Anything we should know before choosing gcse options?

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Just that really, is there anything to consider for choosing options? Anything you’d recommend or not?

We were told to consider the following

• what subjects they enjoyed
• what subjects they were good at
• what subjects were relevant for future options/ careers

We were told they should avoid choosing a subject because they liked the teacher, or a friend was taking it.

DD has chosen 4 options that all have a high coursework content. However, we think this will work for her. The coursework means she will have some marks under her belt before the exams. They are all subjects she enjoys, and 2 she was already good at. The other 2 are new subjects, but in previous related subjects and activities had shown an ability. All are relevant for the field of work she is interested in.

Thanks all. I’m hoping that the blocks he gets to choose from will allow him the ones he wants.

My ds doesn't want to do art, drama, DT subjects or music.
He's just fluffed his most recent assessments by not doing any prep and got a working towards in science so we know he won't be able to do triple science and maybe not food tech/nutrition though he doesn't like cooking side of things.
He wants to go into sports coaching or be a pe teacher so above is very disappointing.
I'm so annoyed we've said to him for ages his minimum effort is going to catch up with him and now I think it has.

What I hear from everyone is children should ‘pick subjects they enjoy’. My bright but lazy (feel bad describing him like that!) son says he doesn’t enjoy any of the subjects except for food tech. He doesn’t know yet what he wants to do for career. So far on his list: music (he’s only G3 in his instrument but says he’s determined to be at least G5 by end of this year!), food tech, business studies. He also wanted to add PE to his choices but we’ve strongly advised against this as I don’t think he’ll do well on the practical side so this will bring his overall grade down.

He’s good at French at the moment (always 7/8 in tests) but doesn’t want to choose it. We’re making him do triple science as he’s gets good grades in science and we feel this will keep his options open since he has no idea what he may want to do career-wise.

Trying to find balance between allowing free choice and stopping him from limiting his future options. Especially for someone academic like him.

That there are so few real choices for them, let the child decide upon the two or three they actually want to do, rather than what teachers or parents think they should do.

Just jumping on as similar position. Any thoughts on doing 8 subjects rather than 9. I feel like school taking easier option but I have been told best to focus on grade average not number of subjects taken.

Not surecif all exam boards are the same, but for WJEC they are expected to perform at grade 3 or above.
DC is planning on doing grade 4 pieces. Was thinking of grade 3 pieces but sat grade 4 in Dec so still reasonably fresh in the mind. I think the performance is being recorded early in the last term of yr 10

Thanks for that. Will do a bit more research on this

It’s too simplistic to say do what you like. Thst can lead to 6 or 7 stem subjects and 2 non stem. It’s not balanced. I’d always try and add a humanity, a MFL and an art or technology GCSE to the obligatory subjects. Showing breadth is better than specialising at GCSE. Bright dc manage this and it should be encouraged.

8 GCSEs is fine and in fact the second commonest number taken; in 2024 25% took 8 and 28% took 9. (This data I think excludes private schools as they often do IGCSEs which are not included in these figures).

It's better to get 8 strong grades than 9 weaker ones. I do worry that it leads to YP dropping subjects early and especially that creatives like music, drama, PE, DT, food, textiles are missing out bc six compulsories plus hist/geog and MFL = 8. But hopefully a school offering only 8 will allow at least one free choice.

Agree fully with@littlebearpad. I just wanted my children to do their best and see education as a lifelong pursuit. Both chose to go to uni, id have been equally happy if they didn't.

(A) no more than 2 subjects with significant coursework or other non-written-exam assessment
(B) Check the syllabus for GCSE actually reflects the aspects of the subject that the child likes. If the child loved the topics done in y8&9 that's nice but the GCSE topics mights be something completely different. Some courses also don't test the same skills as the child expects them to e.g. very few of the marks for Computer Science are awarded for being a brilliant coder.

@INCOGNITONOW if you know the exam board, the info should be on their website. The school should also give info on the assessment. Ours gave it out at an options evening. We could go to 4 talks. Options weren't chosen until about a month later so children could talk to teachers, mentors etc.

