The Student Room Group

should I drop drama gcse?

okay so I’ve recently been thinking about dropping drama GCSE, I know exams start in May but recently ppl in my year have been able to drop their subjects just now but idk if I’ll get the chance to drop it since so many ppl are dropping other subjects.

Are my reasons valid?
1. Ever since year 10 out of all my subjects drama is my most disliked
2. Too much coursework, both of my option subjects (creative imedia and drama) both have a heavy amount of course and grades are entirely dependent on it. I keep on having to spend out of school hours working ON BOTH.
3. Emotional stress
I don’t have any mental health problems currently but the drama as a whole has caused me stressed. I can’t count the amount of times I’ve cried during class bc of it. Times when I’ve got into arguments with my classmates that I’m working with and etc.
4. Reliant on other people. For me it very reliant on my partner for drama. The girl that I’m currently working with is literally ALSO considering dropping drama, literally last lesson she was putting absolutely no effort and just complained the whole time about how she hates our drama teacher and what not (which I agree lol)
5. Commitment: drama has always been at bottom of the iceberg for me. I literally NEVER feel motivated to revise for it, mostly due to the fact that the grade boundaries are SO HIGH. (Literally in my last mocks to get a grade 9 was 58/60). I averagely get around 4,5,6s in drama. Along with commitment, I hate how my teacher forces me to do lunch time rehearsals and after school rehearsals, like why am I taking out my free time for a subject I don’t even like??
6. Embarrassment: I know this is probably a dumb one, but every time when I perform I get embarrassed, I feel like I’m constantly being judged by the others in my class (half of them hate me), my acting “never looks natural” and whenever I watch back my performance I just utterly cringe. I hate this damn subject

Reply 1

Original post by ekhsaa_18
okay so I’ve recently been thinking about dropping drama GCSE, I know exams start in May but recently ppl in my year have been able to drop their subjects just now but idk if I’ll get the chance to drop it since so many ppl are dropping other subjects.
Are my reasons valid?
1. Ever since year 10 out of all my subjects drama is my most disliked
2. Too much coursework, both of my option subjects (creative imedia and drama) both have a heavy amount of course and grades are entirely dependent on it. I keep on having to spend out of school hours working ON BOTH.
3. Emotional stress
I don’t have any mental health problems currently but the drama as a whole has caused me stressed. I can’t count the amount of times I’ve cried during class bc of it. Times when I’ve got into arguments with my classmates that I’m working with and etc.
4. Reliant on other people. For me it very reliant on my partner for drama. The girl that I’m currently working with is literally ALSO considering dropping drama, literally last lesson she was putting absolutely no effort and just complained the whole time about how she hates our drama teacher and what not (which I agree lol)
5. Commitment: drama has always been at bottom of the iceberg for me. I literally NEVER feel motivated to revise for it, mostly due to the fact that the grade boundaries are SO HIGH. (Literally in my last mocks to get a grade 9 was 58/60). I averagely get around 4,5,6s in drama. Along with commitment, I hate how my teacher forces me to do lunch time rehearsals and after school rehearsals, like why am I taking out my free time for a subject I don’t even like??
6. Embarrassment: I know this is probably a dumb one, but every time when I perform I get embarrassed, I feel like I’m constantly being judged by the others in my class (half of them hate me), my acting “never looks natural” and whenever I watch back my performance I just utterly cringe. I hate this damn subject

Hey , to be completely clear GCSE do not matter as much as you think . As long as you are doing well in the subjects you plan to take for A-Levels that is all that matters aswell as a 4 or 5 in maths and english literature. If you dont plan to take GCSE drama for A-levels and ur other grades are pretty solid so that having 1 less gcse is affordable then drop it.

