Why do people choose to do more gcses?

aslkdfsaj

Don't most unis just look at your top 8 gcses, so why do people do 11 or 12?

Reply 1

Jonjon7

Universities Forum Helper

Original post

by aslkdfsaj

Don't most unis just look at your top 8 gcses, so why do people do 11 or 12?

Most unis do look at/score 8 GCSE, apart from a few like Oxford that score 10 GCSE, for medicine.

Best to know that the biggest competition you faces is yourself, don't compared against others. You can safely ignore what others do, be it 11/12 or even 20.

Reply 2

Kingston Eve

Official Rep

Original post

by aslkdfsaj

Don't most unis just look at your top 8 gcses, so why do people do 11 or 12?

Hey @aslkdfsaj,

Although it might differ between schools/regions, I know one of the main reasons my school encouraged students to study 10/11 GCSEs was that it made the timetabling more efficient and easier to organise. At my school, we had 11 half-hour periods a day, with one period for lunch. This left 50 periods for learning throughout a typical school week; if each GCSE was given five periods a week, that meant all GCSEs were given equal learning time and students could easily study 10 subjects. However, different schools operate on different timetables and some might choose to dedicate more time to core subjects (English/Maths).

Don't worry too much about how many GCSEs you're doing - rather, try and focus on doing as well as you possibly can in the ones you're currently studying. 🙂

Best of luck!
Eve (Kingston Rep).