GCSE Art is Torturing Me

talk to your school, with your ADHD they should understand and help you. Ask your parents to support you and talk to the school. Dropping is better than failing.

Growing up I always loved Art, and many people in my life (ie. family, friends, teachers) expected me to take the subject for GCSE as I'm "good at it". Being the arrogant kid I am, I ignored some people's advice of "don't take it, you'll struggle", despite knowing deep down that taking it would be an issue due to personal reasons, and decided to choose it.
Surprise surprise, I'm struggling big time.
I can't keep up with the homework, and it's only been one half term.
I'm tired of continually getting in trouble for it, receiving detentions and the like, for something that isn't my fault (I have ADHD, so focusing on my homework is challenging enough, and art is only making things worse).
I want to drop the subject and/or change it for something else, however my school won't let me.
How am I meant to keep going with this for another two years, when I HATE it?

I completely understand what you're going through. During my second year of it, I just couldn't go on. I went to a private school, and they absolutely hated the idea of me dropping a subject, because it would make them look bad, but considering another person in my class was pushing to drop it, we clearly weren't the problem. (Our teacher was actually horrific)
If it is affecting your mental health, hurting your success in other subjects, or you're struggling because of your ADHD, being forced to continue isn't going to make it better.
You need to find a teacher you trust, and speak to them about it. Explain the effect it's having on you etc. Ultimately, this one qualification won't count for anything if doing it has brought down the rest of your grades.
After dropping it, I felt so much relief, and it led me to getting some pretty damn good grades. I met up with someone who was a really talented, and in my old art class, and after all of that work, they'd only come out with a B (Not a bad grade, but you'd think after all the hours they put into it, it'd be higher)
Best of luck with sorting it, trust me, once you get past the GCSEs, and can choose what you want to do for A level, it gets better.

Yeah, I go to a private school which is why the teachers are so against the idea of me dropping art, too. It's encouraging for me to see that things got better for you so hopefully things can get better for me.
I have a question, though- when you dropped art, did you have to take another subject to sort of "fill in" the empty space in your timetable, or did you just get a free period to revise/do homework/whatever?

I got told to go to the sixth form library to study during those periods, which was good because it allowed me to catch up with homework. I think if you could get that as an outcome, it'd be great because you'd have more time to focus on your work, especially if your ADHD is making things difficult for you.
I wasn't given the option to pick up another subject because it was in the second year, and honestly, there wouldn't have been anything else i really wanted to do.
Does your school know about your ADHD btw? (Just asking, because my older brother got diagnosed with it halfway through his A levels, and if they'd known about it sooner, they might have been able to help him more)

"torture"? mm kinky

Okay! My main sort of issue has been the possibility of having to take another subject, as I don't like any of the possible options. It would definitely be useful if I was able to get free periods to get my homework done.
No, my school aren't officially aware (some teachers know as they have come up to me and asked about it, or I have felt it's necessary for some teachers to know), but I shall ask my parents to inform them of it as soon as they can.

What exactly is it that you hate about it? The workload or the work itself e.g. are you struggling with ideas and inspiration?

I took GCSE art and enjoyed it but A level has been a whole different ball game. There have been times when I've hated it and throughout my AS level I kind of just ignored it for a few months and didn't do any work from about december-april resulting in a disappointing AS grade (luckily it doesn't count towards my whole grade)

A2 seems to be going a bit better as I know what grade I need to get into to the uni want so heres how I've managed to change my mindset from hating it to feeling a bit of enjoyment again.

-I make a list each week of what I need to get done to manage the workload. At A level we are advised to do 2 double page spreads in our A3 sketchbooks every week but I think at GCSE it was 1 double spread. So at the start of the week I try and break this down into specific pages e.g. at the start of a project I will do 2 pages of a mood board and then 2 pages of artist research/response. Formulating a plan really helps with the workload and if you speak to your teacher they will likely be happy to help and share ideas.

