11 Plus Exams Forum

Hi,

I would appreciate your thoughts on a dilema we have.

Son goes to a good state school and the following are compulsory:

Maths
English
English Literature
Physics
Chemistry
Biology
Philosophy and Ethics

He need to choose 4 more which seems like a lot of gcse's.

1 He enjoys History
2 He enjoys Geography
3 He like IT but not sure whether to take ICT or Computer Science?????
4 Last one is a problem as he hates launguages but he's thinking either Drama or Music Technoloy. The reason being all kids who took Music Technology over the last 2 years passed with a B (so he kind of thinking it's a good bet). Drama because again 50% all kids got either an A* or A). He does enjoy both subjects.

Any thoughts on 3 or 4?

Are there any subjects above that will take up a lot of time?

Also he passed Religious Studies with an A last year.

Thanks in advance.

I personally think RS and Philosophy is repetitive unless he plans to carry on at A levels. What are your other choices?

My own DS is taking History, Geography and Computer Science along with a language and is wishing he'd included a creative subject in the mix. A school trip to Iceland prompted him to take Geography, a subject he finds a little dull. He thinks either drama or music would have been more enjoyable.

How does you son get on with Computer Science?

Is there a subject that takes up a disproportionate amount of time?

Any views on DT Graphics?

Very bad with anything to do with drawing or design by his own admission he's glad he can drop subjects he's not good at.

Have you got a free choice or are there 'blocks' to choose from?

Computer Science rather than ICT (not highly regarded)

I believe the Computing/ computer science GCSE is some what more challenging and better regarded than the ICT GCSE.

We have had similar dilemmas but DD can only choose 3 extra GCSE's and wants to do computing but then has had to choose between history and french ( history has won) and has one block where the only thing she wants to do is graphic design ..but luckily she loves drawing and art so that will work.
This is a link to my thread from a few weeks ago
http://www.elevenplusexams.co.uk/forum/ ... 56&t=40972" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Computer science is considered a better subject than IT. I would say go with whichever he fancies for music tech or drama - it's good to have somethign creative & he has plenty of other academically rigorous GCSEs.

DS is enjoying computer science. He is a logical thinker so finds it interesting but not overly challenging. There are sometimes issues with pace, easy example in class then significantly more complicated homework to do with very little guidance. So far he hasn't been inspired to do a stroke of work more than he has to, although he says some of the boys in his class are very keen.