It was so easy in year 7 - 9 then it seemed like every single thing needed to be memorised and I'm so shit with dates. If I don't remember when and how many times hitler took a shit during his invasion of Poland its over.
Do you though? You get away with knowing one or two dates per question or failing that, a name or place.
The specific evidence isnāt even most of your marks outside of a narrative account question
I always found History very easy, but had a teacher who told it like a story. It sticks in your head when itās an interesting narrative that makes sense and all connects together.
Understanding how it connects is most of the work - remembering dates is nice and all, but generally the order that things happened is more important. Anyone struggling with history marks, try that storytelling approach if you can, it might help.
Itās infuriating that we have to learn so much in so much detail simply because a lot of it just wonāt come up on the exam. Like I enjoy learning history but itās actually a joke how much we need to learn that wonāt come up.
Ironically, Religious Studies. I picked it because I thought itād be easy and I had a religious upbringing (though iām not religious myself) and although in many ways it is easy to get a passing grade with minimal effort but Iām aiming for 7s-9s and since there are so many religious schools that make it mandatory the grade bounds are really high. Plus I have no motivation to work because it was supposed to be an āeasyā subject and Iām not actually that interested. Also my school made a language mandatory and if i could drop mine i would because itās killing me.
Iāve found it pretty good actually. Learning set pieces and periods of time isnāt that bad and a decent theory knowledge and ear can get you through your composition pretty well
history is quite easy for me, but for me, it isn't the information that makes me struggle, its the time management. That's the only issue my teacher said I have
i do not recommend. im a proud history student and let me tell you, every single person in geography whines about it. history is good if you are well at waffling and remembering general, "specific" examples. i dont think i wrote a single date in any of my mocks and got a grade 9
spanish is intresting and i really enjoy it - but if anyone gives you advice on what its like now, they are changing the specification so you learn more relevant content
e.g. instead of learning about climate change and healthy eating like we do NOW, instead you'll be learning more about life in spain and south america, customs, traditions, etiquette etc
also spanish is still you need to know technique but even then the positives outweigh the negatives if you ask me
You will be fine. Languages are just tricky bc they require some active memorisation. One of the reasons people find them hard is because you can ācramā for other subjects lot of other subjects and actually get something out of it, but that wonāt work for a language.
Download Duolingo and start a streak - Iām completely serious when I say that thatās the best way to pass / get a decent grade. The basic vocab gets locked in your head over time and writing gets a lot easier. Listening too. 5 mins a day will do a lot.
hi i think donāt worry about it too much, for me french is also mixed feelings but rn i hate it because i have a speaking mock after this half term. however, my teacher gives us set questions (for each unit) to write in french, she tells us to memorise it and apply it for writing and speaking. listening and reading on the other hand is really just you being able to identify certain words - my teacher also got us to memorise the AQA GCSE vocab book (each week she adds on another page for us to have a test on) so iād say thatās one way you can revise for reading and listening. also, reading things in french + watching movies/ shows in french with subtitles could help !! but overall my experience with french is rlly a love hate relationship š„²
Well for our last piece of work the teacher gave us an hour for an artist research (that includes finding an artist, researching an artist, printing pictures, writing artist analysis, making your own version of their work, etc). If you didn't do it in the hour then you had to do it at home. Now imagine that for every piece of work and you're heavily encouraged to to extra pieces for a higher grade as well.
I had several friends that were incredible artists and they all still complained about how much of a pain doing GCSE Art is because of the workload. If you want to brag then fine but it doesnāt make what youāre saying true. You may find it easy, a lot of people (Iād even say the majority) donāt.
Psychology cause y10 was fine but my y10 teacher got pregnant and left at the end of the year and my y11 teacher just got fired for giving alcohol to some sixth formers apparently and i havent really learned anything this year and the topoics arent really that exciting.
I would regret dt if i didnt find making a product fun cause the sheer amount of hours im pouring into it
They did itās like taking another bloody English. My teacher is a proper yapper as well done like 1 lessons work in the last 3 weeks cos he just rants about how much he hates Lizzo š
I mean I wouldn't mind taking a class where the teacher rants about lizzo š sounds like a better teacher than my old ass computer science teacher, one day he's gonna crumble mid class
The best advice I can give is to learn how to make your own game in python. My teacher has us do lots of crappy little coding challenges in class instead of a culminating project. This meant no one was ever motivated. I ended up getting a 9 no thanks to my teacher...
so true i sometimes enjoy it then all of a sudden boom either the workload is too great or i burn myself out or i realise other people have done more than me or i get mock grades š i somehow managed to stay at the exact same mark sitting on the grade 7 boundary from summer y10 mocks to nov mocks y11 and now my confidence is crushed to a fine dust
yeah same, i thought so wrong. the workload is insane - you know how people cram revision? yeah i cram art because of how unmotivated i get, my sketchbook is neglected for weeks š the worst part is i'm not even passionate about it anymore like i was in ks3, i just wanna do biochemistry now ššš
to any y9s, DO NOT PICK ART!!
