How much time to spend on GCSE's.

[Colleger]

I've posted in the sec ed section about how many hours is spent on GCSE's each week at school.

For example, 3 hours on English, 4 on Maths etc per week and then maybe 1-2 hours homework.

If I wanted to follow a similar pattern of a two year GCSE, how much could I cut it down based on 1-1 tuition/independent study? Could my son learn the same volume with 2 hours of math rather than 4 hours, or even less? Assume he is an average learner.

I would think that 1-1 should be MUCH more time efficient as there won't be any time wasted on dealing with distractions from other children.

I haven't done it but... I really think you'll have to suck it and see. It surely must depend on so many things: how engaged he is with each particular subject, how much natural aptitude he has for the subject, how good the study guide is, how well-prepared he (and you) want him to be...

After all, look at the huge variation in how much time secondary-aged children actually spend on homework and revising, ranging from almost none to nearly every waking moment. Some kids probably just have to spend far more time than others in order to achieve the best results they can.

Are you planning to spend a full two years studying each subject, doing a large number of subjects in parallel like the schools do, or work on just a few at a time intensively? I have always thought the latter would be more efficient and it seems to be the preferred method by home ed families.

Maybe it would make sense to timetable more time than you think you'll need and then cut back if he is sailing along, rather than have to add in more hours than you had bargained for, which could be demoralising and could cause your son to feel he's been misled about how much work would be involved in home ed.

Oops sorry, you did say you were doing them over two years.

I would only be doing:

Math, Triple Science, French and Latin. French and Latin would have approx 3hours 1-1 private tuition a week followed by about 15 mins work each day during the sessions. I wasn't planning to do any homework for the other four and was hoping to fit maths into 3x30mins a week and 4x10mins on his activity days. Science would be 1 hour per subject a week and probably no homework.

Is this too little to gain a GCSE in two years. He is very bright and I would guide him in science and leave the maths to him.

have I understood this wrong or are you putting a lot more time in for French and Latin than the others? 3 hours of 1-1 private tuition a weeks sounds like a phenomenal amount to me and if that were me would be too much input versus too little independent learning - especially something like French where you could be watching TV in French, listening to the radio, reading articles etc. Do you think that Science is much easier than French and so only requires 1/3 of the time? I guess only you know whether that is true for your ds. Personally an hour a subject per week would not have suited me at all as it would always take the first 15 mins to find out where I was, and then that is only 45 mins before you stop.

I may be completely misunderstanding you though as I'm not sure what you mean by 'sessions' or 'activity days'.

The private French lesson will include all the things you have mentioned but it's no different to the amount of time devoted to the subject at school. I meant that my son would do 15 mins of a combination of homework, rosetta stone, watching programmes in the language inbetween the tutored sessions.

My son has two full days per week that are given over to social activities and one that is given over to choir but it's more like a big day long social activity too. We couldn't fit any work in on these days except maybe the 15 mins mentioned above. Another day is also choca with another choir and swimming so no work then so that leaves us three days per week to do academic work if we choose to go down this route.

Could be barking up the wrong tree, but I seem to remember that French is the subject Colleger doesn't like but thinks will be good for everyone...

Feeling slightly attacked on this thread, I was merely asking for some advice...

DS did IGCSEs through an internet school - it was more efficient than an ordinary school, but probably less efficient than one-to-one or really focussed individual study. He did 8 subjects, studying from 9 till 1 every day, plus maybe an hour a day of homework. So 25 hours study divided by 8 subjects would be just over 3 hours per week per subject.

I'd guess that's less than what you're hearing about schools on the sec ed thread? So I'd maybe drop the figures by the same amount again to get what can be done if you/he focus and you don't have the "other people not settling and/or asking questions" time.

It really depends how he picks up certain subjects though - some people need to take longer over some things than others, so you may need to be quite flexible when you get a feel for how things are going. Are you planning to buy a course, or work from textbooks? You shoul be able to get a feel for how fast he is moving forward through the topics - but make siue he allows time for testing and checking it has really gone in, and he isn't just rushing through to get things "finished".

Most GCSE syllabuses are designed to be taught in 140 hours teaching time, plus homework.

Thanks for the new posts. I'm planning to do text books for the maths and science but I have lots of ideas for science to make it more interesting. Nothing is set in stone and one day the science may take much longer or shorter than an hour so only a guide really.

DD1 did all her GCSEs in two terms (not all at once; we did 3 or 4 at a time). It's hard to say how many hours we took; we did do them most days. We didn't hire tutors. I think a good guess would be 3-4 hours a week per subject for 20 - 25 weeks. So about 60 -100 hours overall - less than the websites say you need. However, home ed on a one to one is, I suspect, much more efficient than the hours you need in school.

