GCSEs 2018 (18) Well that's all over, let's get the party started

[Stickerrocks]

www.mumsnet.com/Talk/secondary/3341060-GCSEs-2018-17-What-will-be-in-your-coffee-cup-on-Thursday

DS will be doing 4 maths + the 3 sciences, if he is still keen to do medicine he can drop physics at AS level and if changes his mind about medicine then he will drop biology.

DS starting with English, History, Politics and Philosophy, with the expectation that he will drop one.

He promised to text each day from Reading, and he has:
2 x ‘I am alive’...

I didn't know you needed Biology to do medicine. I thought it was just Chemistry, maths + 1 more (probably best not something like business studies or Italian for the one more though!)

whisti - most of the medical schools want Biology now as well as Chemistry but not all...Maths is not a requirement for any of them (apparently you use very little maths in Medicine)...DD would not want to go the medicine route if Maths was a requirement...

DD is now saying she wants to see all her exam papers so she can see where she scored or lost marks just for information...not sure whether the school will oblige although they have asked permission to have access to the papers (I would have thought schools would be allowed access without pupil authority?)

I would think biology would be pretty helpful for medicine, though I think chemistry is good too.
Sadly looks like no medics here in this generation, unless DD changes her mind on direction after zoology degree.
I will have to have lots of DGC to see if any of them are obliging!

Kingscote at least he knows what you want to hear!

DS wants to find out his marks for his AQA exams, don't know why but if he wants to phone up the exams officer and ask then its up to him, I certainly shalln't be telling him that he could request copies of his papers

oneteen i think they need your DD authority as they are her scripts after all, also they would need her authority if they want to put in for a review, imagine if they didn't and it went down

BlueBelle123

So update on DD, mixed bag of results. She got grade 3 in Geography which isn’t high enough grade for her to take at A level as originally planned. She “only” got a 7 in maths, aiming for a 8 or 9. However with English - which she got Grade 1 in her mocks, she got a 5!! In fact school contacted us yesterday to advise she was 1 mark off a grade 6 and suggested a remark which we are going ahead with. She is now considering English literature at A level. She was distraught on Thursday and would not listen to anything positive. She seemed to have picked herself up until she heard her cousin got 9s and 8s across the board. She did admit that she didn’t put as much revision in as she should especially for subjects she considered she was stronger at. I haven’t voiced the following to DD but I do have concerns over her taking English at A level. Because of her low mock grade she had extra support so how will she get on with A level without the support? On the other hand she did say she put a lot of revision in for English and it was mostly learning how to answer the paper that she got support for. She has until start of term to decide subject choice

I'm fairly certain that anyone who has had a fleeting moment of interest in studying medicine will have seen this document, but I'm posting the link here, just in case :-www.medschools.ac.uk/media/2357/msc-entry-requirements-for-uk-medical-schools.pdf

Thanks bluebelle she has two subjects where there is just one mark off the next grade boundary so I guess they will look through and see how the papers have been marked...DD is not bothered about asking for a review she's more than happy with her results.

There is something niggling me though about DT (one of the papers where she was one mark of the next level)..Coursework was marked an A and her written exam was marked A* (I think she got 92%)... DD's initial feeling was that coursework must have been moderated down ( shown B on exam board report)...but DD stated that they were informed by DT teacher (plus A was shown on her report) that coursework was out of 100 and its actually on exam report 120...so I think that DT teacher may have made a huge mistake with her marking and marked on the basis of out of 100 and then sent marks to the board and they have accepted the marks but used (correctly) 120 as the total which means that dD was told she had 85% but she has 71% for coursework... In the scheme of things it doesnt really matter because she is not taking DT further but its all a bit odd... plus DT teacher and another one of the DT cohort were heading towards HT office on results day (this could mean all coursework was moderated down or error highlighted). The school are obviously looking at papers because DD had immediate request for access.

What subjects does your Dd think she loves enough to study for 2 years?

When Dd was choosing A levels I told her to pick the subject that made her eyes light up when she talked about it.

My DS only doing three! Maths, Econ, history. Toyed with FM but it isn't a requirement for the economics degrees he fancies, plus the EPQ is compulsory at his SFC so he'd rather concentrate on those (plus an enrichment activity is compulsory in Y12)

Theatre Studies sounds BRILLIANT! And probably a great fit with music. There's a college locally that offers combinations of theatre studies A level with a BTEC in performing arts, plus another A level of your choice. Lots of kids go on to really interesting degrees/theatre apprenticeships afterwards.

whisti - That's a good site and this site is too (for medicine) - There are numerous open days in September

www.themedicportal.com/application-guide/choosing-a-medical-school/what-a-levels-do-you-need-to-be-a-doctor/

I agree about the need to love the A level subject choices or it may be a long slog. Sorry your dd feels so down Twin . Does she know what she wants in the future?

Thanks Bluebell.

DS3's sixth form (love not having to say prospective sixth form anymore!) has them doing 4 subjects in Y12 and they still take AS levels. Most then drop down to 3. I'm not sure I agree with their logic. It must be expensive for the school and is it really worth it? The only benefits I can see is that they may take ASs more seriously than end of year exams, they actually get a qualification for the subject they drop, and they have a proper trial before deciding which 3 to continue with. They also have a compulsory EPQ.

Every other school in the town has dropped AS levels.

cubscout DD has recently mentioned doing engineering either at Uni or joining RAF. She had not shown any interest up to now. She has also mentioned teaching maths at secondary school. She wants to do Further Maths, Maths and now English at A level, I think too much maths and needs a broader choice but she won’t listen

cubscout
"They timetable FM to surpport the kids wanting to do Maths/Physics/Engineering/Natural Science, all of which need either FM.."

I'm a bit confused and hope you can help out? DD2 is looking at Cambridge for Natural Science but school has never mentioned the need to be doing FM, so I panicked a bit and had a look at the guidelines here:

www.undergraduate.study.cam.ac.uk/courses/natural-sciences

It doesn't make a reference to FM as a requirement and I want to make sure we're not off on the wrong path,so really value your advice on where I might find the info on FM as a requirement for Natural Science at Cambridge etc - sometimes I can't see the wood for the trees

Does she like Physics or Computer Science? I know what you mean about a lot of Maths but if she enjoys it....

Callitwhatyouwill - many schools don’t offer Further Maths hence it’s not usually a set requirement but some degrees make students without FM sit a foundation type course.

callitwhatyouwill my comment was based on my nephew who did Natural Science at Durham. His 6th form didn't offer FM and it was not a requirement but in his first term all the students who had not done it had extra Maths. I don't think it's a firm requirement, rather something they like if it's available and which might mean a bit of extra work in the first term if they don't have it. Don't panic!

callit if she definitely wants to continue with maths, that's fine. If not, then she's not doing a subject that supports English, like maybe a MFL or history or philosophy etc. She needs physics to do engineering. It does seem like an odd combination.

Sorry, I meant twinplusone

AlexanderHamilton and Cubscout

Phew thanks. DD2's school does offer FM but that would have meant her taking 5 "A" Levels and we didn't want that.

@Twinplusone - if it's engineering DC absolutely MUST do physics. Sorry, but for any engineering course (civil, Chem, structures, aviation, geo tech, elec) or apprenticeship physics and maths are essential. This is one of the things I do know about.

Pretty much the same for the RAF if you want to get into most tech roles (including pilots).