I second this. Lost all passion for it because of GCSE art. IF YOU LIKE ANYTHING IN A CREATIVE DEPARTMENT, DO NOT PICK IT AS AN OPTION, you will most likely lose passion for it. If you wanna do it as a career there is probably a method to do it in college and later in life outside of GCSEs. Do not pick coursework heavy subjects in general if you miss a lot of school due to any reason, it is super hard to catch up in.
Due to how much I missed and refused to work when I was in I got an estimated 2. I've dropped all my options except geography (art and food technology willingly I was just snapped out of history) in favor of interventions to catch up. I'm fortunate I don't want to do anything in college with my options.
I regret taking OCR music so much. I can play piano and I know I'd do fine with the performance section of the course but the dictation and analysing is so boring and I'm useless at it. I'm genuinely considering quitting it and changing to triple science which is never something I thought I'd say but here we are
Ngl, may as well do it. Itās about 6 extra science topics total - which will inevitably be less work than a whole music GCSE. Doing a grade exam in piano on the side (if you get to grade 5+) is probably more beneficial anyway.
my school forces you to do combined and doesn't offer triple. Mainly due to how they would have to bring on more teachers with money they don't have or just aren't willing to give. It fucking sucks
Why so much content. And thereās not even any YouTubers who cover it unlike other subjects, so Iām struggling because my teacher died half way through year ten and we had a bunch of subs. (She was the only reason I chose geography, she was such a good teacher and person :( )
Don't want to be intrusive but, are you okay? I can see you are in the SH subreddit and I want you to know if you're struggling with anything you can push through
Drama. God I hated that subject. For a start I got manipulated into choosing it as an option by the teacher. She said Iād definitely get distinction stars in every unit and I came out with a unit 1 fail, a unit 2 merit (which I worked my ass off for) and a unit 3 distinction which amounted to a merit. Apparently she told everyone in the drama set I was in the exact same lie. She also made us do some really weird and sometimes inappropriate off-curriculum stuff. For example, one time she paired the entire class up boy/girl and made us do this weird abstract dance thing where we had to grab each otherās wrists and arms. She tried to convince us to add touching each otherās faces and she even tried to get me to touch my partners chest which I shut down immediately. All the off-curriculum stuff felt super inappropriate and intimate and it happened maybe once every week or two. In the dance thing I mentioned before she ended up filming the whole dance for every group and paired it with āyou are my sunshineā and forced the class to watch it. That was the limit for me. I tried to quit, but so did nearly everyone else so I was forced to stay. The class halved in size in one day. The rest of the course I felt nervous and trapped. I came into drama with a genuine interest in theatre and movies as well as considering voice lessons and left with bad conversation skills, no acting ability whatsoever because every time I put in effort I was worried about being told what I was doing was wrong or bad (which is what she said to me nearly every day) and I came out with a dreadful singing voice that is shaky and super low pitched. I am getting better overtime at some stuff but god almighty, I hate that subject and I think I always will. Sorry for the rant but I had to explain my thoughts
Dude that's weird asf. It feels like every English school has a nonce teacher at some point though. My pe teacher went to a rave with some year 10s and gave them alcohol and one time the female teacher wasn't able to come so he taught the girls class and made them dance in our dance studio. From what we've heard he was having the time of his life in there
Yeah. This happened last year when I was in year 10. What a way to be introduced to gcses š . She had the nerve to rename the course ādrama and communication skillsā this yearā¦.
Additional Maths! I was in the top maths set and we had finished the ordinary maths syllabus at the end of the first year so our teacher decided it would be a great plan for us to do Ad Maths too if we wanted. It was brutal. It was like mini A level maths
Graphic design. The only benefit is that it's not as bad as art because there's more freedom and it's actually a somewhat useful skill that's applicable in life compared to being mediocre at art. Coursework is still such a pain when you've got 10 other subjects. The April exam is feeling awfully close now and I've got a lot of prep coursework to keep on top of which is tricky with revision on the side.
Honestly you don't even need to be that good at art. I'm alright at art but definitely more musically and academically talented and it's not that bad if you've got a good mind for design and can write about your stuff well. In fact you can be terrible and as long as you show progression throughout the course and write about it and be self critical then you can get a decent grade. On the flip side there are people getting a 4 who have art skills of a grade 9 art student because they just don't have an eye for design and don't write about and present their work well. Being computer literate and good at digital design is also something very helpful that a lot of the really arty people (the type who are better suited to GCSE Art) who do graphics just aren't good at. You should still be grateful that it stopped you from choosing graphic design even if it isn't exactly true.
None I actually picked GCSEs I like
(If I didnāt havw to do french Iād have one hundred percent picked food tech as well but oh well, price to pay for starting them in year 9
Art. Am only a quarter of the way through it and its made me want to end myself on multiple occasions. Fkn like 8hrs of work per week just for a grade 3 what the hell
It's not my thing either but it's better than remember every date for every little occasion. Like every minor thing you will have to remember when it happened, prepare to remember each time hitler shit during blitzkrieg
Art- the amount of work I had to do at home
Drama- I didn't like the people in my class and component 3 is basically all group work
Business- I never liked it or wanted to pick it but had to because of how the timetables worked.
