Astronomy

[Marylou]

...trouble is I also probably knew enough astronomy from years of reading and hours of watching Sir Patrick M commentating on moon landings to write the syllabus let alone study it.

Though I did naively assume that there would be a fair amount of physics and maths involved, and therefore a certain level of academic challenge...but of course this is a 21st century GCSE, how silly of me...

[aliportico]

GCSE Astronomy also seem VERY popular with home ed kids...I wonder why?

possibly because the observational work needed for the controlled assesment is easier if you are doing this at home - running around taking photos of comets and star trails and constellations + observations of the moon etc etc etc - not easy at school!

It's fairly popular because there's a nice bloke running a good distance learning course

Controlled assessment has made doing GCSEs as a private candidate a lot harder.

To the OP - sounds great - I would be very happy if my dd was offered the chance of Astronomy GCSE

[DIY Mum]

Ds1 has a passion for astronomy and intends to sit GCSE Astronomy for next year as a private candidate and probably with Planet Earth.

If anyone has registered with Planet Earth in the past- could they post their experiences? E.g. how are the lessons in the post... feedback from tutors?

Thanks in advance.

[aliportico]

I haven't used them myself, but my "nice bloke running a good distance learning course" comment above was about Gary from Planet Earth. I know (of) lots of HE families that have done it, and all have been positive about the courses and about Gary's helpfulness. You need to find an exam centre yourself though, as you need somewhere to do the controlled assessments and the actual exams.

[hermanmunster]

the distance learning stuff is all very good and interesting but the controlled assessments make doing this as an external candidate quite difficult - I was part of an evening class group (gave up as working too many of the evenings!) but they were having to spend several of the 2 hours a week sessions just all writing up their work...

[aliportico]

Yeah, I think for Astronomy it's 2 lots of 6 hours CA? Has made lots of GCSEs harder for private candidates.

[DIY Mum]

It's good to hear that the staff are friendly at Planet Earth and the kids have had a positive experience with them. How did they find the controlled assessments? Was finding an exam centre easy or difficult for them?

First time I embarked upon a distance learning GCSE as a private candidate was through OOL and I had a dud tutor who couldn't keep up with me. Thankfully, he left and OOL replaced him with a brilliant tutor who was really helpful and knew the subject inside-out (as he was a senior examiner). But the tricky part was finding an exam centre which I did and also doing the experiments.

On the whole, learning with OOL was a positive experience and as the experiments are designed to be done at home, the admin work required for the coursework was straightforward. But it doesn't sound the same with Astronomy.

Re: exam centre- perhaps he'll be able to use his school as a centre and will be able to do the experiments there

[Y]

Is it looked favourably upon? Would it add extra interest?

Why don't you email a few universities? If you go on to their websites you can find contact details. I've done this in the past, and they are very helpful - but don't expect the usual rapid turn-around for email responses. Just when you think your message has been ignored, that's when the reply arrives.

[moved]

DS was keen on this but he wasn't selected by school. The whole syllabus is laid out by Edexcel - looks reasonably easy for a bright child and great fun.

[Minesatea]

DS's school offer it as an after hours GCSE in year 10 - he is very keen.