A request for outside opinions on choices please

Discussion and advice on GCSEs

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Nathair
Posts: 445
Joined: Mon Apr 06, 2009 8:31 pm
Location: East Lancs

A request for outside opinions on choices please

Post by Nathair »

DD1 is really stuck on choosing her final option. She's doing English Lang & Lit, 3 sciences, Maths & Spanish as core. She wants to be an archaeologist, She's always loved history and started learning Latin (her idea) when she was 7. She's got to pick three options and has five subjects she loves:

History; Latest exam results 96% year average 75%
Geography; 94%, average 66%
Latin; 93%, average 64%
Ethics, Philosophy & Religion; 100%, average 78%
Music; 93%, average 67%

She's decided that Latin is a must, and music she can carry on doing lessons and grades without doing the GCSE, so she can drop that. So that leaves 2 choices out of 3 subjects. History would seem obvious, but the syllabus is Modern history, WWII, Rosa Parks, Martin Luther King Jr, etc (very important stuff, but not the ancient history that interests her) Would it look strange to a uni that she wanted to do Archaeology with no history GCSE? If she does history, which out of EPR or geography would be the better option? Geography has the field trips and report writing like archaeology field work has. EPR has the debating and critical thinking that she is really good at and is featured in a lot uni courses.

We're really stuck, any advice?

Thanks.
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hermanmunster
Posts: 12815
Joined: Fri Sep 15, 2006 9:51 am
Location: The Seaside

Re: A request for outside opinions on choices please

Post by hermanmunster »

Hi Nathair

Tricky stuff! I know what you mean about the periods of history - they are quite keen on more recent stuff these days... however suspect it would be useful to do history at some point, remember you can do A level history without GCSE so that may be an option.

Re EPR or Geog - really comes down to which she enjoys doing - sometimes it just comes down to the teachers :wink:

Geog may be useful for Archaeol but TBH Unis are just looking for a broad range of subjects and it looks like she will have that whatever you choose


PS have you discovered thestudentroom forum ... definitely the next stop in the journey and plenty of parents posting along wit students trying to get their heads round UCAS GCSEs A levels etc etc
KB
Posts: 3030
Joined: Tue Mar 04, 2008 3:28 pm

Re: A request for outside opinions on choices please

Post by KB »

Would say that the skills learned in Geography may be of most use and if she is capable of getting a top grade (which it looks like from her exam results) then it probably holds more sway than EPR.
May be a danger that some pupils see EPR as an easy option so the class contains less motivated students?
sherry_d
Posts: 2083
Joined: Tue Sep 01, 2009 4:38 pm
Location: Maidstone

Re: A request for outside opinions on choices please

Post by sherry_d »

Just waving to say hello Nathair :D

How time flies, you are thinking about GCSE already! It looks like yesterday when your daughter was going through 11+. Good to see you around. Sorry haven't got anything constructive to add to your question, just got excited see you back around.
Impossible is Nothing.
Guest55
Posts: 16254
Joined: Mon Feb 12, 2007 2:21 pm

Re: A request for outside opinions on choices please

Post by Guest55 »

Without levels the attainment in each subject cannot be judged. Pupils work harder at subjects they enjoy!

Look on UCAS website and University requirements but I don't think anything, other than having a good spread of GCSEs, is essential.
Amber
Posts: 8058
Joined: Thu Sep 24, 2009 11:59 am

Re: A request for outside opinions on choices please

Post by Amber »

sherry_d wrote:Just waving to say hello Nathair :D

How time flies, you are thinking about GCSE already! It looks like yesterday when your daughter was going through 11+. Good to see you around. Sorry haven't got anything constructive to add to your question, just got excited see you back around.
nice to see you too, sherry_d. :D Hope all is well.

And ditto options - my advice as always is to let her choose, then you can't get the blame if it isn't what she hoped.
Jean.Brodie
Posts: 451
Joined: Sat Jul 21, 2012 6:55 pm

Re: A request for outside opinions on choices please

Post by Jean.Brodie »

Hi Nathair! We, too, have a budding Archaeologist at home!

In her Year 9 GCSE choices she has the compulsory Double English, Triple Science and Maths. Plus: History (humanity option), French (MFL option), Music (Arts-DT option) and 2 'free' options: Latin and Spanish. That should make 11, the standard at her school.

We are supporting her ambition as follows: History and Latin as essential 'core' subjects (GCSE and A Level) to demonstrate passion, grounding, accomplishment and commitment on her target Uni subject. English Lit, French and Spanish are important supplementary subjects and likely to yield 2 A Levels between them. Fortunately, all of these she loves or enjoys.

High tech geological analysis is also important and something she needs to get comfortable with in the long term.

These choices should also leave open Uni study of History, Politics, MFL, Classics, all possible long term interests.

Hope this helps.
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