For AQA is is better to perform a lower grade piece well than a higher grade piece not so well as the extra marks they get for difficulty factor are minimal compared to the marks available for total accuracy.

There are no extra marks whatsoever for AQA or Edexel for performing a piece above Grade 5 level.

A Grade 4 piece played perfectly is often the optimum to get a high grade.

Take note that composition is worth a hefty percentage of the marks.

Edexcel is the same. Grade 4 standard is expected. Grade 3 acceptable but lower marks for difficulty. Grade 5 gives bonus marks for difficulty but you still have to perform well to get full marks. To get the highest GCSE grade you need to have nearly perfect performance and composition marks.

From memory, it made just five marks different to AQA on the old spec - and it was possible to lose more marks from performing something higher grade than were 'lost' from sticking with a grade 3 piece that could be performed more or less perfectly.

I don't deal with either now, so I don't know if that changed, but we could take a kid with zero grade exams but good instincts and get them to top grades - some of them had never even picked up an instrument before because their parents didn't have the money but they could carry a tune (or I could teach them bass in the mornings before school), followed by having free access to the department at lunch and after 3.30pm. The bass players always did really well in the group performances, too.

Does the school offer taster sessions? Ours does for at least the subjects that are new at GCSE eg business studies, media, sociology etc. Other than that, do subjects that are enjoyed

Most schools impose option blocks so that students can't end up with a very unbalanced set of choices.

@redskydelight MN must be different then. On here it’s often maths, 3 sciences, stats and CS - as an example. That’s not balanced.

I’m not sure how often stats is offered at GCSE tbh; not in any school I know of anyway.

And without stats all you have there is a Dc picking CS in top of the compulsories. Not really fair to call that unbalanced. They would also be doing other subject; ds2 did all those except stats but also Eng lit and lang, history, PE and Spanish. Pretty balanced I think.

@clary How is 5 maths/science subjects balanced? Stats certainly is offered and FM too I think. Or it might be geology or engineering as options which are still sciences. You rarely see humanities or arts over represented. You frequently see a MFL dropped though. Its results over balance in many cases - as we see advocated repeatedly on mn.

Seriously? Most students take four maths and science subjects. Or do you object to that too? You know I am a big fan of MFL and also in favour of a spread of subjects. But choosing CS as one option is hardly unbalanced. Or do you think that should be blocked?

Engineering, stats, FM, geology - yes all possible choices but actually none is offered at any school I know or have worked in (which is most of the ones local to me).

My dd took Eng lit, Eng lang, drama, music, history. Was that unbalanced towards humanities and creatives? I don't think so as she also took four x sciencr/maths plus a. MFL.

3 sciences means 1 extra block for the single qualifications, rather than being taught all 3 for combined science. Takes up 2 blocks for combined.

English + English Lit - no extra block.

RE - as everybody has to do it to some extent, might as well get a qualification out of it - no extra block.

Maths + Further Maths or Stats - offered to the highest set in Maths - no extra block, as they do it in their usual lessons.

Leaves 2 blocks for real choices for the top sets - (Geography/History/Citizenship/Sociology/Psychology/Business/Computing/Art/Drama/PE/Food Prep & Nutrition/DT/Music/AAQ in Health/Sport/MFL/etc)

Or three blocks for the others who are taking combined science instead.

Add in the ones who need extra Maths/English/EAL support/SEND support who are more likely to have singleton allocations on their timetables to fit their needs, kids who are going to Greek/German/Polish/whatever school on Saturdays sitting a GCSE in their community language (quite possibly sitting the exam at the school for their convenience) and a handful doing something like Music grades, LAMDA (although they may take this as a second qualification if they've picked music or drama as an option) and you've got a pretty broad base for qualifications, whether they do 1 extra block of science + computing or Art + Drama or Music and PE.

When they have just 2 or 3 choices, it's not fair to demand that they take something they don't want to - MFL has been on the receiving end of kids voting with their feet/pens and refusing to work until they're allowed to drop it or they're just not entered for years - and the poor grades for those who haven't been able to get out of the lessons to do something else reflect it.