Our latest Pupil Pulpit guest blog comes from Eve, aged 14, who relates her recent personal experiences of selecting her GCSE Options.
PUPIL PULPIT – Eve’s GCSE Options
Recently I made my options decision for GCSE. The choices or amount of freedom varies from school to school but I had to choose between history and geography, French or Spanish and then one extra. Due to the number of core subjects required at my school, I found there wasn’t as much decision making as I had expected.
The core subjects we have to take are English, Maths, RE and Science which are all mandatory at my school. Everyone must take either double or triple science as well as RE whereas many other schools view those as optional.
Creativity-based GCSE options
All the other – more creativity based – subjects are classified as extras and you can choose one to take. For me these were: Art, DT, Computing, Music, Drama, Business, PE or the option to do both languages or both humanities. I wanted to do both drama and computing but could only choose one as my extra.
I wanted to do something that would be interesting. Also, that would provide a change of scene or learning style compared to my core subjects. Computing may be more practical or forward-thinking. In the end, though I chose drama as I felt I enjoyed it more.
Humanities GCSE Options
I definitely wanted to take History over Geography as I found it much more interesting and easier. However, I had a problem with whether I should take French or Spanish. Neither particularly stuck out. Whereas, I wanted to hopefully stay with my friends when the classes changed according to the GCSEs.
School Events
All the events held by the school angled towards GCSE options really helped me. We discussed things at parents evening and careers meetings.
I felt more confident and sure about the subjects I wanted to take. I didn’t find this as stressful of a decision as I was anticipating. This was because I really just went for the subjects I most wanted to do or felt passionate about – rather than coordinating with my friends or choosing ‘The easy one’.
