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Writer's pictureAbrar Al-Habtari, Founder

Choosing your GCSE subjects!

If your in year 9 you've probably been assigned a very important task now - pick your GCSE Subjects!!!

Should you do a GCSE in Art? Or D.T? Maybe you’re passionate about your Music or P.E. But the level of coursework is holding you back from taking the GCSE.


For me, when it came to picking my GCSE options, I didn’t put in much thought at all. I looked at the list of subject choices and picked the ones which I fancied. So, overall I ended up studying the Core Subjects, Triple Science, R.S., Geography, Spanish, D.T. and Computing.


I’m not suggesting you don’t put in any thought to your choices but I strongly encourage you to do the subjects you truly just enjoy. That’s because you’ll be sitting a lot of GCSEs at the end of year 11. Therefore, you want to make the preparation process as easy as possible. Studying subjects you enjoy will automatically ease that process multiple times over.

It meant when I wanted to do some passive but productive revision, I’d walk around the house to various family members and bore them by speaking in Spanish - a language they don’t understand. And when I was struggling to sleep at night but didn’t quite have the energy for an intense Chemistry paper, I would sit and get on with some of my D.T. coursework (a subject I truly wholeheartedly loved and recommend).


The question of whether coursework heavy subjects will distract you from your other subjects will always linger over the heads of students making the decision of which subjects to take; and usually of their parents or guardians. I’d say, passion for your subjects is the most important thing. And then, motivation to manage your time well.


It is true that coursework heavy subjects will require some time over the course of the year.


As it led up to my coursework deadlines, there were quite a few days where I would be in at school at 8am to work on my D.T. or Computing projects for an hour before school and then in school till 5pm so that I had the extra 1.5 hours after school to work on them. Of course, the amount of extra work you put in is dependent on how well you’d like to do, and that will reflect in your grades. So while overall I may have put in an extra 10-15 hours of work outside of school hours, I did end up getting an A* in my D.T. coursework.


The most important thing to remember is that the GCSE has been designed to be able to be balanced with all your other subjects. And, each coursework piece in each subject should only take an average of 20 to 30 hours to put together - that includes lesson time. So don’t let the amount of time that should be spent on coursework stop you from taking the GCSE.

In fact, I can say that I didn’t initially spend the time I had in my D.T. lessons as efficiently as possible. Hence spending extra time outside of school hours as we approached deadlines. Starting these courses in year 10, you won’t be used to self managing time as effectively as possible particularly as everything before hand has been managed by teachers and parents. As such, you can’t kick yourself if at first you struggle with time management. But, use the fact that the courses start in Year 10 to your advantage. It means you still have a whole 1.5 years to try and work out how to balance your 8+ GCSEs.


How do you balance all your GCSEs along with a coursework heavy subject? Spread your time evenly between all your subjects as much as possible. In that way you won’t allow yourself to procrastinate from finishing the Chapter of Maths questions by going rock climbing for a few hours too many. All in the name of your ‘P.E. GCSE’. As you spend time finessing that Art piece, think to yourself, have you spent many hours understanding the Mitosis process in Biology?


Some of my friends liked to begin their revision days with their coursework for a maximum of two to three hours before moving onto the next subject. It meant the coursework was out of the way. Others of us would do work for subjects which didn’t include coursework then move onto coursework later in the day or evening. This way coursework often became a way of winding down and calming oneself before hitting the bed. Either way, you’ll find something which works for you and GCSE subjects which have coursework in them definitely should not be disregarded as an option.


So to conclude, do the subjects you enjoy the most; time management and everything else will fall into place as best as possible.




- Sumayyah Amin




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