Private GCSE - wtf have I got myself into

[DoggerDidIt]

DD year 10. We were talking about GCSE's etc and how difficult they are compared to when I was at school.

I ended up googling with DD if you can do private GCSE's and it looks like you can. So DD bet me I couldn't get a 7 or above, I said i'd do it if she did it with me and now I've agreed to do a private Psychology GCSE with her next year.

She's well up for it but i'm wondering wtf i've got myself into. Can she do a GCSE privately at the end of year 10? Are her teachers going to be pissed off with me? I looking at the books etc we need to order and planning how we're going to study it all.

Any tips gratefully received!

i agree, do one that shes already doing. She doesnt need more work

I found my O'level biology coursework and textbook in the loft recently. I showed them to dd who did triple science GCSE about 5 years ago and she couldn't believe how hard and in-depth it was, far more so than what she'd covered in the GCSE syllabus.

Mate

This reminds me of the time cod started a thread and then went to Tesco and it all kicked off with everyone asking where she'd gone (I was at the park and doing the uniform btw)

To clear a few things up.......DD is doing 7 GCSE's. Apparently standard in her school so not the massive workload of 10 some other DC do.

The weird jealousy thing is cringeworthy. Not sure where that came from, DD and I are very close and I just read her the mummy and me/insta message and she is dying laughing. Our relationship is NOT like that at all.

She knows what grades she needs for college, she is already predicted above them.

There was no 'ooohhhh it was harder in my day' conversation at all. We were talking about what GCSE's I did and how different it is now (not allowed to drop a language, had to do a DT subject etc etc). The conversation moved on to 'can you do a GCSE if you don't go to school like xxx kids (friends of ours who HomeEd). We googled private GCSE's and DD said, so you can just study on your own and then do the exam? The conversation moved on to what kind of GCSE's you can do and we were looking through the list and found psychology. She was interested in doing it and said oh lets do it together, I bet you can't (joke about me being old)

LOLOLOLOL at all the projecting on this thread though

I've just checked her timetable:

English (lit and lang)
Maths
Double Science
History
Citizenship
PE
RE

She couldn't give a hoot about PE, so 6 GCSE's really. TBH I don't think an extra one will kill her

Why is she taking so few GCSEs? Does it indicate that her school don’t think she is academically capable of doing more?

Why is she only doing 6?
That says a lot really.

The subjects you've listed are ones (to me anyway) that say she WILL struggle if you chuck in an unknown subject matter in to the mix.

Please don't do this to her Op.

Just 6? Are you home educating?

I'll give you an example with my extremely capable dd, 10 GCSEs and predicted A in all. She had started learning Latin but despite being academically capable, she just couldn't cope with something new on top of all the revision etc of subjects she'd been studying for years. She binned it and concentrated on what she knew.

You've not had a child go through GCSEs before have you?

She's not only doing 6/7 gcse.

The 9/10 everyone talks about is the number of gcse you get not the number of subjects you study!

So English and science are 2 gcse grades.

So in total she'll get 9 gcse grades.

Those who get 10 are often doing separate sciences.

Good heavens I have just seen no English!!

Op - this is a bad idea
She’s taking 6 GCSEs - of which 2 are certainly not academic

She’s obviously not particularly academic. If she is, then please English over psychology!

Oh I am so sorry - I see English

My ds is doing

English
Maths
Science
Drama
Geography
Computer science
Stats/Fsmq

That's 7 subjects.

He'll get 9 gcse grades and an fsmq grade.

Standard!

That's 9 GCSEs, not 7.

DD has just finished Y10 studying the same number of subjects. It was a full-on year, and I can't imagine if on top of that she had tried to fit in learning an extra subject at home squashed into one year (double the work). It would definitely have impacted on her studies in her school subjects.

She’s doing nine GCSEs. Not six or seven.

@Teenplustwenties:i can tell you the new gcse's are harder, especially since the new 9 to 1, they should be becoming more balanced now but they were still testing out the exams on the ones that have just gone. For my biology especially the course was extremely hard, even for the teacher, she explained that we did the same units as in her degree, maths is now equivalent to the old alevels , philosophy is doctrate worthy and history was also university level; my parents did olevels, and did reasonably well and in AU matrix, and found what i was doing to be unreasonably hard. Sorry if this has come across harsh, i dont mean it to, i just thought you should know, the new ones ARE ALOT HARDER. :)

What is Citizenship?

Why did she choose GCSE PE if she doesn’t care about it?

I didn’t know you could do a GCSE in it anyway.

I’m starting my first year of uni now after just finishing my A-Levels, and I was the first year to experience the start of the GCSE reforms (I sympathise because they’re so much harder).

It’s your decision ultimately, but just be aware that I studied psychology at GCSE and A-Level, and the GCSE was pretty much irrelevant to my A-Level course. At A-Level you realise that GCSE content is so simplified compared to the A-Level content that it ultimately feels like you’re starting from the beginning.

Also, the uni’s me and my friends applied to really only care about your GCSE grades in English, Maths and Science, so your daughter doesn’t need to worry about having done GCSE Psychology.

I have an a* in geography. As a geography teacher I can guarantee it is harder now!

The exams are harder but the grade boundaries are lower to ensure the same proportion of kids pass as did on the old GCSEs.

There's 9 in that list, not 6. Perhaps you should do maths?

English (lit and lang) = 2
Maths = 1
Double Science = 2
History = 1
Citizenship = 1
PE = 1
RE = 1

Nine, unless RE and Citizenship are ‘short courses’ and worth half a GCSE each.

@Alevelstudentwhoknows6789987t5 If you read carefully I said I didn't think the reformed GCSEs were easier than the old O levels, having recently looked at some of my old papers I stand by it.

I have knowledge of both O levels (that I did) and the more recent GCSEs (that my DD1 took) and the reformed ones (that DD2 is doing).

Maths is not equivalent to the old A levels, but yes some A level content has recently moved down to GCSE.

And yes OP, your DC is doing 9 GCSEs, just like most schools up and down the country.

They don't have a choice re PE, they have to do it. It isn't worth a GCSE, its a BTEC.

English and science, I suppose you can count as 2 each