Reply 2

Original post by ekhsaa_18
okay so I’ve recently been thinking about dropping drama GCSE, I know exams start in May but recently ppl in my year have been able to drop their subjects just now but idk if I’ll get the chance to drop it since so many ppl are dropping other subjects.
Are my reasons valid?
1. Ever since year 10 out of all my subjects drama is my most disliked
2. Too much coursework, both of my option subjects (creative imedia and drama) both have a heavy amount of course and grades are entirely dependent on it. I keep on having to spend out of school hours working ON BOTH.
3. Emotional stress
I don’t have any mental health problems currently but the drama as a whole has caused me stressed. I can’t count the amount of times I’ve cried during class bc of it. Times when I’ve got into arguments with my classmates that I’m working with and etc.
4. Reliant on other people. For me it very reliant on my partner for drama. The girl that I’m currently working with is literally ALSO considering dropping drama, literally last lesson she was putting absolutely no effort and just complained the whole time about how she hates our drama teacher and what not (which I agree lol)
5. Commitment: drama has always been at bottom of the iceberg for me. I literally NEVER feel motivated to revise for it, mostly due to the fact that the grade boundaries are SO HIGH. (Literally in my last mocks to get a grade 9 was 58/60). I averagely get around 4,5,6s in drama. Along with commitment, I hate how my teacher forces me to do lunch time rehearsals and after school rehearsals, like why am I taking out my free time for a subject I don’t even like??
6. Embarrassment: I know this is probably a dumb one, but every time when I perform I get embarrassed, I feel like I’m constantly being judged by the others in my class (half of them hate me), my acting “never looks natural” and whenever I watch back my performance I just utterly cringe. I hate this damn subject

To be clear, as long as you are doing other GCSEs relating to whatever A-Levels you want you should probably look to just drop Drama if you don't like it and focus on your compulsory grades of at least 4/5 in Maths and English as i know two courseworks subject can be horrible (photography and Imedia for me)

If you want I can help with Imedia. I did it along with my GCSEs last year (im in yr12 now) and got full marks on 2/3 compnents and they have much lower grade boundaries drama (i didnt do Drama)

Reply 3

Original post by kgoldfalcon
To be clear, as long as you are doing other GCSEs relating to whatever A-Levels you want you should probably look to just drop Drama if you don't like it and focus on your compulsory grades of at least 4/5 in Maths and English as i know two courseworks subject can be horrible (photography and Imedia for me)
If you want I can help with Imedia. I did it along with my GCSEs last year (im in yr12 now) and got full marks on 2/3 compnents and they have much lower grade boundaries drama (i didnt do Drama)


im trying to communicate to my teacher that I literally don’t want to do it anymore but she is trying recommend me “lunch time sessions” for me to improve in Drama. how do I explain to her that I DONT want to do lunch time sessions and are literally the reason why I want to drop it. Idk if it sounds lazy of me saying it but i literally have no motivation to be practicing at lunch time when I would rather revise for a maths and enjoy my free time…

Compared to iMedia i actually get significantly better grades in the coursework compared to Drama and it’s literally because im more motivated to make sure it’s good. Do you have any advice on how to get high marks on the written paper?I always get low marks on the 9 markers and is there anywhere to see the spec ?

Reply 4

Original post by ekhsaa_18
im trying to communicate to my teacher that I literally don’t want to do it anymore but she is trying recommend me “lunch time sessions” for me to improve in Drama. how do I explain to her that I DONT want to do lunch time sessions and are literally the reason why I want to drop it. Idk if it sounds lazy of me saying it but i literally have no motivation to be practicing at lunch time when I would rather revise for a maths and enjoy my free time…
Compared to iMedia i actually get significantly better grades in the coursework compared to Drama and it’s literally because im more motivated to make sure it’s good. Do you have any advice on how to get high marks on the written paper?I always get low marks on the 9 markers and is there anywhere to see the spec ?
This is from a friend of mine who did Drama and she said you should look not in the spec (in most cases this is true) but the mark scheme because although it shows the Level 1,2.etc bands which are pretty repetitive and useless but look for the 'Indicative Content'' if any as this shows the things examiners are looking for due to question variation. Furthermore the mark scheme has a model for each question.

To clarify, I didnt do Drama but nice that you're enjoying IMedia. One of my friends did it so i will ask her. I also presume you do Edexcel Drama??

Quick Reply