Y10 GCSE Results - what do we think?

[alistron1]

DD1 sat 5 GCSEs this year Maths (A) History (A) Art (B) ICT (B) and Product Design (C)

We are proud of her results, she's at a grammar school and she and her peers have got mainly B's/C's - very few A*'s.

I think though that maybe they were too young, and have been 'let down' by being pushed to sit 'em too early.

How have other Y10 parents found the experience?

Tricky one. Doing some early can take the pressure off year 11, but if the grade would have been higher after another year, then it's a bit counter-productive. Mine only did Maths early and got A*s, so it was fine. Universities aren't particularly ken on early or spread out exams - they want to see that they can cope with a spread of subjects in one sitting.

DS only sat two modules early and I'm glad that that was all. He did well based on the fact that they were the only two exams he had to worry about, but if he'd had more than that I do think his grades will have suffered.

Personally, I don't think it's worth the hassle of doing early. GCSEs are designed to be done by 15/16 year olds and require that extra maturity a year brings. Most also end in resits, which is just added expense and stress. I'm happy that they're going in time for DD to sit her GCSEs.

WAtching with interest...

DS1 is about to enter Y9 and his school seem to put them in for lots of early GCSEs. I am worried about the impact of resits or lower grades than he could achieve later and wonder whether parents ever insist that their child does NOT sit early? Do you have any choice about it?

DS is excellent at maths and being put in for Stats end of Y9 I think, then Maths in Y10 and AS Maths in Y11. I don't mind this IF he can do his best in them (which ought to be at least As in all areas, given his previous performance). I want ammunition to be able to put my foot down if necessary!

In y7 we were told that the kids would start gcse in y9 in order to give more choice and make them a more attractive prospect to the top uni's. I know DD1 has done really well, but in her mocks at Easter she got A/A* across the board. She's worked hard, revised etc but I think another year would have made a big difference.

But it doesn't make them a more attractive prospect to 'top universities' unless they get A/A* and resitting certainly makes them less attractive for certain courses.

I'm seriously going to have to battle with DS' school if they can't convince me he will get the grades he deserves. I will blood well move him if I have to. Why can't they opt out? Is this another of those schools need the passes to look good situations, not actually about the kids' needs?

Fine, but she only did one and it was out of hours, at her own choice. Perhaps different if she'd been made to do several and had no option, but as things stand I am happy and so is she.

In my school, students are not allowed to take GCSEs early unless we are certain they will get A*/A. It's a nonsense to accelerate students when they are not ready and cannot perform at their best. They also take no more than nine GCSEs in most cases. Both of these policies are based on what the leading universities tell us and our long and successful experience of such matters.

Schools which routinely accelerate students to complete all or most GCSEs in Y10 do so for one simple reason and that is to tie them to the school for the sixth form for whihc they get paid per student.

I have mixed feelings about this too - DS Yr 10 did modules for triple science, maths and english and has surprised everyone by getting 6 A's and 2 B's - including an A in Eng Lit which we thought he was really struggling with: target grades were B's and C's. I don't think he would have done any better had he done them all at the end of Yr 11, as by doing them this way he has been able to spread the revision and lessen his workload (imp for him as he is doing Art and Textiles, which seem to involve masses of practical work at home), thus taking the pressure off next yr.

DD is in Yr 9 (June birthday, so as she did her first module in Jan she sat it age 13). She has taken 2 modules of Biology - she got an A (one mark off an A which was frustrating) and an A, but I do worry that she (and others in her set) are being asked to take these exams too early before they have the maturity of a 16 yr old. To me, it seems that with the new style science exams involving the longer written answers, the extra maturity gained over 2 years could be very important when trying to compose a coherent written answer under exam conditions.

DD will also be taking her full maths GCSE in Yr 10, although I don't feel so anxious about that as it doesn't involve so much of a written element.

