11 Plus Exams Forum

DS GCSE subjects are as below

Compulsory for all: English Language & Literture (2 IGCSE grades),Maths and RS.
Sciences (Two Sciences are compulsory): Chemistry, Biology and Physics.
Modern Languages (One language is compulsory): French,Spanish & Italian.

Other Options

Art and Design, Business Studies, Design: Graphic Products, Drama, Geography, History, Latin - not for beginners, Music, PE, Classical Civilization, Greek (Classical) - not for beginners

All boys are required to take 6 or 7 excluding the 3 compulsory ones, school suggests 7 is for Scholars or for those who are willing to work hard.

My DS is not a scholar but my question is , why to take 7 when you can take only 6 unless DS is really interested which is not the case here. Taking 7, does it give any advantage for University admissions ? Certainly taking 7 instead of 6 means the child will be more busy and needs to work hard and may need to sacrifice some of clubs/activities(I think). What is general norm , how many subjects are normally taken ?

Please share your suggestions and opinions. My DS is happy not to take 7 so shall I leave him like that or shall I insist him to take 7 ?

Can you please share your opinions on Pros and Cons of taking 6 or 7 options

PS: My DS is thinking of all Sciences and one language (French). So he will need to take 2 or 3 from Other options which he is thinking of Art&Design (for sure), Business studies and not yet seriously thought about 7th option. If he is to take 7th, then he may choose from Design:Graphic Products/Drama/Geography but mostly he would take Design:Graphic Products.

Please share your opinions on 7th option as well

Sincere and Serious advanced thanks for your help

doing too many can actually be a disadvantage especially as AS's are vanishing as it can bring down the average, and in some uni's averages are more important then how many you take.

SteveDH wrote:doing too many can actually be a disadvantage especially as AS's are vanishing as it can bring down the average, and in some uni's averages are more important then how many you take.

what is too many, taking 3 + 7 is too many ? . Also in our case English + English Lit, both are awarded as 2 IGCSEs, does it count as 4 or still 3

what do you mean ASs vanishing ?

harrow123 wrote:
what is too many, taking 3 + 7 is too many ? . Also in our case English + English Lit, both are awarded as 2 IGCSEs, does it count as 4 or still 3

I'd imagine 4, well it was at my DD school, although she only did plane gcse's, so 4+7=11
by too many, it only becomes too many if the number taken causes a reduction in grades, due either to too much workload, or choosing optional subjects that your DS may struggle with.
also some subjects such as art, dt and music can be very time consuming.
having 11 IGCSE's with 2 B's would look worse then 10 IGCSE's where one of those B's has become an A due to a lighter work load, and the other B isn't there as the subject wasn't taken.
At My DD's school 11 was pretty much the normal, but she has a friend who only did 10 and has been offered a place at Oxford, and for Oxford gcse's (or igcse's) are very important.

harrow123 wrote:
what do you mean ASs vanishing ?

I'm not 100% sure of the timetable or even if its definitely going to happen, although I'm sure I've read somewhere that 2015 is when A level changes are being introduced, and although there will still be AS level exams, they will no longer be part of the A level which will make doing them, a lot, perhaps too much work, so its unlikely anyone will take them.
Cambridge are dead against this as AS is what they use to predict exam grades.

This year's year 12 will be the last year to take AS levels. From now on, predicted A level grades will be based on teacher assessment and GCSE grades, therefore University offers will be made on predicted A level grades (from teacher assessments and GCSE grades) ergo GCSE grades will become more important again!

I am pretty sure it's not that soon. My DS is year 11 and we are currently choosing his AS options for next year.

Take 6. Better to get one fewer and do well than overload with work and dilute the results.

No one needs more than 10 GCSEs. The workload is huge. I feel sorry for children in yrs 10 and 11. Life is one long round of stress and study.

Minesatea wrote:I am pretty sure it's not that soon. My DS is year 11 and we are currently choosing his AS options for next year.

That's my understanding, too.

http://www.edexcel.com/Aboutus/press-ro ... pdate.aspx" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

This is the accurate position re A levels.

OP - stick with 6 - no-one has been through taking them all in Year 11 yet and I'm surprised schools are not cutting down on the number of subjects.