GCSE exam board subject

[TaFox]

Hello

DC has a special interest in a subject. This is not offered at school or the exam board they are going with. However, he wants to take it privately.

If he takes an extra gcse with a separate exam board from school, would it still count as a GCSE for university etc?

thanks

of course it would

Is there some clause that all GCSEs must be at "one sitting"? Sorry, I may be making this up.

what? no of course not

come on op. engage brain.

home schoolers?

students that take a year early?

Also, there isn’t “one exam board” that school will go with - most schools do a mixture of exam boards. I do a mixture of exam boards in my department!

Thank you, that's helpful.

I'm not sure where this idea came from.

Speak to the school's Exams Officer.

Schools use a variety of exam boards (teachers often choose the exam board and course syllabus they prefer), a bit like going to different supermarkets because you prefer Sainsbury's for fruit, Tesco for pastries etc.

The four main exam boards for England are: AQA, OCR, Edexcel/Pearson, WJEC/Eduqas. In my school, GCSE students sit exams across several boards.

First port of call would be the Exams Officer at your son's secondary school, they can advise on what they are happy to enter him for, how much it will cost you etc etc. If they are unable to faciliate the exam then you will need to look at a private exam company like Tutors and Exams.

The sticking points we have for ad hoc exams are NEA (Non Examined Assessment aka coursework for us oldies) and speaking tests in languages. It can be hard to do these as a private candidate unless you have a tutor who can facilitate the bits that aren't the written exams. Speaking early to the school Exams Officer is key.

You will want to be clear on the exam entry deadlines for whoever you are entering your son with (school or private company). I imagine you'll be looking at late January/early February for entry into the summer exam season.

Thank you for taking the time to explain this to me. This is very helpful.

I would also say that, in my current school, it’s not uncommon to have students sitting GCSE’s that are not usually taught by us. Languages normally but I’ve known other subjects (like astronomy) too

@TaFox The in one sitting thing sort of does exist but is much less likely to happen these days in terms of number of GCSEs you can sit early. Due to covid it didn't happen but Ds2 should have sat Statistics in year 10 and then further maths in year 11. My nephew sat English lit in year 10 so as a school they could contrate on English Lang in year 11. He has 9 GCSEs but sat 8 at the same time compared to Ds2 who sat 10 at the same time. It matters more with A levels than GCSEs as universities want to see you cope with a workload of 3 or more A levels at the same time. So this is possibly where you got the in one sitting from.

Forest has given great advice. I hope your son can fit it in his GCSE. This year's exam timetables are finalised and available to look online now. If you know what exam boards your son's school have for his current subjects you can cross reference those against his special interest GCSE. if there is a clash they are just kept apart from everyone else and they sit it the same day.

How old is he?

I would also add that if sitting the specialist interest GCSE could clash with his main GCSEs (or you want to avoid the risk), then it is absolutely possible to sit a GCSE at any age. We do sometimes have language students sitting the GCSE in Year 12 for example, or even in Year 13 alongside their A-levels.

Year 10 or Year 12 is often a brilliant option as it's usually their only exam. At my school we don't tend to enter students before Year 10 as younger students often struggle with exam technique and getting their answers to align with the mark scheme.

Probably if anywhere linked to regs for schools which limit what ‘counts’ in their league table results - early entry changes what can be counted. But for students they can do whatever whenever and other orgs will look at it

Yes, of course. A GCSE is a GCSE no matter the exam board or if it was/wasn’t taken in school

Sadly, in Wales, we can only use WJEC! 🙈

My son's school does AQA GCSE Physics but at A level it's OCR! He is doing 3 A levels, 3 different exam boards.