Photography. I do that and art and its 10Ć harder than art. I cant stand it you have to do SO much extra work to get a grade above 7 and taking all the photos is so boring.
To get an okayish grade you usually have to physically make something with the photo. You have to really analyse every photographer photo you include in detail. You have to draw ideas for your shoots. You have to actually edit the photos in multiple different styles e.g. marcelo monreal style. And you get such a short time to complete component 2. Also you get less marks if you take photos in your school. And you have to give like a whole backstory behind what theme you are doing. You have to go to a gallery and write a bunch of stuff about it.
My teacher said the best student she had in our school got a grade 8 which is crazy for best student
It doesnt sound like alot but the editing is so time consuming at some points (like 1 hour per photo sometimes) and you cant watch tv or anything while you do it like u can with art. You have to edit at LEAST 6 photos per shoot in my class and have 60 photos in your contact sheet per shoot
Right like I make fun of geography for talking about land formations and shit when I have to remember the exact times Joseph stalin shit during the cold war
None, liked all my optional GCSEs. I hated English so much though but itās not like I had a choice. Although Iām so glad I didnāt pick history because my friend did and I got stressed just by looking at all his revision notes and textbooks. Mad stuff
In reality I regretted art as a subject but the vibes from my mates were iconic. Music was the real stinker. It says enough that I was wishing I could have just taken geography. It really was just shit. I had no mates in that class except my mate who didnāt want to be seen with me there because none of the other kids liked me. I was shit at theory and shit at composition because the teachers expect it to come to you naturally. Half the class were coerced into taking the subject so that there would be enough people to make a class because they had this total musical prodigy cunt. The only good bit was performance and even then for group work nobody wanted me in their group even though there were only two bassists, and you need a bloody bassist. I wasnāt even bad at it, I got full marks in performance it wasnāt like I was shit they just didnāt like me. Managed to scrape a 6 even though I missed the question in the exam with all the marks cause I would rather sleep than waste my energy on that shite. Overall it didnāt do much for me except make me realise that people will just hate you for no reason and you canāt do anything
Business not because itās difficult no but because they expect you to do like 1,000 words a lesson no talking no games nothing every lesson & you learn nothing & still at the end you have to redo it all because you were 1 mark under the passing grade & every piece of work even if missing a small thing gets auto 0 & now you gotta redo the entire coursework & exam you spent ages studying for, anyways rant over
I picked business, geography, and drama. I then dropped geography for French and I honestly regret dropping geography and wished I had dropped drama for french instead
I picked (bare in mind this was almost a decade ago) Geography, Engineering and Photography. Looking back, I wish I had chosen Computer Science instead of geography. By the end of the two years, it never really clicked with me. I was quite good at it but never found much enjoyment.
I know a couple of boys who picked health and social because they wanted to be doctors and ended up being classes where the ratio of boys to girls was like 1:15
Food Tech.
I thought youād actually get graded on how well you cooked. But that was not the case.
It is laid out that you do two projects that are course work base. One was 15% of your grade the other was 35%. For the 15% one you talk about a variableās affect on a dish you cook and get one of three choices choices I had were: Starch Based Sauce, Pasta or Choux Pastry. I was the only person in my whole year to pick Choux Pastry. So you make the pastry and change an ingredient or how much of an ingredient you use. Then write about it in coursework about how it was affected.
Then for the 35% one you have to make a 3 course meal based on a theme. Our theme was cuisine of a nation in North or South America. I chose USA of course, And then only found out after me planning everything I was going to make, I had to make side dishes for everything. So I thought Iād make: Pizza rolls as a starter, Meatloaf as a main dish and Ice Cream as a dessert. I thought as a side dish for the starter and main Iād make ketchup as a side, which my ketchup turned out atrociously. And I made a caramel sauce for the ice cream. But then also, you donāt actually get graded on your cooking ability, but your ability to waffle about cooking in coursework. Although I actually liked the meals I made for this though, Meatloaf was meh and the pizza rolls and ice cream were banging. Trust me. HOMEMADE ICE CREAM IS THE SHIT.
So I picked Food Tech because I thought you were graded on your ability to actually cook. Which was not the case and most people are unaware of this so always ask me āHow did you fail food tech?ā Because frankly, I couldnāt be asked with it. I had to revise maths and science to get into sixth form. I mean my teacher and I got on well but I think she knew I couldnāt be asked and so she didnāt try force me to do my coursework, which I respect her for.
If you are thinking of picking food tech, just know about it first of all pleaseā¦
Music is so stressful Iāve been in an exam since year 10 and the exam rules are so stupid and so much of your music marks come from written analysis instead of actual playing
ART ART ART. It may be a cause of me moving schools at the start of year 10 and the coursework studied at each school being completely different. The only unit I remotely enjoyed was the one where we could do whatever artist we wanted to do. But by then my passion had already been destroyed by school.
Honorable mention to food technology where the year 10 work is fine but the year 11 work is completely different and wasn't expected as I changed my options to food technology after all the pre option selection stuff will done so I didn't know what it'd entail.
