Year 9 Options - help with choice! Which GCSE subjects have more 'points' for Uni selection

my daughter is in a similar position. she has no choice over sciences - it's determined by which set you are in. her 4 choices were German, History, Latin and DT. The only real debate was between DT and French but given she enjoys DT and doesn't particularly like French we (her parents) decided that she should get her choice - as others have said it's getting a balance that's sensible not any specific options - I doubt any school would let you have a seriously silly set of options anyway.

Can I add to the good advice already given? I'm at uni at the moment and although the UCAS tariff points are for A Levels, unis do look at GCSEs as well. Obviously it depends where your DD's skills lie, but as a rough guide, the greater the number of traditional academic subjects, the better chance of decent A Levels and consequently degree. This isn't academic snobbery btw, but is based on what admissions tutors have told me

fimac1 - I have just been where you are and I posted a thread entitled 'Is scienceteacher out there, please' about a month ago and had some good advice. Sorry - I don't know how to link to the thread but I'm hoping someone else might!

For her 4 choices my daughter ended up choosing Geography, Single Sciences, Latin and Drama. We all agonised for ages but she seems very happy now she has made a decision. Good luck!

And the overall choice doen't matter too much imo, as long as there aren't too many (more than 1 or 2) non academic subjects like photography, art, drama, media studies etc. One or maybe two is fine though - especially if your child enjoys them.

triple science isn't needed to do science A levels. Workwise you are as likely to get As or A*s doing double as triple (the papers are common between the two). However at some schools the more able students tend to do triple which may mean there is a less able group doing the double. There was one mumsnetter last year whose child was told (after having been assured double was fine for science A levels and having started the course) that as the double science group was less able they were only going to sit the foundation level exams (results capped at a 'C') so the child would not be able to get a high enough grade for science A levels. You should confirm with the teachers what the position is in your school.

I think that it is better with academic DCs to make sure they have a good spread of traditional subjects, so 2 x English, Maths, triple science (if she might do some science at A Level, otherwise double science is OK), at least one modern foreign language (or one plus Latin), history or geography. One technology subject plus one cultural subject such as Music, Drama or Art would make a good mix.
DS2 (not very academic) took Media Studies GCSE in Y9, via after school club once a week for 2 terms and with a teacher who was ill for several weeks. He got a D, whilst aged 13. Enough said.

Actually, looking at the UCAS tariffs Here they don't seem to be interested in the GCSE results at all, only A levels.

So she'd be better off thinking which subjects she'd like to continue with, and enjoys, as that will be more important for sticking at them.

Some universities certainly favour "traditional" subjects, like science,language, history, etc over the newer ones like Media Studies as they are perceived as better training for further studying. But unless she wants to do a science at University I don't think she'd get any more value from 3 sciences than double science.