Year 9 options

Just do whatever you enjoy your school will probably feed you loads of BS about what you need to do. If you enjoy it, you're more likely to do better.
Lots of people I knew chose art and textiles GCSEs as well as up humanities and they're now doing subjects at uni like medicine and law (btw I'm not slagging off arts subjects, but it's a common misconception that you need 100% academic subjects to do competitive subjects as uni)

Thanks .I was wondering, if I were to take history and computing, is that what I need to do in college, or can you do a-levels on something you haven't done?
Also, how many things can I study in college?
Sorry for many questions, but I've just been stupid and I've only recently realized how much more there is to college

Don't worry, you're only in year 9 so it's good you're thinking so far ahead!
Doing A levels without doing it at gcse varies from college to college and then between subjects. For example, at my college to do A level biology you had to have done gcse biology & got at least a grade C in it. However, for geography about a quarter of my class applied having not done it at gcse (my friend now does geography at The university of Chester and never did it at GCSE).
But no, just because you've done those subjects at GCSE you don't have to carry them on at a level. Some colleges even offer things you probably won't have done at GCSE, like geology or psychology.
Typically you do 3 or 4 subjects at college. They've just changed the rules on A levels so I might be wrong, but you now pick three subjects and do them for two years & do your exams right at the end & you pick a 4th subject as your AS levek which you only do for one year.
The two important things to think about are what you potentially want to do after school & what A levels you might need (& therefore potentially GCSEs) & more importantly what you enjoy and what you're good at. Most unis are looking for good gcses and are less bothered about subjects that aren't English, maths & science

Basically, my school is religious and they want us to study extra things.So I have at least 1 language (German) and religious studies as a requirement which means that my options are limited to 2 (not including triple science). I've heard that studying some subjects at college doesn't require taking them at GCSE so if that's true I'd like to know what these are so I can choose ones I want to do and need to pick. Also, if I don't pick a subject in my school but I'm very experienced and I self learn it, will I be able to do GCSE's on it in year 11?

All these questions are probably really stupid sorry .-. but I want to maximize my potential

Basically, my school is religious and they want us to study extra things.So I have at least 1 language (German) and religious studies as a requirement which means that my options are limited to 2 (not including triple science). I've heard that studying some subjects at college doesn't require taking them at GCSE so if that's true I'd like to know what these are so I can choose ones I want to do and need to pick. Also, if I don't pick a subject in my school but I'm very experienced and I self learn it, will I be able to do GCSE's on it in year 11?

All these questions are probably really stupid sorry .-. but I want to maximize my potential

Basically, my school is religious and they want us to study extra things.So I have at least 1 language (German) and religious studies as a requirement which means that my options are limited to 2 (not including triple science). I've heard that studying some subjects at college doesn't require taking them at GCSE so if that's true I'd like to know what these are so I can choose ones I want to do and need to pick. Also, if I don't pick a subject in my school but I'm very experienced and I self learn it, will I be able to do GCSE's on it in year 11?

All these questions are probably really stupid sorry .-. but I want to maximize my potential

Basically, my school is religious and they want us to study extra things.So I have at least 1 language (German) and religious studies as a requirement which means that my options are limited to 2 (not including triple science). I've heard that studying some subjects at college doesn't require taking them at GCSE so if that's true I'd like to know what these are so I can choose ones I want to do and need to pick. Also, if I don't pick a subject in my school but I'm very experienced and I self learn it, will I be able to do GCSE's on it in year 11?

All these questions are probably really stupid sorry .-. but I want to maximize my potential

I agree with everything everybody has said about choosing the options that you enjoy most, when I chose my options in year 9 (Now Year 12), I found it really beneficial already knowing what career i wanted to have, that meant I could then choose options that would benefit me in the future and would integrate well with the career I want, but yes - choose the things you enjoy!

Do you know what you want to be when you're older?

I should imagine for the core subjects you would have to do it for GCSE but for subjects such as geography, history, art, photography, PE etc etc it doesn't matter.

Year 10 and especially year 11 are VERY hectic and alongside CATs, you will most likely be very busy so self learning can be quite difficult. Although, having said that, there are subjects such as RS and Business Studies that are easy to study and require minimal teaching assistance so you can self learn these and take the GCSE in either year 10 or 11 but you will have to talk to your school about this. Perhaps you can do a second/first language aside from english and german that you may be fluent in. I took an Urdu GCSE exam in year 10 without taking it as a GCSE. However, i do not recommend self learning any other subject because it may render you restless through out the 2 years, not to mention they will require you do a controlled assessment on them which is much useful to do in school in lessons.

