Art v drama GCSE

[Bimster]

Just wondered if anyone had aview on these? DD is trying to choose one- her other subjects are-

2 x English
Maths
Chemistry
Biology
Physics
German
R&P
History

She really loves art and works hard at it but is worried that she’s not as naturally talented as some of her classmates (I think her stuff looks good but am no judge as I’m absolutely hopeless). She’s predicted very good grades in everything else and I think she’s worried that she simply doesn’t have the natural ability to do very well in art. Presumably though you don’t have to be Rembrandt to get a decent grade at GCSE? Her teacher is encouraging.

Drama she also enjoys but I think not quite so much.

Sounds similar to my dd. She chose art and I was happy for her to take this as a break/Change of pace from the other academic subjects she was taking. I was resigned to her not getting a top grade - I reckoned she would do really well in her other subjects but deserved to choose this as a subject she enjoyed.

And she really blossomed in it and ended up doing some fabulous work and getting avery well deserved grade 9! She definitely wasn't working at that level in art lower down the school, but had fantastic teachers (and of course, put the effort in). It was really busy before Christmas as that's when her portfolio needed to be in ..but after that there was one "practical exam" but that was before the rest of the GCSEs so it helped with pacing the rest of her exams too,

She went on to do STEM A levels, but has fond memories of her GCSE art days and I reckon has enough confidence /skills to take up art as a hobby in later life too which is great.

My DD has taken both Art and Drama (she's Year 11).

Art is a huge volume of work (although I think a lot of this is my DD as she's a bit of a perfectionist) - it's involved hours and hours of work at home to create the portfolio. As a lot of the portfolio is about influences and the though process behind your work, it's not just all about creating pieces. DD has very much enjoyed it though, it's been a break from other subjects and means she has fewer exams.

Drama has been slightly problematic due in part to working round Covid restrictions and rehearsal time. As it's group work you are slightly dependent on your group. DD's group have been great, but there was, for example, one instance of a child being swapped into another group last minute for one of the assessments as one of the children in the original group was so poor (didn't know any lines) it was impossible for the others in the group to really act round them.
The drama portfolio has also taken a load of time (again, this is probably partly DD). It's also worth knowing that there is still an exam which is quite a chunk of the marks (40% on DD's board) and to do well in that you need to have good written/analytical skills (it's probably most similar to English Lit in terms of skills required). A few in DD's class have come a bit unstuck because they just wanted to focus on the performing bit.

DS1 switched from Art to Media studies because he found the GCSE art curriculum very prescriptive. Not so much about creativity as copying and learning about certain artists. I would look more deeply into what they actually have to study for each subject.

Thank you, everyone- really helpful. I actually think the learning side might appeal to DD- she enjoys visiting galleries, looking at how artists have produced certain effects, trying to copy techniques etc.

I think she should do the one she loves best. If that’s Art she should do Art!

If your daughter loves all this, then she should definitely do art - these are the things my daughter dislikes. I had the same worries as you when my dd was choosing her options, but actually skills wise she has done some brilliant pieces. Her problem is that she basically does no homework so there is not the volume of work there to get high grades.
If your dd is conscientious then she will do well - her drawing abilities will naturally improve with practice and then she only needs to fill her sketchbook in a visually appealing way - layouts, fancy lettering for titles (which she could trace) sticking in lots of pictures etc.