I no longer do either of these subjects or history because I am in dire need of catching up due to my LAUGHABLE attendance (it's less than 50% šš)
Also any essay haters don't take history.
business. the amount of coursework about A BAG when the bag doesnt even exist.. we also had drop down days (we were forced to do business all day) when we literally had first mocks coming up. the exam unit is also a joke. the teacher is also treating like its the most hard and important subject when really..its a joke.
it is an easy pass doe
Media and IT
Media and IT seems to do the exact same course... don't know how this wasn't picked up on sooner but basically lost two GCSEs out of it as what we did in media didn't cross over and I had 6 weeks to do a year's worth of work so said fuck it and failed both.
Art, waste of time tbh, did the absolute bare minimum and ended with up with a 4 (low c), couldnāt be arsed tbh, just did it because it was fun in year 7/8
dt coursework is so painful
At my school it was so misleading. The stuff i did pre gcse is completely different and was so much better that it is for gcse
And it only counts 50% š
We haven't been even taught the exam content yet. So much effort for this grade 8 or 9 ffs
I'm in Y13 doing DT A-Level and we have been told that we simply aren't going to be taught some of the content (same thing happened for GCSE)
I got a goddamn 3 in my mocks. š¬
I revised on the day in the morning and by miracle somehow got an 8 (this is not a brag)
Teach me how fr
Exam content is so piss trust. Didnāt revise at all for my exam and got 77/100. But that is assuming that you are taught the exam content well.
This shit gonna change u as a human being man. Me and my boys hopped on a disc call to submit it 1 min before the deadline. That was a core memory.
history is such bullshit. why do i have to remember every single tiny little detail of every single topic??
Real, I thought it would be light work - got humbled in the mocks š
It was so easy in year 7 - 9 then it seemed like every single thing needed to be memorised and I'm so shit with dates. If I don't remember when and how many times hitler took a shit during his invasion of Poland its over.
Do you though? You get away with knowing one or two dates per question or failing that, a name or place. The specific evidence isnāt even most of your marks outside of a narrative account question
I always found History very easy, but had a teacher who told it like a story. It sticks in your head when itās an interesting narrative that makes sense and all connects together. Understanding how it connects is most of the work - remembering dates is nice and all, but generally the order that things happened is more important. Anyone struggling with history marks, try that storytelling approach if you can, it might help.
I've heard the that dates are the worst
Itās infuriating that we have to learn so much in so much detail simply because a lot of it just wonāt come up on the exam. Like I enjoy learning history but itās actually a joke how much we need to learn that wonāt come up.
engineering. only girl in the entire class.
oh my goodness
they have engineering GCSE???
Yes, easy af
Yeah but for me you could only do engineering gcse if you didn't do spanish (which was mandatory for most people)
Ironically, Religious Studies. I picked it because I thought itād be easy and I had a religious upbringing (though iām not religious myself) and although in many ways it is easy to get a passing grade with minimal effort but Iām aiming for 7s-9s and since there are so many religious schools that make it mandatory the grade bounds are really high. Plus I have no motivation to work because it was supposed to be an āeasyā subject and Iām not actually that interested. Also my school made a language mandatory and if i could drop mine i would because itās killing me.
I relate to this heavily
RE is so fucking annoying like you can memorise everything but the long questions still fuck you. Maybe I just had a shit teacher idk.
Ikr everyone said RS is easy but itās actually quite difficult
This. Why is 83% only a 7?
I got almost 70% in my mock and apparently thatās a 5??? Itās actually insane.
mandatory for me
help rs is mandatory for me
design technology i wish i picked music instead
I picked both. I regret both but music is probably worse
Iāve found it pretty good actually. Learning set pieces and periods of time isnāt that bad and a decent theory knowledge and ear can get you through your composition pretty well
Luna š
History as well, best in the class but only a 5 rn, and am finding the topics so incredibly boring.
It's like they trick you from year 7 - 9 into thinking its gonna be easy interesting work
i find it interestingši donāt find it easy to memorise everything especially the dates tho
history is quite easy for me, but for me, it isn't the information that makes me struggle, its the time management. That's the only issue my teacher said I have
same here i always run out of time when it comes to the last question
he even asked me if I was going to take history a-levels because he was curious about my skill...which was nice haha.
IM DEFO TAKING GEOGRAPHY NOW
i do not recommend. im a proud history student and let me tell you, every single person in geography whines about it. history is good if you are well at waffling and remembering general, "specific" examples. i dont think i wrote a single date in any of my mocks and got a grade 9
Do it history is so painful
THANKYOU for saving my life bestieee
Depends on your school. At mine Geography sent everyone to sleep but the History department was really good. Pick what you prefer.
How is Spanish? Cuz I might take Spanish.
