In early 2015, when Maryam was nearly 10, we started to sense that Maryam’s reading, writing and reasoning were at the point she could kind of get things. So we thought it might be a good time for her to start preparing for a few of her GCSE exams.
GCSE’s are taken by all 16 year olds in the UK, who typically take between 5 and 10 subjects, with the exams taken in the space of two or three months.
I felt that by Maryam doing only 3 GCSE’s in one year it would give her an advantage compared to other kids who would be taking 9 or 10. She could spend around 3 times as much time per GCSE.
So, we decided she’d do the following GCSE’s:
i) Maths – she was already around 4 years ahead through doing 1 hour’s Khan Academy (www.khanacademy.org) every weekday, so a GCSE seemed achievable.
ii) French – she was conversant as Isabelle made her speak French to her if Maryam wanted her dessert in the evening.
iii) Biology – seemed to be a subject that was standalone and involved a lot of memorisation, which Maryam was good at. Maryam also had an interest in it over chemistry, the other memorisation subject.
Notice how individual this was. No school in the UK allows students to decide which subjects to do when. I had to do 9 GCSE’s all in the same year. Why? If I was strong at maths and physics shouldn’t I have done them earlier, and my weaker subjects later? Even if to stagger things so to avoid exam cram. Shouldn’t kids being doing the exams when it’s right for them, not right for the school? It’s not possible at school because there needs to be set classes that all do the work at the same pace. The idea of doing GCSE’s based on my kids’ personal circumstances was liberating.
Now the GCSE’s are a two year course. But given the focus and one to one teaching we thought we’d hopefully need 18 months to get these 3 GCSE’s done.
Isabelle took charged of French and biology – she works from home which made that possible. I took charge of maths – 1 hour in the morning before I rush off to work. Just like in my businesses, responsibilities were clearly defined as were timelines and targets – 18 months to get the top grade (A*’s) in each subject (around 7% of GCSE’s taken are awarded A*’s).
Biology: I was surprised by Isabelle’s decision to teach biology herself given that she’d only studied biology to around GCSE level around two decades ago and following the French syllabus. But she said she’d learn it with Maryam. Bear in mind that Maryam had never studied biology before, unlike most school kids. Isabelle used textbooks, workbooks, and past papers. I should point out that Isabelle is one of the most intelligent people I know so this isn’t for everyone.
French: French was easy for Isabelle to teach, as she’s French. I think Isabelle used an exercise book, vocab lists and past papers.
Maths: For maths we just did past papers, that’s it. No textbook, no exercise book, no notes. That’s my way. So while Khan Academy had taught them around 60% of what they needed to know, the remainder 40% they’d learn through doing questions, and me helping or teaching when she got stuck. I tried to get Maryam to Google things so she’d learn the art of teaching herself, but that didn’t work. She gave up too easily. I’ll leave that for later. When we started going for the GCSE Danyal was almost at Maryam’s level in maths, despite him being 2 years younger, so I decided to teach them maths together. You see that flexibility of home school again?
So during the next year Maryam spent around 4 hours a week on biology, 2 hours a week on French, and 5 hours a week on maths (where Danyal joined in). 2 to 3 months prior to the exams that doubled, and 2 weeks prior almost trebled.
So that brings me to today, 18 months from when they started. A few weeks ago they finished their respective GCSE exams. They actually did international GCSE’s, not GCSE’s but they’re basically the same thing.
We don’t know the result of their GCSE’s yet as they haven’t been released, but Maryam was getting high A*’s in all 3 of her subjects in most past papers before the exams. And Danyal was getting high A*’s in most of his maths papers.
The entire experience was learning for us too, and by going through the process we decided to make some changes for future years and for our littlest one, Sabeen. But that will be in another post…
The Wonder Years 
Asim, this may sound weird but I haven’t read anything on a website as exciting as this (your blog) in a long time. I totally get you. I admire the energy and commitment you have for your kids’ education. Lots of things you said just hit the nail right on the head.
Cheeky yet polite, social and loves sport just describe my boy as well. Makes me want our families to meet even! But we’re very far as we’re in France. Knowing now though that Isabelle is French, I feel we’re far but not too far. I’ll sure to have more questions for you regarding hs soon! Merci et Bonne soirée
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Merci pour votre mots gentils! Wife tells me that doesn’t quite sound right. Hope your boy enjoys the homeschool, assuming he’s doing it too!
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Salaam Asim,
thank you to share these amazing things about home schooling. Even though I am not a parent yet, but i really looking forward to educate my kids this way. I’m in Indonesia, so unlike Ms. Nana who is in france, we are actually pretty near. Hopefully sometime and somewhere we could share some cup of coffee. Looking forward to learn more from you
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Hi Asim
I am curious to know , why did you choose GCSE curriculum for your children . Why not IB or american ?
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Hi Asim
I am curious to know , why did you choose iGCSE curriculum for your kids and not any other like IB or American ?
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Nidhi, because I’m familiar with GCSEs, I know they’re quite easy (they have been getting easier for 25+ years), and they’re universally accepted…
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Interesting post! How did you get the GCSE tests rated? Did you do that yourself or did you send them back to Britain?
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Michel,tx. You can do IGCSEs in a centre in most major cities of the world. So they have a centre 20 mins drive from my place. In KL it’s the British Council.
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Salam Asim
You mention that Maryam does 11 hours a week (5, 4 and 2).
Which is just over 2 hours a day.
And elsewhere it says they study 7-1 every day.
I get there are breaks so I am missing something!!
Please advise – am trying to copy!
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11 hours a week? They used to do 7am to 1pm – maths, languages, etc… Now it’s more like they study at their own pace. They’re responsible and work hard so we don’t set hours. They kind of set their own targets…
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jk for the quick reply!
Sorry, my question wasn’t at all clear. I’m trying to copy (adjusting for my kids age/abilities) your initial 7-1 plan, and wanted to know the detail/schedule within that.
e.g. 1 hour maths, have breakfast 30 mins, 1 hour something else, 30 mins walk etc.
Appreciate it would vary and now they are going solo, but yeah, what was the routine(s) when you did the 7-1?
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When it was 7-1, it was something like…
1 hour arabic, 30 mins Chinese, 1 hour maths, 1 hour English, etc…
So they’d have possibly 3 Chinese lessons a week. Everything was 1-2-1 so the Chinese teacher, for example, would teach for 1h30m by teaching each kid for 30m.
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Sorry – another question…you’re blog has inspired me…
How about…just skipping GCSE and doing the A-Level?
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We’re doing that with Sabeen, but are you confident enough to do it. If so, go for it. A-level seem to be MUCH harder than IGCSEs so so IGCSEs are a good way to build some confidence.
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Dear Mr. Khan,
Just got introduced into your posts through someone who follow you. Very Interesting, informative & encouraging!
How did you fill in Lab exposure & experience for Physics, Chem & Bio?
rg
sudip
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Sudip, my kids didn’t have any lab experience. BTW I’m not Mr Khan!
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Dear Mr. Qureshi,
First of all apologies for getting your name wrong. It was just a silly error as I was with a dear friend of mine who goes by that last name and did not realise the mistake until now. Hope it is not a big issue for you.
But your blog is quite inspiring and I showed it to my elder daughter…she is excited as we prepare for our journey to KL, from Marlborough in the UK.
Hope to get some more inputs from here , in time.
Thanks Again for sharing your experiences.
Rg
Sudip
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Sudip, no worries at all.
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Hi Asim,
I always wanted to do homeschooling and realise that school is wasting kids time and potential. Now I am starting back my career after all those years and want to homeschool my kids too.
Any suggestions how can I make it possible ?
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