Are we ready for a GCSE’s 2019 thread?

[KittyMcKitty]

If so I’m in.

DS (my pfb) will be going into year 11. Mocks after half term. Crossing my fingers for him - needs average point score of 6.5 (across all 10 subjects) to stay for 6th Form.

Anyone else?

Thanks vm, Soursprout.
I'm thinking if he does simultaneous flashcards for new material and tries to absorb the new stuff on a slightly deeper level as he goes along, rather than his usual "right, prep's done, I can totally forget that now" approach, that'll do for this term. His mocks are January, so I'm pretty certain the school will expect revision over the Xmas holidays.

soursprout
Thank you, DD did indeed avoid the dreaded roasting. Her older sister sent a load of links to on-line interviews with author of the book she was supposed to read, she wrote a synopsis in class and was commended for her detailed reading of the book Hey, whatever works right ?

DD2 options in addition to core, with Triple Science are:
German
History
Classical Civilisation
Theatre Studies

For ALevel she has already chosen, no debate or discussion:
English Lit
History
Theatre Studies
Biology

She will probably drop Biology after first year. They also do a range of accredited certificates/exams/extra curricular in things like Finance, Business, Photography, Astronomy, Italian, first aid.... other random stuff.

DD currently thinking of Maths, Physics, Art & either French or Chemistry.

She's one of those 'good at everything' people who has no specific reason to choose one thing rather than another, really, though Art is probably more 'certain' than the other options.

Ds is doing:

History
Geography
Spanish
Theology & Philosophy

He wants to do Spanish, Politics & Govt and Media at A-level. I'm not totally thrilled about the choice of Media (think History would be a better choice) but have decided not to keep fighting that particular battle. I do think it's important that young people have a good understanding of how the media works and it will go quite well with Politics, I think, so probably not that big a deal.

He's wavering about university atm but would almost definitely do Spanish (maybe Spanish-with-something) if he does decide to go.

He said this morning that 'the penny has finally dropped, mum' about the need to settle down and crack on with work. Which is great as long as it continues! He's currently upstairs but working on 'an article on music and football' for a friend's online magazine, apparently, rather than revising for his Geog test. Still, I encourage this stuff because he likes to write and it's all good practice.

DD doing core (with triple science), geography, PE, Drama, short course RE (compulsory).
Post gcse, she plans on doing a very specialised BTEC related to what she'd like to do at university. College for that is approx 1hr away on public transport.
I'm not 100% convinced she should specialise so soon, and I'd rather she did broader studies - BTEC or A level, lots of options locally. Not sure what subjects she would do though.

Hi. Ds is doing core of English x 2, triple science, RS (compulsory), maths. Options are Spanish, PE (gcse), and geography. He’s also apparently doing further maths (as I discovered only this week!!)

He ‘thinks’ for a level, he wants to do physics, English and philosophy. I’m going to persuade him to add maths to the mix as he has anjtural talent for it and it seems to balance out the choices. He can always drop one.

Being a good all rounder makes it tricky to specialise so I think having a broad choice is a good plan.

Having said all that, he will have to knuckle down and revise / work hard cos whilst he is bright, his work ethic is similar to mine (bit lazy and reliant on deadlines!).

Dd is doing (no choice) maths, English lit, English Lang, triple science, short course RE. Then history, geography, French, German and Food tech. It's such a lot of work
She's a good all rounder really and can't pin down her a-levels apart from definitely not English or history. This year has completely put her off 2 of her favourite subjects sadly. I suspect she might choose Biology, geography and German but who knows? She has a few years coming up in the next couple of weeks so the results of those might sway her a bit.

Aside from core subjects and triple science my dd is doing art, digital media, history and religious studies. Still undecided of A levels apart from art but currently thinking of english lang, history or film studies.

Unnecessary,

It is possibly worth your DS being aware that his preferred 3 A-levels only have 1 facilitating subject. Of course, if he decides not to go to university, that's not an issue. However, if he does decide to go, having 1 facilitating subject MAY limit the range of universities he can apply to, whereas the version with History would have 2 facilitating subjects and would mean he had a completely free choice.

Soursprout, thank you, he managed to stay in all day - no call from the nurse - and he felt he did well in tests. Over weekend, however, has had stiff and very painful knees, hoping unrelated to his illness but do have a sinking feeling. Will book to see GP tmw.

MrsSteptoe we have been advised that revising should start now with 1-2 hours per week and revision time rises each month. DS was happy to start with 15-20 mins a day. So far so good!!

Dd is doing DT, German, History, Latin
For A-Level she wants to do maths, plus 2 more sciences or possibly further maths plus one science.
She is very laid back about school and does most of her work in the mornings because she gets into school early. However her school seem satisfied with her.

cantkeep, thanks, yes I've had this conversation several times with him. As I say, I would prefer for him to do History for the very reason you mention. And not sure whether I should say this here but I'm also a university admissions tutor

However, since motivation has been a significant issue for ds for a good few years now I would prefer, on balance, that he pursues A-levels that he's genuinely interested in rather than ones he's been 'persuaded' into. He can still change his mind before now and next September, but for now, as I say, I'm picking my battles!

There aren't any AS levels anymore so they might change that system. Three A levels are quite full on. My older DD worked really hard and still found 3 difficult.

Thanks sour I am coming round to the idea, mainly as I think why for e her down a route doing subjects she's not 100% on, as they are hard and she would struggle. Why not let her do her life's dream as she'll work much harder and likely achieve better results.

My only outstanding question would be, in the unlikely event that she changes her mind re specific degree, do universities who for courses don't have specific subject requirements for courses just a points total care what the BTEC was in? Bit of research outstanding!

sour, it's tricky isn't it? As a parent I want to guide ds down a path that will keep his options open and give him the greatest number of potential opportunities, but equally (like flatmouse) I see no sense in pushing him to do stuff he doesn't want to do, because he'll just shut down and/or give up.

When I start overthinking all this exam/university/careers I just try to remember that life has many twists and turns and we rarely end up where we thought we would do at age 16!

There aren't any AS levels anymore so they might change that system.

That isn't true. DS's sixth form is one of a couple locally that do still do ASs in 4 subjects at the end of Y12 before usually going down to 3 subjects for A-levels.

The change is that the two are completely decoupled - the AS level result doesn't have any effect on the final A-level result, and all material learned for ASs will have to be re-revised for A-levels as the A-level tests it again. I think they've had to work a bit to make sure they have done AS levels whose content overlaps 100% with the A-level course, by choosing specific boards.

It's been really good for DS. The 3 he is carrying on are not the 3 he would originally have chosen, and working towards external exams kept Y12 focused.

Some other schools locally do start 4 but then students randomly drop 1 at the end of Y12 with nothing to show for it...

Sorry. None of the subjects my daughter did had AS's and I was told that was because they had phased them out.

Marmite, the exam boards still offer them (see e.g. AQA and expand the AS and A level line) but individual schools may have decided to phase them out.

AS still give UCAS points but not as many as they used to, instead of being worth half an A level they are worth 40%

Sour,

I found this Which guide

I think it would depend entirely on the course. I don't think you'd be able to count UCAS points both from an A-level and the AS you did in it the previous year BUT somne courses might be flexible enough to take opn boad the UCAS points you got from AS levels in a subject that you dropped. I mean, my DD has really quite a lot of UCAS points from dance exams, most taken between the ages of 12 and 15 - it doesn't mean they are 'tradeable' in any sensible way for university entrance, though if she were to apply for a university which traded in UCAS points, they might help her squeak over a boundary in a tight corner, if the subject she was applying for was dance or performance related.