Easiest and hardest GCSEs?

[jennylamb1]

My son is just choosing his GCSE options, looking at the core plus history, geography, computing and Spanish. I'm a little concerned about computing because the school has had issues in recruiting a computing teacher and it sounds like they haven't covered the whole of the curriculum but he wants to do it. I was wondering which GCSEs are considered hard and which easy?

I'm not sure that's a thing. People who will tell you school subjects are easy invariably have no experience of it. Poor staffing is more of a concern and a problem in nearly all subjects.

I would just let him choose what he enjoys the most. Unless the teaching in one department is particularly awful and gets consistently bad results.

I agree with @Piggywaspushed.

In my DD's case (Y11), she's found the subjects she's genuinely interested in to be the easiest. I guess it's because she enjoys the lessons and doesn't begrudge the home studying.

The easiest ones are the ones that play to your DC's strengths.
That is a pretty 'academic' set you have listed with no creative / technical.
So if he has a good memory and is good at writing etc and poorer at being creative then he will find those easier than say Art, Music or Drama. Perhaps.

Let him go for what he likes as often they are the "easiest"

Totally depends on the person studying.

For me: maths, physics, chemistry. Fairly sure that's not a universal belief tho.

For my brother: Art, German, Latin. I'd have failed 2/3 of those. I did pass the third one, which I took, but it involved a LOT of work.

Go for what you enjoy at this stage, ideally not shutting too many doors by keeping some science, humanities, languages and arts involved.

Agree with the others that he has to play to his strength. But also consider staffing issue because it's not good having to study on your own. That said, I have looked at the computing GCSE paper after the news about the poor results. It looks very easy. I have an engineering degree and work as a software engineer. I don't think I can sit GCSE maths and physics without some studying. But I think I can sit the computing one with a few days prep. Hopefully that gives you some hope.

Well both my sons would tell you maths is the easiest GCSE because Ds2 never dropped below 96% on any GCSE paper but struggled with English lit. You play to their strengths, what they like, what they are interested in because they are much more likely to engage with a subject if they like it.

Re computing, youtube Craig n' Dave cover all GCSE boards for computer science so there are resources out there other than just the teacher and to be honest if a child wants to excel in a subject then looking outside the classroom is the way to do it.

History and Geography are very content heavy, I can only comment on History as that is what both of mine chose, lots of dates, events, knowledge of what is going on at the time these things happened which influence it all and good essay writing skills are needed and can be taught. Add Geography into that and it becomes weighty. MFL there are apps for like Memrise which has GCSE specific content.

He could choose a subject which has a great teacher who then goes off long term sick, so support him choosing subjects he loves. Come back to MN for recommendations for exam board specific resources and join/read the threads on here for his year group.

I agree with others, there is no such thing as an easy GCSE – but there are GCSEs that will play to your strengths. DD took music and some elements came easily, some not so much. But DS1 would have found the whole thing impossible. Similarly PE was a breeze for DS2 but DD would have hated it I suspect.

Agree there are concerns over staffing for comp sci and that is not a new thing, sadly. But even bearing that in mind, your DS should choose the subjects he enjoys as that is where he will be motivated, interested and inspired. If the teaching is poor then he is more likely to want to go beyond that in a subject he likes. You cannot know where the school will struggle in terms of teaching staff anyway so there’s no point trying to second-guess that. He needs to be true to his own views.

Thanks all, he has had a free rein really in choosing what he wants, in typical 13 year old boy logic he decided against media studies because someone on the bus said that it was 'hard.' He likes history and geography because he enjoys learning about the world and wants to go on some trips- which is good because he'll have a good time and also consolidate his learning. I was concerned about the difficulty of computing given that they have missed a lot of stuff and seem to go back to things like e-safety which they've done a bunch of times already, he says that he's like to do computer programming but they've not done that as yet.

Further maths is the hardest by a street, none of the others come halfway close.

Easiest I really don't know, it depends what the child is good at. I suppose something with a little bit of numbers-y stuff and a little bit of reading/writing but not too much of either might be a contender? e.g. something like maybe business studies?

I think you need to reframe "hard" as "what will suit my child?".

So, that mean, for example - what subjects does he enjoy? Which ones is he currently strongest at? Which involve essay writing (and does he like that)? Which have lots of content (and will he be ok with that?) Which involve creative elements (and does he like that)? Which have coursework (and will that suit him)? I agree it may also be prudent to factor in "what is the teaching like at his school?" though that's not an absolute as teachers come and go.

I could do maths without trying at this stage. But that doesn't mean maths is an easy GCSE - more that it suited my brain and my interests

easy - geography
hard- biology

but that is a generalisation, depends on the child, a lot of the time

Further maths is the hardest by a street, none of the others come halfway close.

If further maths is the same as O level Additional maths, I'd disagree. For me French was far the hardest subject.

Computer science (if that's the course) bears little/ no relationship to what they've done previously. It's pretty hard (my DS does it and does more work on it than anything else) if you have a good memory and are good at Maths it's a big help.

I agree in terms of staffing being a major issue. Also how important /supported the subject is at the school (you can tell this by staff turnover and how many teachers teach the subject).

My DS1 is doing Product Design A level and they've had major staffing issues which has drastically affected him. He could have done very well but they just haven't been taught properly (a friend of mine teaches it and she gave us some help/ was a bit shocked where they are at this stage of Y13). DS2 is doing Spanish GCSE and predicted a 6. All other subjects 8-9 but language teaching is very unsupported at the school (2 teachers in whole school), so I have had to get him a tutor as he's very talented at languages so it would be a real shame for him to do badly by his standards.

So, those are the things I'd consider. Also, as an aside, if you do triple science you will generally be with kids who like science and therefore behave better in class.

Thanks, he has got a good memory and is in top set for maths so hopefully computing will be ok for him. He told me that one of their computing teachers was dismissed last year because he had been picking and choosing what he wanted to teach them rather than sticking to the national curriculum, apparently they'd done a lot of Y8 work but hasn't done Y7, hence my worry that he will have gaps. Teacher recruitment is in crisis isn't it, I did wonder where Rishi Sunak thought all these A level maths teachers were going to emerge from.

Geography is easier than history. Questions are shorter.

If he enjoys lots of writing, Geography and History. Lots of places don’t recommend both because they’re heavy on content. I wouldn’t recommend both together.

I think Geography might be easier than History - that's my perception anyway from my DCs.

The Maths and comp science connection hasn't been true for my DCs. They are both very good in maths, top of the class, but really struggled with comp science, bottom of the class. They were very glad they could give it up!

Depends on the person. I did Additional maths (which is now considered equivalent of a A/S level) and found it far easier than French or either English GCSEs.

Teacher here!

I've taught RS, Classics and Hist to GCSE level.

RS easy
Classics Hard
Hist (in comparison to RS) v hard

I shared an office with HoD Business and realised it seems easy but attracts lots of difficult kids.

If your son wants near one to one- music is a good option as so few children take it (16y teaching , same across independent and state)

This is, naturally, just my opinion.

Don’t agree that Geography is easier than History.

History is hard if you aren’t good at English.

Dd1 did GCSEs last year, and is a good all rounder. She reckoned RE was the easiest, Spanish hardest (she got the same result in each, but one took a lot more effort). But that's pretty subjective

Geography is easier, I've been an exam reader for ages and I reckon I'd pass Geography every time and it's not my strong subject.

What's an exam reader??