Interested to hear what any teachers think about this, although with the scrapping of modules this will not affect pupils in future years, but because we are caught in the middle of it, we have no choice - though luckily it has all worked out well for us.

Yeah my DS1 is dreadful at writing. Well, not 'dreadful' really, just can't be arsed to try or think about what writing is for. I'm worried about how he will cope with GCSE English subjects and humanities etc. I do hope it is only maths he is being fasttracked for, though hopefully there will be some discussion about it in Y9?

I don't think DS will do any GCSE's in Y9, and I'm really glad.

I don't know about Y10. If he does do any, and doesn't get an A?A* then he will be retaking them. From what I'm told by friends, I will have to pay for the pleasure. Maybe I'm old fashioned, but in my day GCSE's were taken in the same year. The fact that I took two GCSE's while doing A'levels was frowned upon, and I was told as I hadn't taken them in the same year as they other GCSE's I may as well not do them.

I guess times change.

DD did triple science (first module...dont really understand it) plus RE and statistics.

A's across the board, although 1 mark off A* in both RE and physics.

She gets to do different subjects now, so will do MORE GCSEs than standard.
For RE she gets to do Philosophy; for stats she goes back to math. (SHe stopped Math at the end of Y9 to do statistics. No choice -she is top set)

AFter 3 months in Y10, they had to produce their practical/project, when they hardly had any knowledge of the subject. DD is cross because if she had been able to delay her project until she had been doing stats for 6 months, she feels she would have done better - she got a C in the practical, but pulled her grade up to an A overall - which means she got an A* in the written paper.

With sciences, she scored A in Biology and physics and a B in chemistry, which she resat to get an A.

I think the science boards were also marking hard this year - in the area, those that took their physics 1 early in Jan/feb time, there was not one single A* - thats in a very high scoring area nationally. 4 senior schools launched an appeal at the time as the marks were considered to be very low.

Yes, DD will end up with 12 or 13 GCSE's. I'd prefer her to have done 9 or 10 along the lines of what Michaela said earlier on.

If it was a case of getting some out of the way early so they could focus on the harder ones I wouldn't mind. But at DSs' grammar school they do them early and then pile on some more to fill the gaps. DS2 has just finished year 10. He did maths at the start of year 10 and got an A so they banged him in for AS maths this June - which he really struggled with and has got an E for C1. Given that he's mainly As for other subjects he's very demoralised and hates maths now. He's already got A for core science, A,A,B for first biology, physics and chemistry exams, A for RE, A for DT and has done his ECDL (IT) which equates to a B at GCSE. I keep trying to explain to his grandparents that he hasn't officially done his GCSEs yet - that's next summer! I also keep wondering how many of those As would have been A*s if he'd done them next year!!

For my DD taking 10 exams in June of yr10 was mixed, for her Dyslexic friend a bloody stupid thing to force her to do DD's friend was crying her heart out here earlier. DD failed her year 10 option subject - no chance of a re sit unless she wants to do the subject as her yr11 option. DD as probably blown the slim chance of getting into the 6th form College she wants to go to as they'll know she has got a D grade out right.

DD from November to June sat the grand total of 15 exams.

So in answer to the question, if the DC has the ability to pass everything to the predicted grade then yes I'm all for it, but as a blanket policy then no. DD sat GCSE Geography in yr9 gaining a B I often wonder what she would have got if she'd sat it aged 15 and not 13.

At my DD's old school, DT and ICT GCSE's are taken at the end of yr 10. The school decided to do this a few years ago for 2 reasons.
The first was that these 2 subjects tended to be the 2 that most students neglected in yr 11 to concentrate on their other subjects.
The second was to free up timetable space for some of the other subjects.
DD got a B for each when she took them a year ago.

You probably know what I think lol!
I think your dd has done brilliantly, but I'm really not sold on the strategy if taking gcses much in year 10. It's such a push to do the while choose a year early coupled with the relative lack of maturity too isn't a winner.
I also am note sue how uni applications are taken when exams are taken over several years-certainly resits (which this strategy would make more likely) are not taken well for highly competative courses eg medicine

I have mixed feelings on this.

