I'm 13 - please help me choose my GCSEs!

[badger2005]

My mum uses mumsnet - this is her account. She said I can ask you this question because I'm stuck.
I have to choose my GCSEs in 4 days. I'll be doing maths, english, sciences, PoR, French - so I'm choosing my optional ones. I definitely want to do Art and Geography. But should I also choose Music or drama. That's the choice... please help me decide! Music or drama???
I already do some of both outside school. I go to a youth theatre group that I love, and I play the piano (grade 5) and love that too. What should I do?

What's PoR? (Misses the point of post!)

Thank you so much everyone you have all been very helpful!!!! And you're right - music would probably be easier, or at least the performing aspect. It would also help me pass the Grade 5 theory, and the classes would probably be smaller...
At the moment, I prefer Drama at school, it's my favourite subject! But I'm a bit worried it's going to get less fun when we start on the GCSE stuff, and we had a gcse taster day where the drama lesson was a bit rubbish....
Any more thoughts?

@WordleDordle

What's PoR? (Misses the point of post!)

Philosophy of religion - all of the other schools call it RE or RS, so whenever I talk about PoR they get very confused!!

Philosophy of Religion sounds much more interesting than Religious Studies/Education

Def get your grade 5 music theory if you can, whatever. Even if you don’t want to do higher grades on your instrument, although obviously you’d need it for that, it stands you in such good stead for a musical lifetime.

From my friends doing drama GCSE, I think it had quite a lot of similarities to Eng Lit, in terms of analysing plays/scripts etc, lots of essay work. I don’t know if they still separate English into Language/Literature though.

Good luck miniBadger!

Definitely music. You're well on the way with your grade 5. You can do drama in your spare time, more fun than GCSE which involves lots of written work. Best of luck.

I completely disagree with a lot of previous posters.

Music GCSE will be no more helpful for university than drama.
It is probably easier to keep music up outside of school than it is to do drama.

You need to look closely at the syllabus for each subject and the way they are examined and just do the one you think you will enjoy the most.

The new 9-1 GCSEs may well have changed the content and examining of both these subjects quite considerably, so unless posters have had children doing these subjects in the past 5 years they won't know the detail.

However the poster who talked about Art being time heavy does have a point with how that might impact group work for drama. Depending whether you (and other people) live locally or use school buses from miles away might impact how much of an issue this is.

My only contribution to the thread is that my nephew (who went on to do drama at university) felt his drama GCSE result wasn't as good as it should have been because the practical part was assessed as a group. A lot of the students in the school who didn't really care about their GCSEs chose drama because they thought it would be easy and "a bit of a laugh." Nephew ended up with a couple of these students in his assessed piece and thought they didn't put the work in, and all of their grades suffered. Just something to think about.

I know very little about the UK education systems so can't advice re difficulty/worsework etc.

By in general when making choices, I tend to consider some of the following:-

1. Does it energise you or drain you?

2. What is your motivation for choosing it? It it based on logic rather than feeling

3. What have previous experiences been like? For example, of you didn't like a subject previously, sometimes people put it down to the teacher or whatever but if you really like something you will like it regardless of the teacher etc

4. What do you get good results in? What is done to effort? What is down to natural appetite for something? You are good at music, does it come naturally or fo you really have to put high amounts of time into it etc?

In your position, I would also:-

1. Talk to the teachers covering those subjects and ask them as many questions as you have in terms of what's covered, workload etc.

2. Talk to students who had to make similar decisions as you last year

The fact you are putting so much thought into your choices is a good sign. It means you are very likely to make the right choice for you!

From someone who is an absolute dinosaur and 3 times you age, I've learnt that no matter what subject choices, points, results etc. you get, there is always a way to get where you want to go in the end career wise so try not to worry about it.

@EmpressCixi

Er, French is optional. You don’t need a foreign language at GCSEs at all. I say drop French and do both the two you want- music and drama.

Schools only push a foreign languages because it ups their Ofsted score if they can get more students completing the English baccalaureate mixture of GCSEs. But the English baccalaureate is not a qualification for the student and has zero impact on admissions to selective sixth forms for A levels or to universities or other higher education schools...ie Art school, drama school, etc.

I disagree strongly with this. Languages are so versatile and are seen as academic and flexible to any career. A language always looks good to an employer.

You should know that

• Music is not just about performing (which you will likely get a top mark in) but you need to be interested in composing and also musical theory/finding out about pieces of music. Are you interested in these, or do you mainly like just playing?

-Drama is not just about performing; there is also a written exam. this is sort of similar to English Lit (how is your English Lit?)

Both involve group work, although for music you can play with a teacher as your ensemble piece.

Either would be good as light relief from your other subjects.

My DD is taking drama and art. She did want to take music as well but ended up not being able to due to timetabling. She's glad she didn't because she ended up giving up her instrument as she lost interest, plus she suspected in retrospect she would not have enjoyed the non-performing elements.

