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Secondary education

Connect with other parents whose children are starting secondary school on this forum.

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Original poster

separate sciences or combined science

35 replies

DistrictCommissioner · 27/05/2021 22:17

DC is only in Y8 but options are coming up next year. She is in the top set for science at a large mixed comprehensive - predicted grade 7-8 I think, but I don't know how meaningful that is at this stage - and the school encourage the top set to take separate sciences.

DH is very keen for her to take separate sciences, in part because as like me he went to a selective school that considered combined science to be very inferior, and in part becuase he is in a scientific career (of sorts). I am ambivalent - I did 3 sciences, & it was utterly irrelvant to my future academic life, & they get so few options I can see it would be good to have another option free by taking combined science!

DC has no idea what she wants to do when she is older - drama, farming, archeology all get mentioned - so some sort of scientific career can't be ruled out, but is it really significant if she hasn't got the separate sciences at GCSE? I've been told that you can pick up the A level subjects without having done the separate sciences...

OP posts:

catndogslife · 28/05/2021 09:25

In the Combined Science 9-1 qualifications you do study all the topics but in slightly less depth than for the 3 separate Sciences.
The level of difficulty is the same as for separate Sciences.
The main disadvantage of Combined Science is that if you have one subject where you perform less well e.g. you are good at Biology and Chemistry but poor at Physics, it can lower your average grade. Whereas if you study all 3 Sciences, they are marked totally independently of each other.
Some factors depend on the school. At dds school they had a top set for Combined Science so she wasn't with low ability pupils.

clary · 28/05/2021 09:26

Yes some really good points here. I would find out if it is in fact the case that the majority of able students take triple - as this would mean, as others say, a weaker cohort in the combined class.

Your DD has to be the driver here tho - she is the one doing the GCSEs, not your DH. If she does triple and then only has three options and wants to do (say) MFL and humanity, that leaves one slot for PE/music/RS/food tech/D&T/textiles/art/drama/computer science/the other humanity/another MFL - this might really feel like a squeeze for her.

FWIW I was not a fan of DD taking drama GCSE but I am very glad that she did, as it was a life-saver for her during KS4. What does your DD want to do?

OnTheBenchOfDoom · 28/05/2021 09:30

Ds1 did combined and got 9,9 took Physics A level and like most in the group managed perfectly fine. Most of them "only" had the combined. .

Ds2 is in year 10 they have been told that if they are now going to do the triple, the combined science group moves onto revision for year 11 as they have accelerated the course, the triple group will instead do more work and still have to attend a 1 hour session after school. Ds has said why would I not take the easier combined, get the 9,9 and spend more time on the grades I have to pull up like English!

This isn't about your Dh this is about what is best for your DD. Lots of secondary schools only offer the combined. Ds1 was still in the top set for combined science so not really a mixed ability class.

paralysedbyinertia · 28/05/2021 09:31

FWIW I was not a fan of DD taking drama GCSE but I am very glad that she did, as it was a life-saver for her during KS4.

I'm very glad indeed that dd did GCSE drama. It was a lot of work, actually, but really valuable to have a subject like that in the mix. Plus there was a real sense of community in her drama group that she didn't get from any of her other subjects!

clary · 28/05/2021 09:33

@paralysedbyinertia

FWIW I was not a fan of DD taking drama GCSE but I am very glad that she did, as it was a life-saver for her during KS4.

Yes DD loved her drama teacher, she loved her drama group (though that can go wrong of course, she was lucky with the other people) and I know she had a happy day when she had a drama lesson.

rbe78 · 28/05/2021 09:46

My sister and I both took combined GCSE science at our comprehensive school. She took Biology and Chemistry A-Level, I took Chemistry and Physics A-Level. She went on to study medicine at Cambridge, I did a PhD in a STEM subject. Your DD will be fine!

Laufeythejust · 28/05/2021 09:50

I took double science as that was the only option at high school. At college I took biology and chemistry and I must admit I felt behind when compared to the kids that had taken triple science. If she is taking science at a level I would recommend triple science (you don’t need any extra work/stress when jumping from GCSE to A level!)

usedtobeboss3 · 28/05/2021 10:06

The advice we received was that grade profile is sometimes more important than what the individual subjects are, so she should take the subjects that she is likely to get the best grades in. An 88 in Combined Science (with a high grade in another option that she wouldn't otherwise be able to take) would be better than, say 8,7,6 in separate sciences, with lower grades due to the increased content and/or one of her sciences being weaker than the others. In combined, the stronger science/s can pull up the weaker overall. So, it depends where her strengths lie.

FlagsFiend · 01/06/2021 13:02

I'm a science teacher, it makes no difference to A level choices whether you do separate or combined sciences. Not all schools offer separate so which you do has no bearing on uni offers. The grades are much more important than the choice.

About a third of my A level chemists did combined and some of them are the strongest students in the class. In terms of differences, separates don't really go into greater depth they just cover some additional topics or parts of topics. These will all be re-covered if needed at A level. In chemistry it's mainly a maths topic that is missing bits, but as long as the student has a good grasp of maths they pick it up quickly at A level.

Incidentally maths is very important for A level sciences, so any aspiring scientists should ensure they work hard in GCSE maths - I could give a fairly good prediction for A level chemistry grade based off their GCSE maths grade alone.

Africa2go · 01/06/2021 18:04

Can only speak from personal experience. Twins - one having done separate sciences (so 3 GCSEs) and one having done trilogy (so 2 GCSEs).

Advice was that you can pick separate science A levels regardless of which option you choose, but you might have to work harder to start with to pick up some topics that weren't covered in so much depth / at all on trilogy science.

As for grades - knowing DC and their friends, it seems much easier to achieve the higher grades in trilogy - so nearly all got 8-8/8-9/9-9 whereas the girls taking separate sciences got a range of 7s, 8s and 9s even though they are generally brighter.

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