GCSE choices!

[Giraffelover1]

Hello everyone,
This is my first time doing this and so looking for some advice from those of you who have been through this many times before haha.
My daughter is in year 9 and has to choose her GCSE options in the next 4 weeks. She has to take maths, English language, English literature and separate science.
So far she is pretty certain on history and music. She plays grade 7 piano and so hopefully this should be fairly easy and mean she can focus on her other subjects, and history is her favourite subject.
The issue is she doesn’t know what else to choose! We are debating between computer science (good for most careers?), German (only language she can take), sociology and geography.
What are your thoughts on these and any others you think are worth considering?
Thanks so much! xx

She should do the subjects she enjoys as those are most likely the ones she will get a good grade in. All the choices you suggest are fine for sure.

If there is anything she might want to take at A level (and if she has thoughts about uni, it might be worth working back from there) then she should think about those subjects.

For example, if she might want to take MFL to A level or for a degree, then she needs to take the GCSE. I would suggest German anyway as an MFL is always good – if she enjoys and does well. If not then not such a good idea.

Have you confirmed that the school does not insist on MFL and history or geog (many do)? And are there option blocks her choices have to slot into or does she have a free choice? And how many choices (for how many slots) does she need? (My Dc needed to give four choices to fill two slots.)

I should add that for many subjects there is no need to take GCSE to take them at A level or degree – psychology, sociology, phil and ethics, gov/pol, even computer science.

GCSE CS is not particularly a lead-in to a career so she should take that if she enjoys it and is strong at it, rather than for career reasons.

What’s separate science? DD did GCSE geography and absolutely loved it, ended up taking it right to A level.

If history is her favourite and she might go on to do it at university, language skills are helpful, so I'd suggest German.

How many can she choose?

I would absolutely say do a language. Keeps more options open and favorite subjects can change completely over next few years

Thank you so much for these replies.
She has to choose 4, 2 of which will be music and history so we need 2 others.
No she doesn’t have to take a MFL but like many of you I think it would be beneficial.
OzCalling separate science means individual exams, and therefore grades, for biology, chemistry and physics.

Ah right, just never heard it referred to like that before! DD also did all 3 sciences separately. We’re in NI so no option to do combined.

I wouldn’t choose sociology at gcse. She can study it later if she wants to.

I would select German definitely and then one out of geography and computer science.

Sounds like she’s already got a nicely balanced mix with sciences, an art and a humanity. I’d honestly just encourage her to do whatever subjects she prefers for the final 2. So much easier to do well in something that you genuinely enjoy/have an interest in. If she likes German then I think it’s always good to have a language - it was compulsory to take one at DD’s school

Languages are useful, but once you have the basics, you can do a lot of teach 'yourself' courses. Computer science will always be useful, because technology is fast moving and is pretty much used in every occupation. Geography is a good subject because it crosses both the sciences and the humanities, making it a very versatile subject.
At the end of the day what A levels or training is she interested in doing after GCSEs?

She isn’t sure what she wants to do for A levels currently, however she does want to study these after her GCSE’s.
I agree that a language is a good idea and agree with the pp that maybe leave sociology as she can come back to that possibly at A level without the GCSE.

My DS, who's in year 11, has found computer science very dull and wishes he hadn't chosen it.

Go to the exam board website and look through the content for the subjects she is interested in, she might like X subject because she enjoyed Y topic, but actually they might not cover much of Y again.

Get the college and a couple of Uni prospectuses and look at entry requirements, obviously you can do this online but having a paper copy is handy. It helps to work backwards from a potential end point.

Yeah my DS2 found CS rather dull tbh.

Wrt MFL – yes you can work on your skills with things like duolingo, but if you have any thought of taking MFL for A level and beyond that, at uni, then you absolutely need to take the GCSE. So I think that point is worth making.

You certainly do not need sociology GCSE for sociology A level as many schools IME do not offer it. OTOH if it looks interesting to a student then it's worth taking for sure. I agree with a PP, maybe have a look at the GCSE specs to see what is involved.

Hi @Giraffelover1 !

Your daughter should do the subjects she enjoys most, including at A Level. A subject enjoyed is most likely to yield a high grade for most students and the rest can be sorted when they have enough subjects with high enough grades.

Beyond that, three of the subjects are needed for A Levels and beyond; Sociology is not. So maybe that should have the lowest priority unless she adores it .

Computer Science has hardly changed since I took O Level in the 1980s.

There is quite a lot of maths in it, it is very logical though.

Believe it or not you can actually study it without ever touching a computer.

If she is good and enjoys maths CS or geography, if she is better at essay writing then history or sociology, if she enjoys learning German then German.

Basically she has got the main subjects covered, the last two are to make up the numbers so she should think of it as a bit of a fun subject.

Don't assume music will be an easy subject. Playing an instrument well is only part of the exam. It also involves, performing, appraising music, music theory and composition. You also have to study classical music and modern music. It's not as easy as just playing piano. It really annoyed my son when people in his class took it as an easy option then kept disturbing the class when they realised it's actually hard.

DD chose BTEC sport (as she wants to follow a particular pathway), Food tech, Geography and Business Studies. Te first 3 were her choice, the latter was a filler as needed a 4th. Then she'll have 3 sciences, 2 English, Maths.

We took her initial input, which was luckily quite sensible, and then debated the 4th as needing to be something more academic to balance the sport and food tech. To be fair, the BTEC is pretty involved and she loves it.

At GCSE enjoyment/motivation is more important than career opps I think anyway, as the later is quite far off. If she has ideas around careers then think backwards around was degree etc, therefore what A-Levels, then what is needed for those A-Levels.

I agree. My child is a secondary school music teacher and gets frustrated at those who elect to do it at GCSE but can't be arsed to put the effort in - it disturbs the rest of the class and the parents get ratty because they thought it would be an easy option. Just because they can play an instrument... ....

Computer science gcse is quite a lot of coding, which is great and really useful, and correlates well with maths ability, plus a lot of just learning about computer systems, networks etc. Mine found the coding bit great and the rest of it pretty dull, but not hard to learn. Overall he was glad he chose it.

Geography is also a great all round useful one as it’s v broad, quite a mathematical humanity / science crossover.

And I’d always recommend a language if they’re good at it, and it’s not likely to really be hard for them to get a decent grade.

If she’s likely to head in a more sciencey direction for a level then geography and/or CS would be good. German great in all scenarios. Sociology only if she is hugely interested in it - it’s not needed for any a levels.