Single science GCSEs at private school

Not strictly relevant to this thread but in Scotland only single sciences are offered.
I have to agree that biology + physics is more unusual than biology + chemistry or chemistry+ physics.

Double award is still absolutely sufficient for science degrees thewayyoulooktonight.

Not sure how much things have changed in the last few years but I did dual science at GCSE instead of separate ones, followed by biology and chemistry at A level and I now have a biology BSc and PhD. So the dual science is a good way to avoid limiting options (or it used to be anyway). I don't think unis can discriminate on it as in some schools they don't get the option to do single subject sciences.

Well if he can't do biology a level, then he can't go on to a biology related degree. Its strange the school didn't mention requirements to do biology a level at the time they chose their GCSE options. Biochemistry is a significant part of the a level biology course abd chemistry GCSE is essential and Chemistry A level very useful.

My son's school does single sciences at GCSE and I think (will find out later this academic year when he does his choices) that they have to do all three and aren't allowed to drop any - I guess for this reason.

That's unusual and I'd not heard of that? My eldest 2 are doing GCSE now one is doing separate science (all 3 singly) the other is doing combined science (lower set/ability options ). If he wanted to do science at a level or uni I would think not doing all 3 would be detrimental but too late I suppose to change now. Have the school said what the reasoning for this is?

He would need to check individual university entrance requirements for specific courses. eg some unis require A level chemistry for a biology degree but others don't.

Yes, we did GCSE. Top.set too. But we just chose one science. A few people did two, one person (of 180) did three, and they had to rearrange the option blocks for them! DH says no-one did three at his school. We didn't have dual science in our year, but the year below did.

It depends on which other A levels he is planning to take. If he is taking Physics and/or Maths at A level then there will still be plenty of STEM degree options e.g. in engineering, computer science and physics.
However many types of Biology degree may not be possible without GCSE Chemistry (some options aren't possible without A level Chemistry). This is because Biochemistry has become increasingly important over the past 20-30 years and this would be very difficult to access starting from scratch without GCSE. The same would also apply if he was considering a medical degree.
IMO he has been ill advised by the school.

Is that right philodox? You'd have done GCSEs though wouldn't you? I thought that was when it generally changed over. No separate sciecnes available at my school (so couldn't do triple) - just double or single science GCSEs. The A level teachers moaned a great deal about how little we know compared to a few years previously (with O levels), but we did at least have some knowledge of all three sciences.

Single science GCSEs are (almost always) what you do if you do triple science.

Is it that they don't have to take all three? It was unwise of the school to allow anyone with even the vaguest thought of doing a levels in any of the sciences not to do either double or all three.

Lots of schools try to teach triple science in the same time as double science which often leads to pupils underperforming so in some ways it's better that they're only doing two subjects rather than trying to cover three. I'm surprised there isn't an option for double award though-I've never come across a school that doesn't offer it. I agree that generally that's a better option than two out of the three.

Unless they're applying for science type degrees I can't see an issue with uni applications.

Bluelillies- you may need to revise your statement to "under 40", as both DH and I are 41, but only did single physics (different schools!)

Triple is single subjects, he's just entered for two of them. Seems unusual nowadays.

I thought that practice went out of fashion 30 years ago when GCSEs came in - that's the whole point of the double science option as it's a much more rounded basis for those who don't want to do three separate sciences. I've not heard of anyone younger than 45 who has been allowed to drop one or more science completely at age 14. Missing out chemistry seems a particularly odd choice as it's kind of the "middle" of the three sciences, with overlaps with both biology and physics.

I don't think it's so likely to affect uni applications though, as long as he can get the A levels he requires - as they mostly care about the A levels you do, plus having GCSEs in maths and English.

This is why most schools don't allow single sciences.
It's probably too late for him to change his mind now so not much he can do about it. He won't be able to do anything at uni which requires chemistry knowledge, but that's surely to be expected given his decision.

Would depend on what subjects he was applying for. My DD is only doing Physics and I only did Biology. It didn't affect my university applications even though I did Psychology as an undergraduate. It won't affect DD's as she's thinking about Economics or History.