Mumsnet Talk

Just being nosey really. DS's start next week and apparently they are revising in school so he doesn't need to do much at home .

DSs start next week too. He says he isn't going to bother revising as they are "only mocks so they don't matter". Nothing I say can convince him otherwise! He is grudgingly doing 1/2 hr revision per night atm!

Oh yes we have. Dd1 is squirrelled away in her bedroom permanently revising at the moment. This is the first time she has had several subjects in one week and she is unimpressed - also at my lack of sympathy along with the 'in my day we had 3 hour exams' speech .

Yes..except they aren't mocks but the real thing!

Several have been set as early as january of this year during year 10.

DS is not impressed by having three exams on thursday (his 16th birthday).

He has revised for Maths as that is two full papers but hasn't done much else yet. He has Religious Studies on Monday but it is only one question as they did 50% of the GCSE in the summer and so haven't covered all of the syllabus for this year yet. I thought he was being sarcastic when I saw he had written in his planner "revise matters of life and death"!

Whereabouts in the UK are you all?

are you sure they are mocks?

Maybe London is the only area where they are doing actual exams spread across yrs 10-11 rather than waiting until may/june of yr 11?

We are in Hertfordshire and they are definitely mocks. DS did a few actual exams in May/June of year 10 but apart from a couple of English papers in January everything else will be in the summer.

Ah ok! well good luck to your son and rotten luck that it's on his birthday!

Hope he enjoys his birthday all the same

We've just finished mocks, and I'm wondering if we will get the results this side of Christmas. I do hope so as DD has some January papers so it would be good to know areas to work on over Christmas.

But I've got a feeling that we won't get any real feedback till parent's eve in Jan which will be after her real first paper....

That's a bit unhelpful creamteas - DS is doing an English literature paper in January and they actually did a mock for that last week and have the result already.

Y11 mocks next week here too! No stress shown though, not sure if that's good or bad!

amberleaf, no real gcses scheduled before jan now anywhere in uk.

Yep, end of next week until end of term! Official 'results day' in January.... Some schools round here give the study leave for it, but not ours, which I can't help but be pleased about!

And she starts a day early in January for real science exams.....

My DD is just getting over having her appendix out she starts mocks next week so lord know what her results will be like her health has been bad this year.

Still there are alway resits, as I said to her getring better is the most important thing!!!

Loshad do you mean from now? Because my son definitely had real ones earlier this month.

We've had real bits and bobs for aaaages!

Dd did a mock RE this week and she is in year 9. She does a mock ICT next week and her real exam is in January. I'm sure she said there was another one too. Bit early if you ask me.

DD yr11 had mocks last week. But only Marhs and 2 option subjects. Lower sets had firs hit at real maths GCSE the week before.
Had real Eng Lang, first module x 3 for the sciences, and a Geog module in Yr10. Her next real one will be linear Maths in Feb/Mar, then the rest in May/June. CA"s ongoing.

Already getting mock results back. Nit brilliant, but DD generally does better in the real thing. Jus hope they are good enough to get the predicted grades needed for an oversubscribed sixth form place

DS does his mocks after Christmas, but all his course are linear so only exams in May and June.

DD has mocks on Monday. Played xbox all day. Such bliss for the parent's heart.

yes from now, there were some in nov.

My DD is in Y11 and she hasn't mentioned mocks. I am assuming they are in January rather than December.

It is crazy for schools to be doing mocks in November or December, when there is so much of the courses still to teach - and no advantage whatsoever.

If the exams are going to have a realistic feel, they need to be taken as late as possible. If they need to support special consideration for the real thing, they need to cover a decent proportion of the course.

Naturally, we are doing mocks mid dec for exams to be taken in jan, they are quite close to the real thing!

My son took his first actual GCSE exam in the january of yr 10, so 4 months into the GCSE course.

This is the last year to do it that way though.