Hello!

Hi I’m Ellis I’m 16 years old and am currently at The Robert Blake Science College preparing for 11 GCSEs, having previously taken 4. As many people know, when you reach Year 10, you must choose your options, which are a certain amount of GCSE subjects you choose to take along with the core subjects, Maths, English and Science. However, the amount and type of option subjects you have to choose from can vary for each school.

I chose to take Geography, Visual Art and Health and Social Care which is a Double Award, meaning I will achieve 2 GCSEs from it. I chose these because I’ve always enjoyed drawing and painting so I knew I could achieve quite a high grade from Visual Art and I’m really interested in people and their needs so I knew I would learn more about that from Health and Social Care. Yet, I had previously chosen to take Expressive Arts (drama) as an option before Geography, but when I saw my KS3 results for both Geography and drama, I achieved a higher result for Geography so I decided to change my option. Therefore, when choosing options, I would recommend either choosing subjects you’re interested in or subjects you know you can achieve highly in, because you mainly want as higher grades as possible when leaving school.

I also chose to study English, English Literature & Language, Statistics, Physics, Chemistry, Citizenship and Key skills ICT. All of these I will be taking exams in. However, in my school we get the chance to take certain GCSEs early, so in year 10 I took Health and Social Care with the year 11s and achieved an A grade, meaning I didn’t have to retake the exam in year 11 and could focus more on the coursework. Due to Health and Social Care being 60% coursework and 40% exam, it gave me the opportunity to focus more on my coursework and to bring it up to a higher standard.

I also took my maths GCSE early in year 10 and achieved a B grade overall, meaning I didn’t have to retake that either as I had achieved my target grade. This meant that I had the chance to take an extra maths subject called statistics in year 11, giving me an extra GCSE and I’m finding it really enjoyable, too. In year 9, I also took German as an early GCSE. Even though I didn’t achieve a high grade (D/C), I still have a GCSE in German which is something to be proud of in my eyes.

My exams start on the 12th May and end on the 16th June, meaning they’re spread out quite well, taking into consideration a school holiday in the middle. Overall I will have 9 exams to take because I have already taken some early and passed. Although, no matter how many I have to take, I’m still really nervous and must do a lot of preparation for each of the different subjects.

So that’s a little bit about me, Connexions Somerset have asked me to write this blog as a kind of support to all other year 11’s out there. I hope reading about my experiences will be of some help to others, please feel free to comment on my posts and add your thoughts. You can also speak to a Connexions Personal Adviser about any issues that may be concerning you whether its exam stress or life stuff they will be able to help. I have added the link to the Connexions website just in case: www.connexions-somerset.org.uk

Until next time

Ellis xx