Making GCSE Choices – A Young Persons Guide

So, you are in Year 8 or 9 and you have to make your GCSE choices. Pretty daunting right? Well, fear not! Our guide on how to make GCSE choices will help you make a fully informed choice without any biased opinions.

Know what GCSE stands for
Choose subjects you are good at
Work backwards
Research the curriculums for each subject
Consider your chosen career

There are some useful websites at the bottom of this post to help you further.

Know what GCSE stands for when making GCSE choices

When you started school in Year 1 you would have been in Key Stage 1. At the end of Key Stage 1 in Year 3, you would have been tested on how well you can read and write. These tests are called SATS. You sit them at the end of every key stage. So, at the end of Key Stage 2 in Year 6, you would have completed some more SATS tests. This is so teachers would know how you are progressing in school. Key stage 3 ends in year 8 or 9 and then you start your GCSE’s in Key Stage 4.

GCSE’s stand for General Certificate in Secondary Education. These exams are very important because the results of these exams can determine what you study in college and even university. Future employers will be interested in what your GCSE grades are. They will want to know what grades you received in maths and English.

You do not need to tell colleges and employers how well you did in your SATS, but you will need to tell them your GCSE results. So it is important that you get as many GCSE’s as you can get and as high a grade as possible.

Choose subjects you are good at when making GCSE choices

Many parents and teachers will tell you to pick subjects you enjoy. This is good advice because you are going to be studying these subjects for the next 2-3 years. However, you also need to choose subjects you are good at too. I love art, but I am pretty rubbish at it. I only got a C in art. Had I taken Religious Education at GCSE I would have got a better grade because I was good at that subject and I enjoyed it too.

Choose subjects you enjoy
Choose subjects you are good at
Don’t choose subjects you are good at but you do not enjoy

Work Backwards when making GCSE Choice

Your GCSE’s will open the doors to further education opportunities. You need to stay in education until you are 18 years old. There are all sorts of options for you in further education some of them are:

If you want to study A levels (Advance Levels) in College you may need very high GCSE results. If you want to study a specialised subject such as Music at A-Level then you will need to study music at GCSE level.

You may need to think about what career you want and if that career requires a degree. For example, if you want to be a doctor you will need a degree in Medicine and you will have to study the sciences at A-Level and maybe maths. Check with universities what their entry requirements are for the course you want to study. The UCAS site is a good place to check entry requirements.

This is why we say you need to work backwards. Consider what career path you want to take and whether it requires a degree or not. Then see what the entry requirements are for the courses you want to do at university and in further education.

The website Unifrog can help you make decisions. You can sign up as an individual or your school may have created an account for you. Check with your school if you have a Unifrog account.

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Research the curriculum for each option subject

Your school will hold a GCSE options evening and share information with you about each course. Be sure to read what they share and discuss what topics you will cover in the different subjects with your teachers.

The Awarding Bodies (examining boards) are the ones who write the GCSE curriculums. Some of the awarding bodies are:

AQA
OCR
Pearson/Edexcel

They decide on the different topics students will study for each exam. Sometimes they offer a number of topics/themes for one subject. For example, if you study AQA GCSE History you may study one of the following topics under the theme: Understanding the modern world

AA – America 1840-1895: Expansion & Consolidation
AB – Germany 1890-1945: Democracy and Dictatorship
AC – Russia 1894-1955: Tsarism & communism
AD – America 1920-1973: Opportunity and Inequality

It is your school that decides which curriculum they will teach you. But it is important for you to know what themes and topics are for each course. This will help you make the best-informed choice for you.

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Consider your chosen career

Some students know what they want to do when they grow up and some students haven’t the foggiest clue and that is fine. But if you know what you want to do when you grow up you can work backwards and see what degree you may need for your chosen career. Then you can check what A-Levels and GCSE’s you may need.

The National Careers Service will help you find out what qualifications you need for your chosen career.

However, if you really don’t know what you want to do when you grow up you have two main choices here:

Take some personality tests to give you some ideas
Choose a variety of GCSE subjects to broaden you horizons, such as a language, a tech, a humanties and an arts subject.

You can always speak to your careers advsier at school about your options.

For personality tests, I always suggest the Myres-Briggs Test. However, the Youth Employment UK organisation offers other career-based personality tests for you to try.

Do’s and Don’ts of making GCSE choices

Remember these choices are yours and yours alone. You are the one who will have to study for 2-3 years on all these subjects. You are the one who will have to revise and sit the exams. No one else will be doing it for you. Listen to adults who have sat their exams and learn as much as you can about GCSE’s so you can make an informed choice.

However, don’t let a pushy parent force you to take a subject you really don’t want to take, just because they think you will have a better future in their chosen career for you.

Comments

We hope you have found this post helpful. If you want to discuss your GCSE options with us, come and join our conversation on the Forum. We would love to know what you want to study at GCSE Level.

For more information about getting the most out of education check out Our Guide on Returning to School.