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

Or look here:
www.themedicportal.com/application-guide/choosing-a-medical-school/gcse-requirements-for-medicine/

It seems good grades, especially in English Maths and Science are important. Nowhere does it say "and no PE or Media Studies allowed".

Couldn't she join a sports club rather than waste a choice on PE? Is PE even a subject????
Does an academic girl want to spend hours marking time with the kids who are too thick to be doing anything else?

PE was probably DSs most difficult subject. He found the academic part just as challenging as Geography.

I've heard some schools only let you take it if you are county standard at a sport. You really need to be playing a team sport regularly (DS was and was pretty good, but not for county) and be competent at two others. DS was moderated which meant a day out of school demonstrating his cricket skills. The other boys he met were country standard and high achievers academically- there was a lot of waiting around so time to chat .

DS advised DD not to take GCSE PE because he found it so tough.

Although not highly regarded GCSE PE is a lot more academic than you might think. My daughter loved the physical side but also was enthralled by the theory - muscle function biomechanics energy systems etc. Having been through the whole course (twice) I'd definitely advise something she enjoys! It's a hard slog. Good luck to you both. Xx

And well earned @Tee22.

I studied media myself!

My best mate did pe at gcse and now she’s a doctor. It’s ridiculous how dismissive people are of sport and sport science - perhaps this is why there are so many people that don’t exercise enough? And the poster who said an academic person doing pe was “marking time with the thick kids” what a disgusting thing to say!

DS is in year 11. He’s doing triple science, maths, English language and literature, RE (these ones all compulsory) then had 4 options. He’s doing geography, Spanish, Music and PE. They’re all perfectly fine GCSEs imo. He’s predicted 7 and above in everything except Spanish.

DD is in year 9 and her options are geography, history, Spanish and drama. Haven’t got predictions for her yet but I think they will be similar if not better than DSs.

So both of them are intelligent and I can’t see how one or two of their GCSE choices will change that.

Good god. The misconceptions of some people over an “easy” subject. PE, media studies, drama the list goes on. They have been made be so academic that often it puts the child off continuing in the subject. All the joy has gone out of GCSE drama that many are choosing not to continue it.

Please let your child do what they want to do. As others have said it is intense work and they need to like what they are studying and not resent being forced to study something else.

Maths English science and likely RS are still going to feature for at least 2 years.

There are plenty of good jobs out there with her choices

Those GCSEs certainly wouldn’t stop her getting into medical school! What would be important there would be the grades she got so I would encourage her to do things she enjoys and can do well at.

My OH is a biology teacher and really rates PE GCSE - he says (as others have) there’s lots of strong science in there.

I have helped many students with their GCSE options. I first tell them what GCSE stands for so they have an understanding of what sort of qualifications they are studying for. Then I advise them to work backwards. If they already know what they want to do as a career they need to look at the qualifications required from university backwards (if a degree is required). If they don't know what career they are interested in then I tell them to pick the subjects they think they will get the highest marks for. These tend to be subjects they enjoy, because who enjoys subjects they are rubbish at? I sometimes use the crystal maze as an example. Get as many GCSE's as possible and you have more options in the future. I recommend students find out about the course they are interested in studying, but choice is theirs and no one elses as they are the ones who have to study it for 2-3 years.

I hate to say this, but I also encouraged my DD to take subjects which have the strongest teachers. At her school History has 100% pass rate. For this reason she chose History over Geography, even though she's severely dyslexic and History is very wordy.

I let mine pick their own choices - in all honesty they didn't have many options as so much of them they have to do

The only thing I did say to them is did they have an idea of what they wanted to do when older (the answer for all three of them was no) and if so then they needed to look at what subjects would be better for that. Eldest picked all academic subjects, second had more vocational type ones, third picked computer based ones and photography - for A levels he's planning on physics & maths (not sure what else) but they were set subjects, but are also his favourite

My parents let me choose what I wanted to do. If you make her do subjects she doesn't like she's unlikely to work hard at them or concentrate. Let her do the subjects she enjoys

My daughter is now yr10. Academically she is in the top sets for most things. When she picked her options she went for the subjects she liked the most, then she got offered triple science.
She’s currently doing sociology, psychology, English, maths, chemistry, biology, physics, geography, art.
My son who does have some learning difficulties initially chose the media studies but after a good look into it they changed it to pe. He is loving having double pe. ( he also does martial arts training 6hrs a week and boxing 2hrs) he is also doing English, maths, history, vocational, asdan, science and technology. I have not had much say or influence over there choices. The only thing i did say was pick ur best subjects, one you will enjoy and one you would like to do. This is what they got.

