Questions about options

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I wonder if anyone can advise.

DD is keen to take music as one of her GCSE options. This would be great, but she doesn't play an instrument and I have heard you need to have achieved a grade 3 to take the GCSE. Is this true? DD does enjoy noodling on the keyboard and could take lessons, but I'm worried about her getting to the required standard in time given that she will have her other GCSEs to revise for. I'd be interested to hear the experiences of other parents whose children have taken music GCSE.

Secondly, DD is very good at both history and geography, but cannot take them both. She has a slight preference for geography. Are they both equally valuable? She doesn't know yet what she wants to do as a career, but is keen to take arts/humanities A-Level and consider university. Again, grateful to hear experiences of anyone.

Thanks in advance.

Both history and geography are good GCSE's so as long as she doesn't want to do anything requiring history she will be fine just doing geography.

Music is more difficult - there isn't many students in my school that take it and almost all that do play an instrument. I would e-mail the music teacher or Head of Music and ask them, they will know best and be honest with you!

What year group is she in now? There is a boy in DS's GCSE class that couldn't play anything at the start of Year 9. I would say as long as she is keen and interested those are the most important things. You do get marks for the difficulty of your performance piece, but you don't lose that many for playing a simpler piece - it's better to play a simpler piece well. You get maximum difficulty marks for a Grade 5 piece. For example DS is playing a Grade 4 standard piece for his solo performance and 2 Grade 3 pieces for his ensemble.

Can she sing? That's an alternative to playing an instrument.

I emphasise enjoyment as the keen criteria because DS took music thinking he enjoyed playing, was ok at musical theory and it would be a nice break from his more academic subjects, but he's found it a slog - he's really struggled with the composition, and the critical appraisal involves more writing than he'd bargained for. So make sure your DD understands exactly what is involved in the GCSE.

I would say that geography and history are equally regarded so she should choose the one she enjoys most/is best in/might fit best with future career. Real shame that so many schools won't let students take both.