How many GCSE’s?

The problem with doing too many GCSEs in one sitting is the timetabling and having clashes during the GCSE period itself. Languages are thankfully at the start of the period with the oral out of the way early. You cannot fit in 14 subjects with a minimum of 2 exams, sometimes up to 4 each (languages I think, at least DC’s cousin is doing some iGCSEs and has 4 exams in French alone it seems).

If you have eg Chemistry in the morning and further maths paper in the afternoon and 8 exams in one week, that is really hard core. If they are more spaced out it helps.

"some" of the more competitive uniersities rather

I should have said the more competitive universities. Ds only passed 5 GCSE's and got university offers (for music) but there are universities that state that qualifications have to be sat in one sitting or they have a scoring system for the best 8. Imagine meeting the criteria for a course you would love to do but your GCSE's were split at the whim of your school.

Making adaptations for particular circumstances such as SEN or a particular talent is one thing. It's the blanket across the board I object to.

And nobody, absolutely nobody, needs to do 14 GCSE's.

Mini I like the music scenario you describe. Ds would have probably stopped attending school had he been made to do music GCSE early and then not had any music classes.

In our experience, that is a bit of a myth actually. DD2 didn't have 8 from either Y10 or Y11 but still got offers from all 5 universities to which she applied. And before that, she looked closely at other universities' requirements and hardly any insisted on 'one sitting', though a few expressed a preference.

As I said above, I don't think it was a good system for several reasons, including the MFL example you provided (in DD2's case this applied to science), but it's not - or it wasn't - correct to say a carte blanche 'universities don't even count ones taken early'.

It's true. What I don't really understand is why, where there is space to do more things in a curriculum because children are able or GCSEs are taken early, the choice to fill that space is always 'more gcses'. Other qualifications are available. DD2s school does music gcse early for those who join before Year 9.

The kids then take its own advanced certificate in music rather than bunging in another GCSE for its own sake. I'd rather schools filled the space with budgeting, cooking, dancing, music, art history appreciation... anything but more GCSEs really. They're not very inspiring qualifications.

A 7 is an excellent grade if that is what you are capable of. But you might be capable of 9 8s & 9's but having to spread yourself so thinly means you get 7's instead.

Oh definitely - I will be ecstatic with any 7s this summer!

But if a child gets 14 x grade 7, you wouldn't be wrong for thinking that they would have been more likely to get 9 x 9 with more time to focus on fewer subjects.

And for the most competitive courses or universities that only look at your top 8 grades, you're not the most impressive candidate anymore.

It would also let you down if you were applying to somewhere like DD's school for 6th form where it's the grades you get in the best 8 that count... not how many you have.

@OhCrumbsWhereNow worth remembering that 7 is still a fine grade that gives you access to absolutely everything at most schools, except perhaps further maths. But I do agree in general.

Universities don't even count ones taken early anyway. Several state that they have to be taken all in one sitting, (some will accept retakes, others will not) and some state that they only score the best 8 (taken in one sitting)

Seems crazy to me.

I'd be a very unhappy parent if I had a child doing 14 GCSEs and getting 7s.

Much, much better to do 9 and get higher grades.

If that is true then I feel so sorry for those kids.

The school hasn't changed their system. People still do 13/14 gcses even with the reformed system. Someone who DD knows (because they reached out for career advice) got 14 Grade 9s at GCSE

We have early 1 GCSE in Y10 - RE or Citizenship. It's a good way of getting them used to the system, sorting exam access arrangements and ironing out niggles before the real thing.

The rest are all Y11.

DD's school also used to have an unusual system.
They sat 2 GCSEs at the end of year 10 and 8 at the end of year 11.
Instead of doing 5 hours a fortnight for the optional subjects they did 5 hours a week, so they managed to cover the complete syllabus in one year.

It worked well for the school, but as they were chasing an Ofsted outstanding they reverted back to all subject exams at the end of year 11.

The year above ds his school got everyone to do English Language in Year 10. It was an unmitigated disaster with many children getting below a Grade 4 and even high achievers only just getting 5's.

DD2 did split GCSEs - 6.5 in Y10 and 6 more in Y11. Very weird system which the school have now stopped because of a couple of unforeseen consequences such as the one you mention @Comefromaway

That explains it then. If she took her GCSEs in 2017 it would have ben the old A*-C grades (except for maths & English). The new reformed GCSE's contain a lot more content and take up a lot more teaching time, some GCSE equivalent qualifications were dropped and the exams taken today are not comparable hence students now take fewer.

I think it's quite sad if a school makes a child take MFL in Year 10 as, unless they continue to teach the language it means that anyone wanting to go onto A level is out of practice.

She was in year 11 in 2017

What year was this? It used to be quite common to do this pre 2018 until the reformed GCSES's came in. 2018 itself, the first year of the new exams caught some schools out and by 2020 (the cancelled year) many schools had dropped down to 9/10. Post covid some started to drop down to 8.

My now 18yr old dropped English Lit. He was predicted A/B but the workload in memorising so much for that one was really stressful for him. You only need English Lang so we told school he wasn't doing it and if they entered him for the exam he just wouldn't show up, which would impact on their stats. They let him drop it funnily enough! He did 8 and is off to uni in September

Thanks for clarifying so that will make it 10, usually students have 9 in her school, but if you are bilingual they do encourage that you take the extra GCSE in the other language.

DD (Y13) and DS (Y9) go to a grammar school.

DD did 11 GCSEs which was Maths, FM, 3x Sciences, 2x English, RE and 3 options.

They have changed the format now and DS will do 12 GCSEs - Maths, FM, 3x Sciences, 2x English, RE and 4 options (students are encouraged to take a language and history/geography as 2 of the options for the EBacc)

I think this is a bit full-on, tbh, but it's the route the school want to take. Not everyone is entered for FM or 3x sciences (a few students do the combined papers), so there will be some students who do 11 or 10 GCSEs, but 10 will be the minimum.

Combined science gets 2 GCSE passes.

Do you count science as 3 papers? DD does combined. I think she just told me she would have 2 GCSE in.science making a total of 8 this year & 2 taken last year as they take MFL in year 10 (only 1 was compulsory then)