Should I drop a GCSE subject (about to go to year 11)?

Hi, I would like some advice on whether or not I should drop GCSE music. I'm currently doing 11 GCSE's and I think coming out with only 10 wouldn't be so bad generally, but would this hold true for someone who's hoping to apply to a Russell Group university in the future? Do top universities have a preference for more GCSE's perhaps? I've unfortunately found out that I lack a lot of musical experience and ability, and I think my grades in other subjects will suffer as this course has been very stressful and very time consuming, with little to show for it (I got a D as an average grade for music in year 10). So even if I end up with 11 GCSE's in total, the other 10 GCSE's may be of less quality if I don't drop music.

The catch is that I'm already quite far into the course and dropping it could probably cause problems; switching subjects at this point will be difficult as I would have to catch up on a lot and if I just drop music entirely without switching to another subject, I would have empty periods which I'm not sure my school would like.

In case you want this info: I am interested in doing maths, further maths and physics for my A levels. I hope to apply for a mathematics course at a uni after that. So I think GCSE music isn't important for what I want to do.

Assuming that I can speak to my school about this and drop it, should I?

I think that if you are finding it hard, recieving poor grades in it and it is very time consuming then you should drop it. I haven't done GCSE music but i can appreciate that it would be a difficult subject and has a large coursework element. Ultimately 10 GCSEs is still a lot (i did 10) and it is far better to have 10 good/great grades rather than to have 11 poor/mediocre grades because you invested all of your efforts into a subject that is time conuming and hard. I don't see why you shouldn't be able to drop it as usually music isn't a compulsory subject unlike say, maths and looking at what you want to do for A level it wouldn't impact your Alevel choices or your career path. With regards to free periods i know people who dropped Spanish at my school and when Spanish was timetabled they still came to the lesson but just did their own work/revision instead.

Hope this helps and good luck with your GCSEs and whatever you decide

See if you can actually drop the subject with your school though. Someone in my school wanted to drop a subject but they didn't let her as we did all the coursework in YR10 and she was already registered with the exam boards to do the exams.
Although 10 is alright, just hang in there!

Thanks Calsiwm_Silicad. But wow, you're doing a lot of GCSE's! And by "add maths" do you mean GCSE further mathematics? That looks very cool and I'm quite interested in it. I've looked at some past papers which include topics such as matrices and differential calculus, which is very neat. I've come across these before in a maths club I attend and my own preparation for A level maths. If I wanted to do this GCSE now, how would I go about doing it? Is it even possible to start now? Could I do it on my own? My school never even told me about this and I'm not sure if it's too late for me.

Well it's not too late as my school is restarting the course for us this September because everyone who attended has forgotten everything haha . It's not a GCSE it's called "L2 Additional Maths" and it's marked on a "merit/distinction/pass/fail" basis. My school is in Wales (so we're on WJEC) although I am aware that other schools in the UK do the FSMQ (Free Standing Maths Qualification) which is a similar thing which is worth looking up if you're not in Wales and interested in Maths!

I only do so many because my school is Welsh medium which means as well as English Lit , English Lang we also do Welsh Lit and Welsh Lang (the bane of my life!) - I wish I could drop those swell but they're compulsory

So to go about doing either Add Maths or FSMQ just google it and then talk to your teachers about it - if your school offers FM a level then them teaching FSMQ shouldn't be a problem (unless they can't be bothered of course...)