Both my DDs did drama.
The written bit in drama is like English Lit, but also very much not English Lit.

In English Lit you analyse the words of the text.

In Drama you talk about everything but the words. So you may discuss the costumes, makeup, staging, props, lighting, sound effects, levels, pace of delivery etc. But not the actual words.

There have been posts on here over the years about lack of effort in the group for GCSE drama which did affect the poster's child's grade. Never rely on others for your grade. Even people you thought you could count on can change and let you down.

Music all the way.

Just to dispel some myths here-

1. Neither is more or less valuable later unless you want to do a specific music or drama course. Drama is the opposite of a soft subject.

1. If you don’t do the GCSE in drama whilst in theory you could pick it up at A Level it would be very hard.

1. Because of the group work requirement you can’t just ‘do gcse drama later’ it’s a now or never situation which isn’t true for other GCSEs.

1. Despite group work being an essential component there are NO group marks on any of the specs. You will be marked individually and it is perfectly possible to get a 9 whilst someone else in your group fails.

1. The grade boundaries in GCSE drama are some of the toughest (highest) but despite this if you love the subject and are reasonably good at English you can still do very well.

@AppleKatie - I appreciate my impression of drama is probably unfair, but I suspect it’s pretty widespread! Rightly or wrongly music is seen as a more impressive option by a lot of people.

[quote GoldenGorilla]@AppleKatie - I appreciate my impression of drama is probably unfair, but I suspect it’s pretty widespread! Rightly or wrongly music is seen as a more impressive option by a lot of people.[/quote]
It doesn't really matter what the random person in the street thinks.

Sixth forms and universities regard drama and music equally highly (in fact I seem to remember that an awful lot of Law students at university have Drama GCSE). And employers will just want x number of GCSEs with maths and English - they don't generally care what they are.

@EmpressCixi - DD's school has one MFL as mandatory subject, they can't drop it. It may not be mandatory according to the government but schools can and do set their own rules and make subjects mandatory.

@badger2005 - DD does Drama and really enjoys it. She also does Drama outside school, incl. LAMDA exams, and the subject is definitely not a filler. So far, she had a mix of performing and theoretical work and definitely enjoys both.
Especially the theoretical bit is intense. How good are you in English Lit? We found that if you love English Lit, studying the plays is easier.

The only negative point is the group work, it can backfire but I would try and speak to your Head of Drama what happens if a group member can't do it or is not pulling their weight.

Lots of girls in the two Drama groups at school do Drama/Theatre outside as well, it's definitely a subject for people who love acting and studying plays.

Music - it depends what you want to do going further. An A-Level or degree in Music means the GCSE may be the better choice. Depending what you think of 6th form you need to check requirements for courses.

My DD is in the same situation and I advised her to choose what she enjoys, you can't learn something you find boring. Don't worry about future careers or anything just choose something you are interested in as you are more likely to do well.
And don't pick a subject because you like the teacher, they could leave or change subject and you'll be stuffed.

It is fairly widespread as this thread shows. It’s bollocks though and so worth challenging. 😊

And tbh I’m not sure how impressed anyone would be with any of the option GCSEs. What matters is your grade profile not what you’ve actually taken (unless you specifically pursue that particular subject at a higher level).

There is plenty of support for drama in industry as well - someone who can speak/present themselves properly and is good at code switching (characterisation!) to different environments is useful.

Me and my husband were saying recently how useful drama would have been now we’re adults-to act confident when you’re not inside and doing presentations. Any future job dealing with people it is useful to take on another persona, for example our jobs are in healthcare and if things aren’t going to plan we have to act very calm even if our hearts are racing! Or dealing with conflict. You are lucky that it sounds like you can still continue with your music and drama outside school whichever you choose though. Teacher input may be useful if you’ve not chatted to them already. Have a good look at the curriculum to see what exactly each course involves and whichever you feel most excited by may be a good guide to go by.

A pp mentioned dropping geography

Do not encourage this

Geography is probably the single most useful subject anyone will ever do - it’s literally in front of you every day! I think it should be mandatory as it’s actually important and useful to know the syllabus content

I never understand people not choosing it

You get a lot of transferable skills and confidence from studying drama but the commitment of your peers can impact your grade. I'm not sure how music compares

If you're already good at music, then perhaps there will be less to gain by doing a GCSE in music. At grade 5 you are almost certainly above many components of GCSE level. Although considered a little fluffier, drama can teach some great confidence/public speaking skills that could be useful if you need to develop that skillset. Ultimately though go with the one that you enjoy the most.

Music, a million times over!

@FlickyCrumble

I'd suggest music. If you end up in drama school then that piano could make such a difference to your career.

This. I'm a music teacher, and ex-professional music theatre. People with an instrument have a distinct advantage.

Can’t help you with drama or music (I’m rubbish at both) but delighted to hear you’ve chosen art GCSE, I loved every minute even though I went on to do sciences at A- Level
and beyond. It was so enjoyable I hope your really enjoy it too :)