Can a child do an accelerated Maths GCSE outside of school?

[indy69]

Good afternoon,

We are not in England but our children attend a British school. Noble Giraffe hoping that you could answer my question. Can we do a maths GCSE independent of school if the school does not allow the child to do it early?

TIA

Before noble arrives I'll get in with a few questions:

Why on earth would you want to do that?

What would your DC do in school maths lessons while everyone else does their GCSE maths? (especially as the school doesn't support early sitting).

Why not instead extend by going outside of the GCSE curriculum, rather than accelerating through it? Or the various Kangaroo & Olympiad competitions?

I assume that by "not in England" you mean that you don't live in the UK?
In which case I don't think your dcs would be taking the iGCSE which is an equivalent qualification for dcs living outside the UK. The 2 options are run by Cambridge International Exams CIE or Edexcel.
It depends on what your plans are for later education but if you are planning on returning to the UK either for sixth form or university then early entry isn't a good idea as they are looking for a "normal" workload i.e. all the main exams taken at the same sitting especially for the key subjects English and Maths.
Statistically most pupils taking GCSEs a year or more early obtain lower grades than if they took them in Y11.
If dcs are planning on taking A level maths then it also isn't a good idea to miss Maths teaching for a year (or more) before starting the A level course.

PP right, Y do you want to do this?

I agree with catslife universities really don't like early GCSEs. Now that AS levels can't be used as a guide for university application they like to look at the GCSEs the prospective student has taken all in one go.

They need to know that a student can handle the workload. Taking maths early also affects students doing chemistry and physics A level as they both have maths content. DD took maths GCSE in the January of year 11 and had forgotten a lot of it by year 12 when she started doing chemistry.

I don't see how this would benefit the child.

Even if they take the GCSE early, they still have to study Maths until the end of Y11 at school, which will be taught at GCSE level.

If they want to study Maths or a related subject at university (e.g. Physics or Computer Science), they will need to keep studying Maths until the end of Y13, or they would be at risk of losing the skills needed.

So the answer is depending on the county yes you can. DS has twins in his year group who got A* in maths in y6.
But... but... the kids are bored in normal timetabled classes- again depending where you are but at our school they aren't staffed up for that level of differentiation. And the kids actually struggled in their 'normal' end of year exams as they had accelerated so fast they'd skimmed over some of the standards y6 work - lead to some reading as you'd expect from y6 kids. Both of the above reason made it an unpopular choice with the teachers.
Now secondary may be different, where you live and your school may be different but do go into it with your eyes open

Country not county - sorry. We're in HK for context, home of the tiger parent 🐯

DS2 enjoys Maths. He got a 9 in Maths GCSE and 97% in the Level 2 Further Maths qualification.

He took both at the end of Y11 with his peers and it was fine. The school differentiated the work and encouraged enrichment activities and UKMT challenges.

I will go against the grain here. I see no reason not to providing you fund any extra tuition and the entrance fee. It's a GCSE out of the way if a top grade is achieved. Practice continues in class and there is one less GCSE to deal with.

If the grade is not a top one just retake it with the others and it never has to be put on a form.

DS did maths, French and RS in yr 10 equivalent. He continued usual maths classes and did a French Diploma in yr 11 that we knew nothing about until the cert arrived but positively he had only 7 GCSEs to juggle in yr 11 rather than 10. He didn't do AS because he did the IB. DD's 6th form stopped doing AS in 2015 because they were a waste of time.

No uni was bothered by the lack of AS or took into account DD's EPQ.

We live in the Gulf and do GCSE's not IGSE and do edexcel for maths. This is for a friend and she wants her child to do further maths as well which the school will not allow unless they have the maths GCSE in year 10. She feels that it will be helpful to the child and he can do further maths in the time for mathematics on the timetable in year 11. Her child is talented however she has had serious problems with the school who will not do anything in spite of his scoring far more than his peers. Hence the queston.

Are his classmates being entered for GCSE in Y10? It seems a bit odd if they enter some but not him if he is doing better in maths than those who are entered early.

