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Should DD drop GCSE Art to focus on other subjects?

27 replies

basilbrush · 20/11/2023 10:44

DD is in Year 11. She is extremely talented at drawing but is way behind on her coursework / portfolio. This is partly her own fault due to time management and making the most of the time she did have available over the summer and partly not her fault at all (she has been in and out of hospital since beginning of Year 10 and is still suffering with health problems as well as associated stress caused by it)

She is currently doing 11 GCSEs (standard at her school). For Art, they are expected to go in every lunch break and an evening once a week after school. It takes up by far the most time of any individual subject. We both agree that dropping Art would be give her much more breathing space to concentrate on the other subjects.

The only things that she's hesitating about is that she might want to do Art A level. But I suspect that if she's not passionately attached to it at GCSE, then she wouldn't enjoy it at A-level either where I have heard to takes up a huge amount of time / effort.

She has been predicted eight 6s, two 7s and one 8. So not stellar but should be OK to do A levels.

She has not decided on her A levels yet - at the minute they fall into two routes, either Business / Marketing / Languages route (she saw Art as a possible A level here) or Nursing / Vet Nursing / Animal Behaviour route (in which case she would do Biology, Psychology A levels plus something else)

Am I right in thinking that she should drop GCSE Art now?

OP posts:
Bluevelvetsofa · 20/11/2023 12:44

What does her school say?

Switchingoff · 20/11/2023 10:47

Drop it (if she’s allowed to) since it’s not crucial for either of her planned paths unlike say if she thought she might want to do architecture - she can always do art on the side if she wants to keep up with her passion for it, without the stress and time commitment. Might also boost her other grades.

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