Insights from Jack into Year 8
We heard from Jack about primary school, starting secondary school and now hear he is, telling us about Year 8. This is a year when a child and his or her parents needs to start making serious choices about what subjects they will study at GCSE – the exams you take at 16 and which will then help you decide what A levels to do (the exams you take at 18).
How is year 8 different to Year 7?
Year 8 is more advanced than year 7 and its an important year because you have to understand your options for GCSE. You have a lot of homework to do which can take up to an hour when you get home.
How do you decide which subjects to study for GCSE?
You choose the subjects you are good and the ones you enjoy. You have to do English, Maths and Science and then you have secondary subjects like Computer Science, Geography, French that you can choose.
You will want to choose the topics where you are getting the best marks. I am going to do 10 subjects for GCSE and I hope to do the 3 separate sciences. If science isn’t your thing, you just do trilogy science which is all the sciences combined.
How do you do your homework?
You do your homework online and once you have completed it, you send it straight to your teacher.
How does the marking system work?
Green pen is for teachers when they are marking your work that you in your book at school, purple pen is for students. The marking system works like this: 9 is the highest grade possible and U is the lowest and then 1. You start doing the grading system in Year 1 and it gets more advanced in Year 11. Everyone has their own targets according to how well they do in individual tests and you are given the following assessments: for a typical year 8, you should be about Grade 4- you might be given a ‘towards’ which means you are getting close to your target or exceeded which means you have passed it or ‘on track’ which means you are on the target.
What is going to be different in Year 9?
I am going to join the Army Cadets and I hope to do all 3 sciences, I am also going to start Computer Science.
For more information on the marking system, go to: https://inews.co.uk/news/education/new-gcse-grades-explained-old-equivalents-1-9-grading-how-work/