77766665555 for GCSE mocks

[basilbrush]

DD in Year 11 just got the following in her GCSE mocks: 77766665555

She did revise hard for them but is not very organised and really lacks confidence in herself in many ways. She has also missed lots of school (mainly in Year 10) due to medical problems so I am really proud of her for doing this well tbh! I think these results are a fairly accurate representation of what she will get in the summer - I don't think there will be any huge jumps up in grades

She is very keen on going to sixth form college with her most of her friends and doing A-levels. However, she is thinking of Biology, Psychology and English and I am concerned she will not be able to cope with 'meaty' subjects like this. She says she want to keep her options open and not do anything too specific at 16 as she doesn't have a specific career in mind yet.

However, her current school have basically suggested that she look into doing BTECs at the local FE college as a 'back up' options

There's lots of open days etc on at the minute - should I be encouraging her to go and visit them? She just assumes she'll be doing A-levels with everyone else and I don't want to dent her confidence when she's trying really hard. Equally, I don't want her to go down an inappropriate path either because I was too scared to be honest with her and tell her what her school have said!

I was being sarcastic. I have one who did pretty well with her 11: 3x8, 3 x 7 and 5 x 6.

But another who would definitely cope better with less subjects. Especially English lol…….

My dd has 11 because triple science and additional maths.

i did 8 in the 80s incl 3 sciences.

I wish more kids in state schools were allowed to drop English lit. Esp as it doesn't count as an English pass. You need to pass English lang. I also wish state schools were allowed to do the IGCSE English which allows you to choose the coursework option (40% of the grade is then coursework).

Those are good grades and fine for a levels. Don’t knock her confidence by suggesting she does Btec

Isn't that the equivalent of AAABBBBCCCC?

Those are fab even without the time off! Fine for A Levels (which let's face it is the whole point of GCSEs) I feel like on mumsnet if its not 8s or 9s it's not good enough

I think if DCs did triple science but only 1 English that would perhaps be the wrong balance. The problem for most DCs isn't the doing of Eng Lit, it's the fact that the book choices are often so dire and unengaging for them.

DD2 did 12 GCSEs plus some sort of ICT diploma (?) plus short-course RE (which maybe counts as half a GCSE?). Absolutely bonkers, but her school had an odd structure of doing half in Y10 and half in Y11 so at least they weren't all taken at the same time.

All schools I know do 11/12? DC’s school do 14!!! But that’s because of Welsh lang and Welsh lit. I thought 11/12 was the norm.

I did 12 in the early 90’s.

I do think it’s too much. I think fewer subjects would be absolutely fine.

I would think she would be fine. Dd in year 12 doing a level biology it's very content heavy but if they enjoy it it's fine. Her very high achieving 6th form.ask for a minimum of a 6 for Alevel science. DS got far lower grades than that a few years ago and ended up with 3 Bs at Alevel. He did work very hard.. TBH 12 GCSE'S is madness. Dd did 10 and a BTEC and that was seen as alot here.

Thanks all for the useful comments! Majority consensus seems to be that I concentrate on getting her confidence up and some targeted tactics to try and nudge her up a grade in subjects she wants to do at A-level. Fingers crossed....!!

I wouldn’t worry too much about those grades. And just focus instead in confidence , good study skills and exam technique. And if they result in better grades then great but if not it’s still a skill she can use at the next stage.

Our grammar school only does 9!

How do they fit all of these in the timetable? Do they start in year 9? Do they drop PE lessons?
DD took her GCSEs in 2016 (10) subjects, and she had a very full timetable. They also had PE lessons a couple of times a week.

They are pretty good grades? She will get into those A level subjects with them

If those scores can get her into the A-Levels she would like to do, then the only other question is whether she would cope with the workload.
Could you ask the relevant teachers whether they think she would cope at A-Level? Does she cope well with working independently? Doing written work to a deadline?
Speaking frankly, these are all things my DD struggles with and we decided she probably wouldn't cope at A-Level. But she got 9s in four subjects so it just shows that exam results don't show overall ability.

What’s the normal amount?