Dd ended up going to school before gcse's, but when she began to work towards them, we always found it more meaningful to pace it by chunks of work rather than time - how long something takes is going to be so variable. She had a plan of how many sessions of each subject she would do each week, but not an actual timetable of what when. So at the beginning of the week she would know that she was aiming to e.g. sit and do some maths 3 times that week, and cover half a chapter, so could plan how much she would do each day.

I'm HE-ing much younger children so am nowhere near the GCSE stage yet. However, I was a languages teacher in my former life, and I then went into SEN and supported kids in mainstream in all subjects up to A-level. I personally think that 4 subjects in 2 years is easily achievable within those time slots you've suggested, especially with the intensiveness of HE, and the fact that your DS is bright and presumably will be doing subjects he actually wants to study. In languages, kids at my school had 7x50 minute sessions over 2 weeks. There is no way they even learnt anything near what could have been done at home in an hour per week, because of time-wasting through administrative tasks, kids messing about, and ultimately that a lot of them weren't that bothered about learning a language/being at school. I found this in other subjects in which I supported kids too. And there will be some work which is easier or harder than others, so more/less time can be spent accordingly.

In languages, I found that kids were always the most unprepared for the oral exam (I'm not sure if it's still 25% of the final mark as it was a few years ago?) But that's definitely something your DS could work on with his tutor. Listening to French can be done in the car on your way to activities with language CDs and French music, and TV is also great. Also learn vocabulary as you go along - my teacher at school suggested we learn 5 French words a night before we went to bed, and at the end of 2 years those of who had done that, found the exams a doddle.

In Maths, I know that a lot of the stuff which comes up is basically building on things they've learnt so far in Maths, so they're not starting from scratch. In Science the same, really. Sorry, I'm wittering on, and you probably know all of this anyway! Good luck with it al!

Sorry wasn't meaning to attack, it's just that I have one to one French lessons and it is so intense that I can't imagine doing 3 hours a week and keeping up with everything we cover - completely doesn't compare with languages at school where we messed around and did worksearches 95% of the time. But if you expect that he will do most of the individual work with the tutor rather than independently then I guess it's the right amount of time. It does sound like you think french and Latin are a lot harder than science though- whilst this might be true in some ways gcse French is so basic that you don't need any level of fluency to pass.

colleger, I am sorry I don't have any HE experience with GCSEs so couldn't answer your question. I was wondering what materials/text books you plan to use for science. We are overseas so I always find it hard to hunt down good resources without being able to flick through them. Dd is very interested in science and would like to do more so I am looking for something in English that she could work with. I didn't really like the GP ones I saw on their website. Can you recommend anything different?

Are they enough subjects? Just asking as if you wanted him to do a levels or collage many want more subjects ( I know 7 b grade is min here)

I also hunk it's not enough time. There are 7 days in a week not 5, and so as he isn't at school I would be wanting them all to be utilised. Not saying full study but 3 hrs of French 1-1, I would also want him on as you say Rosetta stone and watching maybe a French film and writing to a French pen pal ( email) min through the week.
Average h/w hours can vary greatly. I think we had 45-1hr lost subject each day ( so if 4 lessons a day at school that would be 3hrs h/w that night)
Sounds a lot but school had 100% pass rate and 98% getting all a* and a ( 12 gcses)

So he has English, Maths, triple science, french and Latin

Based on that I would say minimum 3hrs per subject a week, 1hr on first five of you helping and 2hrs of self study. Languages you say 1-1 but would add self study on top

Working set hours can help as mentioned above such as 9-1 daily. Maybe you can find something that suits you. He is old enough to be organising much of this himself. So I would Give him a weekly timetable and say he needs to show where he is going to fit x amount of hours in through the week ( might choose to do an intensive day and less the other or even throughout week)

You also say about choir etc.. How long is that in a day? Just asking as if you think of a school day of say a 15 year old many will be commuting the. At school 6-7 hours then home at 5, followed but a couple of hrs of h/w, so he could easily fit in some evening work to lesson his load

Thanks for all your posts, I have a lot to think about over the summer. I should add that I have up to four hours of music practice (split up) to fit in each day so I don't want complete overload. I'd rather he did up to five GCSE's in 2/3 years and then do some more or just move onto A'levels. At the moment he wants to be a doctor or a musician!

colleger , i may have missed this but what year group is your son in from September?

If he would be year 9 or below definitely, and maybe even if he is year 10, I would actually do the sujects staggered over 3 years.

I think with his other time commitments you are possibly expecting an unreasonable amount ot be achieved and it is possible that he will not be able to fulfill his potential on this basis.

If he is bright, quite academic, and find one or two of the subjects easier, I would forget the hardest one or two and focus on getting the easier or more accessible ones out of the way, maybe within one yer or 18 months.

It seems to me extremely unnatural for children to study a large number of subjects over a longer period of time, surely if they have the maturity and academic ability it must be easier and more fulfilling for them to focus on fewer subjects for a shorter period, and then move one