-when I'm struggling with motivation/inspiration, I look at others work. If i see someones work and find it interesting or appealing, I find I then want to create something that is as good as what I've seen. I do this through pinterest, art2day, art.net and I often look through previous students sketchbooks. Once you have an idea that you are genuinely interested in, it is much easier to get fired up and want to do work

If theres no way your school will let you drop it, you need to find a way to make it work for you. With a bit of work a C/B grade is achievable for almost anyone in GCSE art because regardless of how skilled you are- most of the marks are in how you show a well thought out journey through your ideas.

Through GCSES when I was hating any of my chosen subjects, I would think about how much I hated the compulsory ones like maths and science, but never considered dropping them because you need them to get to the next level, so stuck it out and worked at them instead. Try and adopt the same attitude towards art and I garuntee you'll end up with a decent grade (and the best feeling of relief that its over and you never need to draw again!)

Good luck x

Good idea Hope everything gets sorted!

Growing up I always loved Art, and many people in my life (ie. family, friends, teachers) expected me to take the subject for GCSE as I'm "good at it". Being the arrogant kid I am, I ignored some people's advice of "don't take it, you'll struggle", despite knowing deep down that taking it would be an issue due to personal reasons, and decided to choose it.
Surprise surprise, I'm struggling big time.
I can't keep up with the homework, and it's only been one half term.
I'm tired of continually getting in trouble for it, receiving detentions and the like, for something that isn't my fault (I have ADHD, so focusing on my homework is challenging enough, and art is only making things worse).
I want to drop the subject and/or change it for something else, however my school won't let me.
How am I meant to keep going with this for another two years, when I HATE it?

If you want to drop it maybe talk to someone who you know can authorise you dropping a subject and explain why you want to drop it and change to something else. If your ADHD is causing major problems for you go and see a doctor who can prescribe you medication to help you concentrate and that could also be the solution to your problem.

I have ADHD myself so I understand how hard life can become but really you have to learn to cope with it as later on with GCSE the workload will increase.

I understand how it feels to be overwhelmed by others work- my a level class is made up of 6 amazing artists, and I very often just feel like a fraud next to them! And once you start feeling like you're inadequate in comparison, you feel worse about your standard of work and then don't want to do any work and it turns into a horrible cycle.

If you're okay in lessons, I'm wondering if maybe you find it easier to focus when in the class room- if so are you able to access the classroom at lunch time/after school? I don't have an ADHD diagnosis but often suspect I may have mild ADD as I really struggle focusing and often zone out when I'm trying to complete work, and different environments really impact me. EG I struggle to do art at home but really get into the swing of it when I'm in our sixth form studio, and cannot focus on english essays anywhere other than the library.

As for presentation, our moderator this year actually told our teacher to put less of a stress on presentation (!) which really shocked us all. So now most of us our sticking to just doing a watercolour wash for background and a nice title (I use the website DaFont and trace the fonts to help me with title) and it's really cut down the work load for me. May be different for your exam board, so I'd recommend speaking to your teacher and checking how many marks actually go in to presentation

Ah that in itself can cause complications, as the one person who can probably arrange for me to drop art has a huge problem with me, due to a situation that happened in May (which is personal, so I'd rather not explain it).
However, seeing how I may not have another option, I suppose I'll have to go and talk to him about it when school starts up again after half term.
And I'm going to talk to my parents tomorrow about going to see my doctor about getting medication.
Thank you for your advice!

School staff should be there to help and guide you rather than vent out their own personal vendettas against students. I think you should get parents involved with dropping Art as the person who authorises this seems unlikely to allow this. You should try yourself first but if they don't listen getting parents involved will strengthen your side as they can vent personal vendetta's against you on your own but with parents, involved things do become more serious.

Wish you the best of luck in your GCSE's.

Okay! My main sort of issue has been the possibility of having to take another subject, as I don't like any of the possible options. It would definitely be useful if I was able to get free periods to get my homework done.
No, my school aren't officially aware (some teachers know as they have come up to me and asked about it, or I have felt it's necessary for some teachers to know), but I shall ask my parents to inform them of it as soon as they can.

inform your school about ADHD, and provide medical documents if you have. It will be helpful for uni application. Good luck!