ADVICE POST #2: Choosing your GCSEs (Part 2)

    Before Christmas we (10A) offered our advice on choosing GCSE options including the  subjects of Art, Photography, Textiles, PE, Drama and Food in this blog post. This week we will be taking a closer look at Business Studies, Geography, History and Double and Triple Award Science. We hope that we will provide you with an honest, student's view on the different subjects that will aid you in making this important decision.

ADVICE GIVER: Daisy Partington

SUBJECT: Business Studies

    I chose this subject because you can use it in almost every career that you want to get into. It is very interesting and helpful; I do not regret taking it. I get about 2 homeworks a week but they are only half an hour so it is not too bad and it’s mainly what we did in the class. The classes are quite small so you have lots of class discussions. Most of the work is quite a lot of common knowledge but just in more depth. At the end of the course you do a multiple choice (they are harder than you would expect) exam and a written exam. Year 10 is spent preparing for the multiple choice exam.

ADVICE GIVER: Serina Tatham

SUBJECT: History

    I chose to take history as it is one of my favourite subjects. The good thing with this subject is that you don’t need to have any specific qualities, like for art or textiles. Many people say that if you take history you do a lot of essay writing, and you do. This is a good thing, however, as it gets you prepared for the actual GCSE. You will be set essay homework in one lesson and a smaller homework in the other.

    In the lessons we go through a PowerPoint and highlight sheets about the specific topic that we’re studying. We then make some notes from our text books and do some practice exam type questions. Yes, there is loads of writing in this subject so if you are not keen on writing or if you are a really slow writer, then unless this is one of your favourite subjects like with me, then I would rethink this choice. Like with all your option choices, you need to be passionate about the subject, as after all you will be continuing the subject for at least two years!

    All the exam questions you do in the lessons and for homework and all of the tests you do in year 10 and the beginning of year 11 build up to the GCSE at the end of the year. This consists of an A (3 marks), B (4), C (8) and D (10) question. The A question is putting dates in the right order and the others are essays. The length of these depends on the amount of marks that you will get overall. This is why you get so much work in the build up to the end of year 11, as it makes the GCSE exam easy – well as easy as it can be for a GCSE.

 ADVICE GIVERS: Xian Pelaez and Chloe Farmiloe
SUBJECT: Geography

    If you enjoy geography and are thinking about taking it for GCSE, we suggest you do, although you are given quite a lot of homework, we have learnt a lot of interesting and helpful information so far this year. We have learnt about population, migration and rivers so far. As well as doing many worksheets, taking notes and learning visually we watch many videos in the lessons which enables us to learn in a more exciting way.

ADVICE GIVER: Serina Tatham

SUBJECT: Double and Triple Award Science

    If you are trying to decide on whether you want to take double or triple award then you need to contemplate your future. If you are in the bottom sets then you will automatically do double award unless you ask to do otherwise. If you are in the set above that then you will automatically do triple unless your teachers advise you to do double or if you choose to do double award science. All of the other sets do triple award science inevitably. If you are contemplating on whether or not to do double or triple award science, you need to think about what you want to be when you’re older. If your future job includes science, then you will have to do triple award (eg. a vet or a doctor/nurse). If you don’t want a future in science then you should be fine, but don’t think that double award science is an easy option. You use a different exam board than the other award but you do a GCSE at the end of year 10 and year 11 instead of more at the end of year 11.

    We hope that the advice we have given you in this post, and in the last, has helped you gain a better understanding of what the GCSE options involve. Take time in making this decision as it will affect your opportunities at A-Level and beyond. Most importantly, pick what you enjoy - because, most of the time, the subjects you enjoy are the subjects you will work most hard for and therefore get the best grades in. Good luck in making your decision, and feel free to come and talk to us Year 10s about it if you want more help!

Contributed by 10A and collated by Serina Tatham, 10A's blog representative

Illustrations contributed by the very talented Annabel Brooks, 10A (Year 10 Art Scholar)

If you would like to contribute a post or illustrations, or have feedback about this post or others, please talk to your form blog representative.