How to help your teenager choose their GCSE options
- Jan 18, 2023
- 4 min read
Updated: Jul 22
Choices, choices, choices
It’s that time: the time when your child is set to make the first of many important choices of their life, their GCSE options. The hardest part of this process is that you now need to let your child lead the way. Yes, help and guide them, but don’t live your life through them. They’re the ones who’ll sit through the lessons for two, maybe even three years (in some schools), submit the work and sit the exams, not you.
Learning and examinations have changed enormously since you sat them, so you’ll need to appreciate those changes and embrace them alongside your child. There’s nothing worse, for anyone but especially children, than hearing the dreaded 'in my day' line. Ultimately, if their heart isn’t in it and the choice was forced on them, it may well come back to bite you.
Whether it’s done in an evening, online or face to face, the best piece of advice is to hone your inner Scout and be prepared.
Research
Firstly, establish which exams are the certain ones. In most schools this includes maths, English language, English literature and science (this may be separate sciences or the dual award). This information should be readily available on your school’s GCSE pages; if not, ask, and don’t be afraid to, even if your child is still a year off making their choice. If the options (read on for more information about these) aren’t set in stone, the non-negotiable core subjects will already be known, and even having the current year’s choices to hand will help guide your discussions until the subjects are finalised.
With the core subjects already decided, you’ll be able to establish how many options your child has, and get an idea of the subjects the school offers, to start working out your child’s GCSE suite of subjects.
Get started
Key facts to establish for all exams (you can use the core subjects as test runs):
Which examination board is being used? Cambridge, Edexcel or AQA, for example.
The code of the examination. This is normally a four-digit code that identifies the specific exam. Exams do change, and there may be two English language exams running under the same board, for example. It’s important to know which one your child will be sitting, as this can dictate the set texts, exam requirements and coursework.
Once you have this information, look up the exams on the relevant examination board’s website and read through the specifications. Here you’ll find key information such as the length of the exams, total marks per paper or coursework element, and the syllabus your child will be learning. Further down the line, these sites also let you access past and specimen papers, which you and your child can view along with the mark schemes, invaluable for revision.
Ready to go
Start with all the optional subjects and see what you can instantly reject: subjects your child either really doesn’t take a shine to, or that don’t play to their strengths. This is where having the information about the examinations comes into play, as it helps with the more creative subjects. For example, art, design and music all require considerable time outside standard lesson time, and require portfolios of work or concerts, so it’s worth discussing this before making the final choices. If your child isn’t that creative, or is almost too creative, would all that extra work before the examination be too much to take on?
Loving or hating teachers
As much as a teacher can make all the difference and create the perfect learning environment for your child, it’s crucial they don’t base a subject choice on a certain teacher teaching them. Things change, and neither you nor the school can promise that a certain teacher will remain, or that your child will be in the class they teach.
Speak to people
Speak to those who’ve been through the process. Get your child to speak to fellow students in the upper years for their honest opinion on subjects. As a parent, speak to other parents who’ve been through it and ask about their experience. Most importantly, speak to the teachers. When you think you’re down to the final choices, ask for a meeting, or use your parents’ evening to discuss, with your child, how the teacher believes your child would cope studying that subject for GCSE.
Ranking
Rank the choices. It would be wrong to think your child can get their top pick of every subject, so it’s important to rank the choices, giving you reserves and letting you know which subjects would replace others if their first picks don’t work. Schools use a variety of systems for GCSE options, from popularity of subjects to options blocks. To avoid going back to the drawing board once you discover a first choice wasn’t viable, have your reserves waiting in the wings to make this final part as painless as possible.
Future planning
If your child has aspirations, such as becoming a doctor or lawyer, it’s worth looking into the requirements and subjects needed not only for the next stage (such as A level) but also for university or further education entry. It would be difficult to discover that taking biology at A level required biology as a separate science at GCSE, and then have to delay or take an additional GCSE at a later stage.
Take your time
The sooner you start, the easier and more pain-free the process will be. GCSEs are a big milestone for your child and for you as a parent. Don’t pile on the pressure; embrace the process.
About the author
This is a guest post by Charlotte Duncan, a teacher and mother to two lovely boys.
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