Moreover, there are few subjects you can study in college without having taken them as GCSEs. You can go to the website for many sixth forms and colleges and they usually state the entry requirements for the a levels they offer. Many subjects, like Sciences, Maths and English require ATLEAST a B or above (depends on the college really; its a/a* for king edwards). But there are subjects like Psychology, Sociology, Geology, Film Studies, Philosophy, Government and Politics and etc that ask for a decent grade in another subject (English, and a little bit of Science, is by far the most common for this since you cant take them as GCSEs in most schools.)
Good luck! I hope you take what is the best for you

These aren't stupid questions! I wish I knew them before doing my GCSEs haha. I got my results this summer and I wasn't exactly pleased with them so I'll give you a bit of advice. I think you should choose triple science if it's anything close to what you're considering doing in the future, there's a LOT of people who regret not choosing it now that they're doing it for their A Levels. I certainly don't regret choosing it (I got an A in chemistry and a B in biology and physics). If you want to do art then that's completely up to you and I would recommend you do it if you love it AND are good at it (I had to drop it because my predicted grade was a D yikes!) it's really just the work load. If you don't mind it then go for it but don't leave it to last minute. I also chose History and I personally loved it. I got full UMS on one paper (A*) which was worth 20% and an A in the main paper which was worth 50% and a terrifying E in my last paper which was worth 30% (thankfully it all somehow balanced out to a B) in my school people had to choose between geography and history and I heard a lot of people complaining about geography! So if you have to have the option too then I would recommend history unless you really enjoy geography. (A lot of people said that they chose geography because they didn't know what else to pick). Languages were very good for me. Similar to Art, I left my coursework right until the deadline date and had to memorise 6 pieces of coursework in only 3 weeks (a lot of people in my year spaced them out over two years) which is almost as stressful as it sounds. But I pulled through and got an A in both German and French. If your exam board for RE is edexcel then the only thing you need to worry about is the grade boundaries. 79/84 for an A* this year in one of my papers! But a lot of people managed to get it because RE was (in my opinion) the easiest subject I had to do. And yes you're right, certain subjects like Psychology, Sociology, (I think geography and history maybe) and subjects like Drama, art, music etc. don't need to be studied at GCSE to do at A Level. Subjects like languages, maths and the sciences usually have entry requirements. But I think it would differ from school to school. And yes you can self teach yourself! I was 1 UMS off an A* in German (which isn't even a whole mark) and I never attended one German lesson!

Sorry this was so long haha but good luck!!!!

Okay, thanks so much. My maths teacher told me last year that I'll be getting AT LEAST an A and probably an a* (the grades have changed to 1-9 now for some reason but whatever), I'm getting triple science and I do really well in physics and biology but chemistry is good but lacking a bit (in top sets for them all), do you think its good enough if I got 8-9 on maths, 7-8 in physics and biology and like 7 in chemistry to study further maths and possibly biology? By the way 4=C (guaranteed) and somewhat 7/low 8= a*

yep, IMO that would be totally fine. When it comes to picking colleges in maybe a year or two's time the requirements are something you could look at when making a decision (so my college wanted a C in biology to do A level, another sixth from wanted at least a B & another college had no entry requirements at all!)
Like i said earlier, if you're wanting to do a competitve degree then aim for As, Bs & A*s (or whatever the hell they are now) in science, english and maths & see everything else as a bonus. You come across as a keen student so if you work hard nothing should hold your GCSEs back

Thanks, none of my predictions are below a B so I think I'm good . By the way they're 1-9 now but an a* is either a 7 or 8 so that means the maximum is raising. So A's are probably going to be the norm for a competitive degree soon. They're also removing books and textbooks so things like quotes in English and everything in other lessons need to be kept in your mind. Our school already does tests like this to prepare us though and I always seem to think I've forgotten everything but once I get there it just goes back in my head as I write

I'm sure youll be totally fine but I do feel sorry for you kids and all the reforms to GCSEs & A levels, just seems unnecessary & overcomplicated to me

Thanks, I read it all . I'm really considering history too, I find it interesting and it's considered a 'hard' subject so that's good for your references and colleges I guess. Since I'm in top set for science, I actually get to choose triple science without it taking up one of my choices so that's good but some of the lessons are after school I think, but I think it's worth it anyway.
I don't really enjoy R.E. but I write up to 2 a4 sheets of notes and written work every lesson because tbh it's really easy so if it needs long in depth essays, I'm fine with that. A lot of people in my school slack RE because they don't care but for me it's basically a free A so I might as well
Also sorry about your marks if they weren't as good as you expected, I'm sure your potential is higher, you've still got a-levels to do so don't worry too much!



Thanks for replying and helping everyone btw
ps I didn't proofread what I wrote so sorry if I had some mistakes

Obviously I'll choose things I'll enjoy



I want to be a programmer (preferably games) but I want to also study something like history because it's considered a subject that you need knowledge and memory for meaning that I have more chance of having an 'alternate' route out if I don't manage to become a programmer. I also enjoy history so that's cool for me

Thanks, none of my predictions are below a B so I think I'm good . By the way they're 1-9 now but an a* is either a 7 or 8 so that means the maximum is raising. So A's are probably going to be the norm for a competitive degree soon. They're also removing books and textbooks so things like quotes in English and everything in other lessons need to be kept in your mind. Our school already does tests like this to prepare us though and I always seem to think I've forgotten everything but once I get there it just goes back in my head as I write