GCSE Choices 2013 (exams 2015) support thread

[DizzyHoneyBee]

Here we go....options choices this month, exams in summer 2015. We're choosing options at the moment but I've not come across a support thread.

Does your DC know what they want to do already or are they needing a lot of help deciding?
Where have you gone for information?

We get a booklet this week apparently and then have a meeting at school to discuss listen to a sales pitch by the teachers discuss the options that are best and then we have about 2 weeks to make a decision.

[DizzyHoneyBee]

OK, here we go again - I thought we had got it sorted but a letter has just arrived which has sent us back to the drawing board.
DD has just had a letter saying that she has been identified as having a particular talent for art and that the teacher is keen for her to have the opportunity to do art so is offering her a place on an hour and a half long lesson after school to do art gcse. The reason for this is a lot of academic students who are talented at art have been dropping it in order to do a more academic subject.

Now DD had already planned her options to include art. As well as the core subjects she is doing triple science, applied engineering, geography, fine art and AS level critical thinking. She'll be doing 12 GCSEs in all.

If she switched art to the after school class then she could do either business studies, french or german in it's place. She wants to do science at A level and university so I (and she) don't think any of those are particularly worth having to extra lessons after school so she can do art. I also think that 13 GCSEs is too much work and not a good idea and she agrees so I think we'll politely say thanks but no thanks.

Any thoughts please?

[webwiz]

12 GCSEs is more than enough - DS is in year 11 and doing 11 + an ict thing and its loads of work. I wish he was doing less actually but he'll have to grit his teeth and get on with it as not long left now.

[Incogneetow]

I would be reluctant for students to do an extra-curricular subject, unless they can't do it otherwise. 1.5 hrs after school lesson will also require several hours of independent work - ie homework - for the subject too.

ds1 is a very able student, but is actually only doing 9.5 GCSEs (standard at his school). He's in yr11 and is doing exceptionally well in all subjects, and has had some time over the past two years to pursue some of his own interests too. Those 9 top/very high grades will be sufficient to enable him to do pretty much anything in future, there's no need for more. (He did Maths, 2 Eng, Triple Science, German, History, IT GCSE).

Given a free choice he would have liked to have done a few more: another language, maybe Classical Civilisation, Statistics... But it would have a been a huge amount more work required.

[Sparklingbrook]

Blimey Dizzy, just when you thought it was all sorted. This options malarkey is confusing. I don't even remember doing my options. Other than dropping Cookery because the teacher was a witch.

[DizzyHoneyBee]

DD and I have come to the conclusion that it's not worth it, she would be choosing another subject for the sake of it. Thanks for the comments here, it's helped confirm that we've made the right decision.
I can remember my options, completely useless for what I decided to do later on but such is life.

[Sparklingbrook]

She may get another letter tomorrow about another subject Dizzy.

[DizzyHoneyBee]

Don't say that!!! It'll be music if she does.....but hell will freeze over before she does that as she doesn't like any of the music teachers and it is a lot of work when she already has a fair whack of work with what she has chosen already.

[Sparklingbrook]

If they offer DS after school lessons he would have to get the late bus home. It leaves at 5pm.

[Horsemad]

Can I join please? Have DS1 doing GCSEs this year and DS2 is 14 this week & is just choosing options now, he wants to be a primary school teacher.

He is choosing

History
Geog
French
PE (GCSE)
Resistant Materials

will also do

Eng Lang
Eng Lit
Maths
Chem
Biology
Physics

They have to choose one reserve subject which in his case is German and one reserve technology which will be Product Design.

Not looking forward to 2015 as will have one doing A levels and one doing GCSEs

[DizzyHoneyBee]

Welcome HorseMad, you'd get on well with my DD if your moniker is anything to go by.
Many sympathies re A level and GCSE timing.

[Horsemad]

Thanks Dizzy -yes, was rubbish family planning!!

You have a Horsemad in the family I take it?

[FrogPrincess]

Thanks DizzyHoneyBee, may i ask why music rather than classical civilisation? And how heavy is the workload in Music? I assume for CC it will be similar to History?

[MelodyBaker]

Dd got a letter (she handed her form In 3 weeks ago) today saying she has been picked for triple science and it will not take any space up for her chosen options and too see her head of year tomorrow to tell her what she's doing.
It would be instead of core and additional.
What should she do? I think she shouldn't as she wants to be a history teacher and won't need it. She wants too but its 18 hours a fortnight...
Help!!! I thought we had done this bit

[DizzyHoneyBee]

Frogprincess, I just thought music would be good with there already being a good choice of academic subjects. I think the workload is hefty but have no experience other than what people have said.
Melody, I'd go for it, it's a good back up option and it's an extra GCSE.