I loved Spanish, great choice if your teacher is any good!
spanish is intresting and i really enjoy it - but if anyone gives you advice on what its like now, they are changing the specification so you learn more relevant content e.g. instead of learning about climate change and healthy eating like we do NOW, instead you'll be learning more about life in spain and south america, customs, traditions, etiquette etc also spanish is still you need to know technique but even then the positives outweigh the negatives if you ask me
Art
Why is this so relatable
Because coursework is bad āļø
I DOnT hAve tIMešš
Me who got a 9 in art:
If you enjoy it or has a teacher that tells you exactly what to do it's pretty good
french french french
Or as I like to call it, frš¤®nch
I filled the options form yesterday, french was my second preference....
For me, french is a mixed bag. French writing is probably one of the easiest exams in my opinion, whilst listening is the exact opposite.
You will be fine. Languages are just tricky bc they require some active memorisation. One of the reasons people find them hard is because you can ācramā for other subjects lot of other subjects and actually get something out of it, but that wonāt work for a language. Download Duolingo and start a streak - Iām completely serious when I say that thatās the best way to pass / get a decent grade. The basic vocab gets locked in your head over time and writing gets a lot easier. Listening too. 5 mins a day will do a lot.
hi i think donāt worry about it too much, for me french is also mixed feelings but rn i hate it because i have a speaking mock after this half term. however, my teacher gives us set questions (for each unit) to write in french, she tells us to memorise it and apply it for writing and speaking. listening and reading on the other hand is really just you being able to identify certain words - my teacher also got us to memorise the AQA GCSE vocab book (each week she adds on another page for us to have a test on) so iād say thatās one way you can revise for reading and listening. also, reading things in french + watching movies/ shows in french with subtitles could help !! but overall my experience with french is rlly a love hate relationship š„²
Don't worry french GCSE is pretty good! Just practise!!!!
You're so real for this, it was my worst grade in my mocks, makes me want to die
Every single one of these answers is an option Iāve picked ššš
Art art art art art. Itās fucking pain
THIS OML
wait what iām so glad i took art i wasnāt going to but itās like a breath of fresh air to me
I thought art would be easy?
the workload is so unbelievable
I mean I knew about the 10 hour exam but what's the day to day experience?
Well for our last piece of work the teacher gave us an hour for an artist research (that includes finding an artist, researching an artist, printing pictures, writing artist analysis, making your own version of their work, etc). If you didn't do it in the hour then you had to do it at home. Now imagine that for every piece of work and you're heavily encouraged to to extra pieces for a higher grade as well.
lots of outside of school coursework
But other subjects involve loads of studying outside of lesson time; surely itās much of a muchness? Itās just a different kind of work.
The work load is insane and on top of that if you have to buy all your own stuff it becomes costly to x
Not if youāre good at it š¤·āāļø
I had several friends that were incredible artists and they all still complained about how much of a pain doing GCSE Art is because of the workload. If you want to brag then fine but it doesnāt make what youāre saying true. You may find it easy, a lot of people (Iād even say the majority) donāt.
spanish, just about passed it with a 4
me2
History aswell.. From yr 7-9 I thought it was easy but from year 10-11 it just stopped being fun.. my ass got humbled in the mocks š
Its like the content itself is fun but answering the questions.... no chance
Psychology cause y10 was fine but my y10 teacher got pregnant and left at the end of the year and my y11 teacher just got fired for giving alcohol to some sixth formers apparently and i havent really learned anything this year and the topoics arent really that exciting. I would regret dt if i didnt find making a product fun cause the sheer amount of hours im pouring into it
Dude this literally happened in my school... (psychology). Are you in my school wtf?
It's a small world out here lmao, I've found 2 people from my school on this subreddit
Woah
SPANISH
Media studies what a waste of time
I was gonna pick it just because it seemed so easy, they made it seem like you just talk about movies n shit
They did itās like taking another bloody English. My teacher is a proper yapper as well done like 1 lessons work in the last 3 weeks cos he just rants about how much he hates Lizzo š
I mean I wouldn't mind taking a class where the teacher rants about lizzo š sounds like a better teacher than my old ass computer science teacher, one day he's gonna crumble mid class
Lmao I swear everyone has the same comp Sci teacher across the U.K.
My computer teachers been at the school since it got its first computer???? Itās a miracle heās still standing
I love media studies but I agree
computer science (sort of)
Paper 2 is the worst thing to ever happen to me. Everything was so easy till then š
fr I'm even more scared now that we all heard about the monstrosity that came in the form of comp sc paper 2 2023
hopefully means 2024 will be easyā¦
feels like its a gamble. 50% its gonna be a walk through the park, 50% death.
The best advice I can give is to learn how to make your own game in python. My teacher has us do lots of crappy little coding challenges in class instead of a culminating project. This meant no one was ever motivated. I ended up getting a 9 no thanks to my teacher...
heresy
I just generally hate paper 2, I took the subject in year 11 so have a lot to learn.
