GCSEs 2012 support thread

RS here today, he hates RS

Where is best place to buy Revision guides . Ann planning ahead as ds2 is y10

We have some from school as they are working them hard and they have exams this week in y10 in full control conditions he is hoping to get a few out the way for next year if grades are high enough

But am trying be organised for next year to .

My laid back teen is tired and stressed and is now battling a chrons flair up to despite extra steroids

IGCSE Physics today. DD doesn't find this easy so I will have lots of fingers and toes crossed.

What an interesting breakfast Idontknow- lucky DS.

Morning all. PE today. Breakfast is chicken Fajitas with strawberries raspberries and pineapple with orange juice. Whatever he wants is fine by me with Egg fried rice to dinner tonight ;-). Secret squirrels, ds here also hoping for an A/A* in PE. Pressure is on tomorrow though 2 exams each day, chem and eng lit (poetry) on Thursday and Friday is DT and economics.
Good luck everyone, we can do this and of course our dc.

DD1 has 24 exams - nearly all done linear already which actually I am happy about as she is youngest in year and Year 10 exams didn't go that well (so 3 of 24 are resits). Think hers must have started earlier as 8 done now and 16 to go (finish 20th June). Mice and Men today, like most others, and English her waekest subject (along with German) but she seemed happy with it so that is a result already. Our biggest success was Maths which we don't know the result of yet but which, after 5 years of Maths terror, she though was "hard but I think I did OK". Reduced several to tears so was apparently horrible.

Food intake also very wierd - lots of cups of tea though and endless Mr Kipling cakes!

Good luck to all of yours :)

My DD has a second Chemistry module on Thursday, then two History papers to do after half term. She is still in Y10. So far she has done a maths module in Y9, another in Y10 and Physics and Chemistry in Y10. At least when I did O levels it was all over in a few weeks...hers go on for years!

Thanks cinnamonnut but don't tell ds that yet.

Good luck to all your DCs! And remember that GCSEs aren't the end of the world :)

Science is indeed a nightmare. DD sat a module at the begining of yr11, which she had already sat in yr10 and got a B for, because her teacher insisted that she needed to do it!

THEN, just 2 weeks ago, she suddenly got a feeling that she hadn't been entered into a module that she missed due to illness in yr10! Sure enough, her Science teacher hadn't entered her and his response was, 'oh, good job you noticed that!'

Oh yes, don't start me on the farce that has been the science modules and resits.
Sorry Webwiz I added an extra 'z' on to your name earlier

I suppose each school has its own way of doing it. At least with the English Language one year then English lit the next then I can keep track of what it going on I find the science modules provide enough confusion without adding more from other subjects.

WebWiz - I was a bit sceptical when DD told me they would be sitting exams in both in yr10. But there has been alot of cross over work. DD has done a CA for English Language using Of Mice and Men, plus a Speaking assessment that was also based on OMAM so I can see why they would enter for the first Unit exam in English Lit as the work has been covered and is still fresh so to speak.

BackforGood that sounds a bit of a mad way of doing things! I find it fascinating the way that different schools approach the same exams. I'm sure DS is doing the same exams as your DD MagnetaDreamer but doing everything at different times. I do think its hard work to take all both the exams in year 10 though.

DS has done all the controlled assessments for English Language and will take the exam next week English Lit will be done in year 11. DS is on course for an A* but I don't think he would be if he'd been doing bits of both at the same time

secret the arm seems maybe slightly better, but certainly no worse (still has raised red lines running up the veins though) and she coped OK today in spite of a headache. Thanks for asking. I think the antibiotics (started yesterday) should improve things soon. The problem with them is taking them 4x a day on an empty stomach (I've been told ideally you shouldn't eat for 2 hours after taking them) and with her grazing habits it's hard to find any moments when her stomach is empty let alone 4 such moments every day!

Good luck with the PE theory your end too.

