How many GCSE subjects to take?

[trudylady12]

My DD is Year 9 now. I am wondering how many GCSE subjects do most students take nowadays? Is there a norm for it?

Thank you!

Stanley thinks we're all 20 something flibberty-gibberts with little knowledge of anything beyond changing nappies and making sure hubby has something delicious for supper when he gets in from his very clever job in the city. The thought that most regular posters are 50 something post graduate educated professionals leaves him positively dumb-founded

That was me, and you were. And you still are

It's 'women' by the way.

When I started teaching, you couldn't leave school before you were 16 and CSE grade 1 was seen as equivalent to an O level pass, hence all the furore when GCSE's came in and employers wanted to know which grade was equivalent to an O level.
O levels were introduced after the school leaving age had been raised to 15, so no, you didn't either take O levels or CSEs or "leave at 14". Leaving at 14 stopped in 1947. the school leaving age was raised to 16 in 1972, the year I left school, at 17 having taken both O levels and A levels. Schools all over the country started building ROSLA blocks, (RasingOfSchoolLeavingAge) to accomodate an extra year's worth of pupils.

Oh but sorry you all knew that and I am being patronising again.

10 is standard where I teach (selective private secondary). Pupils have to do English Lit, English Lang, Maths, Biology, Chemistry, Physics and an MFL. They can then choose three 'free options' from: a second MFL, Latin, Greek, Classical Civilisation, History, Geography, RS, Music, Art, Drama, Computer Science and DT.

Hi @titchy! Missed you!!!!! Oh and dumbfounded is something I have never been. Closely associated with clever and strong women all my life, yes.

But then you always judge me by form, never by content! Such a shame as I am sure that if we ever met in real life...
No, on second thoughts, perhaps not! But at least I do have a sense of humour, an irrepressible sense of humour, AND a thick skin!

If it wasn't for people like you I probably would leave MN but then I cannot resist coming back on to see what you are up to!

Am I she who must not be named ?

Fabulous!!

No, @titchy is, and she just named herself! Love you both!

Depends when your birthday fell as if you had a late birthday you could leave at Easter as my father did aged 14. My mother, same age, took O levels.

Culture is a big thing in the educational chit chat at the moment Stanley. It's all about 'cultural capital'. Many subjects rely on it, some enable it. English Lit is one. And if it remains compulsory(ish) at least most students are gaining access.

A knowledge & appreciation of literature underpins all the other “cultural” subjects.

@TeenPlusTwenties I hope I’ve managed to tag you, not too sure how.

I sat 23 exam all at the end of year 11, my brother will sit 20. But as I sat the old style exams apart from RS and Maths every other subject had coursework (10 subjects) AFAIK my brother only has 3 subjects with a coursework requirement. But either way it’s complete madness.

Old style were coursework heavy which took much valuable time to complete, but new style have excessive information to learn - they were already difficult enough.

...it was possible to leave earlier than the stated school leaving age, junior leaders in the army for instance.

"Cultural capital" Hmm! Sounds interesting! Not! Just another flipping buzzword used by some civil servant trying to justify their own existence.

There is "culture" in most things, if you run through the list of what has been drawn up since Bourdieu kicked off, most things have cultural capital. Bourdieu, a socioligist and we know that sociologists are great at inventing and naming concepts that are commonsense a lot of the time. Still it keeps some people in work and fills up the time on training days!
When will the government(s) stop using Education as a political football or to "prove" they are doing something about it. I really wish education could be left up to the people who actually do the flipping job, understand kids and have a feel for what they need. What does a retired Journo (Gove) know about education, beyond having been through it a long time ago and having had kids go through it? Really?

As for the new exams being difficult, I suggest people look at the old O levels of which most of us did 8 minimum, many 9 or 10 and grade 5 music theory was seen as an O level equivalent and was just added on. OK, if you accept the argument of others on here, they possibly were for the "more academic" but seeing as how half of the population ends up with a degree from somewhere nowadays, and of those, between 80 to 90% get a 2.1 or above, why would the new exams be seen as difficult? Aren't these students academic enough? It is just as question of what you are used to and in a few years time people will be saying "What was the fuss about back then?"

Well, actually what is amusing about cultural capital is, of course, that Bourdieu was a Marxist.

... not just a Marxist, in fact I think that is putting it a bit strongly. Marx was an infuence on him but so were many others notably Pascal, who we tend to associate just with Maths, or at least I did.

But then he is French and as I once said to a French relation of my ex-wife's "If you have a degree in sociology, you will end up unemployed, but at least you will know why." In France of course you just become one of "les intellectuels" who get consulted on anything and everything, interviewd on telly and written up in the press!
In fact I know some people with Sociology degrees who have hugely powerful jobs, so my tongue-in-cheek remark is not founded in reality, though some find it a bit amusing, those without degrees in it of course!

Im a musician. My son has just sat Grade 5 theory. It’s comparable to the knowledge required for the new GCSE Music, in fact we hardly had to teach him anything, he’d covered most of it in GCSE lessons, justthe different formats.

Or rather I should say I have a Music degree but am very rusty having moved into other areas.

Surely grade 5 music theory wasn't seen as an O-level equivalent?! I taught it to myself in a few weeks at age 12 as I had to pass it to access grade 6 and above ABRSM exams, and it didn't bear any resemblance to the GCSE music I subsequently took. I don't remember it being difficult?

If you had Grade 5 theory & practical it used to be seen as equivalent to O level for college entry (& still is seen as equivalent to GCSE). Grade 8 is equivalent to A level.

The GCSE music I took (& presumably you took) bears no resemblance to the one dd took a year and a half ago and Ds is taking now.

The theoretical knowledge is more akin to what I learnt at A level.

You get UCAS points for grade 5 +, but nothing like the number you get for actual A Levels!

It's a much smaller size qualification of course. And not all universities accept them although some are asking for them in lieu of music gcse/a level. For example my son will be doing a music Btec rather than an A level so to prove his theoretical knowledge (or if you go to a school where music A level isn't offered) Surrey are asking for Grade 5 theory, Liverpool ask for Grade 8 theory and will give a reduced offer for Grade 8 practical and others ask for Grade 6 or 7.