Results Day

My sons have absolutely no control at all - hence my total shock when they received their OFSTED report.

my daughter has much of the same problem, the school is supposed to be doing so much better etc etc yet the kids are horrible to be frank! my daughter is going into year 10 and is doing brilliantly at school, high sats levels etc but she is labelled a swot and gets picked on a lot. most of the time she ignores it and gets on with it but i know it does get to her too. most of the girls are just not interested in doing any work and a lot of the boys just mess around. i have just told her to go back to school and concentrate on her next 2 GCSE years and hopefully they wont affect her reaching her full potential.

The people who are usually doing the bullying and labelling people "swots" are usually the people who are jealous of a person's achievement, in my experience.

If your son wants to go into medicine JoJo, I hear that work experience is very important for it so my advice would be for him to go and experience a workplace where medicine is involved. It would give him a taster of the career path he wishes to go into and also increase his knowledge on the subject so when the time comes for him to apply to university, he can apply this knowledge and this work experience on his personal statement, and it will make him stand out as he will have more than his grades to stand out on.

My son is two years further down the path; he has had his work experience week shadowing a junior doctor in A& E. This was great as he had to work shifts too!

He has achieved his DoE Bronze and Silver Awards and is working towards his Gold.

He has voluntary work experience in lifeguarding, and at a childrens summer sports camp (two summers full time for several weeks). Plus helping at cubs for six months.

This year is is doing voluntary work in the local hospital - this has the dual purpose of counting towards his DoE gold, plus looking good on his personal statement.

He plays 2 musical instruments to a high level, and has swum at national level ( although he has quit that now - no time!). He plays in 4 different bands.

He is doing a Red Cross standard first aid course at the moment in his spare time, and also plays tennis, skis and mountain bikes.

And on top of all that he has school and has to try to get 5 As in his higher.

I am so glad that I am not that age again!

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Originally Posted by Abi

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Originally Posted by Jojo

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Originally Posted by Abi

Out of interest JoJo, what does he want to do in the future? Because most universities don't really look at what GCSEs you got. So as long as he has science in some form, whether it is double or triple won't affect him in the slightest. He just has to get the grades to do sciences at A Level, and then it will be the AS level grades they look at. Having said that, Oxford, Cambridge and LSE pay a lot of attention to GCSEs, and UCL, Kings and Imperial do to some extent. But it is the grades, rather than the subjects. If he is more likely to get A*A* at double science than A*A*A* at Triple, then maybe double is the way to go...

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He wants to go into medicine although at the moment, he's considering which route to go down, but is airing more towards the surgery area. He's always wanted to do something in medicine and looking at his options, wasn't able to decide between which of the three he would really get his teeth into because they've all got areas that he's really interested in.

His first module exam is in January 09, then June 09, then January 10 and then June 10.

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I don't know if it will be much help to you, but one of my friends was going to apply for Medicine this year. From what she told me, you have to have two sciences at A Level, and then two "hard" subjects. Something like Maths, English Literature, History etc. So if he does pick two in the end, they will have to be two that he is willing to carry on at A Level. So maybe looking at the A Level syllabuses would be good? Because if he's not going to be interested in them at A Level, then theres no point for him to do them at GCSE. One or two let you only do one science A Level, but the majority want two. And he will need a ton of work experience in the health care area, so if he got going on that now then it will be sooo much easier to write his personal statement. But that's a long way off, lol!

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Originally Posted by Trinity

Medicine is one of the few course where GCSEs really count. Most English Universities use them to distinguish between the many candidates with 4 A passes at A level.

Chemistry is the main science requirement, but many candidates take 3 sciences at A level. The general studies A level is not counted if you are applying for medicine.

Dr Tangliss's forum ( see link in here signature) is really good for anyone thinking of applying to medicine, and as I have mentioned before the ucas webite - ucas.com is esssential reading. If you do a subject search you can then look at all the Universities that offer the subject, the entry requirements etc. Some also have links to info about have they choose applicants and what the non- academic requirements are.

You are recommended to do Duke of Edinburgh Gold, volunteer at old folks home/hospital, do work experience in a caring environment, take part is extra curricular activities such as sport and music etc, etc.

Apparently they want smart high achievers who are demonstrably caring, interested in medicine and society in general and well rounded.

Not a short list of requirements!

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as others have said, you need to have really really good grades to get into medicine, although from what ive read, your son seems really clever so im sure it wont be too much of a problem for him

although i didnt apply to do medicine myself, a lot of the boys where i did my alevels were applying to do medicine. they were told that they basically needed at least As and A*s in their gcses and to have done quite a few gcses as well (ie not just have got the 5 gcses which the government considers you should get). also they were advised to take alevel chemistry and biology and then one other science subject (ie physics, maths etc) and that their last subject shouldnt be something like media etc but one which is considered a "proper" subject, and that they needed to carry through all of their 4 alevel choices