[MelodyBaker]

I think she will go for It. It does take up a lot of time though. I never really got good grades in science and would like dd to have a chance.

[LynetteScavo]

treas mentioned maths x 2. What is that?

DS is doing Eng X 2 and Science X 3, but I haven't heard of maths X 2.

He has chosen Business Studies as one option. He is also doing RE (complulory) and Geography.

I'm panicking now that he should be doing History rather than Bushiness Studies, but as he is already doing two humanities it wouldn't matter. (He was thinking of photography, but is not artistic so I discouraged it, and pushed him towards Business Studies) It has be suggested to me that RG uni's won't like it, but I can't find any evidence of that.

[Incogneetow]

In some schools top sets do Maths GCSE then statistics GCSE.
Others do Maths GCSE then FSMQ

[LynetteScavo]

He's top set. What's FSMQ?

[Incogneetow]

FSMQ

At my son's school they just do the straight Maths GCSE at the end of yr11, no other Maths qualification.
There's really no need for them to do endless extra qualifications. He's doing them this time and is predicted A* in Maths, and a selective sixth form have happily accepted him to do Maths and Further Maths on that basis, even though many of their own students do FSMQ.

[LynetteScavo]

Oh, thanks. As far as I know DSs school just offer maths.

Does anyone think Business Studies is an unwise option?

[DizzyHoneyBee]

Horsemad, yes I have a horsemad in the family - my DD.
Re business studies and the Russell group, have a look at Informed Choices as it may give useful advice for that and other subjects.

[DizzyHoneyBee]

I also found this:

The list of courses they like i.e. more theoretically based, give the greatest flexibility or "facilitate" in the admissions processes are as follows:

Mathematics and futher mathematics
English
Physics
Biology
Chemistry
Geography
History
Languages (modern and classic)

List of generally more vocational based qualifications they mention as less preferred include:
Photography
media studies
Art and design
Business studies

which was here

and these:

www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-12365050

russellgroup.ac.uk/russell-gr...study-choices/

[DizzyHoneyBee]

Apparently students applying to university should have at least two of the facilitating subjects at A level. It looks like GCSEs are less important, though they do say that Maths is important and you should have a C at GCSE or better if you are not offering Maths A level. I expect that depends on what you want to do at university but I think that a C at Maths GCSE is probably a popular request from universities for some degrees.

[DizzyHoneyBee]

Other stuff from informed choices that looks useful to know:

Universities may ask for a specific number of GCSEs (or their equivalent).
For example, a number of medical courses ask for five (sometimes more)
A* grades.
GCSE English or another standard level equivalent is very often required at
Grade C at least. At many universities, this is a universal entry requirement
for any course. Mathematics is only slightly less commonly asked for.
Occasionally, a university will require a foreign language for entry to any
course, for example, University College London has introduced such a
requirement from 2012 entry.
For many courses a B grade at least in GCSE English is needed with
science and engineering courses in particular often specifying this. Equally,
courses such as Business and Psychology, which may attract applicants
who aren?t necessarily strong mathematicians, commonly ask for a B grade
in Mathematics and, in some cases, sciences.

As this document demonstrates, the English Baccalaureate includes
academic subjects highly valued by the Russell Group but it is not currently
required for entry to any Russell Group university.

The GCSE or other standard level entrance requirements for individual
degree courses are quite varied. In some cases, a particular subject or
grade is required at standard level if it isn?t being offered at advanced level.
The summary below gives an idea of some of the GCSE requirements that
you might come across for certain degree courses. Remember that these
are only examples. It?s important to check university websites for detailed
requirements before applying.
? Applicants to study Medicine are usually required to have very good GCSE
results in Maths, Science, and English.
? For a degree in English, universities often look for applicants to have a GCSE
in a modern or classical language.
? For a Business degree, a grade B in GCSE Maths is often required.
? A grade B in Maths and sometimes Science is often required for a degree
in Psychology.
? To study a science subject at university (including Biology, Chemistry or
Physics) applicants who are not offering Maths at advanced level will often need to have achieved a grade C in Maths at GCSE.

[LynetteScavo]

Thank you. So it doesn't seem to make any difference if he does photography or BS - and I'm sure he will do much better in BS than photography.

I'm going to speak to the school about him doing History rather than BS. It's a lot of humanities, though- RE History and Geography, isn't it?