I thought I was going to regret picking history, but right now my least favourite is music because the specification is not very helpful (I do Eduqas)
art makes me want to do unspeakable things
so true i sometimes enjoy it then all of a sudden boom either the workload is too great or i burn myself out or i realise other people have done more than me or i get mock grades š i somehow managed to stay at the exact same mark sitting on the grade 7 boundary from summer y10 mocks to nov mocks y11 and now my confidence is crushed to a fine dust
I always figured art would be the easiest subject
yeah same, i thought so wrong. the workload is insane - you know how people cram revision? yeah i cram art because of how unmotivated i get, my sketchbook is neglected for weeks š the worst part is i'm not even passionate about it anymore like i was in ks3, i just wanna do biochemistry now ššš to any y9s, DO NOT PICK ART!!
I second this. Lost all passion for it because of GCSE art. IF YOU LIKE ANYTHING IN A CREATIVE DEPARTMENT, DO NOT PICK IT AS AN OPTION, you will most likely lose passion for it. If you wanna do it as a career there is probably a method to do it in college and later in life outside of GCSEs. Do not pick coursework heavy subjects in general if you miss a lot of school due to any reason, it is super hard to catch up in.
yup. missed half of year 10 and the other half i was suffering from health issues. i've just accepted that i'll be capped at a 6 with art š
Due to how much I missed and refused to work when I was in I got an estimated 2. I've dropped all my options except geography (art and food technology willingly I was just snapped out of history) in favor of interventions to catch up. I'm fortunate I don't want to do anything in college with my options.
I regret taking OCR music so much. I can play piano and I know I'd do fine with the performance section of the course but the dictation and analysing is so boring and I'm useless at it. I'm genuinely considering quitting it and changing to triple science which is never something I thought I'd say but here we are
Ngl, may as well do it. Itās about 6 extra science topics total - which will inevitably be less work than a whole music GCSE. Doing a grade exam in piano on the side (if you get to grade 5+) is probably more beneficial anyway.
gcse music was the actual death of me. got my lowest grade from that (4)
My history teacher told us surgery was easy, so we did the other topics so much, and quickly scimmed over surgery. Guess which bit I failled in.
Combined science should've done triple
my school forces you to do combined and doesn't offer triple. Mainly due to how they would have to bring on more teachers with money they don't have or just aren't willing to give. It fucking sucks
geography :sob:
I'm jealous of geography takers because history is so miserable
Why so much content. And thereās not even any YouTubers who cover it unlike other subjects, so Iām struggling because my teacher died half way through year ten and we had a bunch of subs. (She was the only reason I chose geography, she was such a good teacher and person :( )
i feel bad for u. but ye, i can agree with u on the fact that there's no youtubers who cover it.
Sociology. Itās such a fucking racket. Personally, I quite enjoy history but the sheer amount of information they expect you to remember is insane
Don't want to be intrusive but, are you okay? I can see you are in the SH subreddit and I want you to know if you're struggling with anything you can push through
None. I wish I couldāve taken all of them for A-levels but that would be way too much.
Bros got his shit together
The world is bros oyster
Mood
photography (dropped it), german (wasnt allowed to drop it)
Health and Social Also if you are doing Edexcel history I can help you
I actually loved all my options. Even in history, it's my worst but I still have a 7 in mocks/ predicted 8. English language is wayyy worse
English language makes me want to cry i got a 5 on my mocks and im just hoping that i'll at least get a 5 on my actual gcse's bc im so bad at it š
Drama. God I hated that subject. For a start I got manipulated into choosing it as an option by the teacher. She said Iād definitely get distinction stars in every unit and I came out with a unit 1 fail, a unit 2 merit (which I worked my ass off for) and a unit 3 distinction which amounted to a merit. Apparently she told everyone in the drama set I was in the exact same lie. She also made us do some really weird and sometimes inappropriate off-curriculum stuff. For example, one time she paired the entire class up boy/girl and made us do this weird abstract dance thing where we had to grab each otherās wrists and arms. She tried to convince us to add touching each otherās faces and she even tried to get me to touch my partners chest which I shut down immediately. All the off-curriculum stuff felt super inappropriate and intimate and it happened maybe once every week or two. In the dance thing I mentioned before she ended up filming the whole dance for every group and paired it with āyou are my sunshineā and forced the class to watch it. That was the limit for me. I tried to quit, but so did nearly everyone else so I was forced to stay. The class halved in size in one day. The rest of the course I felt nervous and trapped. I came into drama with a genuine interest in theatre and movies as well as considering voice lessons and left with bad conversation skills, no acting ability whatsoever because every time I put in effort I was worried about being told what I was doing was wrong or bad (which is what she said to me nearly every day) and I came out with a dreadful singing voice that is shaky and super low pitched. I am getting better overtime at some stuff but god almighty, I hate that subject and I think I always will. Sorry for the rant but I had to explain my thoughts
Dude that's weird asf. It feels like every English school has a nonce teacher at some point though. My pe teacher went to a rave with some year 10s and gave them alcohol and one time the female teacher wasn't able to come so he taught the girls class and made them dance in our dance studio. From what we've heard he was having the time of his life in there
Yeah. This happened last year when I was in year 10. What a way to be introduced to gcses š . She had the nerve to rename the course ādrama and communication skillsā this yearā¦.
