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GCSE Double awards ?

Posted: Fri Oct 03, 2014 3:27 pm
by Alice in Underland
Just browsing through the KS4 info booklet produced by my sons excellent school.
Can someone explain to me what GCSE "Double Awards" are please ?
And whats a 1/2 level ?

:?

Re: GCSE Double awards ?

Posted: Fri Oct 03, 2014 3:29 pm
by hermanmunster
A double award means that you do twice the amount of work as one GCSE (however much that is meant to be ) and then do more exams or course work. The award is then given as
A*A*
A*A
AA
AB
BB
BC
BB
etc

Counts as 2 GCSEs in the overall count.

DD did engineering - ton and a half of coursework and 2 exams.

Re: GCSE Double awards ?

Posted: Fri Oct 03, 2014 3:46 pm
by Guest55
A half GCSE is just that - half the work and not a 'full' GCSE - many schools do RS half course GCSE.

Re: GCSE Double awards ?

Posted: Fri Oct 03, 2014 4:08 pm
by Alice in Underland
Ah thanks [b]Hermanmunster[/b].
DS has just started on Engineering and it is that one which puzzled me !

Re: GCSE Double awards ?

Posted: Fri Oct 03, 2014 4:10 pm
by Alice in Underland
Hmmm, so a 1/2 GCSE in Double Science...whats that all about ?

Re: GCSE Double awards ?

Posted: Fri Oct 03, 2014 4:16 pm
by Guest55
That's impossible! Do they mean single award science? I really would not recommend that as you cannot do A level with single science GCSE.

Re: GCSE Double awards ?

Posted: Fri Oct 03, 2014 4:21 pm
by hermanmunster
Alice in Underland wrote:Hmmm, so a 1/2 GCSE in Double Science...whats that all about ?
perhaps this 1/2 is actually one or two - single GCSE in science or the double GCSE in science

http://www.ccea.org.uk/general_science/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

http://www.ccea.org.uk/general_science/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Re: GCSE Double awards ?

Posted: Fri Oct 03, 2014 5:17 pm
by Amber
Triple science = 3x papers in all 3 science subjects, e.g. B1, B2, B3, P1, P2, P3 etc = 3 separate GCSEs, one in each of the subjects.

Dual Award science = 2x papers in all 3 science subjects, e.g. B1, B2, P1, P2 etc = a dual award of 2 science GCSEs. Called Core and Additional.

You can go on and do A level with either of these options - usually a school would like to see A*s if you have done dual award and As if you've done all 3. Some people will try to tell you the latter is inferior - it just means less science in Y11 and yes, ideally a serious A level student would have done triple, but I know of many who didn't, including one who is in her second year at medical school now.

Re: GCSE Double awards ?

Posted: Fri Oct 03, 2014 6:43 pm
by Rob Clark
You can get Double Awards in PE too.

DD did single award PE, DS did double which entailed being tested in 8 sports rather than 4 (unsurprisingly) and an extra written paper. Couldn't quite see the point to be honest, but he seemed to enjoy it :D

Re: GCSE Double awards ?

Posted: Fri Oct 03, 2014 6:57 pm
by Tinkers
Amber wrote:You can go on and do A level with either of these options - usually a school would like to see A*s if you have done dual award and As if you've done all 3. Some people will try to tell you the latter is inferior - it just means less science in Y11 and yes, ideally a serious A level student would have done triple, but I know of many who didn't, including one who is in her second year at medical school now.
My chemistry teaching sister would agree, in previous years some of her double science students have later more than surpassed their triple science peers at A level. It is only a barrier if you want to move to a sixth form that insist on triple science to do A level science.