GCSEs 2019 support thread 4

[TacoLover]

The last one is almost full!

Dd is doing RS, Eng Lit and doing a term of Classical Civ and Textiles and will drop one.

Dd doing maths chemistry and biology and an EPQ- would have liked to do history but wants to do medicine and so needs her three choices to keep options open and feels that 4 would be too much work (her school doesn’t offer history AS)

Did anyone else do OCR triple biology today- dd tells me that she didn’t feel it went well as she felt like she almost always edged around the question, knowing things about the topic but not being able to answer precisely

Dd is also doing an epq and is supposed to work on it over the summer

Tabby I certainly believe you are!!!

Luciana
My Dd has the same subject choices as yours , for the same reasons.
She has chosen to take history as her 4th A’level though.
After seeing her revision etc for the GCSE - I think she’s taken a hard choice for herself

Ds is hoping to do history and geography with poss politics

DS thinks Eng Lang and biology went well although said he found biology really hard. He is so pleased next week's exams are spaced out and more manageable.

Lambuffy my DS1 who has just been doing A levels has been doing History, Geography and Politics as well as an epq. Subjects are a lot of research and essay writing all the way through but he has enjoyed them. History was the favoured one at the start but it's easily been Politics by the end and that's what he has chosen as a degree.

He toyed with the idea of biology for a while but was put off by the amount of work involved and took Politics instead.

DS2 has observed from the side and is taking only Geography that's the same as his brother come A levels.

DD also had history with her sociology and RS/politics. Originally she had Eng lit instead of sociology, but thought Eng lit and history might be too much together. Talking about some of the poetry is the most animated I've seen her though, and she likes all the contextual stuff, so I'd like her to reconsider and I think she is, but Shakespeare puts her off. Basically she still has 5 A levels and 2 sixth forms in the running! I'm hoping something emerges over the summer. I guess she could start 4 and drop one. Interesting we're moving on to talk about what's next, the end feels near!

Interesting the A levels talk, Ds started biology, English lit & philosophy & ethics, largely because they were his strongest results subjects. He hadn’t worked for his gcses & didn’t get high enough results to select his first choices sadly. He struggled with biology & eng lit (still wasn’t applying himself no matter how much I tried) but loved philosophy & ethics. He didn’t complete & changed direction during the first year.
I think it’s really important that they enjoy the subjects, they’re all a lot of work. 2 years is a long time at their age to study subjects they’re not sure they enjoy in this much depth.
I think it’s hard for them to select new subjects based on a short taster lesson. At 1 point Dd was thinking psychology & her business teacher has directed her towards economics, neither of which she’s studied. She knows the course content but I feel nervous that if she finds she doesn’t enjoy a new subject she’ll really struggle.

One of DD's choices has an orientation day in a couple of weeks, but they didn't mention it in the prospectus or the open day so we've booked a holiday. Bad timing, I think it would have really helped her decide, but nothing I can do, we definitely need a holiday!

Dd has been very proactive and emailed a uni that she thinks she might like to check that Textiles would be an acceptable A level (it was!)

That's interesting ski thank you.

He loves history and geography and is very interested in politics.

He needs a 6 in maths and biology and another science to do biology at a level which he could get but I know he has found the gcse papers difficult.

I'm quietly pushing politics as a 3rd option :)

Does he have any idea about what he wants to do after A levels Buffy?

In fact same question about what next to anyone whose DC are doing history / politics / RS / sociology type combinations. DD has no idea. She wondered about law for a bit but seems to have gone off that recently.

He doesn't tabby

He's considered teaching, the police force....

At dds school you have to get at least a 7 at gcse triple to do biology A level.

Dd is thinking of a English and philosophy degree.

Tabby: social political science, psychology, sociology, can’t remember what the course is but one is similar to PPE but not economics is more focused on ethics.
It’s really interesting how they change ,Dd has wanted to do medicine forever, in the last 2 months has completely switched and decided to take 2 languages with maths and economics, with no idea of a uni course. School has drilled them to only take A levels they absolutely love.

Although her textiles a level may lead her to something fashiony if she loves it and is good at it. I sort of hope not as she's quite academic although an english and phil degree is pretty useless

Ds wants to do Politics, Geography and Psychology (or maybe English).

He had been holding up really well Butt yesterday has shaken him. He found Biology hard and made a daft mistake of reading the English to be to write and article responding to a letter rather then write a letter so don’t know how many marks that’ll lose.

He’s at a Grammar School and needs an average grade of 6.5 across all 10 GCSEs to stay for 6th form (plus 7’s to study a subject). His predicted grades are v high but he doesn’t think he’ll achieve them - he asked last night if anywhere would take him if he got thrown out of school. Selective education is tough - our county is 100% selective, we have no comprehensive schools. he Should achieve (exceed) the APS but you never know- enough silly mistakes like not writing a letter (in one of his best subjects) could see him missing it. All rather miserable here at the moment 😒

Dd has wanted to do medicine forever, in the last 2 months has completely switched and decided to take 2 languages with maths and economics, with no idea of a uni course

I've had various brushes with medical professionals in the last couple of years on behalf of myself and family members, and it's made me think there are a lot of people in medicine who shouldn't be! Also some great people, I was chatting with a consultant (one of the good ones!) about whether he really understood at age 18 the sort of challenges he'd be facing and he said no, not really, there were some real highs but also some real lows, which I guess is obvious, I'm not sure I could take the pressure of it though, especially managing the huge demand and still remaining empathetic.

DD2 wants to study marine conservation so she needs Biology A level - it's hard, DD1 has done it and had to work really hard at it. She also wants to do History and Psychology and an EPQ.