GCSE options hell

[Unusualusernames]

Please don't flame me but AIBU to let my 13 year old daughter choose her own options even though they might limit her.

She's academic but also really good at PE. She says she wants to chose PE, media studies, geography and french.

My mum's a retired careers adviser and says media studies is useless but I know my daughter would find it really fun.

At 14 my mum basically imposed her choices on me and I ended up choosing subjects I wasn't necessarily great at.

75% of me thinks it's better to let her just do whatever she wants, even if PE and media studies aren't highly regarded. Then 25% of me feels bad for not being one of these tiger mums who ensures her child is a success academically. I'd feel bad if it meant it really limited her university choices (if she wants to go to uni , I wouldn't force her)

Please help

Let her choose.
When I taught Biology I could spot the students who also did PE as they would already know all about e.g. the heart when I started teaching it.
Don't know much about media studies.
But - she's doing Geog and French, so has a language and a humanity, presumably is also doing science, English, maths...
It is not going to limit her in any way.

My son is year 9 - I'm letting him pick.

It’s hardly “Hell”!

at the idea he gcse PE is some sort of easy option. There’s a lot of applied biology, some statistics, sociology and even some physics in there. And that’s just the bits DS has studied so far in yr10. His school make potential gcse PE students do a six week trial in yr9, to check that they understand that it isn’t doing games for 2 years and to make sure they want to study the academic component as well.

In addition, they need 3 sports and need to be competing regularly in order to understand how the academic learning applies to their sport and to be performing at a decent standard to pick up marks there. We view DS’s training sessions as the equivalent of art practical work- a vital part of his prep for the final grade.

I agree its not hell, but media studies for whatever reasons are looked down upon as a subject, and I hope your DD can be persuaded to take something else.

Good to see a language being studied though.

I’d say these are reasonable choices. A good spread, academic, practical etc. A decent balance.

Do they keep door open for possible A level courses/careers that currently interest your daughter?

Ask for current advice from 6th form tutors/6th form colleges. At our careers evenings the colleges sent their staff along for this purpose.

I taught option groups to GCSE and inwardly groaned when pupils said their Mum/Dad had made them choose mine. It was hard to motivate them and they rarely preformed as expected/hoped.

As a form tutor part of my job was to discuss, in mentoring sessions, GCSE options etc. I’d always suggest a mixture like this, I’d want pupils to discuss their choices with parents and seek approval/support rather than the parents choosing.

I never pushed my children into my choices rather than theirs.

The only caveat...... GCSE PE is harder and a little more academic than some realise. Some think its playing sport 3 extra hours/week. Useful and interesting subject though.

All the best.

@katy1213 Your response is insulting and frankly disgusting!

I would let her choose. I know as an adult I am down a completely different career path than I chose at 14, 16 and 18. It makes no difference. She will still have to take a science subject, maths and English anyway. I agree in letting her choose what interests her. Also PE and media are far from easy subjects and it is always much better to excel in a subject you are interested in and enjoy.

Why would you even consider choosing for her, unless it is you who is going to be doing the work?
It's GCSE options. The fate of the world does not depend on it.
Neither does her future career.
She will be doing Maths, English and Science, presumably. None of the rest matter (in terms of subject choice, I don't mean they are of no importance at all)
I wouldn't spend 2 years studying something I wasn't interested in. Would you?

Media studies content is now far less practically based and contains much more theoretical work. We keep having to point this out to students who think it’s going to be easy and about making masses of coursework. I know a student who got a place at Oxford with GCSE pe under their belt and a number of students who got 8s and 9s in English and Eng Lit this summer we’re doing GCSE pe.

Let her choose what she wants.

And one just for fun (media studies) is always a good balance too.

As a current student taking their GCSE's, I strongly recommend allowing your daughter to pick the subjects she enjoys - in the end it is important to enjoy school and if those are the subjects that ensures that then I would go for it! I personally regret an option I chose, and for the past few years I havn't stopped wishing I chose what I truly enjoyed. After my GCSE's I'm studying the subjects that I love most at A Level , then continuing them at a uni degree level : i've learnt that in life there is no point in wasting any time being unhappy as it is too short. I say let your daughter pursue her interests as it will do no harm and trust me she will love it once she gets to focus on the subjects she loves! Hope I could be of help and I wish your daughter good luck in her GCSE's!

DS1's school does 3 year GCSE courses so although he is in Year 10 he had to chose his at the end of Year 8.

He is fairly academic and predicted quite good grades. He chose PE, Media Studies (which has actually been changed to a BTEC), Spanish and French.

