Edexcel GCSE Astronomy

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loki123456

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Hi everyone,

As I am an aspiring aerospace engineer, I was wondering whether it would be a good idea to pursue this GCSE as I am passionate about space.

Many thanks in advance!

caro36384

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Hi, I did this GCSE in year 9. I found it very challenging, but picking up my grade on results day was rewarding

I think if you are passionate about it, go for it, it's not going to harm you and it looks great on a CV or a college application

loki123456

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(Original post by morgan1999)
Hi, I did this GCSE in year 9. I found it very challenging, but picking up my grade B on results day was rewarding

I think if you are passionate about it, go for it, it's not going to harm you and it looks great on a CV or a college application

Thanks for sharing your experience😀
Do you have any tips on getting started? How hard was the controlled assessment as I am bit worried about my inexperience with telescopes?

caro36384

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(Original post by loki123456)
Thanks for sharing your experience😀
Do you have any tips on getting started? How hard was the controlled assessment as I am bit worried about my inexperience with telescopes?

There's a textbook/revision guide online, I defnitely suggest getting that. Try and read around the subject as well

I got an A* in both of my controlled assessments but a C in the exam which let me down. For my controlled assessments I had to conduct a practical using shadowing and sun sticks and for my second one I had to take pictures of the moon at different times of the month and comment on craters etc. The assessments (especially the second) took up a lot of my time but it was worth it to have an A* to fall back on

are you doing the GCSE through school or in your own time at home?

loki123456

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(Original post by morgan1999)
There's a textbook/revision guide online, I defnitely suggest getting that. Try and read around the subject as well

are you doing the GCSE through school or in your own time at home?

I'm doing in my own time and there is a former GCSE Astronomy teacher who is willing to do the controlled assessments with me so that isn't a problem.

A few months back, I searched for a GCSE Astronomy textbook but I couldn't find an official one but some unofficial ones. Which book would you recommend?

Did you do it at school or not?

Thanks again😃

caro36384

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(Original post by loki123456)
I'm doing in my own time and there is a former GCSE Astronomy teacher who is willing to do the controlled assessments with me so that isn't a problem.

A few months back, I searched for a GCSE Astronomy textbook but I couldn't find an official one but some unofficial ones. Which book would you recommend?

Did you do it at school or not?

Thanks again😃

I did it at school. Well done for having the determination in year 9 to do it in your own time, that's cool ☺️ Yeah some help with controlled assessments would be useful.

https://www.waterstones.com/book/gcs.../9780953634576
This is the book I did my revision from. I only got a C in the exam but if I had concentrated harder in class & revised for longer than an hour or two for the exam I couldve achieved a better result - it wasn't down to the quality of the textbook. In my experience the textbook is a good one to use and my teacher recommended this to my whole class

loki123456

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(Original post by morgan1999)
I did it at school. Well done for having the determination in year 9 to do it in your own time, that's cool ☺️ Yeah some help with controlled assessments would be useful.

https://www.waterstones.com/book/gcs.../9780953634576
This is the book I did my revision from. I only got a C in the exam but if I had concentrated harder in class & revised for longer than an hour or two for the exam I couldve achieved a better result - it wasn't down to the quality of the textbook. In my experience the textbook is a good one to use and my teacher recommended this to my whole class

Well I'm going into year 10 next year and I'm wondering how hard it would be to do Astronomy alongside with my other GCSEs as I have no idea of how big or small the workload is (Doing Chinese in year 8 was so time consuming as I was trying to go from a D to an A* in 4 months so I do have some worries due to that experience. However, hopefully I won't start learning from February this time 😜).

So in short, Do you think I would have enough time in Year 10 to do another GCSE without neglecting my other subjects?

P.S. It also cool that you did a gcse in Year 9. I remember friends saying that I am such a weirdo back then 😪 but fortunately a few understood 😀 and complimented me for being 'brave'

caro36384

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(Original post by loki123456)
Well I'm going into year 10 next year and I'm wondering how hard it would be to do Astronomy alongside with my other GCSEs as I have no idea of how big or small the workload is (Doing Chinese in year 8 was so time consuming as I was trying to go from a D to an A* in 4 months so I do have some worries due to that experience. However, hopefully I won't start learning from February this time 😜).

So in short, Do you think I would have enough time in Year 10 to do another GCSE without neglecting my other subjects?

P.S. It also cool that you did a gcse in Year 9. I remember friends saying that I am such a weirdo back then 😪 but fortunately a few understood 😀 and complimented me for being 'brave'

I think if you concentrate hard enough and manage your time well then it's doable to complete it alongside your other subjects and will compliment your CV if you're looking into space related careers

I'm going into sciencey a levels and my college of choice seemed impressed by GCSE astronomy. I would say go for it (you could always drop it after a month or so if you really can't handle it). If you were saying you were going to do it in year 11 I'd be a little more sceptical because of the workload, but year 10 is more lenient.