Taking GCSE Maths a year early

I just called in sick that day on the exam,i was in year 9 so didnt really miss out on anything too important.
It didnt really cause any problems tbh with the retake since i already got the A* on my first attempt

It's still a resit ....

I don't see how an underage candidate was allowed to sit an exam without his 'home' school being involved as your UPN would have to be involved in the entry. Schools would expect a call and letter from a parent to explain an absence ...

Again, the reason why universities frown upon resits is because they don't like someone taking 2 attempts to recieve their desired result. If I already recieved the top grade on my first attempt and then my school forced me to retake it again just for the sake of wanting to boost up their statistics (I go to a terrible school, at best only 5-8 students in the entire year would get an A, with maybe 1 or 2 A* on a good year) i doubt any university is going to complain too much.
What do you mean by 'home schooled?'. All I did was privately enter myself at an exam centre. Also i think your overestimating the impact of a single day absence when your in year 9.

Hi all, so I am in year 10 right now but am thinking of doing GCSE Maths a year early, this coming June, as the new spec is really hard and i am confident i could do the old spec and get an A. The deadline for entering students for exams is 21/02 this year, so would my school be allowed to enter me even though it is a different spec?

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Don't you get offered a GCSE additional maths/GCSE further maths qualification

I done maths in my first gcse year and additional maths in my second

What is FSMQ btw, i see it talked about quite a bit?

(northern irish student student here btw)

FSMQ are free standing mathematics qualifications.

If you attend a state school, they are highly unlikely to allow this because the old specification does not count towards performance tables at the end of Year 11. It will also not be recognised for the Post 16 funding requirement so you would have to resit the reformed GCSE in Year 12.

Suppose a parent is willing to pay for their child to sit the GCSE this year as an external candidate and then the 2017 GCSE at their school. Do you see any disadvantage for the student in doing this?

A parent I know wants to do this just to see how their child will do and the school has given their permission. The parent doesn't mind if the new GCSE grade will replace the year 10 grade in university applications etc.

School staff I've asked don't seem to be confident in answering this question.

Don't you get offered a GCSE additional maths/GCSE further maths qualification

I done maths in my first gcse year and additional maths in my second

What is FSMQ btw, i see it talked about quite a bit?

(northern irish student student here btw)

why is this done instead of doing another maths gcse? does gcse further maths not exist in england? or is it just not valued over there?

FSMQ is a seperate qualification that is harder than GCSE and uses some of the syllabus of the A level maths. It has a lot of stuff that can help you prepare for A level, but the thing is that it uses bits and bobs of some the maths modules (such as S1, M1 and a little C1 & C2) so you don't really get a huge head start, rather it just gives you something to do to fill up the maths lessons you would otherwise have if you didn't do the exam early.

I'm not sure if you do the same a level maths in northern ireland so I hope this was a useful explanation.

yes that makes sense, its weird how that exists though, surely they should either do another full gcse or start into AS maths early. This half assed qualification seems like a waste to me

yea I do edexcel maths (the same one as a lot of people on this site)

Suppose a parent is willing to pay for their child to sit the GCSE this year as an external candidate and then the 2017 GCSE at their school. Do you see any disadvantage for the student in doing this?

A parent I know wants to do this just to see how their child will do and the school has given their permission. The parent doesn't mind if the new GCSE grade will replace the year 10 grade in university applications etc.

School staff I've asked don't seem to be confident in answering this question.

Edexcel maths&further over here also, and I totally agree. I am sure people would have put a lot more effort into it if they knew it counted towards something, but otherwise it seemed like a waste of time.

Suppose a parent is willing to pay for their child to sit the GCSE this year as an external candidate and then the 2017 GCSE at their school. Do you see any disadvantage for the student in doing this?

A parent I know wants to do this just to see how their child will do and the school has given their permission. The parent doesn't mind if the new GCSE grade will replace the year 10 grade in university applications etc.

School staff I've asked don't seem to be confident in answering this question.

Can you put it on your UCAS and is it a respected qualification? Even doing Core 1 a year early and not doing the exam seems like better preparation for AS maths than FSMQ

There's no way we would give permission - the student will have a 'resit' on their record for uni application. They have to declare BOTH grades on UCAS and the performance table rules say they have to take the new 9 to 1 GCSE.

It is a complete waste of time and money.

FSMQ actually gets you UCAS points, but as to doing C1 a year early.. I am pretty certain that you can't do just one module early, and core 1 is piss anyway so if one was considering doing something early, you might aswell just pick one of the easy modules like D1 or S1 alongside C1+C2, get 90+ UMS on C1 & your module of choice, hope for the best with C2 and you might just get yourself a nice little AS.