11 Plus Exams Forum

Does anyone know how many GCSE's a child can take? I realise they vary from school to school.

I am also confused on the sciencs, they offer Science, Additional Science, or Chemistry, biology and physics.
What is the difference?

slough mum wrote:Does anyone know how many GCSE's a child can take? I realise they vary from school to school.

I am also confused on the sciencs, they offer Science, Additional Science, or Chemistry, biology and physics.
What is the difference?

You answered your first question - it varies and will probably change before your DC gets to year 11, so I wouldn't worry about it.

I'm confused about science too, but I think that is the difference between double science and triple science (where3 GCSEs are awarded in the 3 separate sciences). For the double award 2 GCSEs are awarded and cover all 3 sciences but not in such great depth. I think (this is where I become uncertain, but someone else will know) that double science is made up of science and additional science.

Core Science is one GCSE with 3 papers, one in each. Double Science is Core with Additional Science which gives you two GCSE's and Triple Science is a GCSE in each. In our school you have to be at Sats Level 6B in Science to do Triple but 85% of the 200 students in the year do Triple. Other schools only have one out of six classes doing Triple science. You should be able to find this detail from your school. Eight CGSE's are considered to be enough. Triple Science, Double English, Maths, Lang and History or Geography should be your priority and then fit in any others that you have room for. DG

Triple Science, Double English, Maths, Lang and History or Geography should be your priority

Why DG? You are promoting the ebacc which has no statutory force and is being revised anyway!

Students should be encouraged to take separate sciences, English Lang and Lit, Maths and a MFL beyond that it should be down to personal strengths and preferences.

Not everyone enjoys Geography and History and other subjects such as Music, Technology, RS have just as much merit.

NO university requires the Ebacc and looks at grades and a spread of subjects.

With GCSEs becoming linear I do think many schools should reduce the number of subjects.

If my DC is going into Year 9 in sept, does that mean they will be the last lot to do the GCSEs before it changes?

Dies that mean they will do exams throughout the two years and not at the end of 2 year?

My son is year 10 and I believe he is the first year to do linear GCSE exams(no modules). He is still sitting 13 though!

I assumed it was all starting in 2015 and first exams in 2017?

It all became very confusing because Gove tried to change so much at once, without letting one set of changes be evaluated before starting on the next.
The children in year 10 seem to be sitting the old modular syllabuses in a linear form. Younger children will get reviewed syllabuses.
Edexcel's site explains it fairly well:

http://www.edexcel.com/quals/gcse/gcse- ... fault.aspx

slough mum wrote:I assumed it was all starting in 2015 and first exams in 2017?

I think you may be confusing two initiatives, which is not in the least bit surprising, given how thick and fast they spurt from the mouth of our trusted Education Secretary.

The first was to abandon modular GCSEs and replace them with linear ones. This will begin with the current Year 9 when they go into Year 10 in September 2013.

The second was to do away with GCSEs altogether and replace them with something based on the old 'O' level system. This was to have started in 2015. However, given the total lack of thought behind the initiative, it has been abandoned before it began. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-21363396" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

The English Baccalaureate, or Ebacc, to which G55 alludes, was a self-proclaimed measurement tool/stick to beat schools with, depending on which side of Gove's fence you sit, applied retrospectively to league tables once the Coalition Government came in. It looked at results in English, Maths, a humanity, an MFL and Science. It has no legal or educational status and is of no interest to universities or employers. I think this has now, too, been abandoned.

I think this has now, too, been abandoned.

I think you are correct, although how anyone keeps up with Gove's whims is completely beyond me. I know some schools still insist on the Ebacc (not ours, although by chance DS1 is fulfilling it and so did DD).