Should I do GCSE Urdu as an extra GCSE, along with 11 other GCSEs?

I'm currently in Year 10 studying Separate Sciences, English Lit/ Lang, Spanish, Maths, Business Studies, Religious Studies, History and Geography and I was thinking about doing GCSE Urdu since it's my second language and I figured it'd be an easy extra high grade that I wouldn't need to study much for, but I've also read that this GCSE isn't in demand and people (employers?) wouldn't care if I had it, I'm not sure if these people are prestigious sixth forms and universities though. Should I bother with GCSE Urdu and would it boost my grades and chances, assuming I already achieve good grades in these subjects? If yes, then should I go with Edexcel or AQA?

yeah- go for it! especially if you're fluent.. You can sit the exam privately and you can find your local edexcel private candidate centre here: https://qualifications.pearson.com/en/support/support-topics/understanding-our-qualifications/where-can-i-take-edexcel-exams.html (currently only says for the autumn series centre but it'll change for the standard series soon) and your local AQA private candidate centre here: https://www.aqa.org.uk/student-and-parent-support/private-candidates/finding-a-school-or-college

Then you can decide between AQA (https://www.aqa.org.uk/subjects/languages/gcse/urdu-8648) and Edexcel (https://qualifications.pearson.com/en/qualifications/edexcel-gcses/urdu-2017.html) in a few ways: you could either: google it to see if anyone has any advice but if I were you I would look at the specifications for each board and then look at a past paper from each to see which style I prefer/ would be more suited to. if you would like anymore help let me know- hope this helps x

How are you planning to take this GCSE is you don't attend lessons?

yeah- go for it! especially if you're fluent.. You can sit the exam privately and you can find your local edexcel private candidate centre here: https://qualifications.pearson.com/en/support/support-topics/understanding-our-qualifications/where-can-i-take-edexcel-exams.html (currently only says for the autumn series centre but it'll change for the standard series soon) and your local AQA private candidate centre here: https://www.aqa.org.uk/student-and-parent-support/private-candidates/finding-a-school-or-college

Then you can decide between AQA (https://www.aqa.org.uk/subjects/languages/gcse/urdu-8648) and Edexcel (https://qualifications.pearson.com/en/qualifications/edexcel-gcses/urdu-2017.html) in a few ways: you could either: google it to see if anyone has any advice but if I were you I would look at the specifications for each board and then look at a past paper from each to see which style I prefer/ would be more suited to. if you would like anymore help let me know- hope this helps

I think you honestly should if it’s your second language. Go through the test papers and see how you do. Even though they’re not high in demand it’s still useful. For example I did my Turkish GCSE and that counts. One of my friends was able to get into sixth form only because of her Turkish gcse which boosted her average point score so all in all I think you should do it

Thanks for the advice, but I was still wondering about whether it would just end up weighing me down and minimise my overall results. Do sixth forms/ universities even care about the number of GCSEs as opposed to the grades themselves

Thanks for the advice, but I was still wondering about whether it would just end up weighing me down and minimise my overall results. Do sixth forms/ universities even care about the number of GCSEs as opposed to the grades themselves?

as far as i know sixth form does not care. some universities do look at your gcse grades though. you only need to pass english and maths and get good grades with the subjects that you want to do at sixth form. The turkish only helped my friend because all of her other grades were 4s and she had a couple of 3s

Do it! It’s actually really fun and it’s great to have that one extra gcse. It’ll bring your average up too. For the oral part you need to find somebody who’s fluent in Urdu and is willing to ask you some questions in the speaking. That’s what I did for Persian
It will actually be a breather gcse and you won’t need to spend a lot of time learning. Just do some past papers