Can DS refuse to re-take this GCSE?

[BaconAndAvocado]

DS (year 10) recently got an A for his Maths GCSE. He informed us yesterday that he, and all his peers, except the one student who achieved an A, are going to re-sit the exam to try and get a higher grade. In his case, an A.

Does this make any sense at all?

He says he's not bothered that he has to take it again in November but he will also be sitting his English Language exam in November, which is not his forte. So he will be spending time revising for the 2, rather than just the English.

[busymummy3]

My DD is another who was given all A* targets even in subjects she had never studied eg a second MFL. I do think that this can be looked at both ways, from the schools point of view they felt she could achieve at that level but from the students point of view it could be daunting !
We are lucky in that DD is a fairly calm , laid back girl who tends to take it in her stride and believes if she can do it she can if she can't it's not the end of the world.
She is also fairly independent and once she makes her mind up rarely changes it .
She ended up with 12 GCSE's - 9 A's and 3 A's and the second MFL was one she got an A in .
She refused to resist the unit 2 of the separate sciences ( got all A's first time around) she explained to her teachers that she did not want to study sciences at A level and no amount of persuasion by teachers would change her mind . She just stuck to her belief that she wished to concentrate on the subjects she would take at A level to ensure A* 's in those.
She ended up with A in Chemistry ( got 100 UMS which brought the A up) A in Physics missed A by 3 ( got 100 UMS in unit 3 which she was amazed by as is her "hated " subject) and A in Biology ( got 89 UMS in Unit 3 which maintained her A)
She still feels now that she made the right decision and went into all her exams not over stressing.
Oh and she hasn't gone on to do Sciences at A level despite attempts by teachers on sixth form registration she just doesn't enjoy them and says what is the point of studying something I don't enjoy just because I'm good at it.

[creamteas]

Her dd didn't get the uni course she wanted, even with 4 As and 9 As, so they certainly do look at GCSE results too*

Yes, some unis look closely at GCSE results, but you can't assume that this was the reason. It could actually be the other way round, they didn't look at her GCSEs and that is why she didn't get an offer.

This is how so many of the myths about admissions arise. Universities don't give individual reasons, and people put forward their own assumptions.