PE is not a cushy subject. I would go for that. Media studies would be fun, but just that.
As long as she passes enough exams to get into 6th form and passes in subjects she wants to do A levels in, can’t see the problem.

There are usually two options for PE, one is a GCSE and one BTEC. The GCSE is very academic, and the child would usually need to be in the top two science sets to follow this route. It is similar to biology. The BTEC is more focussed on the practical side.

She will also be taking a humanities and a language subject, so I think her choices are great if she goes down the university route.
I don’t know much about media studies. However, be careful about these subjects, as quite often more course work is involved and they can be quite heavy while preparing for exams.

Media studies and PE are not a waste of GCSEs. On the contrary, they show a well-rounded student.

I would want to force her to do academic subjects but you are probably best to let her choose. Geography and French are academic and she will still have English and Mathematics.

DD1 is also picking her GCSEs...she has to study them so its up to her. She'll be doing English, Maths, Tripple Science and RE as compulsory. Then Geography, Russian and Drama as three of her choices and very unsure what to do as her 4th.

Does she have any idea what she might like to progress to? If she has a path in mind then doing a certain subject at gcse might be prudent but otherwise, is she not more likely to get a good grade AND be under less pressure if it's a subject she enjoys. Quite a few of the brighter more academic girls in my (high performing grammar) school took home economics for gcse because it was an easy A to get. I definitely think the less pressure the better. & gcses don't count for a HUGE amount in the long run. It's so important to guide your daughter of course but it's also so important that she knows you're going to support her & trust her to make decisions that affect her own life. I think your own experience at school should give you your answer.

Couldn't she join a sports club rather than waste a choice on PE?

Wow.
PE is a great subject to choose. It is lots of theory and biology. Also good for physical and mental wellbeing.
On top of all that, great potential job prospects from studying PE- sports scientist?

It’s one of my life’s regrets that I didn’t study PE. I couldn’t choose both PE and music and I was pretty much guaranteed an A in music so...
it’s affected my life because I never wanted to pursue music however I wish I was in a job that involved sport.

Let her choose what she wants

bakewell does she need to do 11 gcses? Dd is only doing 9 and school think that's fine.

LynetteScavo I also looked at the gcse results over the last three years - at dds school Geography had at least 50% 9s and 8s/A*s with the rest mainly 7s. So I've encouraged dd to think about Geog!

My mom dictated what I should study, what career I should go into, I never was given the option to go to university Something I regret dearly and swore that I would be different with my children.

When my youngest DD chose her options she was adamant that she wasn't going to 6th form and no way was she going to Uni. I let her choose for herself, what subjects interested her etc etc. She had to do the core subjects anyway, she chose geography as an "easier" option (as if Geography is easy ) over history unlike her siblings and took a couple of btec options which I wasn't really happy about but she didn't want to put herself under pressure

3 years later, she excels at geography, her btec options are at distinction level so probably a better level than she would have gotten at GCSE, she can't wait to go to college in September and is working her way to get to university. Her grades in the core subjects are as high as her siblings who are at/going to uni with unconditional offers in place (DS has just had an impossible unconditional offer given to him which his teachers can't believe) and I think it's all because I let her choose the subjects that she WANTS to study.

Trust her choices, I did and it's paid off

Schools seem to be reducing the number of GCSEs pupils do - for all sorts of reasons. It does mean there’s less room to fit in all the subjects some pupils would like to do. One of my DC did 13 as a matter of course. Two of those were creative/ practical subjects - art and music. It was compulsory to take at least one.

Hi OP, we are going through the same here at the moment!
My daughter gets three choices; she is dropping her French as she just cannot get on with it and has chosen History, Geography and Food and Nutrition technology which appears to have quite a science background to it as well.

She is likely to follow triple science, so lots of academic subjects.

She sees food tech and history as her speciality & fun subjects as she loves studying them, and I’m happy to let her choose her own way. She does have a couple of career paths in mind and we checked those out with A-level requirements and university offers etc; as a bit of a guide.
I’m going through worries about her dropping her language but we all need to survive over the next couple of year’s and she absolutely hates it!!!! So I would rather let her choose subjects she likes and enjoys studying than have to go through the tears & dramas!!!
I think you sound like you’re doing a great job of guiding and letting her choose what she enjoys, and that they will all complement each other and open many avenues for further education.

Best of luck!!