GCSEs 2012 support thread

How many exams have your DC got left? DS has 14 in a two and a half week period and, as much as I would love him to be able to relax for a bit, I don't think he can afford to as he has so much revision to do. I think I may have to revert to nagging parent mode :(

I'm giving DD time to chill now. She was wilty and uncooperative too, refusing to revise and saying she didn't care about them anyway. I got a bit cross and said she'd have these GCSEs for ever which fell on deaf ears and made her worse.

I think it's easy for us to get stressed too and that's counterproductive. I'd let her chill at least over the bank holiday weekend. Being tired and jaded won't help their marks.

English and Physics AQA done this week and RS welsh board done today. Phew!

DT and History after half term and that is it.

Only one I'm worried about is English - can't be sure how he did, he wasn't sure. From what he said I hope all is well but English not hi strength. Fingers crossed he does not have to do it again.
writing questions were tricky - reading okay.

THanks Kez and Maureen. I've had a crap day and I think I may be taking it out in stress on her a bit because she's had a lovely relaxing one . THese exams are knackering for us all, I think, and it's only me and DD (lone parent of an only).
I've brought home lots of past papers, so I think we'll go for that approach, with a bit of MyMaths for variety. She's going to her dad's on Saturday until Weds, so I'll ask him to leave her until Monday then do a paper on Mon and one on Tues. He may be more relaxed about it since he hasn't been in the thick of the tension! It's easy to start to let them become more important then they really are. THe sky will stay in place if she fails - she has a C and she can resit next year for the B if necessary.
I actually think she is capable of getting it this year, though, so fingers crossed.

ds1 (yr10) has his first GCSE exam tomorrow: ICT module 1. He stresses madly about English controlled assessments, but doesn't seem uptight about this exam at all.

I'd give it a rest too. There are about 10 days (?) between now and the Maths paper.

If she's anything like my daughter and her mates, they are spending the last few offical days of school, with saying goodbyes and signing shirts and books. DD has come home tonight with all manner of lovely things from teachers and friends alike. She keeps showing me more and more pictures of all of them on Facebook too. The sweatshirt has arrived too and she's so full of everything.

Personally, I'll be giving DD the whole weekend off. She's got Geography and Science left and having just seen a letter from school, she will be required to be in school for both those lessons and revision lessons just before the exams too. I do think you can do too much.

Like Kez says, particularly with Maths, you need to have your maths head on! I know I do!

Chill a bit - what will be, will be.

Maths after half term. She did FOundation in November (should have done Higher really, but lacked confidence) and got the C. However, she really needs a B as lots of Professional courses now want that and she's being really crap tonight.

Aaaaaargh! DD has embarked on Maths revision. SHe has been home alone all day and done NOTHING. SHe is now going all wilty with a bad head saying she has no idea how to do it. Grrrrr.
I have been fierce and told her to get her book out and get on with fathoming it out. Any other suggestions?

DD found the Physics papers tricky and much harder than previous years but thought she generally did OK. She goes to a so called superselective and they do teach above and beyond the current GCSE syllabus. I think it is bloody unfair to change the goal posts and put in much harder questions because most students do not get the opportunity to go beyond the current syllabus, however able or hard working they are. Potentially most of those who attain A* in future will be the lucky few who are able to access fast paced teaching in selective schools - hardly improving the system - just creating more of a divide.

My DS had the AQA physics paper 3 yesterday and also reported it to be quite hard, along with his fellow students. It's his major subject, along with maths, and has found the other papers okay (100 out of 100) in paper 2. He's hoping to have gained enough UMS points to get the A* he wants as he has already got enough for the A grade. Hoping he has done better than he thinks. Further Maths tomorrow and the relax a bit over half term.

Hmm. DS said he did fine on the physics but some of the highest achievers came out in tears. It's his hobby as well as his favourite subject and it seems he could answer some of the questions only because he has studied the subject further at home than at school.

I think that's very likely, Kez. What they appear to do is have a broad topic, such as sound, and then they can ask anything within that topic as the course teaches the 'basics' which they then have to apply. All I can say is that I'm glad I'm not doing it!

My daughter arrived home last night in floods of tears, she has revised pretty hard for AQA Physics, it is not a subject she finds easy, but had been to all revision classes, learned a lot of the formulas, and been consistent in her revision. She seemed more confident about approaching this paper. However, she said several of the questions may as well have been in russian, they were badly worded and didnt think they were even in the syllabus....... this is obviously a national problem having read the other posts, so what can we do - presumably the schools pass their comments to the Examining Board and grades are adjusted if and when deemed necessary? I guess it is reassuring that everyone felt the same, - still didnt stop the tears though. Maybe this is Michael Gove's influence on the 'dumbing down' GCSES, ask them A Level questions, that will sort the wheat out from the chaff.

Half term now, hurrah, we can all have a lie in!

Well from my lurk on the student room, he may have slightly misread/understood the audiology question, but depending on how it was worded could have got the mark from what he put.
However he seems surprised people think it was hard!
So hopefully he did okay.
But can I now get him to revise for his Maths after 1/2 term.
We just have RE today, which he is only doing because I didn't object fast enough. I might have a quick look to see what it's about.

Same gettingalife. Hard, with weird questions, but DS3 says he didn't spot a mistake (Mind you, he only gets Coco Pops and orange juice for breakfast, so it could be that :)).

No reports of a mistake here, mummy time - just hard. There were things they didn't expect - eg the chart on the stars and the question on geostationary orbit - but no talk of any mistakes...

DS is convinced there was a mistake on the AQA P3 paper, he apparently wrote why it was nonsense in his answer. I just hope he is right. He seemed to think it was OK otherwise, so hopefully did okay.

Yes, I haven't seen any reports from anyone on here, The Student Room forum or amongst DD and her friends who said anything other than it was brutal. Lets hope for low grade boundaries!

I am about all the information you all get.
So far, all of ds's exams have been "awright"

2 x RE tomorrow... Islam and, er... Islam 2 ?!? again

Orm, so sorry about your cat.

Also bad report re AQA physics. Ds said much harder than any past papers.

He said P2 much harder than expected and P3 had a very badly worded question.

Hoping for low grade boundaries