Which GCSE in a year geography or psychology?

[arabhorsesarethebest]

My DC has to choose one or the other to do in a year (year 11). He is bright IQ top 3% but has a processing disorder which means he struggles terribly to write fortunately this is compensated for by excellent reading and comprehension skills and a virtually photographic memory.

He was advised to do history in two years because so much writing is involved and I wonder if anyone on MN knows if there is a large amount of writing involved in either of these two subjects.
When I was at university those doing a psychology degrees told me that there was a lot found of maths (??) is there maths in the GCSE? It really is not his strong point.

My Ds is in y11 and geography has a lot of written course work, I think he's doing OCR, other exam boards might be different. If your dc struggles to write, would he be eligible to have a scribe for the exam, as some dyslexic children do? It might be worth checking with his school. I'm afraid I don't know anything about Psychology GCSE

His original ed. psych report (which we paid for privately about 6 years ago) recommended that he uses the dragon dictation programme. He has tried it and as he's very articulate and has good diction it was successful. But I have found schools are reluctant to use it. He does get an extension. Im not sure whether I should push harder for either a scribe or dragon.
Course work is better because he's not restricted to a certain time; so my money is on the geography which he did really well at in yr 9, I think we do OCR, but he likes the idea of the psychology. Luckily my DH or I can help him with both.

GCSE are designed to be done over two years, why cram it into one year? [/rant over]

On a general academic basis, psychology is still slightly frowned on and seen as an 'ology'. That is at A Level - goodness only knows what they think of GCSE. Geography is a good, solid subject.
If your DS is so bright, is he going to be loking at University and the really competitive courses (med, vet, law, etc)? Some Universities get a bit excited about admissions criteria and use GCSE results as tie-breakers (because everyone has a gazillion A at A Level, apparently). They may not look kindly on this result - they will not think "he did well there, considering that he did it in year" they will think "why didn't he get A in that subject?"

I also dont know why schools make them do one subject in a year. This year he's doing RS in a year he personally would find it easier in two but when I asked they said this was not their policy!
I dont know if he's going to uni. he wants to join the RAF or something similar he's already very involved in the CCF and knowing he that he struggles in a very acdemic situation I suppose I haven't overly encouraged him to think about Uni. You might think I'm wrong its so hard to know what to do. His processing is so poor: bottom 10% apparently its relatively rare to have such a massive discrepency between inteligence and processing hence the private ed. pysch report prior to this he'd written off by lots of schools both state and indepedent as stupid. I'm told that its like trying to write with your hand tied behind your back although in the last year it has improved.
I favour geography but he's really interested in psychology he has done geography as a seperate subject since he started at prep in yr 3. He's quickly bored and I suspect ots the newness of it that interest him.

there is a lot of writing in psychology, I have worked as a scribe and i would definitely suggest that he has one in any exam. If Uni was being considered geography would be the better option but if he is doing it in a year doing something that interests him would be better because he will be doing a lot of work at home to cover everything.

I think both have quite a lot of writing but I'm aware that psychology has a lot of maths. DC is doing psychology for A level along with more traditional subjects and it's not necessarily looked upon badly by universities if it's taken with more traditional subjects. It's also surprisingly hard. The only thing I would warn about is that my DCs in year 11 are doing controlled assessments instead of coursework, so that's something to take into account. However it is done on the computer and you can have extra time. Does your DS find writing on a computer easier or would he still need a scribe?

Geography for the simple fact that it is a traditional subject.

Psychology is an A-level subject that is taken by those students who would like to do a Physics, Chemistry or Biology, but not really. An A-level subject at GCSE level does not really have a lot going for it.

As an A Level subject, Psychology is not 'looked down on' by universities and is one of the most popular subjects taken by students for a variety of reasons, not just least because it fits so well with both science and arts subjects.

At GCSE it is rarer and, I think, less interesting because it has to be made simpler. There is a fair amount of research methods (maths), but the same could be said of Geography. In terms of the EBacc, Psychology doesn't count. Psychology GCSE is likely to include at least one essay question in the exam.

My vote would be for Geography.

Many thanks for all your interesting responses. My money is on the geography too; my degree subject. I think I will look at a scribe.

Current controlled assessments in geography are less lengthy now. Many exam boards have options for alternatives to masses of written C A. Speak to the school about which board and course. I'd go for geography at gcse too. Lots of overlaps with science and other subjects too.