What would be the ‘easiest’ GCSEs for someone with this skill set?

[Bombastics]

My dd has shown herself to have a great memory. She quite enjoys revision and in her end of term tests she’s got consistently high marks in all subjects mainly due to being able to remember what she’s been told to revise.

Im concerned that this strategy won’t work so well for GCSEs where there’s a lot more content to recall And it’s more than just a terms worth.

she is less good at thinking on the spot and responding to questions about what she’s learnt.

for example in English they are given the essay question in advance and she will just learn her essay off by heart and regurgitate it in the exam which is an impressive feat but won’t work so well for GCSEs.

so I want her to choose options that will maximise success (whilst also working with the school to give her other ways to revise and practise)

she likes most subjects -the only ones she definitely doesn’t want to do are computer science, PE and food.
she wants to do separate sciences.

she has no idea what she wants to do after GCSES soI want her to keep her options open.

I’m confused, your daughter enjoys revision, seems to remember a lot of it and does well in exams, yet you are concerned that she won’t do well at GCSE?

Oh I know she’ll do well. But she is used to getting very good marks and I want her to take subjects that she will get the best grades as she has her heart set on 8s-9s and I don’t think this will be as straightforward as she thinks as the exams will be quite different to the tests she’s done so far at school.

Once you get to options there may not be that much choice as they are often in blocks. She will have to do maths, English language and literature, and either dual or triple science which probably leaves 3 or 4 to choose. School may then have their own rules - ours had to choose citizenship or RE for one option, then a language or a humanity (one of French, Spanish, history, geography, computer science) then two that were free choice from the column options ( the previous five appeared again so you could take both French and history, for example)
If she is good at learning content she will do well at GCSE, at A level there is a big increase in having to apply your knowledge rather than regurgitate it.
I would suggest a good all rounder chooses a humanity, a language and a creative/practical subject for their options.

Yes I agree – if she is unsure about A levels/uni then take a spread of subjects. MFL plus history/geog/RE is a good start.

Does she like drama, art, doe she play an instrument (so music)? If so then those are good options. Otherwise she could take two humanities. Is there an option to pick up two MFL? That sounds like it might suit as there is some quick thinking needed in the speaking exam and while there is quite a lot of vocab and grammar to learn, there isn't masses of fact-baed content to regurgitate (looking at you history).

Memorising essays and regurgitating is actually a surprisingly effective strategy for some GCSEs.

in English literature for example if you memorise the three or four most common essay questions for each book/play you are pretty solidly prepared.

equally in MFL most students pre-prepare particularly for the speaking assessment and for the writing paper.

less so other GCSEs!

English language is completely unpredictable.

History is a great subject, perhaps a language, then once you add in in triple science, maths, double English she will only get one or two more options, most schools encourage one non academic subject or lighter subject

Languages, history and RE

A good memory will get her far. Even at masters level I was able to do well by remembering chunks. The skill she needs to develop is making sure she answers the actual question rather than the question she wants it to be. I wouldn’t put her off essay based subjects- she’ll probably have an advantage with a good memory.

There aren’t set option blocks. The school says to choose 3 plus a back up and they will try to accommodate their preferences.
only 1 language option which she quite likes but lots in the years above report finding it harder than other options and the staffing is a bit inconsistent.

For the practical ones she likes DT and the music teacher has promised her a good mark even without an instrument as she’s a decent singer.
not keen on art.

likes both history and geography.

good to know her strategy might pay off for another couple of years and we’ll cross the a level bridge when we come to it!

Ha ha.
DD memorised all the war poetry revision from BBC Bitesize to get an A in English lit.

She also memorised the entire CGP revision guide for physics to get an A*. She didn't really understand physics, so she knew the what, but not the how and the why.

Interestingly, she is enjoying the physics element of her masters because the application makes sense to her.

My DS is doing GCSEs this summer and has been learning lots of possible responses for his French and Spanish speaking tests this week! Biology has a lot of content so is also good for someone with a good memory.

In that case I would agree with what others have said, English Lit is a memory test, if you can memorise the most popular questions for each text it’s much easier to get a high grade. History is another good one for memory. Science relies a lot on revision too (less so with the physics exam obviously).

If you know she has good memory skills I would encourage her to work on understanding how to answer a question, good grades rely on answer the question in the right way as well as having remembered the correct information.

I agree that lots of students learn responses for the speaking exam in MFL but for the writing, the best you can do is learn phrases, as you don’t know which topics will come up, so you would have to learn about a dozen essays (obvs unfeasible).

Eng lang you can learn openings for a number of creative writing answers.

Most subjects at GCSE are memory based. Even English you can learn some of it. I would say A level will be the hard step so it's important to keep options open for that. Biology, Geography, Psychology are perhaps a bit more memory based than others so perhaps keep Geography at an option. Also MFL's for the vocab, verb structures etc and essays are a bit less advanced analytically than some othes. Most subjects will involve extensive problem solving or analysis though.

I would do a language and Geog as well as the 3 Sciences and take it from there for A level choices.

Being able to memorise lots of stuff will be very useful, but school should be teaching her how to understand questions and apply her knowledge to the questions being asked, and homework and work in class will probably be increasingly around exam practice and applied skills. If she has the learning ability to memorise lots of facts/content, then she can learn how to use what she has memorised effectively. I think all subjects need this.

There are also GCSE guides for essay/written answers subjects which include examples of basic answers which will get about half the marks available, say 2/4, and probably pass, and answers which will get most of the available marks for a higher grade. Basic and higher grade answers shown often are not that different in length.

Is she choosing her options now? There are core subjects anyway which will include Maths, English Language, English Literature and Science, Combined or Triple. Options might include History or Geography, a language (a great memory there will be helpful for vocabulary and grammar), other subjects that might be new at GCSE, eg options such as Sociology and Media if they are offered, and creative or practical subjects, which will involve more skills and possibly more coursework (Music or Art for example).