11 Plus Exams Forum

Looking for some advice from you wise ones. How important is it to take a language at GCSE? It is not the strongest of subjects for my daughter and it seems a shame for her to use up one of her GCSEs on this when she would so better at something else. The school recommend that everyone takes a language but don’t insist upon it.

My question is, will it impact on her future, especially when it comes to university applications?

Many thanks.

There are a couple of Unis that require a language GCSE but that’s still leaves lots that don’t.

I would generally encourage children to try and study a language unless there is very good reasons not to, as it helps keep options open longer. The question is probably what would she do instead, as without a language you may find her options become too essay heavy, (eg History, Geography) or too workload heavy (eg music, drama, art) - it does depend on her strengths and interests - and longer term aims.

UCL requires either a language studied to at least GCSE, or that an extra course is taken when one starts. It is only one university out of scores in the UK though and I don't think offers any totally unique undergraduate degree, so quite easy to avoid applying there.

Not sure which the other university is.

To be fair it might just be UCL but I had a question mark in my head about Cambridge? It may be my memory playing tricks though!