Yr8 doing a levels

[IdontHaveaNAme]

Hello, my Year 8 son has been doing A level maths and physics, purely by interest. He is not finding it difficult at all, and currently on C3(chapter 6), M2(Chapter 4). I'm actually a bit concerned as I heard about people finding further studies boring after doing so early(like 3 years ahead), and likely to fail in uni. Is it better to stop him to the standard where he keeps his interest and slow it down, or just let him continue? Also, he is preparing for the BPhO(for year 12), and I don't know what do really do with him.

right OK then.

Could he not broaden his interests and look at similar subject so he has a wider knowledge: engineering, chemistry etc ?

The is a Gifted & Talented topic, you might get better responses there.

I've no idea what BHpO is...

But presumably you're ultimately looking at Oxbridge...

Will you be putting him in for GCSES's early? Presumably he'd get 9s in maths/science/computing now?

Also, I think you need to keep up literature and arts to keep things balances

If he wants to do a maths based subject at uni, he'll have to keep maths study up between now and when he applies- most unis believe that maths skills deteriorate quite quickly without practice, so top unis aren't even keen on a gap of 1 or 2 years before starting a maths course. Obviously there will be ways to show he's kept his study up, but do be aware of this.

Is he doing well in other subjects, e.g. those that involve extended writing? If not, maybe try to encourage him to focus on areas of weakness as well, not just things he finds easy.

What about finding him an engineering, STEM or coding club to join?

Feel for you, been there. As you suspect GCSE Maths, Physics etc will become very boring. 2 years doing the same old simple (for him) maths curriculum is mind numbing and he will end up hating the class. Don't yet know if its impacting Uni. Sadly after years of fighting it I gave in and slowed him down.

On the plus side we were able to divert that energy/intellect/time to other related areas, like cosmology, programming, philosophy, history of Science etc. Also entering regional, national & international competitions like those Oxford uni run really increased his profile/ability to get a place there.

Don't know what BPhO is, but ploughing his way through an A level syllabus is ridiculously stupid at his age. Expand sideways, Olympiad, coding etc. Shedloads of resources on the internet.

Slow it down a bit. and concentrate on other subjects to try to get a better balance.
The maths courses are changing and both GCSE and A level are becoming more challenging. I suspect these modules are from the old specification being taken by current Y13s so will be out of date very soon.
There are alternative programmes for gifted Y8s such as Maths challenge etc.

BPhO is the Bristish Physics Olympiad, a serie of exams used to select candidates for the UK Physics’ team. They then compete in the International Physics Olympiad.
Btw, if he is good at Maths then surely doing Maths would be better? For the BPhO, students require A2 level Physics knowledge so without A Level Physics, it would be difficult to do well in it I guess. Not so sure about this.
I don’t think you can slow him down or stop him from doing this. What is the point of slowing him down? So other can catch up with him? And then he just accelerates ahead again?

You don't slow them down, but you broaden their knowledge. GCSE and A level syllabuses are incredibly narrow. There are loads of non-syllabus topics a truly gifted kid should cover which keeps up with their thirst for knowledge without hem getting bored.

What else does he do in his free time?

Are the school being any help? What about all his other subjects? What else does he like doing?

Dd did GCSE maths early and will do A level at the end of year 10. She will then go on to further maths A level, which should take her to the end of year 12.
If you did not want to go down the taking maths early route, he could look at decision maths as this is being taken out of the new A level syllabus, and is one of the more fun aspects of maths.
I find with dd her ability in maths grows year on tear, so what seemed difficult last year, now seems easy.

Also, he is preparing for the BPhO(for year 12)

There is a GCSE (Year 11) version of the Physics Olympiad on the BPhO website called the Physics Challenge (Ds1 entered this year). Not even the top academic schools such as Westminster seem to manage more than 2 or 3 gold medals in the Challenge competition with their Year 11s - I think the pass mark for a gold is usually around 38/50.

Does your dc's school enter the UKMT Maths Challenge? Lots of resources there.

Also get him onto Isaacs Physics isaacphysics.org/; free A level standard questions and challenges from Cambridge University