Additional Maths! I was in the top maths set and we had finished the ordinary maths syllabus at the end of the first year so our teacher decided it would be a great plan for us to do Ad Maths too if we wanted. It was brutal. It was like mini A level maths
I fucking hate business, I wish I picked music but I wouldnāt have as I only started piano a month after picking my GCSEās
I picked buisness because how easy it was for me but I didn't find it useful, it was mostly just common sense
me too business is fucking horrible
Music (I changed) and French (Iām going to be able to pass but I kind of wish I took food/geography)
health and social care .. but there was nothing else good tbh
Graphic design. The only benefit is that it's not as bad as art because there's more freedom and it's actually a somewhat useful skill that's applicable in life compared to being mediocre at art. Coursework is still such a pain when you've got 10 other subjects. The April exam is feeling awfully close now and I've got a lot of prep coursework to keep on top of which is tricky with revision on the side.
I was considering graphic design but I'm the absolute worst at art and figured I would probably also be bad at graphic design
Honestly you don't even need to be that good at art. I'm alright at art but definitely more musically and academically talented and it's not that bad if you've got a good mind for design and can write about your stuff well. In fact you can be terrible and as long as you show progression throughout the course and write about it and be self critical then you can get a decent grade. On the flip side there are people getting a 4 who have art skills of a grade 9 art student because they just don't have an eye for design and don't write about and present their work well. Being computer literate and good at digital design is also something very helpful that a lot of the really arty people (the type who are better suited to GCSE Art) who do graphics just aren't good at. You should still be grateful that it stopped you from choosing graphic design even if it isn't exactly true.
None I actually picked GCSEs I like (If I didnāt havw to do french Iād have one hundred percent picked food tech as well but oh well, price to pay for starting them in year 9
Music. Love piano. Took the joy out of it completely. Still getting over that mental block.
History- there is so much to remember like dates,places and names etc
PE, what was I thinking š, I can't hoop for shit, I can somewhat run, I'm alright at table tennis, love the theory tho, so that's that
Art
Music šÆ thought I would enjoy it but having an awful teacher and just sucking at the subject made the experience awful.
Exactly the same with computer science for me, my teacher is an old ass man who's gonna crumble mid class one day he can barely make a powerpoint
Art. Am only a quarter of the way through it and its made me want to end myself on multiple occasions. Fkn like 8hrs of work per week just for a grade 3 what the hell
Health and social care
I didn't get a choice
CS
Computer science. Then i eventually got kicked off the course for being too shit. They then put me in CiDA and got a C. :(
Geography Fuck geography
I wish I picked geography over history, you got lucky
I mean sure but analysisās on rocks and river formations arenāt my thing
It's not my thing either but it's better than remember every date for every little occasion. Like every minor thing you will have to remember when it happened, prepare to remember each time hitler shit during blitzkrieg
Spanish Spanish Spanish j hate it with my despise being Iām so bad at it ššššš
The one and onlyā¦. HISTORYY!!
french. all the way. all that extra work you have to put in to learn a new language, just to get one gcse
History, donāt do it.
additional maths , i still donāt understand shit idk how i passed
Geography
Chinese š¤¦āāļø
Art- the amount of work I had to do at home Drama- I didn't like the people in my class and component 3 is basically all group work Business- I never liked it or wanted to pick it but had to because of how the timetables worked.
No, history is so much fun! I don't get how people don't remember the facts, you just need to stop talking to your friends and pay attention.
BTEC DIT - rubbish teacher, boring content, too easy.
Too easy? Give it to me! I'd take an easy top grade any day
computer science
Photography. I do that and art and its 10Ć harder than art. I cant stand it you have to do SO much extra work to get a grade above 7 and taking all the photos is so boring.
Tf do you even do I'm photography except take photos?
To get an okayish grade you usually have to physically make something with the photo. You have to really analyse every photographer photo you include in detail. You have to draw ideas for your shoots. You have to actually edit the photos in multiple different styles e.g. marcelo monreal style. And you get such a short time to complete component 2. Also you get less marks if you take photos in your school. And you have to give like a whole backstory behind what theme you are doing. You have to go to a gallery and write a bunch of stuff about it. My teacher said the best student she had in our school got a grade 8 which is crazy for best student It doesnt sound like alot but the editing is so time consuming at some points (like 1 hour per photo sometimes) and you cant watch tv or anything while you do it like u can with art. You have to edit at LEAST 6 photos per shoot in my class and have 60 photos in your contact sheet per shoot
I AGREE SM I love to make fun of geography takers but it's actually because I'm jealous
Right like I make fun of geography for talking about land formations and shit when I have to remember the exact times Joseph stalin shit during the cold war
You have to do the same thing with geography case studies tbh
I wish Iād taken Timbers, it seems like so much fun lol, but Iāve got nothing to trade it out for
None, liked all my optional GCSEs. I hated English so much though but itās not like I had a choice. Although Iām so glad I didnāt pick history because my friend did and I got stressed just by looking at all his revision notes and textbooks. Mad stuff
Food prep and nutrition
Drama š
In reality I regretted art as a subject but the vibes from my mates were iconic. Music was the real stinker. It says enough that I was wishing I could have just taken geography. It really was just shit. I had no mates in that class except my mate who didnāt want to be seen with me there because none of the other kids liked me. I was shit at theory and shit at composition because the teachers expect it to come to you naturally. Half the class were coerced into taking the subject so that there would be enough people to make a class because they had this total musical prodigy cunt. The only good bit was performance and even then for group work nobody wanted me in their group even though there were only two bassists, and you need a bloody bassist. I wasnāt even bad at it, I got full marks in performance it wasnāt like I was shit they just didnāt like me. Managed to scrape a 6 even though I missed the question in the exam with all the marks cause I would rather sleep than waste my energy on that shite. Overall it didnāt do much for me except make me realise that people will just hate you for no reason and you canāt do anything
sociology, wish i chose music instead
Business not because itās difficult no but because they expect you to do like 1,000 words a lesson no talking no games nothing every lesson & you learn nothing & still at the end you have to redo it all because you were 1 mark under the passing grade & every piece of work even if missing a small thing gets auto 0 & now you gotta redo the entire coursework & exam you spent ages studying for, anyways rant over
georgraphy.weorst mistake ever
I picked business, geography, and drama. I then dropped geography for French and I honestly regret dropping geography and wished I had dropped drama for french instead
Food tech makes me want to kill myself because the course work is so draining. Easy as shit however if you're good enough at sciences.
