Ive got my gcse's this year... but Im keeping really chilled about them. I am in a very small class at my school (well they call it a college- but it is a school) with only 9 people in it, the whole year having less than 30 people. It is very good... and quite close knit, but my class mates (who are rather too studious for my liking) say that I am "too chilled out" regarding the GCSE, and if I dont start revising, I'll do awfully. However, I was rather pleased when, I got my mock results back to find (other than in Maths) I got very high grades. I was particularly pleased with my geography, where I got an A overall, despite not doing any revision whatsoever... though I put the UK paper bit of that down to the amount I travel over the country on trains, which you do actually learn alot about the locations of places (ie Power Stations, Factories , roads etc)
My place of learning also doesnt bother with PSE (Cockfosters- Are you sure this is compulsary as Ive only had it in one of my schools - in the first year- though perhaps as they were private, it is not compulsary??) and RE is an option, which I dont do. Im doing: BaCS (IT & Business Studies), 3 sep Sciences , Geography, French + maths (though Id love it if I could drop this !!) & Eng lit & lang.
I personally think over the last years (looking at old GCSE papers) they have got easier. So I'm not going to complain about having a hard time. And as for the stories you hear about people hanging themselves etc cause the stress of GCSE's has got too much.... that seems ridiculous... though I suppose other factors may affect there state of mind as well.