The Student Room Group

If you only need Five GCSE's&Three A-Levels

Then why do Schools make their pupils do more?
Original post by elmosandy
Then why do Schools make their pupils do more?


If we only did what we "need" to do, we wouldn't get very far in life! Whilst the bare minimum for university entry is often 5 'good' passes at GCSE inc. English and Maths, this obviously isn't particularly impressive and certainly won't make you stand out. For some courses and certain universities, 5 'good' passes at GCSE are not enough. On top of that, it's not all about university entrance. I feel that I've learned a lot from doing a wide range of GCSEs, even if they're not 100% necessary. Now, that's not to say that school's don't go over the top. At mine, if you take two languages and you're in top set Maths, you'll leave with 12 GCSEs which I think is a little excessive (albeit manageable).

Most schools do only make students take 3 A Levels. You're encouraged/forced to take 4 AS levels for two main reasons. Firstly, it gives you flexibility about which one to drop at A2. If you go into the sixth form with a plan to do just 3 AS levels and continue them all to A2 but you fail one of them or hate one of them, you'll have a problem. On top of that, most students should be able to cope with doing 4 AS Levels if they intend to cope with the workload at university and it shows good time management skills to universities. Finally, there are some universities that require a fourth AS. Again, there are some schools that do for some reason make students take more, but these generally are not the top performing ones. A lot of grammar school sixth forms actively forbid people from taking 5 AS Levels.

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