To ask for education advice here (GCSEs)

[Battyasfeck]

So… DS just received his GCSE results this morning. He is pleased with all of them but got a 4 in maths. I know this is seen as a standard pass but I’m worried about when he applies to university. Should I encourage him to retake? Or just be grateful with what he got (we actually are but worried about holding him back in the future). He will not be applying to the Oxbrodhe/UCL types. Any advice/ experience gratefully received.

Very much depends on the course and university. Some require higher grades - have a look at a few for the sort of courses he might be interested in.

Edit: DD is 28 now so it was letter grades then, but she had to resit maths despite getting a C because the course she was considering required a B.

Unless he is going for sciences, I wouldn't worry at all
He's going to have plenty of work with A levels, and adding maths GCSE which he obviously doesn't find easy will take time away from those, and potentially lower the grades, which would be far worse.

If he is going for sciences or something like economics then he might want to rethink, or have tutoring in maths to target the areas he needs for those subjects.

You just need to watch out a bit I think and check potential courses.

Some courses want a 4 and some want a 5. Some might even want a 6.

One of mine is about to do a maths degree, but the uni required a 6 in English.

Same as my DD - she has not had one mathematical thought since the day she sat the last paper, did social science degree and now has a great job. So no need to burden your son with retakes!!

If he does really well in his A levels he should be fine.

Not necessarily. Some courses/unis want good A level results plus specified grades in core GCSEs. Just depends what he wants to do really.

Depends on the course and the university. I work in a Russell Group Business School and we insist on at least a B In Maths at GCSE. Many other institutions/courses don't specify anything

If he might do a degree that needs some maths skills then a 5 would be preferable.

Yes, YABU.
You would be better to post in Secondary Education or Further Education :)

As long as he's not applying for a STEM subject he should be fine. You can always check out individual university pages to reassure you?

I'd be wary of retaking because he might not do any better and it would take up time that would be better spent on his Post 16 study.
Also, it's likely that he would have to prepare by himself (our school at least certainly wouldn't support a student that already had a 4 through maths resit).

It depends. Often courses have a mathematical component (like statistics in Psychology) that a uni wants a 6 at gcse. And even if not, a GCSE grade can be a deciding factor even if they don't state a minimum. So what uni course is he looking at?

Thank you so much all for taking the time to reply. Very much appreciated. Definitely something to think about. He’s unsure about university courses at the mo
but think probably along the lines of media and/or sport . Will post again on secondary. .

My child is currently looking at management marketing and business courses at very good unis and has had to rule some out (Durham Warwick) due to only having a 6 in maths. In hindsight I wish we had realised the significance and I would have considered tutoring to get a 7 or a resit to aim for the 7+. Kept being told 6 is a B which is good. But it's all a bit late now at the start of year 13