Does anyone else's child has this many GCSEs?

[Murdochmysteries]

My db has a habit of exaggerating the truth, to the point of incredulity, supposedly my dn at a below average comp, is leaving the school with 18 GCSEs, 1 B all the rest As.

18?!?!?

18? The very very maximum I know of in my school is someone having 16.

Are you sure some of them aren't equivalents worth 4 GCSEs?

Did try do some of them early or last year?

I went to school with someone who ended up with 15 (she had been sitting them since year 8 though) kind of devalues them somewhat when someone has that many.

DN is in sixth form now at the school.

Supposedly he did 9 in first year of GCSEs and 9 in the second year of GCSEs.

Other than feeling like being on an episode of Who Dares Wins and saying "Name them". I'm just so shocked.

Why take that many though? Surely if they got 9 in year 10 then put them onto A levels for year 11. Once you get past 10 GCSE's no one cares so long as you have English and Maths!

Smells like bullshit. I knew people at uni with 5, sometimes 6 odd style A Levels but never that many GCSEs. Ask him what subjects they're in.

*old

No, I doubt it OP. Very unlikely.
He possibly has some BTEC type qualifications alegedly worth up to 4 GCSEs.
Exams for GCSEs can also be done in several parts (in Y10 and 11) but are they are components of the same (single ) GCSE.

Sounds like a pile of balls to me. Almost everyone did 10 at my school, a couple of the super intelligent girls did 12, but I don't think a school would let anyone take that many. Maybe if they did them in different years or something, but it sounds unlikely. I would ask what subjects they were in.

DD1 has 12 and a half, but only because she did Media Studies as an extra "to stop the English set getting bored" , and the IT course they did gave them two GCSEs somehow. And that's a lot compared to many of her uni classmates.

I'd be tempted to agree with other posters and say there must be some BTECH equivalents in there.

There are a few courses - DIDA/CIDA in ICT and something with sport/PE called NCS, both of which are "worth" 4 GCSEs; and other similar things. Plus Media Studies is "worth" 2; lots of BTECs are "worth" 2 etc.

If you did a standard 2 Eng, Maths, 3 Science, IT, RE that would give you 8.
Then a couple of 'valuable' options could possibly give you another 10.

I think it is possible to get this many.

ds1 will only do 9.5 at his comp as standard, but they are all "proper subjects"!

Whilst it would be very very rare, it might be true. My DD1 did 13 but there were several in her group who did 15/16. They were all GCSEs.

DD2 has someone in her year who has just got an offer from Oxford, who studied 2 AS levels in his "spare time" and got As.

Maybe this person is super bright or maybe they are making it up

They are probably not individual courses but who cares? All this looking down on the whats and wherefores takes away from the fact that a young person has achieved a good level of education! This is what is wrong with this country

why would you need to do that many. get away from the books and experience life!

Agree noddy why is everyone being so judgey, when you don't actually know?

It is possible to get 18 GSCEs.

My ds is dyspraxic and he did a mixture 7 straight academic subjects and several more practical He passed them all and had several Bs which was never predicted and I would never look down my nose on any of his achievements! We were over the moon and there was much celebrating his 'faffy daffy' exams .

Well done your DS Noddy

If others want to be sneery about less academic qualifications, let them. They obviously have no understanding what it is like to have a non academic child.

Maybe by sharing your experience Noddy they will think a bit more next time before passing judgement about the "quality" of the GCSEs.

Both my DDs have friends who were less academic and who had to work bloody hard to achieve good grades in "less academic" courses. Their mums used to get upset too at the judging that went on. However it all worked out in the end for them One is now on a trainee management course for M and S, the other is training as a mental health worker. Their mums are very proud of them now and I'm sure your DS will do well Noddy. He obviously worked very hard to get those results.

noddy These qualifications are relevant but qualifications aren't equal. The OP is talking about someone who is almost certainly trying to make out his son has achieved something they haven't.

It sounds like BS. I doubt that a "below average comp" could timetable for one pupil to take "9 in first year of GCSEs and 9 in the second year of GCSEs". BTW, it does seem that he is implying that they are proper GCSE, and not equivalents, because he was specific that they were at Grade A/B and I believe that you can't transpose equivalents results like that.

Ask to see the newspaper cuttings. Any normal school would spread this all over the local media.
Why is this a story now. The results were out in August.
Is he in sixth form at the same "below average" school?

For example, I have a BA Hons and DH has a BA Hons.
His degree is in a seriously difficult subject, mine is not!

My dd is doing 13 and a half (the half is citizenship). One of them is additional (optional Latin done after school). I would definitely ask him to name them and then let us know because it's driving me crazy trying to work out how he can do 18 .

I am sure when I was a kid people did like 4 or 5.

Maybe that was just me though

I do not have a clue how it works now days. They seem to do exams all over the place. I remember just doing them at the end of the year and that was it (apart from mocks)

I am not that old.