English Lit today too for my DD -- on her birthday no less. M+M on friendship and death as a theme in Romeo and Juliet. She was shaking when she came out, poor lamb. Hope she did ok. She said she ran out of time for second question but had detailed notes/plan. That was turned in as well, is there a chance examiners will consider her notes for marks too??

She has poetry on Thursday and first paper for English Lang on Friday. No coursework so the exams are 100 pct of her mark.
Breakfast was sausage and egg buttie and coffee, and a few drops of Rescue Remedy pre exam!

I did most of mine in year 10 so I only have 5 exams in may (2 already finished :P) then I am off until September

webwizz My ds had to take both his Eng Lang and Eng Lit in Yr10. They've made him take Eng Lang AS this year, then sent a letter out about half way through the year that it would be "really good" if they managed to achieve a C, and that a D was perfectly acceptable for Yr 11s doing an AS . Not really what we were hoping to hear, as Eng is one of ds's strongest subjects. He got an A and a B last year, without doing any homework all year and no revising I could see but they would have been one of few hopes for A*s had he taken them this year, and not at 14.
The school have decided it wasn't such a good plan after all, and have changed back to normal for future years, which is good, but doesn't help our dcs.
Lyftiduft Thank you for that
Maureen - I've never read Mice and Men - it's often mentioned on here as being an exam text. Is it a good book just 'for a read' ? I feel I've missed out of a tiny little bit of culture there.
ds's teachers have now told them they don't need to be in school for lessons that they've finished with. This is a scarey move as far as I'm concerned. Yes, I can wake him up before I go out to work, but whilst in the house, there's no guarentee he won't go back to sleep, or will keep an eye on the time. Can I use this --> for "extremely worried" ?

glaurung how is her arm? Did she manage okay?
PE theory here.

dd has had a headache all day, whether that's due to the infection or nerves or a reaction to the antibiotics I don't know. First exam went 'OK', but she regretted one question choice, and the second exam went 'Well'. Very glad they are over.

Anyone else for PE tomorrow? Dd is hoping for an A* in that.

Glad everyone else's DC found the english pretty good. DS said he it was okay but everyone put different things to him Not sure he quite gets that that is the point of english literature! Giving him a bit of slack today but tomorrow he's got to put the work in to guarantee a good english grade.

Best of luck to anyone's DC with an exam tomorrow :)

DS said Eng lit today went better than expected which was good as all I usually get is "it went fine". He is more science orientated but on target for an A so all being well he will get that. Says as long as he gets at least a B he will be happy. No exams tomorrow and can hear music blasting away so probably not much revision being done! Two exams on Thursday, chemistry and english lit again. Suppose that one must be Animal Farm and Much ado about nothing? Dreading testing on the chemistry as I don't even understand the questions let alone the answers!

Have cut him some slack about the revision. DH says if he doesn't know it by now he never will which I suppose is right. He has worked out all his UMS scores for science and pretty much thinks he can get an A for biology and chemistry and A* for physics if the exams go as well as the modules.

WebWiz, for English lit DD will have done 60% as they've done the CA and one unit of exams. With Language I think it's similar or less percentage wise.

Todays Lit exam went well she had 5 mins to spare at the end which is fantastic for DD she followed the timings to the letter I told her if she was running out of time to bullet point stuff in the hopes it would get a mark or two. Her OMAM questions were stuff she had revised and she found disecting the unseen poems a little harder but felt she did well. Heres hoping for a B grade. Glad it went well for everyone else's DC's.

DD also thought the Mockingbird question was unusual - hope she does well - she wants to do A level...

Dd did the poetry module last summer and got a B. Quite good for her! She found it pretty straight forward and English is not a subject she enjoys. She prefers short answer questions that are either right or wrong like maths and science. Will be glad when English and history are out of the way.

You lot are making me very happy being all appreciative of my revision guide. Seriously, it's no problem. Glad it was useful.
DD had her OMAM and unseen poetry exam today. Seems like she has done well based on what she is saying.