By the end of year 11 dc2 should have 12 GCSEs. Dc1 was affected by covid so didn’t have everything on offer to them that dc2 has

If you scroll back up to @MrsAvocet's post she has included a link to the official government data. 52.1% of children were entered for 8 or 9 GCSEs in 2023. 12.3% did 10 and only 1.8% did 11. Children taking 12 or more account for only 0.1% of the cohort.

I would be interested to know the grade spread with so many subjects. Loads of higher achieving schools do 9 or 10 because it looks better to show that most pupils achieve a raft of 8s and 9s as opposed to a wider spread of grades over more subjects.

The same applies to A levels. Universities want to see AAA or higher rather than AABB. They also look at the best 8 GCSE results. If doing 12 bring the score down for those 8 subjects it doesn't do the pupil any favours.

Quality over quantity is much more important.

@RampantIvy DD2, who I believe went on to study the same BSc subject as your DD, got good grades but did GCSEs split over 2 years - the disadvantage of this was twofold.

Firstly, as she's an August birthday she effectively did maths, ICT, triple science and PE when she was still 14. And secondly when she was doing English x 2, Spanish, history and short course RE in Y11, there were no science lessons scheduled! (Maths was catered for by doing further maths and statistics GCSEs). Obviously not ideal to have no science lessons in Y11 when you are planning to take them for A level…

Definitely agree fewer (and hopefully better grades) would have been better.

Though to be fair, the data is for exams taken in one go. It's apparent from this thread and others I have read recently that some schools start their GCSEs in year 9 and take some exams in year 10 and others in year 11 so there are probably more children who end up with a higher number of GCSEs by the end of year 11 than those figures suggest. I doubt it's "common" though. And personally I strongly disapprove of that approach and wouldn't have sent my children to a school that used it unless I had no other viable option.

@thing47 interestingly DD's school used to split GCSEs as well. Students did 2 at the end of year 10 and 8 at the end of year 11. They were timetabled to have the same hours per subject, but spread differently, so DD did art and history in year 10 and geography in year 11 (she took triple science and that took up one option). The issue was with anyone taking French or Spanish in year 10 then not doing any until year 12 if they were taking it for A level.

DD has a July birthday and was 14 when she took 2 of her GCSEs, 15 when she took the rest, 16 when she sat AS levels and 17 when she sat her A levels. Her year was the last year the school did this. After the GCSE reforms it was 9 or 10 subjects at the end of year 11. The school never started GCSEs in year 9 when she was there. I have no idea what they do now.

Dcs school all take English literature in year 10, as well as doing their science practicals and a Welsh literature paper. The top 2 sets sit some of their maths papers in the summer of year 10 and then the rest in November of year 11. They then go on to study additional maths and sit those papers in the summer of year 11. They also sit another Welsh literature paper in January of year 11, followed soon after by their Welsh oral presentation

So our dc has 2 A already (we’re in Wales). At present they’re on track for 8 more A and 1 A in the summer. They take Welsh literature and language as well as the same in English, triple science, maths (and additional maths for the 2 tops sets) and then 3 option choices.

Thanks for that link @MrsAvocet , it’s quite an eye opener how things vary.

It's disappointing that taking English Lit early is still the norm in Wales. It's a subject which rewards maturity and from my experience when it was common practice in England the vast majority of children will achieve at least a grade lower than if they took it in year 11. Space has to be found for Welsh, I suppose. No more triple science once the children who have started the Curriculum for Wales start to age through the system and reach GCSE age.

This is no longer common practice. I suspect many of the posters sharing this approach have children who did their GCSEs pre-2017 and the introduction of 9-1 grades. The performance measures in England now heavily discourage early entry, as only the child's first attempt at the qualification counts towards performance data, and the Progress 8 and Attainment 8 measures encourage schools to do fewer, better-quality GCSEs.

That's interesting @ThanksItHasPockets. I thought it was the oher way round now that the GCSEs are more content heavy.

DD took her GCSEs in 2016 and her school never did them over three years. There was no need. The top set in maths took iGCSE maths in the January, and all but one student achieved an A*, the other student achieved an A. Back then iGCSE maths was considered more rigorous than the GCSE. Bog standard comprehensive.