Yes he could have chose History and Spanish instead but quite honestly he needs to actually want to do the work and be motivated in lessons. He loves PE and is doing brilliantly in the course work which is also helping in Biology as well. He is more maths/science minded than English but the Media Studies is really developing his essay writing skills as well.

GCSE PE is academic as it's so much more than doing sport. The less academic tend to do a BTEC in sport at DD's school.

Her choices sound fine, OP. Yes, a lot of people are a bit sniffy about media studies, but so what?! She's doing a reasonable balance overall, so why not have one or two that are just for fun. In any case, I gather that PE is quite scientific and theoretical these days - much to the digust of the kids who thought they were choosing an easy option!

My dd does drama as her "fun" option, and she loves it. I think it's good for their mental health to have a good mix of subjects. All academic isn't necessarily better!

Let her choose. I let my DSs choose as they’re the ones doing the work & studying.

My mother thought I should be a physiotherapist which meant taking physics and chemistry, subjects I did not excel in. Had she known me better or been less status obsessed, she’d have pushed me towards other subjects and a different career. Suffice to say my sister and I are somewhat of a disappointment to her but are happy in our respective paths.

GCSEs only matter in that they limit your A levels. University’s won’t care what GCSEs you have done as long as you have English (lit and Lang), maths and some kind of science (double or triple).

The subjects you pick for a level are a lot more important. I did art and drama GCSEs and so did DH but we did STEM a levels and now have very successful careers. Let her have some fun with a variety of subjects.

Pe is not a soft option. It’s a really hard slog and my son was really grateful I had suggested that he did something else.

I'm letting my daughter pick hers.

She’ll have English, maths and science anyway, and probably a language. If she feels pressured into a subject she’ll be less likely to succeed. Whatever she enjoys she’ll be more likely to do well at.

I did media studies and was definitely considered academic - I was in all super sets and got full board of A and A star grades. I didn't stay on in school but did A Levels in college who were more interested in grades than subjects providing you had the core stuff. It was A Levels the University was interested in, they didn't care at all about subjects at GCSE.

Media studies really taught me to think about what I was reading or viewing, which was fantastic for my later A Levels and degree. I still think about some of the things I learned and it definitely wasn't a light subject, it had the most coursework for a start.

Let them pick a couple of subjects they are interested in as it motives study. I wish I could have studied photography as it is now one of my biggest passions.

Well it depends on what university she wants to go to, or what course she wants to study.

Top tier universities with competitive courses will pay much more attention to GCSEs than lower tier universities. So if you check the entry requirements for Medicine at Oxbridge, they may request certain subjects are studied at GCSE. Whereas Coventry University probably won’t care about specific GCSEs for any of their subjects - these universities are happy for you to study anything as long as you get a C grade (or equivalent) etc.

You say she’s academic, what does this mean? Will she get an A/A* in English and Maths or more of a C grade?

In my opinion she’s studying 2 “fun” subjects and a language, an odd mix of subjects so if she’s aiming for the very top she might be limiting her options slightly. I would swap PE or media for another academic subject if that’s the case. However for everywhere else she’s probably fine.

Actually I’ve just checked and Oxbridge doesn’t care about specific GCSE subjects lol so ignore me!

My DD is very academic and she has taken GCSE PE. It is very science based and there is lots if theory, quite a few of her peers have dropped out as it wasn't the soft option they expected.
DD is very sporty and competes in athletics, her choices are science heavy and she is currently interested in physiotherapy as a career which would be a good id fit for her.

I’m increasingly thinking media studies should be compulsory. It’s amazing how many people can’t think critically when faced with things in the media.

So if you check the entry requirements for Medicine at Oxbridge, they may request certain subjects are studied at GCSE

I don't think you bothered to actually do that check before posting, did you?

I have this with my 14 yr old but not re PE (I would say that the course for this has far more rigour than it used to when I was a kid doing mine) joining a sports club is NOT equivalent and shows your ignorance frankly.

Mine does art media history and french along with standard stuff. Media I thought oh oh but looking into it its like english with more up to date referencing - it looks at influence (and marketing) elements of psychology around influence and peer influencing around films and cultural issues, it looks at characters within films, it looks at things like feminism and mysogyny in films (Specifically looking at the role of women in bond films for e,g,). DDs strengths are English, History and ?? Art was chosen as the fun thing with media a second to that but with a more academic twist.

It seems there is an element of snobbiness around more Arts based subjects as not being academically rigerous which is utter bollox to be honest

At this stage the main thing is getting English and Maths and if you have a strong science bent the sciences. THAT IS IT even A levels do not need to be career focussed at this point.