Year 10s studying for advanced applied science.

[kilmuir]

Do they sit an exam this summer?

up until Monday if you'd asked this question I'd have said yes. however Monday we got a letter from school explaining that due to Goves fiddling and insisting GCSEs are now exam based this would result in ds doing 9 science exams next summer along with his English maths tech etc so in total 17 separate exams!!!! his school have decided they are entering all pupils for Core & Additional science which will give them 2 GCSEs not 3 .

we've got a meeting with school next to discuss the implications.

My DDs school is still getting those doing double Science to sit Core this summer, and then Additional next. Those doing Triple do Chemistry, Biology and Physics all next year (but should all be solid A candidates only).

my ds is a solid a* student for triple science but as they can't do as they've done in the past one paper this summer, one November and one next summer but would have to do 9 2.5 hr exams as well as exams in all his other subjects.

Not quite true. For AQA students can take the exams as 1 hour exams for each Science and each level. If all taken together for all three levels this would be 9 x 1 hour exams. Or they can take 2 sets of 1 1/2 hour exams for each level. Which if taken for all three levels would give 6 x 1 1/2 of exams. If they take the 3 separate sciences again it would be 9 x 1 hours.
(I have excluded ISAs as these are taken separately.)

@auntpetunia it would be 9 x 1 hour exams, not 9 x 2.5 hour exams. This is similar to the exam commitment for other GCSEs, and no different from what anyone expected with the reversion to terminal exams. Very bad of the school to do this.

@mummytime that is not quite right. The 2 x 1.5 hour exams are an optional route for AQA Science and Additional Science, but Further Additional Science is still 3 x 1 hour papers.

@kilmuir you need to ask your school if they are doing Science GCSE this summer - this is still a possibility. Additional Applied Science is a different structure altogether (60% controlled assessment instead of 25% for the other science courses and 1 x 1 hour exam).

Yep we've just had a letter from the school today telling us that they'll be sitting 9 exams in 2015. I didn't realise they're only 1 hr each though so thanks for the heads up as the school didn't bother to inform us of this

Thanks for the information on the length of the exam we had assumed 2.5 as that was mentioned in the letter. I'm still not sure which is best …though it appears we have no choice so doing 3 science's but only getting 2 GCSES seems a bit off. we have parents evening next week so will ask.

what would you say is best reddidi

"what would you say is best reddidi"

I'm not sure I can do that, but I'll give you some information which may help.

For some time most Science GCSEs (there are other options) have been organised as three groups (Biology, Chemistry, Physics) each of three modules (1, 2 and 3) plus a controlled assessment.

Everyone has to study B1, C1 and P1 (it's in the National Curriculum). If these are the only exams you do, plus one controlled assessment, you will (hopefully) get Science GCSE.

If you also do B2, C2 and P2 plus another controlled assessment you can get Additional Science GCSE. This is a totally separate qualification from Science and the grades are unrelated.

But if you are good at Science and are likely to get better grades by doing more science and fewer foreign language/humanity GSCEs you can do the B3, C3 and P3 papers and three different controlled assessments and get separate GCSEs in Biology (based on B1, B2, B3 papers and the relevant controlled assesment), Chemistry (C1 etc.) and Physics (P1 etc.).

The only thing that has now changed is that instead of getting 6 chances over the 2 years of the GCSE course (plus potentially another 3 retakes) to keep on taking and retaking exams and selecting whichever ones you did best in, you do all the exams in May of Year 11.

(I'm going to ignore Further Additional Science here as it is probably irrelevant to the OP).

So you study each of Biology, Chemistry and Physics whether you are aiming for 1, 2 or 3 science GSCEs - nothing has changed here.

And if you are on a course aiming for 3 GCSEs you have to cover and be examined in 9 modules over 2 years - nothing has changed here either.

So I don't know what anyone who throws their hands up and says "no more triple science GCSEs for our students" is talking about - what did they expect to happen, to get 3 GCSEs on the basis of the same amount of study that gets 2? And what are they going to do with the extra time if not studying for B3, C3 and P3 and the extra controlled assessment?

It seems to me that the school is either being naiive or trying to make a political point - either way they are not acting in your children's best interests.

What do I think is best? Well unless I can be persuaded that my science-focused child would get more/better grades by doing fewer science GCSEs (!) and this is worth having to do extra work to catch up with the syllabus for A level (which assumes triple science), I would be protesting very strongly to the Head of Science, Headmaster, Chair of Governors, MP and anyone else I can think of.

thanks that's very helpful, think I need a letter to head asking for clarification as to why he's made this decision. ds always wanted to do his sciences, he thought he would be getting 10 Gcses now he's down to 9.