Active discussions

Meet the Other Phone. A phone that grows with your child.

Meet the Other Phone.
A phone that grows with your child.

Buy now

Please or to access all these features

Talk
Secondary education

Connect with other parents whose children are starting secondary school on this forum.

Original poster

how many gcses do most children do ?

79 replies

Piffle · 05/09/2008 13:40

am a little anxious as ds1 -although very gifted in all subjects, seems to on the face of it have mega courseload

They are doing some this school year- maths stats, IT and ds1 is doing mandarin as twilight (after school course 1hr per week only)
But his are all academic subjects listen to this fgs
Double English lit and lang(2 gcses)
Triple science(3)
Now bumped up to dbl tech course (2gcses worth)
Geography
Half RE
Engineering
Art
Plus silver arts award extra quals
French

It seems a hefty load even for bright children?
Anyone any experience of this kind of load?

OP posts:
tissy · 05/09/2008 21:57

I did mine nearly 30 years ago. I was at a girls' grammar school. Like mb, I did 9

English Lit
English lang
Maths and One modern language were compulsory

Either geography or history was compulsory

In addition I did german and physics, chemistry, biology.

We were only allowed to do 3 A levels as well (though I did do enough pure and applied maths to get me through A level physics), but 3 B's was enough to get you into a decent medical school in those days!

ChacunaSonGout · 05/09/2008 22:02

wow tissy!

i try to tell my ds that my two b's and a d were good in 1986

Mercy · 05/09/2008 22:10

I'm also from the old days when sitting 8 O levels was normal (although my brighter brother did 11 or 12, 2 of them a year earlier iirc)

What;s the difference between O levels and GCSEs?

ChacunaSonGout · 05/09/2008 22:12

just age mercy!

ChacunaSonGout · 05/09/2008 22:14

gcse are more like the 16+ of my day

juuule · 05/09/2008 22:16

dd did 13 12m ago.

Chacun She is doing A'level science but did the double science gcse. She didn't need seperate sciences for the A'level. Neither did my ds who also did double science 5y ago.

snorkle · 05/09/2008 23:31

Piffle, several children from ds's school got Cambridge places this year; one had 11 GCSEs (like your ds she moonlighted an extra language) the others had 'just' 10. I don't think going up to 12+ is necessary even for Oxbridge.

SqueakyPop · 06/09/2008 08:55

My DS1 has just done his GCSEs at a selective independent school. By the end of Y11, he had 10 GCSEs and 1 AS. He has now started L6 and is studying 5 AS. He should leave school with 3/4 A2s and 3/2 AS. All of his subjects are academic ones.

bagsforlife · 06/09/2008 12:21

The school my DCs went to/go to is 'top' grammar school. They do 10 GCSEs. Some do extra ones in languages in 6th form. They get lots of children doing Oxbridge, 26 got places year. It's quality not quantity they are looking for.

bagsforlife · 06/09/2008 12:24

PS If he is seriously thinking of Cambridge, look on their website, states 'soft' subjects they do not recommend for A level, although accept them if they are mixed with other academic subjects. This may be relevant to what he is doing for GCSE.

thebecster · 06/09/2008 12:38

If Oxbridge entry is like it was in my day, they look at 'rounded' people with exceptional academic potential ideally. So obv if you get 16 A at GCSE you're going to get an interview as clearly very bright, but someone like that might struggle with the interview as they ask about all kinds of things not related to what you're studying (they're interested to hear how you think rather than how much you know was how my interviewer put it). So someone with 10 A at GCSE but lots of sports/interests/vivacity might get a lower offer than someone with the 16 A* grades but who is fearfully dull at interview.

I didn't go to Oxbridge - rejected the offer as I'd spent enough time being labelled 'g&t' and wanted to spend my time at uni drinking 'g&t's instead! My two best friends went to Cambridge & didn't enjoy it - both got * firsts. But one of them burnt out badly, and the other went on to do his PhD at, as he put it 'a nice red brick university in a town where you can get a decent curry after the pub'.

So even if his choice of GCSEs hurt an Oxbridge entry IMO 'taint no never mind. Unless he wants to be a lawyer or summit...

Original poster
Piffle · 06/09/2008 16:09

he is at very good boys state grammar
He wants to do Maths degree at Cambridge. He will be doing Maths in a level and sciences and English probably

It's not him who has chosen this amount plently of other kids doing as much.

