Redo gcse or continue with a levels

[oishidesne]

DD did GCSE's this year with aspirations to study maths physics and chemistry at college. Her maths grade is a 6, college says she can do statistics, economics and another subject instead. These a levels are completely different to the science based ones she envisioned. She was top in maths all her school years but something happened in the finals and she messed up.

Is it wiser to take a year out and redo her gcse to maintain maths or should we accept the a levels suggested by the college?

As she is cannot do maths, she cannot do physics.

She doesn't know what she wants to do for a degree yet.

I feel she is limiting her options by taking the subjects offered by the college. There are no other 1 year courses she can do with the 1 gcse math retake so it will be a difficult year...

OP what is your dd doing currently? Is she trying the alternative subjects the college have suggested?

it’s just that she’s already a few weeks into term- and the A level study phase isn’t that long so she really does need to commit to that if she’s started it?

spending a whole year resitting one GCSE doesn’t sound like time well spent to me. Even if she did improve her maths grade (and there are no guarantees) she’d be neglecting physics and chemistry?

what does she want to do?

The option are, do the gcse and nothing else or carry on with a levels...

Can't do both. Apologies if I wasn't clearly articulating.

Thank you all for replies, they r helpful.

In your place and based on what you’ve been told, I would get your dd to do the A levels she is able to do and resit maths. I think the reason they’re refusing as a student can only restart year 12 under certain circumstances as the college will only get funding for 2 years. I would use that time to find out what those circumstances are and if changing to a different school / college would make a difference. It’s a bit of a gamble, I know. But redoing GCSEs will be demoralising and your dd may not even succeed for this reason.

The problem with the Maths resit classes at sixth form/college is that they will be targeted at students below a 4, aiming to achieve a 4/5...they would be able to set and mark different work for her but would be juggling with different abilities.

Also, would she have to take other Level 2 courses alongside this to build her timetable?

The other consideration is that whereas at school, Maths would be allocated 4 full periods whereas at 6th Form/college, most only allocate 2 periods rather than 4....

When you talk about resitting the maths GCSE @oishidesne what exactly do you mean? Bc as @LillieLoo says, the resit maths classes will be for those who got a 3, trying to get them a 4/5 - will probably in fact almost certainly be doing foundation work so that's no use to your DD.

Or would she take the maths GCSE privately? I think you might have missed the deadline for this November resits. It's really not a good idea to take a year out of studying if your choices are physics and chemistry. Will they let her take chem? Can she not find somewhere that wll let her take physics A level without maths? It's not ideal but it is possible (mate of Ds2's did it).

Honestly tho based on the info you have supplied, unless there is more detail wrt her maths ability and why she didn't do better at GCSE, I would suggest she does the suggested A levels (which I presume she has started?). What is the third one?

Resitting means doing it privately. No college or school. Online tuition maybe and giving an exam privately.

It's a tricky one, especially as she doesn't have a "vision" of what she ultimately wants to do and Physics/Maths/Chemistry are tricky A levels, usually taken by people who want to work in a specific field and/or have a particular flair for them.

Does she want to do Stats and Economics? They are good A Levels and will open a lot of doors as well as closing some...

If she really doesn't want to study them, then she probably won't be committed.

It's a very personal decision and depends on what your daughter wants, really x

And then there are the social aspects to consider, particularly if she's just studying Maths GCSE at home for a year....

It will be too late to change courses if she takes the November resit (provided she could enter) because the results don't come out till January.

Does the college do level 3 BTEC Applied Science? Our school suggest grades 5/6 students to do BTECs and grade 7+ people to do A-levels. Level 3 BTECs will count for uni entry as they are level 3 qualifications. I know that dd has 6,7 in science but it might be a way to study science.

The suggested A-levels don’t sound appropriate unless dd enjoys the statistics in maths and economics. Sometimes people start a subject from scratch in year 12 but it’s a massive gamble and studying economics at good unis often require maths.

Can she do science A Levels and Core Maths? She'd be fine to do that with a 6 in maths.

I guess she could do it privately and maybe get ahead with some A level content. Depends how much she wants to do maths and physics.