Do you think you would pass all your GCSE exams if you re-sat them now?

[dogsandbudgey]

thread inspired by bumping into a school friend I haven’t seen in 20 + years who I was shock to learn went to uni and has done very well for herself, she wasn’t a stand out student by any means so I was admittedly shocked but her success. I didn’t do very well at school, had good common sense but just not particularly academic and very lazy and of course just wanted to party with my friends at the time. I’m now in a fairly wellish paid job but some times I wonder if I went all out and studied hard would I get good grades if I resat them or am I just academically inept lol

@JustWantsSomeSleep the issue I would have is that 2 years of learning and it's all down to those final exams.
If I hadn't had coursework that went towards the final grade I would have done a lot worse.
(plus it's not really two years as most of Year 11 seems to be going over the same stuff for mocks and revision)

Nope.

I failed most of them then, and I'd fail most, if not all of them, now.

I'm a scribe for GCSEs so have first hand knowledge of what is in them!

I have 5 University degrees. I can say with confidence that I could put up a fairly decent showing for GCSE exams but would not pass any of them well, and would fail some for sure.

I would have to study but I think it would be easier second time around with more life experience to pin it onto and also the general knowledge we've picked up along the way.

I think I'd get a similar grade for maths but it's now much harder so I'd need to up my game, I'd probably be fine with a quick brush up of science, I've no desire to redo languages even though they were my best subjects. I'd need to practise exam technique for English as when I sat it, you could just write well and now it seems quite formulaic

If I had to choose now I'd do classical civilizations, re philosophy and ethics.
My interests have completely changed and I was more computery/sciency in school.

I'm old enough to have done O levels. I think the techniques required are very different now. I would sail through O level MFL papers if I sat them this very afternoon, but I think the difference in emphasis might let me down if I took a GCSE paper. Same with English language and literature. Latin, I have no hope of remembering. As we took modern history for O level, I reckon general knowledge along with stuff I remember might get me over the line.
As to the science and maths side of things, frankly some study would be required just to get me to the fucking them up stage.

I would sail through O level MFL papers if I sat them this very afternoon, but I think the difference in emphasis might let me down if I took a GCSE paper.

If you know the MFL, I don't think you'd struggle much. If you haven't touched the language since the exams, you would need to brush up on grammar and vocab (and doing languages at evening classes proves I cannot remember vocab as easily as in my school days.) But I was the first year of GCSEs and my first French A-level lesson, we did an old O-level paper as a bit of revision after 3 months off over the summer, ad it included things (like the subjunctive) we hadn't covered at GCSE.

If you can talk and write about stuff like what you order in a café, decode a bus/train timetable (probably in the listening - unfair in any language, going by the usual sound quality at stations across the world,) directions round town, talk about your family, home and favourite school subjects, you'll probably be fine.

A-level is harder - last time I did one, you had to prepare a subject for discussion for the oral and write a full essay, and obviously more complex grammar and vocab.

Yes, I would definitely pass them. I would get 9s in most subjects but might need a bit of coaching in things like PEE that pervades English.

No it isn't. It is 'double science' or triple science'. The three subjects are not taught as standalone GCSEs in their own right.

The standard science in England is a dual award GCSE where separate papers are sat in 3 sciences, 6 papers in all. You get a grade like 7-7 or 6-5
If doing separate sciences you can do 3 GCSEs one in each subject so could get eg 7, 7, 4.
How lessons are timetabled is up to individual schools.

Though they may not do it in school like that, it is possible to sit them as 3 separate qualifications.

Triple science, is single sciences, you don’t have to do all three. The school our son would have gone to if we were still in the UK doesn’t teach combined science at all, most students pick two sciences, only those who opt for science as an option choice study all three subjects.

With no study? Nope.
With study I think I would do pretty well in most things. Not my French though!

They sit either Combined Science: Trilogy (2 GCSE equivalent, papers for each of Physics, Biology and Chemistry, two part grades, foundation or higher papers, QAN 6018758X for AQA, Pearson's will be obviously different) or what is known as Triple Science/Single Sciences - with papers and separate grades/qualifications/QANs for each of Physics, Biology and Chemistry.

I think I could pass German and English Language but not the rest. I'd have to relearn a lot of it. With Maths I could do a lot of the numeracy and mental arithmetic but not things like quadratic or simultaneous equations.

Absolutely not. I was fantastic at memorising information and learning how to pass papers. Wouldn’t have a clue if I had to sit them all now, that info left my brain about a week after the exams were done!

This is a good point. I used to be brilliant at memorising things short term. I would have to develop a much deeper understanding now as my memory is not what it was.

I’m a statistics professor now but highly doubt I’d get 100% in GCSE maths if I sat it tomorrow, as I can’t really remember what it involved 😂 So much of every qualification is practice and revision.

With revision, definitely. In fact I think I would do better because it would be my choice. I am very bloody contrary and never liked being told what to do. I was resentful of having to do ‘O’ levels and did sod all revision. The only A I got was in English Language, which didn’t require any study. I didn’t go to university after A level but did an OU degree a few years later - and because it was my ‘choice’, I put the work in and did well.

Not without studying first but with the possible exception of maths (I think I am just rustier at the basic skills in maths) I think I would be at least as capable as I was when I took them, probably more so with greater experience.

I did a masters degree 20 years after my undergrad and I performed WAY better.

I don’t know but I do have a dream that I’m at school or college studying for the same 9 O levels I have so I’ll end up with 18 O levels. I suddenly realise I don’t need to take the exams as I already have them and I’m so happy.

Of course not!

Got straight As the first time round. I’d pass some but not others. Not without re-learning it all anyway and then I’d be pushing it.

A'levels - English, yes, biology, yes. Maths, not a chance without some serious study.

Interesting about coursework. Many posters claim that coursework got them through their GCSEs.
I hated, loathed, detested coursework. Words cannot explain how much I hated it.
In the equivalent of year 9 we had to do a project for English. I put my heart and soul into that project. The teacher held it up in front of the class and said it was total rubbish and he didn' t know where I'd got it all from. I had spent weeks researching it. It was about architecture and design. I'd visited Coventry cathedral and included photos and details of the rebuilding from the bombed ruins. I also studied other buildings and new developments. I had fulfilled all the independent written parts of the project. And then some.
He told the class that it was an example of what he didn't want to see. Loud and long he decried my work. The following week, he quietly told just me that after marking my work it wasn't as bad as he first thought. From that point forward I hated coursework/projects.
My English teachers in years 7, 8, 10 and 11 loved me and my work. He hated me. He left at the end of that year and returned when I was in the sixth form. He asked what A levels I was studying. Imagine my delight at saying English!!
I went on to do Degree in Literature and Masters in English. Even though I was shit at coursework. Allegedly.

@HarshbutTrue2 that's terrible how that teacher treated you.
How horrible.
I loved coursework but if had been treated like that I would probably have hated it too.
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