He can study whatever he likes in his own time, but he will need an exam centre to enter the exam as a private candidate. If the school refuse to enter him then they’d need to find somewhere else that will accept him to sit the exam.

The child also does all the UKMT challenges and has never gone below a silver medal for the last 4 years.

Thank you Noble. Yes there are some issues and since it is a private school not much can be done except withdrawing him. It is complex really because all schools are private here for expats.

I think a better bet would be to continue with GCSE at school and study further maths outside of school/enter independently. Then you don’t need to worry about early entry = poor results, he can continue with his school maths lessons and still be extended outside of school.

If the grade is not a top one just retake it with the others and it never has to be put on a form.

I don't think that is true for university entrance in UK.

Why not teen. I believe students just have to meet the minimum requirements for the course to apply for it. No university would be interested in off piste exam results.

You have to declare all exam results on UCAS, whether you think unis will be interested or not.

Most students who get a good grade at an early GCSE do not go onto retake to get the top grade they deserve.

Can you find a centre that will let the child sit the exam (British Council?)?
Or, as Noble suggests, find a centre that will let him sit further maths.
If you can't find somewhere that will accept him as an external candidate to actually sit the exam, it might all be academic anyway.

Thank you Noble! That would be a great option. We will look into the British Council as well DunesofSand. Thank you all.

You are out of date nip.

1. ALL GCSE results have to be declared on university application forms. If candidates have had to resit this will include the grades obtained at all sittings.
2. The new league tables for secondary schools in the state sector mean that pupils have to take 8 GCSEs (some equivalents may be included) in Y11 so taking 7 would reflect badly on the school.
3. In 2015 the first new linear A levels were introduced where the AS level didn't count towards the final results.

This is a slight deviation from the original question. I still think it would be iGCSEs rather than GCSEs from abroad unless there are special circumstances where the school counts as a British centre, for reasons which the OP may not want to say on this forum.

If the school is allowing some pupils to take Maths in Y10 and then FM in Y11, they should have a clear policy about which pupils are eligible to do this.

DS2 has friends at other schools where FM wasn't offered, so they took that independently at the end of Y11 alongside the Maths GCSE taken at school. Would that be an option?

DD didn't put her EPQ on her ucas application in 2017 and her head of 6th form advised against as she only got a b. She did however include her grade 8 voice. Cambridge offered on that basis. She also left off her grade B for physics. Nobody went digging. Not a state school though.

Am a bit about a grade B being the sort of low grade that would affect a dcs chances of obtaining a university place.
I don't think Oxbridge do make offers based on EPQs anyway - they are more interested in the a level subjects.
However in case posters following this thread think it's worth taking the risk here is a link suggesting why this isn't a good idea.
www.telegraph.co.uk/education/0/what-not-to-do-on-your-ucas-university-application/.
Early entry in Y10 can be OK if dcs then study further maths in Y11 but taking a GCSE (or iGCSE) any earlier than this isn't a good idea.

You can find FOI requests online with the GCSE results for people who got onto actual courses, including Oxbridge ones, there are often Cs, Bs & even the occasional D- in the GCSE lists.

@NipInTheAir - as @noblegiraffe and others have said, all grades should be declared on UCAS. A student can have their application or place withdrawn if they haven't provided all the necessary info on their UCAS. This TSR thread has some further info on this www.thestudentroom.co.uk/showthread.php?t=4948198

To the poster questioned whether schools in the Gulf do only IGCSEs - British schools overseas do GCSEs or IGCSEs. They usually choose whether to do GCSEs or IGCSEs depending on which syllabus the HOD prefers at a specific point in time.

Did OPs DC miss a spot in the Further Maths class? My own DD missed a spot in the Further Maths class at the start Year 10 by a few marks, but managed to persuade the Head of Maths to let her resit the test (and a few people dropped out of the FM group). She ended up being only one of two students in the whole class of 18 who sat the actual exam. She got a C, but just covering the material helped her confidence at A Level. She went on to get A star, A in Maths and FM at A Level.

As others have said, if you can't get your child into the FM class, do the GCSE/IGCSE FM outside school with a tutor while sitting regular maths at school.