Help picking GCSE's

[Debralovesthewine]

This is my first thread guy please dont be too mean! My son John has just gone into year 9 and is struggling to pick subjects for his GCSE's. He is not traditionally smart but excels in art based subjects and struggles with essay subjects. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

The school itself should give him lots of help but I'd say in general think about

• what subjects is he good at?
• what subjects does he enjoy?
• does he have any career aspirations where it would be good to select particular options?

I'd also suggest asking him to read through the whole of the GCSE options booklet and make sure he fully understands what the course involves, rather than assuming - do not assume that history at GCSE will be like history at KS3, for example. And DD has a few children in her Drama group who didn't realise the GCSE involved quite so much written work. If your DS struggles with essay subjects, he should look at how much writing is involved. He may prefer to pick Geography over History, for example.

The school will hopefully organise an evening where you can go round and talk to teachers - I'd suggest talking to anyone where you are not sure, and particularly teachers of subjects he's not studying yet, but might be interested in.

He also needs to consider what limitations the school places on you - DD had "picked" her options prior to the detailed information being sent out, only to discover that the combination she wanted to study just wasn't allowed. At some schools you may not actually get many options. All schools will ask for English, Maths and at least double science and many will also insist on a humanity and a MFL. So that might not leave many free options left!

When my dd was choosing hers I found there wasn't much choice at all. Our school has 'pathways' which tell you pretty much what you should be choosing. She was choosing between two languages and between geography and history. And then one more. She chose art as her 'fun' subject but it's a lot of work.

He should do the subjects he enjoys the most. I'd encourage him to do at least one 'traditional' subject such as history, geography, French etc.

What 'choices' does he have?
Presumably has to do English (Lang and lit?), maths.
Does he have to do science - double or triple?
Does he have to do a language? humanity?
How many 'spaces' does that leave?

The first thing to understand as others say, is how much choice he will really get.

When you have the options information look at how things are examined, and whether they have any level of practical or controlled assessment.

You may find that your son won't be allowed to choose 2 arty things such as Art && Product Design, so try not to get too stuck on one particular set until you see the level of choice.

(DD2 has just started y10. She struggles academically and with literacy. She has had to do one of Geog & History. Then has gone for Drama, Food tech (both of which have a practical exam)and last minute choice RE.)

So many options these days are compulsory subjects that it doesn't leave much choice for the student anyway. When DD took her GCSEs her compulsory subjects were English language, English literature, maths, citizenship and triple science, so that only left three options to choose from. So she chose Art, history and geography.

In the options booklet it described in detail what each option involved. I had to laugh at the description for PE because it started off by saying "don't take this subject if you don't like essay writing"
PE is quite an academic subject and includes a fair amount of biology as well as the aforesaid essay writing, and the practical side is only a small part of it.

I agree that there may not be much choice. Ds has to do 10 GCSEs if triple science or 9 if combined.
Once you have factored in two English and the science and maths there are only 4 "choices", one of which has to be a language at his school. So really only 3 choices.
Dd did GCSEs last year. She did all Humanities. She would say that RS was "easier" both in terms of content and essay writing than history or geography. There's a lot of writing in history, less in geography and RS.
What is he trying to decide between?

Difficult to advise without knowing what subjects are compulsory and what are on offer.

Same with us with choices. DS's school was 8 or 9 GCSEs depending on whether you did triple or combined science.

Maths, English x 2 and science compulsory which left 3 choices. They could be anything that fitted in with the timetable, so no requirement to do a humanity or MFL.

Dd had option columns with 4 columns. Maths, English & Double Science were compulsory

Column 1 contained history, geography & French so you had to do at least one of those

Column 4 contained triple science so if you wanted to do that it took an option

Columns 2 & 3 contained various subjects from music, art, food, business, drama, french etc

On the other hand ds had an almost free choice with no columns. Maths, English and two science were compulsory and then he had to choose at least one from German, History, Geography or Computer Science. His other choices were completely free.

Avoid History or Geography if essay subjects are a struggle. Also, we have found PE quite essay heavy. DS has just completed the first year of the GCSE courses and is now in year 10.
Compulsory science (triple or combined), maths, english language and literature. Three choices, one of French, Computer Science, History and Geography then free choice (depending on timetable) for the other two.

Not really much to add, but wanted to say I agree with others who say about how hard PE is! We suggested it for DS as he'd otherwise chosen heavy subjects so wanted him to have a "fun" subject. It's hard work! A lot of biology, learning of key words etc. Interesting stuff but not an easy option

Keep an open mind until you have to choose and have the info available.
Both my DDs changed their minds on a subject during y9.