Please talk to me about art GCSE

[WestMuncher]

DD is due to start this in September but is getting cold feet as, although she really enjoys art, she fears she’s not currently very good at it. How much does this matter? Can an averagely talented student get a top grade if they put in the work?

What happens during the lessons? I gather they have one single and one double a week. Will somebody who is nothing special at drawing be taught to ‘properly’ draw? And to paint? The art she’s done so far at school was a rotation of pottery, drawing and painting.

And the homework? I gather it’s 60% coursework. Is that literally just working on your sketchbook all the time?

Not a stealth boast - really! - but in among all the worry I wanted to say my DC did art as one of 10, including history and geography, and it was fine! Got a 9 in art in the end.

It’s time consuming but as long as they stay organised and don’t let sketchbook work slide, it’s totally manageable imo.

wow well done her! 9 in art is an achievement indeed.

I agree btw that taking history and geog is not a massive issue. All GCSEs have things to do and work to learn. French GCSE is going to be harder than history if you are not engaged or interested.

But art tbf is known as a time-eater. Yy agree the key is to be organised from the off.

I meant to say that if she does take geography, DD said in year 11 she wished she could go back and tell her year 10 self to write up all the case studies as soon as they were done.

That was the old spec geog mind you so things may have changed; but in general revising as you go, making your mind maps, flash cards, revision notes on each topic as you finish it, is a good plan for history, geography, MFL, science – just in general. Your DD’s yr 11 self will thank her year 10 self.

My daughter is now going into Year 11 with Art as one of her 10 GCSEs.

Although she's really good at Art (when she actually does it) and was encouraged by her teachers to take it, she's super lazy and disorganised so she completely let her sketchbook slide throughout Year 10 🥶 which means she had to catch up A LOT over this summer. But the good thing about Art is that you can do it in your own time and once the sketchbook is done, that's most of the work done and no extra revision or anything like that. It's actually a good subject to take for kids who do things on time and don't leave a tone of work for the summer holidays 🤪

Mine is doing Art as one of 10 GCSEs and loves it, and is considering it for A-level.
But it is more work probably than all her other subjects put together (at least so far, she's just finished y10). She will regularly spend 3 hours on art at the weekend. And to your original question, I don't think they get taught to draw or paint, they're given topics and have to produce work in that topic. They have been taught to do a couple of new things - like some printing techniques and developing photos - but I think it's assumed you already know the basics. That said, if she is articulate and confident, part of the grade includes your commentary on why you did what you did and used certain techniques, so there's a fair bit of writing too.
I wouldn't do it unless she really enjoys producing art though. Dd1 says she finds it relaxing. Dd 2 is keen to do it but I am trying to persuade her not to. She is less organized and not as good at drawing as DD1, and I think she'd be better off doing either another humanity or language.