GCSEs 2012 support thread

Dd mentioned this morning that she had a question based on a mumsnet thread on her English paper yesterday! It was a thread on the rights & wrongs of primary school leaving parties/proms.

Physics here today as well.

@knitted, I know it's shocking how fast times goes. The first day of school seem like yesterday to me.

Angst here over Additional Maths today. Then physics. Not my idea of a good time but after this, nothing til after half term!

English Lang re-sit did not go as well as planned. Dd and friends thought it was quite tricky compared to the first paper.
Science ideas today, quietly confident. Then study leave, I think I'm a little bit in shock that my only has completed school and now starts a new chapter!

DD sat the WJEC English Language Writing and Reading papers today, she felt they both went well and didn't run out of time without getting all her points down which is fab for DD. On TES some teachers aren't happy about one of the tasks.

Physics tomorrow then nothing till after half term when it's two in the first week back then one a week till the end of June. Then it's the wait till August!

cardibach He's not in the least bit stressed! Can't help feeling he should be but he was doing some Additional Maths practice papers earlier and humming away merrily to himself! He's quite happy to go along to his lesson. the weirdo

Ds had English today, first question on life saving was just up his street as he is a life guard.
He and his friend had a pact to use the word elephant in their English exam. Friend also LG , It appears they have answered the question about a situation they were unsure of the outcome, net writing about someone who was drowning who was the size of an elephant, not sure what the examiners are going to make of that.

DD's another with physics module 3 tomorrow. It is a strong subject for her. With this her science GCSEs are done. History, Geman and statistics are then left for after the half term. School is slowly coming to an end, trickling away rather than ending with a bang.

gettingalifenow - Thanks for that - DD was worried she was the only one - one of her friends thought is was hard, the others thought it was OK (or so they said). She felt bad because she saw her teacher just before the exam and he wished her luck and said he was sure she would get an A* - she feels she has let him down.

Being fluffy, DD thought Latin was really hard too. Also believes you need 55/60 for an A* and thinks she may have dropped 3 or 4 marks. Makes me wonder, if that's what they define as 'hard' how easy must 'easy' be!

It is definitely the exam DS is glad to have over, not the subject IYSWIM? I think what he dislikes is that the marking is so subjective - in other subjects he knows how he's done as he finishes but is never sure with english. They also had a talk from the principal examiner who told them that they could get marked down if the examiner was in a bad mood/tired. Not exactly inspiring confidence!

squirrels it's a lifeguarding job, though she also landed a voluntary post at an old peoples home for an afternoon a week this weekend as well.

On the English front, it's imaginative writing she particularly loathes and while you might regard some personal statements as works of fiction she's generally OK with factual stuff.

clam wouldn't it reduce his stress to miss his flute lesson? Will anything terrible happen if he misses one? (Speaking as a grade 8 flautist)

Another one here whose ds is glad to be ditching English. Yet he's always been good at it! Anyway, said it was "fine, good, easy in fact." Somehow those words worry me.
He's had a full onslaught of hay fever this week, so is dosed up to the nines.

Tomorrow he has Additional Maths and Science. There's a timetable clash so he's in isolation in between the two. Somehow though, he's got to manage a flute lesson at lunch time. The music department are going to try to get him a chaperone if they can.

DD is doing English A' level - a late change of option, inspired I think by her wonderfull English teacher!

English teacher alert!
Bit concerned about all the teenagers revlieved never to have to do English again. Have they not realised that it is a core subject because they will need it all their lives? Are they not planning to write a UCAS personal statement? Any job applications ever? No letters/phone calls of complaint?
Anyway, glad all is going well for everyone.

Just physics here this week. DS has spent all day doing physics revision and has two papers tomorrow. That will be it until RE on 11th June.
Glauring's DD well done with the job. What is she doing?

DD found the English easy (she is good at English language- A* in all her coursework) Graphics Theory went well too apparently. Now we have a bit of a hiatus before the RE, Maths and History papers after half term- so she is taking tomorrow off.

DD (year 10) has a biology module tomorrow. She's working away in her room, poor thing. Anybody else got a DC doing WJEC Biology?

DS is aiming for a C in latin so going well for him is knowing all of the words! I bet everyone's DC are glad to have the english lang over - I know DS was dreading that one and is particularly glad never to have to do english again.

That's great about the job! DD is doing her work experience over the Summer and she is still 15, but she will have to get a part time job in September.

Dd was not happy with the English paper, but she's glad it's over and she'll never have to do creative writing again - 5/11 subjects finished now. She also got a job yesterday, so will be out of mischief for the summer.

DD found the Latin the hardest paper she's ever seen! Reckons she lost around 5 or 6 marks - she was a bit worried that she won't get an A* as she wants to make the teacher happy! She heard that the boundary is normally 55/60 (per paper) but I reassured her that she can make it up by revising for the other papers! Doing it for A level as well.

English, she thought went well, with interesting topics to comment on/write about. Physics tomorrow!

Today wasn't too bad and even the dreaded latin didn't go too badly according to DS! He's got a couple of physics modules and then that's it for a couple of weeks. He's then got a pretty intense few weeks before he can finally relax so sadly I don't think he'll be enjoying half term.

Apparently Eng lang went "okay" and the Further Maths was "incredibly hard". Physics tomorrow and then another Further maths on Friday. The school is actually closed for half term on Friday but as the exam dates were set ages ago he has to go in for two revision sessions and then the exam so I think about 20 students have the whole school to themselves!