Subjects to avoid?

YokoUhOh Do you find you get a lot of students who think its going to be easy (especially instrument playing ones) or do they choose it because they understand what it is and want to do it?

Yoko what percentage of your student s get an a* in music?

Oh, and Grade 5 theory bears little relation to Music GCSE. I teach EdExcel GCSE syllabus and it consists of learning facts about 12 musical extracts. Dont be put off by the theory - very few of the questions require knowledge of e.g. notation.

I'm Head of Music in a comprehensive and I'd like to dispel a couple of myths. Firstly, you don't need to buy Sibelius, there is a free online version called MuseScore, not as whizzy but does the job. Also, you don't have to be incredibly musically talented to get a C at GCSE, there are music technology options instead of performance options (my Year 11 GCSE cohort are split into Music and Music Tech). I think it's much-misunderstood as a GCSE subject, probably due to poor teaching in Years 7-9.

Another vote for art! DS didn't take it, but some of his friends did - all high achievers in every other subject - and got very disappointing grades, with an awful lot of time and effort expended. They've all advised my DS2 against taking it.

Some of his friends also took drama as a 'fun' option, and found it to be very demanding time-wise.

History was probably the biggest workload.

Music was fine for us. DS did it as an 'extra', one session per week after school for 2 terms - and got 100%. We've had Sibelius for some years now, and he's always enjoyed playing around with it on his own compositions. If you can stretch to it, it's definitely worth having just so the students know their way around it effortlessly.

I guess at that point as well, it's only the people who really want to do it, rather than those just filling up a spare option.

Having said that, I am only just beginning to appreciate how incredible it was that my school had a 97% pass rate in Art, with only 3 getting a D because they failed to turn up for the exam. This was in a failing school with 15% A-C pass rate. Think my art teacher must have been some kind of voodoo queen!

I'm also guessing that by A'level keeping sketch books of inspiration and showing the development of ideas is second nature.
I think DD1 is going to find being organised a real challenge.

DS1 has just finished A level art, don't think it is more hideous as by y13 they only have 3 subjects. He probably did spend more time on art than the others but think that is because he enjoyed it more.

If GCSE Art is bad, is A-level Art far more hideous? is there even sucha thing as A-level Art, or do people go to "Art college" instead?

Do Art if you really love it, or Graphics, but do not do it as an "easy" option, or for some relaxation. Do be aware it takes a lot of work, as do all those subjects with portfolios. Even my lazy DS was spending a lot lunchtimes and after school in school completing portfolios. It was the amount of work needed to prepare during holidays, especially when he also needed to revise for other subjects.

My prawn of a DD1 has insisted on doing art "for Fun!"

I have told her it will not be "Fun" and since DH and I do science exams for fun, we will not be able to help her.
She is also doing music and drama which is going to be interesting, since she's a reasonable singer who doesn't play an instrument and hates group work. (there's lots in both).

However, since she is dyslexic and can't do MFL for toffee and would like to boil the head of history in molten sugar too, she doesn't have a lot of choices.

What about if a child wants to get into graphic design as career, does Art GCSE make sense then? DS has a very strong sense of aesthetics, always has done. I imagine him designing car bodies or doing something like CAD in future. If not Art at GCSE, what would he want to do as good background for those careers?

Another vote for art. Not necessarily because it's difficult, but as others have said, it is so very time consuming. Admittedly it's about 5 years since I did it now, but I spent more time on Art than any of my other subjects and was expected to do at least 3 after school sessions a week just to get the bare minimum done.

Similarly friends who took PE found the subject wasn't what they expected. They may be very talented in a particular sport, but the design of the course meant that actually it wans't a great choice for them.

It's not about picking 'easy' subjects or lacking faith in your child's abilities, it's about realistic understandings of what particular courses involve and not just assuming that a sporty child will do well in PE, or that a child who can play an instrument will sail through a Music GCSE.

I know quite a few Mums who say their DC wish they'd never done art as if was so time consuming.

Do you have custody of teenagers, Germy?

lol mn is very much filled of posters who really seem to have no faith in their own childs abilities

As others above have mentioned, art involves a lot of work, self doubt and angst - also textiles - both involving masses of coursework and a good deal of subjectivity in marking (in my opinion). Have a DS just finished Yr 10 doing both of these, in addition to Maths, Eng Lang, Eng Lit, French, Geog, Triple Science, RE - he has to work very hard to get the grades in Maths and English particularly, but has achieved A's and B's in all the Maths, English and Science modules taken to date. However he has set himself a target of A* for both Art and Textiles, and realistically, although he is very good at both these subjects, I think it will be very hard to achieve that target (and am fearing massive disappointment this time next year when his final GCSE results come out)

These are the core subjects most academic private school pupils will do and many employers will look for on a CV

Maths
English lit
English lang
A foreign language or possibly two eg French and German or French and latin or at the very least do one
2 or 3 sciences
geography
history

So the above could be about 8. Then and only then consider doing less traditional one eg RE or as said above music -if they have passed grade 5 music theory as they will have done if they have done grades 6 7 and 8 they will have done a lot of the theory already - indeed it's suggested grade 5 music theory which some chidlren do at 10 is a bit like a GCSE.

I would prefer just the basic 8 above, one language, perhaps 2 sciences and the rest I list. Not much merit in doing 10 rather than 8.

beware of how much the school may sell non-academic subjects to academic students. Cynically I believe that the staff are only looking for a nice quiet studious student to set an example to any rowdy ones in the class!

But if you hate the subject, then it becomes hard. I think so anyway. I did two languages and got As and barely broke into a sweat because I loved languages and found them easy. I think I found them easy because I loved them. I don't think languages are usually regarded as an easy subject.

I don't think subjects should be picked on the grounds of ease.