impact on pupils with less informed parents. My teacher sil intervened when she discovered that one of the most able pupils was taking BTEC Health & Social Care. The girl had been advised that this was useful if she wanted to do medicine (!). Sil was hauled over the coals and told that the policy was "all courses are equal" and that she was denigrating Health & Social Care.

Independent schools and selective grammars don't offer BTECs, do they?

Yes, as webwiz says, it's all about stepping stones. At most stages of exams it's about making sure that you are doing the right subjects and getting sufficient grades to get on to the next set of exams. You start out with a broad range and gradually narrow it down the further you go through the system.

OK - sorry to just blurt out edu-speak...

But, for instance, if your child is Year 9 and is working at L3 (say) across the board, then it is fairly unlikely (statistically) that s/he will end up studying medicine at university.

If your DC is getting L6s ad 7s at age 13, then university is a distinct possibility.

This isn't to judge them, but just working within a framework.

Some people think that with the right amount of motivation and environment anyone is capable of anything, but look at Prince Harry, just about scraped through his A Levels even after a huge amount of effort had gone into his education.

Yes there are a lot of misconceptions regarding BTECs but as I said its about understanding what will be useful if you want to study further - so if you do a BTEC in science you might find problems if you decide you want to be a doctor but a BTEC in performing arts will still be helpful if you want to go on and study English at a top university.

Sorry, it's just that the phrase "good education" has cultural assumptions built into it that I think I'll struggle with.

Can you expand on this? I'm not sure that I see what the problem is.
I think a "good education" means keeping up a range of subjects so that you acquire a range of skills: logic, comprehension, analysis, criticism, the ability to write well and give presentations, creativity, problem solving, understanding of language (native and other), working to deadlines, communicating, as well as many questions about the nature of the world along the lines of what/where/who/why/when/how.

here I go again; having to clear up the misconceptions regarding BTECs!

They are not just for lower ability students; believe it or not we also have higher ability students taking the qualification (you have to have a high ability to achieve distinction!)

You can use them to gain entry to 6th form/university

You can use them to enter a A level in the same subject

They are a different way of learning and showing what you have learnt from the traditional academic manner (which is why lower ability students can succeed) but they are just as worthwhile

I agree that the exam system in the uk has developed into some kind of bloated madness and that it is difficult to navigate through it. To a large extent we have to hope as parents that our DC's school don't decide to take on some sort of bizarre regime of lots of lots of gcses taken over three years or push kids into decisions that do have adverse consequences later on. Unfortunately we are tied by how each school decides to do things.

I would concentrate on understanding what exactly will be available for your own DC to choose from and think about whether you feel what is on offer matches their abilities and talents. It doesn't have to be about university but it is about understanding which qualification allows further study.

I treat things like GCSE options on a "need to know" basis - I know absolutely nothing about IGCSEs but that's fine as DS isn't doing any

I agree Ragged. I came through a different educational system myself and here people are always trying to explain things by reference to the past, eg x exam is like the old xy exam but harder... If you don't have a feel for how things used to be, it's hard to understand these descriptions.

My dd y9 is supposed to choose ten subjects, whereas for me 7 or 8 at that age and level would be more normal. Why so many?