also, you do need to have some sort of work experience as even if youve got the best grades they dont consider you if you have no experience. as your son is only going into yr10 then hopefully he will have a lot of chance of getting some work experience. my sis wants to be a childrens nurse and the degree she wanted to do needed experience, as shed already done her work experience at school (at the end of yr10) she had to try and organise it herself and im not sure if its the same in all areas of the country, but it was very difficult for her to get any through just writing to the hospital etc as it takes them months to reply and then months to get an interview etc. hopefully if your son does his work experience through the school then it should be easier for him. or if you know anyone who works at a hospital etc then it might be easier for your son to ask them about work experience or if they can pass his cv on, as my sis has done that now and it was so much quicker than going through the proper routes. also its best to check as some places wouldnt let kids do work experience if theyre under 16/18. plus as trinity said, try and do voluntary work at an old peoples home and with kids in maybe a playschool/junior school etc as it shows you are good at working with a wide range of people

finally make sure that as well as getting good grades and doing voluntary work, your son does some extra curricular activities, such as sports, music etc as that also goes in your favour on the application. and also try and participate in things which he will gain awards from like the DoE (as someone mentioned) or certificates/trophies etc from other things as it shows he can gain other awards rather than just academic qualifications and shows you can work as part of a team etc. it might also be a good idea to go on a first aid course

although it seems a bit early, you might want to look on the ucas website or the websites for different unis to see what their requirements are etc. also if your sons school has a careers advisor/careers library it might be a good idea for him to look in there/talk to them about it as they will obviously know what is needed etc and be able to help him. and ive just remembered, if there are any university/career roadshows in your area than it might be an idea to go to those as they can be very useful with talks and info and a lot of them focus on careers like medicine so there will be people there to talk to too. a lot of people dont bother going to things like this but if there are any in your area then they are very useful

and one last thing, although its a few years yet before your son will be applying to uni, if he reads up and keeps up-to-date with anything medical related in the news etc then that would be good as they generally ask you about stuff like that in interviews

sorry for the essay lol!

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Originally Posted by Jojo

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Originally Posted by Kim

My friend did triple Science at GCSE and got a B in Biology, C in Chemistry and D in Physics. She resat 1 module of Biology and 1 module of Chemistry during the course. This was at a school with figures of under the average for the county, though. I think it also depends on what you go into it with; she got a 6.4 in her Science SAT, the minimum her school would allow a pupil to take triple science with. I don't think she put a great deal of effort in when it came to revision either, so all of those factors influenced her grades and could mean that your son does a lot better providing he is in better circumstances starting the course and puts in his best effort.

Also, this friend and I often discussed the modules that we did. She did every module that I did for my 2 GCSE's in Science, just one more unit for each science beyond that I think. Unless that's majorly difficult I don't think triple is that much harder than double. I did better than my friend in the modules that we both did, so I think it all depends on ability as indicated by the SAT and the effort that the individual puts in. After a 7 in the SAT I got 3A*'s in modules in the first year, which were pulled down to a high A by one module I scraped an A in and my ISA which was a middle A. My friend got B's, C's and 1D in modules in the first year, but got an A* and A in the ones she resat because she put in more effort as she knew she'd messed up the first time round.

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TBH thats one thing that does concern me as up till now he hasn't done much revision, to gain the results that he has in his normal class tests and his SATS, which I've said to him will have to change.

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i wouldnt worry about that too much tbh, most people at my school didnt bother revising for class tests and sats (including me) but realised that its best to do revision for gcses, alevels etc lol! im sure your son will start to do more work/revision now hes starting his gcses as he will know theyre a lot more important than sats etc

I never revised for my GCSE's :lol: Bad example I am.

So the other problem is finding something extra currular for him - he isn't sporty at all, by his own admission, and mine as a rose tinted mum, he is useless at sport. So I don't know what else he could look at :searchme:

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Originally Posted by Jojo

I never revised for my GCSE's :lol: Bad example I am.

So the other problem is finding something extra currular for him - he isn't sporty at all, by his own admission, and mine as a rose tinted mum, he is useless at sport. So I don't know what else he could look at :searchme:

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lol! i did a bit of revision for my gcses but not much, realised i had to revise for my alevels though!

erm i just suggested sport or music as an option as they are probably the ones most people do. is there anything that hes interested in? cant really think of anything else atm apart from drama or scouts, ill have a think

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Originally Posted by Jojo

I never revised for my GCSE's :lol: Bad example I am.

So the other problem is finding something extra currular for him - he isn't sporty at all, by his own admission, and mine as a rose tinted mum, he is useless at sport. So I don't know what else he could look at :searchme:

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Duke of Edinburgh is great as it covers the voluntary work, skills and recreation.

First aid, scouts, bike maintenance whatever

www.theaward.org

Anyone doing or has done Edexcel science will know about the double award/triple award GCSEs. So today I got my results from last year (:
For those who don't know - we get two GCSEs for science, one in year 10 and one in year 11.

I got:

P1a - A* P1b - C

B1a - A B1b - B

C1a - B C1b - A

And for each internal assesment I got A*s. Full marks in both chemistry - which we did in year 9 and in Biology

Overall I have a B so far but we have yet to get the 10% in each subject for practical grades, and so have been told by my teachers that I should be getting an A overall (: Dead chuffed with that (: .