Science GCSEs level 1 start this week!

Looking forward to the weekend - no exams next week! Hurrah!

That exam went finish

I got a text from dd this morning 'I have had a problem with the bike' and then she ignired all calls and texts which meant I spent half an hour in a flurry of panic thinking she had fallen off her moped.

She texted back eventually 'sorry mum I just stalled it'

Physics.

Got a text: "The exam went finsih."

So that's clear.

Maths hard, apparently.

I'm talking to myself, aren't I? And where's that Pat?

Anyone heard about maths?

It is so hard tho. Because I want them to aim high, I always tell them they have to get As, poor ol ds this morning was saying, "So, do you think, are there any subjects in which I don't have to get As? What if I got an A?"

Dd would just flip me the finger.

my dd (13) wants to be a builder.

Stable girl and animator! DD wanted to be a chef when she was 14! Thank god she changed her mind.

I know, you are both right. I am going to have to keep my mouth shut. Thing is the last thing I want her to feel is that she has in some way disappointed me. That is the last thing on my mind - she is very different from me, and despite not being academic like me, she is by far more rounded than I ever was, she has heaps of friends whereas I am rather misanprothic, she plays about 4 sports, does charity work, is on the school council, she is a really brilliant girl and I am so proud of her.

I just need to back the hell off. The thing is I know from personal experience you can make dodgy choices as a teen (like me, leaving school at 16, having a baby at 17) and that it is not the end of the world, far from it. I just don't want dd to do it the bloody hard way.

I think though deep down she is right - she is so fraught with these exams, the work is so much harder at A level, it would be two more years of stress and anxiety.

Thanks for your advice. Bloody teens.

Oh Getorf, it IS really hard.

BUT if she is really set on it and you fight her, you will both be miserable. If you back her up, she may well surprise you, feel the pressure is off, and make different choices. Or she may make them later in life. I really do think that if a child has made their mind up re a path and it is a GOOD path, it's probs better to support them.

Being a copper has loads of possibilities and opportunites, dunnit?

I am sorry, that bollocks for thicko is completely unnecessary and horrible thing to say .

I just don't want her to do a BTEC.

I am going to have to shut my face and learn that it is not my life and not my choice, aren't I?

We always get on so well, this is the first major row about something impirtant that we have had since she is a teen. She shouted at me last night, she is supposed to come along to the particle accelerator facility where I work (there is a family day next week) and she shouted that she wasn;t going to come, as I would be such a disapointment to her that she wasn't going to be a fucking physicist. That's not the case at all - I just really want her to have the most of the opportunities as she can, and not decide that she wants a degree when she is in her 20s, and have to bloody well struggle like I have. I can just see doors clanging shut.

She went to bed in a strop, I went and gave her a cuddle and we were all fine this morning, and I will have a talk later, I want her to know that I love her and will always be proud of her whatever she does, and that I just want thebest for her.

I am sorry - hijacking the thread.

Her first preference is police, I think it is going to be enormously competitive to get a place as a copper at 18, but dd does a lot of volunteer work anyway, and is going to apply to become a special when she is 18. The public services course is supposed to assist with this, however I think it is a load of bollocks for thickos.

Or she wants to go into the RAF/army, as a rank (not at all interested in being an officer) and work in some kind of PT/military police capacity. No academic qualifications required for this at all.

I know it sounds absolute gubbins but I am really upset by this. It is becoming a real bone of contention. I wanted her to go to university, get a good degree, do it that way, and if she wanted to go in the forces go in as an officer at least. I know it is her life, and her choice, and we are getting at loggerheads about it and she said yesterday that just because I am academic etc I should't expect her to be. Which of course is true, but I also think that because something is hard you shouldn't just give up and take the easier choice. I think by not taking A levels she is really restricting her choices in case she changes her mind in the future. I have said why not do A levels and then do the BTEC afterwards, there is no hurry. But she is adamant that the A level work is too hard, she is struggling to get the grades at GCSE, and she has had enough of academic and exam work, and just wants to do practical stuff.

Funnily enough I sadi the very same thing to a friend the other night whose dd wants to be a copper. Her dd is bright and funny, but just completely uninterested in academics.

Getorf - If she knows what she wants to do and knows the route to get there AND isn't academic or interested in it, check what she needs for copper/army, follow that route and sing Hallelujah that she has a direction!

DD is in bits at having to retake her maths modules. She is having such a nervous breakdown at the whole thing she has decided that she doesn't want to do A levels, and is wanting to leave school, not go to sixth form and go to the local FE college to do a BTEC eitheri n public services or sports coaching. She has her interviews next month.

I am worried about this - she is not at all academic it's true, but she is expected to get A* - C in all her subjects except maths, which is currently a D. I have tried to persuade her that not doing A levels is cutting her nose off, and taking away so many chances. She says that the BTEC is equivalent to A levels (I have had a look, and based on ucas points it is, but lotsof universities presumably won't entertain them).

But she is so stresse maybe a vocational course would be best. She wants to join the army or be a copper.

Maths today.

Ds is at home this morning.

He has just discovered he has been revising the wrong syllabus...!

Ok, I'll have a look tomorrow and let you know. Would have to see the graphs, guessing its probably about the mass of product produced or something

Pat - it was two equations one for sulfuric acid reacting with limestone and one nitric acid. Two graphs showing the reactions.

They had to work out why there was a diffeerence based on the equations.

It seems.

Maybe an unfair advantage, but then maybe the ones studying GCSE PE have an unfair advantage studying anaerobic respiration and the body responses to exercise. Those studying Food Technology have an advantage when studying balanced diet, food preservation etc.

I think it all evens out in the end, I think the only fair way would be if they all only studied Science.......as it is everything!

LOL at everything!

Strictly speaking it is Geology, but I think since rocks and minerals are chemicals it usually falls under the chemistry part of science. Most of the chemistry teachers I know love teaching it, I don't mind it but I would say there is a fair bit of physics in it too (convection currents etc). My bf is a geologist and she is a rock-mad geek, her classes love it!

but also, in this example, a big ol slice of international politics, socio-economics, business and backhanders 101.

Oil fracking and polymers and all that jazz is part of chemistry. Earthquakes and seismology surely unfairly advantages students studying geography?