If anyone's child is considering Art GCSE, a word to the wise.....<bitter experience>

[cyb]

MAKE SURE your child keeps their art book up to date as the term progresses.

That means not only completeing the final pieces for each topic (which my D had done) but also all the research, photographs, reflections and investigations that led them to their final outcome (which my D has not done)

So this half term she has been working from 8.30am until 10pm to fill all the gaps in her bloody Art book

I am trying VERY hard not to say I TOLD YOU SO and I'm choking, frankly

She thinks she's going shopping in Camden market tomorrow

CHINNY RECKON

Hope it doesn't put her off! The thing to bear in mind is that if she genuinely loves the subject it will be easy. I got very used to taking sketchbooks everywhere with me, enjoyed going to galleries etc - it never felt like a chore.

In fact I really miss it! Hoping DS will overcome his weird aversion to drawing & painting soon so we can do more arty stuff "together"

I'm an art teacher. Nobody finishes their coursework on time.

NOBODY.

Ha HA HA!

When I did my GCSEs, for stupid annoying reasons to do with the subject 'columns' where you had to pick 1 subject out of what I considered 4 pointless ones (Textiles, Home Ec, CDT, Technical Drawing), I ended up doing Textiles.

I've always enjoyed sewing of the embroidery and fancy work type, but for Textiles you had to do 3 separate projects, one of which had to be an item of clothing made from a pattern. I was absolutely no use with patterns or sewing machines so the dress I made ended up looking like a sack of potatoes - it didn't matter that I'd done my research thoroughly and produced a smart folder of background work for each of the 3 projects, that rubbishy dress meant I wouldn't be able to get an A no matter how hard I worked on the rest of the projects.

I have to say, modestly, that IMHO the piece of embroidery I did for my final project WAS bloody good, and my mum has it framed on her mantlepiece - I get a little glow of pride every time I see it. I designed the pattern myself on a sheet of graph paper, every stitch was exactly where it was meant to be, and I don't think I worked harder on any other single thing when I was at school!

My DS1, now Year 12, did Art & Graphic Communication for GCSE. He enjoyed producing the final piece but absolutely hated doing all the research and having to present several ideas for each. As a result, he got a B. He found it the most time-consuming of all his (12) subjects!

My DD has put art on her options form for light relief.
I think she ought to read this thread!

I did my GCSEs 20 years ago and art was well known then to be a serious workload.

The teachers were also well known for being rabid about how much more important it was than any other subject.

Well, dd has just searched through the recycling bin for pictures to inspire her next project, found a recipe for bread and butter pudding and gone to the kitchen to make it! Displacement activity!

I agree. My son should have got an A or A* in art but lack of work in his sketchbook throughout the year let him down and he got a B.

He also did art A level, and the workload is MASSIVE. Anyone who thinks it's a soft option think again.

Music GCSE isn't an easy option for anyone considering it. DD loves it but there is a lot of theory for them to get their heads around as well as composing, individual instrumental, ensemble pieces etc. The shift from music taught at KS2 to that at GCSE is huge.

But surely if they are a grade 4 in a instrument they could walk it?

I composed some piddling little number and again managed a C. I did struggle during the exam, because I wasn't sure what page we were on, but course work wise it was no problem. I am really surprised things have changed so much in 20, when grades have been going up. Maybe this is why grades are going up. None of us did any work in the olden days.

Thanks for this thread. My dd wants to do Art as she would like to be an architect but her art teacher has said she is likely to get a C in it! She can only pick 3 options, one of which will need to be a language as the 6th form she wants to get in to are insisting on a language GCSE even if they are not going to carry on with it at A Level. I would prefer that she chose History and Geography as she is predicted to get A*'s in them. This is so diffcult as a parent when they are only 13. Obviously dh and I want her to make her own choices but, there is always a but is there not.

agree with those who say this gcse has got harder, I tutor a gcse art student and it is much much deeper than in my day (draw a stilllife, do a painting from some random title)
i think the reflective/theory element is great (if time consuming). My student has developed an impressive practice, and she is not yet 16!

GCSE music is roughly equivalent to grade 5- butbwith lots of other stuff like composition.

I will get dd1 to read this thread.

Oh God, thanks for the reminder...

DD1 took GCSE Art two years ago. Many hours of nagging later she finally got her portfolio up to date. A brief of "Urban Decay" meant many hours of mum stood ankle deep in mud and other crap in manky churchyards and dodgy bit of local towns in February watching her take photographs and sketching.

She has since spent many hours convincing year 9s that GCSE Art is not for the fainthearted.

I did art O level 30odd years ago. We had to do preliminary drawings and then a final drawing, and also a painting of a choice of titles (all utterly uninspiring). It was spread over several days. That was it.

Dd has chosen to do both art and music. I shall show her this thread.

I think the current GCSE art syllabus is more interesting than the old still life under timed conditions and 3 drawings from your portfolio shtick. But I wonder if it will begin to repel its natural audience.

DS2 (a chaotic creative) selected not only his GCSEs but his A levels by discounting any with coursework which although sensible is a great personal shame for him. I o worry he's going to end up being a tortured artist trapped inside a management consultant's body.

Lynettescavo I did music O level in the mid 80s and in those days you certainly wouldn't 'walk' it if you had a grade 4 in one instrument. In our class there were 3 of us with grade 8s in 2 instruments by the time we took the exam and even though we did all get As it was nothing to do with the fact that we could play but everything to do with the fact that we worked harder on learning the entire score of the Pastorale symphony (and other scores too including one dreadful modern opera by David Bedford) than we did on any other subject. And the girl who went on to go to music college and who is still a successful professional musician to this day, was the one whose A was the most in doubt leading up to the exam. O level music was hard in those day. These days it is much harder, I'd say, even though they no longer have to learn entire symphonic scores. DD1 is in the first year of the course, she has passed grade 6 in her first study instrument, grade 5 in her second and third studies, and grade 4 on the piano and while she is doing very well she certainly isn't 'walking it'.

The most talented artist in my family (not the candidate award one) strongly disliked the reflective part of both the GCSE and A Level courses, she simply wanted to draw.

She's reading History MrsJAP, she still draws.

Oh, and while we are on the subject, I want to say the same for GCSE PE. Much maligned, and pretty useless in the working world, but definitely not easy. and just being good at sport is not sufficient either - there is loads and loads of theory, much of it biology based.

My other son opted to do both Art and PE because he though they would be 'fun' which meant he could only do either Geography or History but not both. He could have walked an A in History, but he only got a B in Art and a C in PE (he ended it hating it becasue of the amound of technical/scientific theory and did not revise sufficently for the final exam) so to say I was frustrated with his decision was an understatement!

at chinny reckon.

I told my dd categorically NOT to take art GCSE as I knew the workload would be huge. Thankfully it ended up clashing with triple Science in the end (and oh how she fumed at me for going on about taking triple science and not art at first.). However she is pleased now because she sees all her friends pulling their hair out at the sheer workload of the art GCSE.

I remember taking art GCSE in the early 90s and I loathed it. You simply couldn't blag it at all, you had to work (not necessarily a bad thing, but I hated art anyway, and only chose it as an option because I didn't like the twats who chose Drama ).

And that is why I didn't let DD have free rein with her options.

Agree that GCSE PE is another hard subject, but one which is scoffed at as being a doss.

Hilly History is no walk in the park, you know.....

I'm always amazed at people who 'know' their DCs would 'walk' an A in a subject they never studied.

I think it is amazing that dd is studying exactly the same History syllabus as I studied at GCSE years ago - history of medicine and the American west.

I never thought I would talk at length about Galen and the 4 humours again!

Yellowstone