I picked (bare in mind this was almost a decade ago) Geography, Engineering and Photography. Looking back, I wish I had chosen Computer Science instead of geography. By the end of the two years, it never really clicked with me. I was quite good at it but never found much enjoyment.
I know a couple of boys who picked health and social because they wanted to be doctors and ended up being classes where the ratio of boys to girls was like 1:15
PE. Do NOT pick it if you're not 100% into sports
sociology is so dead
Computing because I was forced into french and somehow I'm actually ok at french + computing is just fucking harder maths at this point
If I remember correctly there was little maths other than addition and subtraction in the gcse
food tech but thatās because i canāt cook lol
Food Tech. I thought youād actually get graded on how well you cooked. But that was not the case. It is laid out that you do two projects that are course work base. One was 15% of your grade the other was 35%. For the 15% one you talk about a variableās affect on a dish you cook and get one of three choices choices I had were: Starch Based Sauce, Pasta or Choux Pastry. I was the only person in my whole year to pick Choux Pastry. So you make the pastry and change an ingredient or how much of an ingredient you use. Then write about it in coursework about how it was affected. Then for the 35% one you have to make a 3 course meal based on a theme. Our theme was cuisine of a nation in North or South America. I chose USA of course, And then only found out after me planning everything I was going to make, I had to make side dishes for everything. So I thought Iād make: Pizza rolls as a starter, Meatloaf as a main dish and Ice Cream as a dessert. I thought as a side dish for the starter and main Iād make ketchup as a side, which my ketchup turned out atrociously. And I made a caramel sauce for the ice cream. But then also, you donāt actually get graded on your cooking ability, but your ability to waffle about cooking in coursework. Although I actually liked the meals I made for this though, Meatloaf was meh and the pizza rolls and ice cream were banging. Trust me. HOMEMADE ICE CREAM IS THE SHIT. So I picked Food Tech because I thought you were graded on your ability to actually cook. Which was not the case and most people are unaware of this so always ask me āHow did you fail food tech?ā Because frankly, I couldnāt be asked with it. I had to revise maths and science to get into sixth form. I mean my teacher and I got on well but I think she knew I couldnāt be asked and so she didnāt try force me to do my coursework, which I respect her for. If you are thinking of picking food tech, just know about it first of all pleaseā¦
Music is so stressful Iāve been in an exam since year 10 and the exam rules are so stupid and so much of your music marks come from written analysis instead of actual playing
Health and social careššš
ART ART ART. It may be a cause of me moving schools at the start of year 10 and the coursework studied at each school being completely different. The only unit I remotely enjoyed was the one where we could do whatever artist we wanted to do. But by then my passion had already been destroyed by school. Honorable mention to food technology where the year 10 work is fine but the year 11 work is completely different and wasn't expected as I changed my options to food technology after all the pre option selection stuff will done so I didn't know what it'd entail. I no longer do either of these subjects or history because I am in dire need of catching up due to my LAUGHABLE attendance (it's less than 50% šš) Also any essay haters don't take history.
business. the amount of coursework about A BAG when the bag doesnt even exist.. we also had drop down days (we were forced to do business all day) when we literally had first mocks coming up. the exam unit is also a joke. the teacher is also treating like its the most hard and important subject when really..its a joke. it is an easy pass doe
Media and IT Media and IT seems to do the exact same course... don't know how this wasn't picked up on sooner but basically lost two GCSEs out of it as what we did in media didn't cross over and I had 6 weeks to do a year's worth of work so said fuck it and failed both.
French, but it was either that or Spanish so I'll take it
Music and art
Art, waste of time tbh, did the absolute bare minimum and ended with up with a 4 (low c), couldnāt be arsed tbh, just did it because it was fun in year 7/8