He is predicted a* on all subjects based on sats and coursework plus exams from yr9

He has been told that Cambridge is trying to "recruit" gifted maths students via millenium Maths project which he is registered on. He also had a Pythagorean triple theory which was examined by Cambridge and while not new it was a thinking outside the Maths box which they liked
Basically if he holds his grades to a level he is sort of pre approved-only for Maths though as there is a shortage of gifted maths heads taking maths degrees there apparently? This all via the school this far so am believing them!

OP posts:
Original poster
Piffle · 06/09/2008 16:14

I might speak to school about double tech seems unneccessary imvho?
I know the art load is heavy but he loves art and to take that away would leave him unhappy and less rounded
This is all what the school prescribes aside from mandarin which ends after gcse sat in yr10
I could ask for him to be excused from RE too although he performs well in it nowadays I think he needs some slack cut perhaps?

OP posts:
snorkle · 06/09/2008 16:46

It does seem ever such a lot Piffle. I'd question why the school is loading the children up so much - if your ds is finding it tough just think how some of the others must be? As well as asking about the tech (is that also a fav. subject of his though?) I'd definitely be tempted to withdraw him from RE - as I recall you & he weren't great fans of the subject anyway - no university is going to care about that extra .5 of a GCSE and presumably it would give him a free lesson or two a week when he could get some other stuff done? With the extra Mandarin as well he probably really could use a bit of slack.

snorkle · 06/09/2008 16:55

Actually Piffle, Can you tell me more about this millenium maths project? Ds has wondered about doing maths at Cambridge (very early days & I expect he may well change his mind, though maths/science is a strength of his), but I have no idea if he's bright enough or not really. How can you tell?

SqueakyPop · 06/09/2008 16:56

He's doing more than 2 techs - he's also doing Engineering which is also a tech course. It's one that isn't relevent to professional engineering, either.

Original poster
Piffle · 06/09/2008 18:45

Google Cambridge millenium Maths and contact them
But ds was put forward by school after that Maths theory thing so erm dunno

Will ring school and query workload
Fwiw ds is excited [wtf] about extreme workload not complaining one jot... Yet!

It is me with reservations tbh

OP posts:
Original poster
Piffle · 06/09/2008 18:46

oh sorry btw
Tech is
Engineering and as he is high achiever they added res mats and made it double award!

OP posts:
flubdub · 06/09/2008 18:51

I did my GCSE's 6 years ago. I did 11 and failed one (German).

English (is counted as two I think; Lit and Language)
French
I.T
Science
R.E
Geography
Maths
German(failed)

Erm, cant remeber other (dunce)

ninja · 06/09/2008 19:02

Hi Piffle - just to check, is he doing Stats this year and Maths next year? You've only out one of them down. (TBH Stats is a waste of time for good mathematicians - it's there as a filler to get more high grades for the school).

For a Maths degree at Cambridge they're only going to look at A Level grades and probably STEP papers.

ninja · 06/09/2008 19:06

Snorkle I'd say until a student gets to do Maths and actually probably in fact Further Maths A Level it's hard to tell how able they are. GCSE should be able to be able to get an A* with no work.

I would say that unless you want to kudos of Oxbridge, it's not necessarily worth doing a maths degree at Cambridge unless you're really one of the best. If you just scrape in to get there it can be miserable and you'd be better off being top dog somewhere else - that may be a bit biased of me though!!

SqueakyPop · 06/09/2008 19:07

Resistant materials is woodwork. I don't think it will add much to his academic portfolio. Does he enjoy it?

ChacunaSonGout · 06/09/2008 20:30

yes bagsforlife .my ds school also a top grammar school with 10% going oxbridge they argue quality not quantity

Original poster
Piffle · 06/09/2008 20:41

yes be has already established the stats yr10gcse is easy marks for school
He is ok with yr10 gcses though
Yes the res mats is dodgy imo I am sure he will enjoy it per se
But he spent 2 weeks in hols working for my brothers friends IT company designing nicorettes new images and fixing the code on the site (nicorette)
Mate has said with skills now he could command decent wage and can guarantee him work for holidays from now on.
Am quite actually scared of his potential and What To Do For Best

OP posts:
Remotew · 06/09/2008 20:52

Just worked this out with DD also in year 10. She is also gifted quite bright!

English 2
Maths 1
Triple science 3
Business studies 2 no exam though
RS Half
Drama 1
History 1
Geography 1

Think that's it so 12. Enough imo.

Swipe left for the next trending thread