My Y10 DD achieved a variety of A/A/B in a total of 13 modules, which is great, but her predicted grades at the end of KS4 are almost all A. Therefore, she is likely to miss her targets in several subjects. She definitely will miss out in Core Science (A) and Citizenship (B) as these are final grades. Also, History and English Literature are looking dodgy.

DD could do numerous re-sits, but I don't think she will want to (and I don't blame her) - although I'm considering asking for some papers to be remarked as she very narrowly missed getting higher grades in a few subjects.

I'm proud of her anyway .

This seems to have crept in with the abolition of Year 9 SATs.
I am convinced it is done for the benefit of the school rather than the pupil.

Unless the child is guaranteed an A* they are invariably better off with another year's teaching. GCSEs are meant for 16 year olds and there is a huge difference in maturity between Year 10 when some are only 14 and Year 11.That maturity affects the result in many ways - motivation, reasoning,concentration.
DS did the first CA in English at the start of Year 10. He was 14 and unsurprisingly didn't do very well. He resat it 18 months later and got A*. What a waste of time.
DS took Maths GCSE in Y10 and he did get A* but many of his friends did not. There were a lot of resits which are extra stressful in the intensive exam period.

Of course the school are happy if they can "bank" some grade Cs.

I agree with everything you have said squirrels

Not wanting to sound like a wanker, but DD1 is a bright girl and should really have obtained A*'s in maths and history. I think that sitting 'em in Y10 has robbed her of that top grade.

She wants to do maths A-Level, her school requires kids to obtain an A at GCSE in the subjects they want to do at A Level. She was 7 marks off an A too. So this could have a big knock on effect.

If she hadn't worked/revised then obviously it would be a 'learning' curve. But she worked dead hard this year.

And the Art fiasco is a worry - she wanted to do art A -Level too.

IMVHO pupils shoul donly be encouraged to take GCSEs early if they are ready to get an A*/A and it would be utterly pointless for them to keep going over the syllabus.

Otherwise it's a device used by schools for their stats, but having little benefit for the pupil.

My daughter sat her GCSE Spanish a year early. This was despite her having only studied Spanish for three years, but she has achieved an A and is obviously thrilled about it. She's now upstairs studying her French, as the result has spurred her on to want to do just as well next year when she sits her French GCSE. She should have sat her Maths IGCSE early too, but we opted not to put her in for it. She's the only one in her class that didn't sit it early. Some did extremely well, and others less so, although all passed. She has the option of sitting both the IGCSE Maths and Further Maths papers next June. We will assess nearer the time whether it's worth doing the Further Maths given that it's unlikely that she will want to do AS Maths. I see no real point in sitting any GCSEs early unless they are going to get A/A. Plus, as they do largely IGCSEs at my kids school, there is no coursework or modules so it's a straight exam after two years curriculum in most cases. Getting 10 of those at one sitting is quite an achievement, and I'm sure Universities will look favourably on this.

Several of my DC have done all their exams (either 11 or 12) in Y10 (with a single Physics module in Y9). The universities should in theory give credit for the fact that all exams are taken in one go and in Y10, but some detractors merely look at the fact that the students have more time in the Sixth Form, without giving credit for early results. It cuts both ways.

IMO the real benefactors of pupils sitting exams early are the schools so they can meet their quota of a*-c grades. I don't think any university expects more than 9 GCSEs but they want excellent grades in academic subjects preferably all sat at once. Some schools are sitting pupils for gcses as early as yr 9 so some kids are having public exams every year for 3 years. I went to view schools for ds1 and some of them were extolling the benefits of early exam sitting and being quite aggressive about it which completely put me off. Schools are now very good at playing the exam game and as parents we have to do what's best for our dc which may not be the best for he schools league tables