"Science" GCSE

[Tolstoy]

Tolstoy I suppose it depends on your definition of mediocrity some people may argue that 2a*'s is less mediocre than 3 b's or even 3 a's certainly the universities seem to want quality rather than quantity of gcse's

Exactly my point. You say it is easier to get 2a* in the double than the triple therefore it must be easier and benefits the less scientifically able pupils at the expense of the more able. Who then have to have the workload of another possibly non-related subject to tackle in order to get their required number of a*.

Which then leads back to your comment about it being only an extra couple of modules anyway so why not everyone do them for the extra grade regardless of what it is.

would have just had a couple more modules thay may have got 3a*'s in these anyway

.

.annoying if that option isn't opSherry, I do think you are right as well, the quality of science teaching my older ones have had has been poor,en to you and you miss out.

Which is why I would worry if the school couldn't offer it. No point putting all the resources toward A'level if it results in DC doing the wrong A'levels. As I have said been there done that and don't want it for mine. Unlike LFH's DC it didn't pan out well in the end for me.

So up shot is if they didn't offer both I would have serious worries myself.

[daughter]

Hi I am back again. I have been watching this thread with interest. I am concerned that some (not most) people contributing to the thread do not understand how the double and triple science "work" - I gave a bit of an explanation on page 2 of this thread.
Other things to bear in mind;
1. Different exam boards - I am not a fan of the "modular" GCSE's that many schools use for sciences, having said that as parents we have no real control over that as the decision remains with the school. Fortunately my DD's school don't do them modularly and therefore it is possibly more rigorous.
2. In most if not all subjects there is a big jump between GCSE and A level in terms of having a real feel/aptitude for a subject. This is where it is very important that the teachers are invloved with the decisions on choosing A levels. Languages are another good (after science) example of this ... many go from A* GCSE to really struggling in 6th form. At GCSE rote learning with a few extra bits will be sufficient - A level is another story altogether.
3. Following on from what has also been mentioned - I think school size is critical. A larger school can perhaps run 2 science programmes without in any way compromising the other - I feel that a smaller school (not sure what the cut off would be) is possibly best to invest all resource (teachers/planning etc) into supporting 1 system i.e. double or triple.
4. The old quantity over quality debate remains. My DD's school do a maximum of 9 GCSE's taking the quality route and it seems to be working for mine (fingers crossed). A part of their "philosophy" on this may have some bearing on the double vs triple debate. The less exam subjects you take the more teaching time there is for them, eg. it is a govt (I think ) requirment that all do RS and ICT ... at their school if you haven't chosen these subjects as 1 of your 9 GCSE's then you have 30 mins/week and although not a complete doss they involve "fun" aspects e.g. discussions, ECDL and other less taxing exercices (and no h/w).
Sorry to ramble on.

[zee]

The permutations about modular science GCSEs are not as complicated as some seem to think.

For each of the three sciences, there are three levels of paper, of increasing difficulty.

The permutations you take determine the qualification you get.

For example, if B1 is the easiest biology paper and B3 the hardest, and so on:

B1 + C1 + P1 = 1 GCSE in science
B1 + B2 + B3 = 1 GCSE in biology
B1 + B2 + C1 + C2 + P1 + P2 = double science = 2 GCSEs
And doing all 9 papers gives you 3 GCSEs, one in each of the sciences.

[Tolstoy]

Thanks Zee.

So triple Science involves just doing one extra Biology paper and that gives you a whole extra O'level. Daughter is right in that I knew nothing of how this works but it still seems a nonsense not to take that extra paper to me. You still have 6 other subjects to chose from whereas the person who does 9 including the double will end up with a heavier work load as they have to take 7 other subjects and most of the science modules anyway.

[zee]

So triple Science involves just doing one extra Biology paper and that gives you a whole extra O'level.

Not quite; you have to do a third paper in all three sciences.

Whichever way you do it, you need 3 different papers per science GCSE.

[Tolstoy]

That makes more sense, so have to do say C3, P3 and B3 to get all three?

Then surely doing all three makes you better prepared for A'levels in the subject.

[tiredmum]

i would think so - i would think p3 c3 and b3 are the hardest modules, which is why at my dd1's school they really like dc's to have done well at key stage 3 in science before they let them take triple science.

[daughter]

Yes I mainly agree with you Tolstoy ... however depending slightly on the individual student 9 "quality" GCSE's are not a lot,
i.e. 2 x English
1 x maths
2 x science (minimum)
1 x Modern Foreign Langauge
1 x Humanity
This only leaves you with 2 more- possibly to include a creative (art,drama,music), a second humanity, a second MFL, latin, a technology (ICT, DT,FT) and of course a third science!

So then you are back to taking more GCSE's (which many/most schools do) with less teaching time/subject etc. It is difficult to know what is best. 1 of my DD's struggled to cut down to 9 GCSE's, 1 struggled to think of any she wanted to do (apart from sciences and maths of which there was no choice) and the other is in Year 8 so don't know about her yet.

[Tolstoy]

To be honest daughter I think it was better when they were all separate and you could pick and chose which you wanted to do as they are very different.

I did biology at O'level because I was good at it, Chem at CSE because the O'level teacher was useless and I wasn't great, all my more able friends failed because of him and I ended up with the best qualification ironically. Physics I dropped so it left room for subjects I did want to do.

[Snowdrops]

Reading about your choices Tolstoy, reminds me of the time we returned from living aborad. We duly went to enrol into my new school and the head was asking me for my choices, all went well until it came to the last choice. Which one would you like? asks the head. Cookery, I respond. No, you can't do that he says, it HAS to be a science. But this is a science, says I. Domestic Science. He sighed and filled in the final choice of domestic science ............................ and that is how I came to leave school with literally no knowledge of any science at all whatsoever

You just wouldn't get away with it these days