How many exams in the first week??

[clary]

Ds2 is in year 11. He does PE and computing and has a scary seven exams in the first week, starting Monday morning.

He has more exams than his sister did 2 years ago, but they seem to be crammed in to a shorter timescale.

A girl in his CS group does French (ds does Spanish) and she has 10 in the first week! It's mad, surely? Anyone beat that??

[NewModelArmyMayhem18]

clary that sounds scary. It must be because they are doing GCSEs from across the range of exam boards? I recall that a couple of years ago DS had nine crammed into the last week which was way too many when he was tired. The only positives would be that a) it gets a large tranche of the papers out of the way quickly and b) your DS will hopefully be 'fresh' and primed.

Good luck to him.

[Lonecatwithkitten]

I did exams at school from the age of 7 as has my DD who is in year 10 doing her mocks part 1 in June. She will have 11 exams in a week in June which as she has extra time will be 19 hours 40 minutes of exams. Good preparation for the future university exams for me were all crammed in a single week 2 exams a day 3 hours each exam so 30 hours.
With effective long term revision 10 exams in a week should be no problem.

[stucknoue]

If varies, just unfortunate subject combination

[clary]

No, exam boards make no difference, everyone has eng lit paper 1 on weds (I think it is) to avoid clashes.

But yes, dd's take us that he gets two finished in the first week!

[Lara53]

DS has 7 next week, 3 the week after then half term. The week after half term he has 6 and the final week 4

[SilentSister]

Two last week, two this week, then four a week until June 14th.

I am not sure whether that is lucky or just extends the agony. I think for some of the subjects, like Biology, having one at the start of May and one as the final one mid June, is a bit of a pain, as you have to sustain your knowledge over such a long period.

So, swings and roundabouts I guess. Good in some ways, bad in others.

[D0ubleTheJoy]

One of mine has 26 papers in total (but includes 2 languages, so that's really only 24 sittings cause the combine the reading + listening together). 8 papers in the first week.

[OddBoots]

Not beat it but dd has 9 or 10 though.
CS and RS Monday,
Biology and 2 back-to-back French Tuesday,
English Lit Wednesday,
Chem and CS Thurs
and Drama and French Friday.

[clary]

Yes if you did RS as your humanity, French as your MFL, and then PE and CS you would have 11 exams and no free morning or afternoon. It just sounds like so much pressure (sigh)

[Powergower]

We have 4 in week 1 and 2 then half term then 7-8 for the last 2 weeks. Can't believe some have 7 in the first week! At least they'll be rid of a huge chunk of work early on.

[Greeborising]

My daughter has 12 in the first week!
Do I win?

[Iwantacookie]

I agree it's far too many over such a small space of time.
I don't think they should do more than 1 exam a day that way they get to give that 1 subject their undivided attention or for something like maths have one in the morning and one in the afternoon.

[Greeborising]

Just realised I lied!!
Sorry
It’s 12 in the first 2 weeks
7 this week

[PopcornPopper]

5 for the first week -
2 Computer Science papers,
1 English lit,
Biology
Chemistry

Then 3 in the second week and then half term.
Then 6, 6 and 2.

German speaking already done.

[Firefliess]

DD and DSS both have 6 this first week. They've both been fairly lucky and have exams quite evenly spread over 4 weeks. DS was less lucky when he did his and and one week with 10. I think one per day is about optimal.

They all have about 25 all together, which is far more than I had when I did GCSEs in the height of the coursework phase. Only 4 of my subjects had any exams at all, and 2 of them were half coursework!