8, 9 or 10 GCSEs - does it matter?

[DontCallMeBaby]

DD has to submit her options form in a few weeks. She has

• Core subjects: maths, English literature, English language, double science (5 GCSEs)
• Subjects she’s certain about: French, history, product design (3 GCSEs)

So that’s 8, which seems like an acceptable number to me (I have 9 and DH only has 7, although obviously from a terribly long time ago). However she has two further option slots to fill, and that’s where it gets tricky. The short list is business, ICT (a very design-led course), health & social care. Only business is an actual GCSE, the other two are GCSE equivalents (and both 75% coursework).

I think 8 will be fine for all possible purposes, provided she gets decent grades, especially as they’re mostly solidly academic. I’m not 100% sure coursework will suit her, as she tends to wing it, but then 10 exam heavy subjects might stretch her too far. I also, though I haven’t said this to her, think business sounds dull as fuck and the other two sound more interesting/fun.

She, however, doesn’t want to have ‘only 8’ GCSEs. No real reason given. IS there anything wrong with 8? She currently wants to do medicine at university - I’m not convinced she’ll get there (again, not something I’ve said to her) but it’s a good ambition as it encourages her to work hard. Her school’s sixth form will require two grade 6s and three grade 5s to get in, and subject related requirements on top of that.

Do I reassure her that 8 GCSEs is fine? Or am I missing something here?

Definitely try to do minium 9 GCSEs. You need 8 good passes so having a backup is imo important.

Another here whose daughter thoroughly enjoyed philosophy and ethics at GCSE. She thought doing A level biology would be better long term and swapped it for A level RE within a month and still really enjoying it.

If your daughter aims to go to uni, taking more than 8 GCSEs will give her leeway if it turns out she struggles at a subject as she'll hopefully have 8 she's done okay in. Having said that, she has to study the subjects and it might be better to chose a subject she'd really enjoy and do well at it or one that could possibly connect to a future career she might be interested in.

Lizard fair enough. :) Convertor academy, high attaining, high achieving, money is tight because the academy money long since ran out and there’s very little pupil premium etc. Partial grammar county, but doesn’t affect the profile of the school much (due to partial, and the relative locations of the schools).

I’ve gone down a right rabbit hole now ... the boys’ grammars (well, one has just gone co-ed) both do either all three sciences as separate GCSEs, or double combined. One of the girls’ grammars does separate sciences and the other offers a choice of double or triple combined. The co-ed does all three sciences. Nearest comp does double by default with triple as an option. Two other comps - one just does double, and the other has an incomprehensible website.