First post on the GCSE forum. Feels just yesterday I was on the 11 plus forum (Time does fy )

I was hoping for some advice on the topic of additonal GCSEs.

DD will start Y10 and attends a grammar school and has chosen her 11 subjects this year. However she has recently found out that a large number of her friends have been doing private GCSEs outside school in computing and MFL. She now feels a bit left out.

She now wants to do a private GCSE in Spanish (her teachers have told her she is very good and is already at GCSE standard). While I am happy to support her endavours and pretty sure that DD will do well I was not sure of the need to do an additional GCSE.

So here are my queries:
- Does an additional GCSE help A Levels or Universiy applications OR does it just give students bragging rights
- Considering that the school is planning to do the entire GCSE syllabus in 2 years would this put additional pressure on my DD if she takes an additional GCSE in Y10 (Note she has not yet started preparing but has done a few GCSE papers and appears to score well).
- If she is planning to take Maths at A Level is she better off doing an additional qualification such as Further Maths

Appreciate any and all feedback.

My DD has just finished GCSEs, she did 11.

11 is more than enough. It’s not really going to help Uni applications in most cases.

No. Top 8 are all they care about. Yep. Parents more than students I imagine.

Your instincts are sound. 11 is enough, or even more than enough.

11 is more than sufficient.
As far as University goes it's much better to have best grades she can in these than take on more.
If she has spare time then encourage her to do something she enjoys that doesn't have exams.
That is much more likely to help her develop as a person and be of long term benefit than yet another GCSE.

Agree with all the above posters - additional GCSEs are a complete waste of time. It's much better to play sport or music or do some volunteering.

Dd is about to start year 11 and is doing 11 GCSEs.
Her brother is about to start year 9 and will be doing 10 as the school policy has changed.
I know other schools which have reduced to 9 (and those doing double science at our school will do 9).
It seems much more sensible to do fewer and do them well than try and do more.
The only reason I can see to do a GCSE out of school is if it is in a language the school does not offer and is a language spoken at home - I have come across students taking Romanian or Polish for example.

Yes...this!!

Encourage your DD to think outside the box more, rather than do an additional GCSE (as others have said, Universities only consider your best . Doing volunteering, getting a paid job, learning an instrument or sport, engaging in drama - all these things are equally valuable to creating a well rounded individual and will give her life skills that last well beyond a university education.

I asked DD how she would have felt if I had suggested doing another gcse outside of school.

Initial response was possibly unrepeatable (mainly because I didn’t catch it, but that’s probably the point).

After all she said only of it was something she actually really, really wanted to do but the school didn’t offer, and even then, she would be reluctant, knowing what she knows now.

if she's not already doing a MFL then maybe but if she is then I would advise a sport, instrument, volunteering or something instead. Ds2 wanted to do something outside so he did LAMDA public speaking, there was no pressure to do well he just enjoyed it and for him it was something completely different.

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Knowledge is knowing that a tomato is a fruit, wisdom is not putting it in a fruit salad !

Having just gone through GCSEs for the first time I would say doing extra ones outside school is a really bad idea.
My DS did 10 at his grammar school. He also did lots of sport,music and living a teenage life.
No one to my knowledge at his school did any extra GCSEs outside school.