GCSEs 2012 support thread

DS had Eng lit today - An Inspector Calls - pleased with the questions on that, and To Kill a Mockingbird, said that was "more obscure - about context" but thinks he "did OK-ish."
Who knows what that translates as?

Another one done this Mice and Men. Apparently it all went OK

Spanish listening a complete disaster. Hall acoustics & media player dreadful. All the students put in formal complaint & teacher says will speak to exam board. DD hoped to get A/A* but even if exam board make allowances that's her grade out of the window.

Good reports from DD on Eng Lit here too. Glad we got over our little wobble last night and she let me go through a quick revision of M&M! She said that something we talked about last night she used and was happy about that.

Tomorrow night, we'll do the same for anthology and hopeful she'll get at least a C.

Seems strange that I'll never have to discuss Of Mice and Men again at home. It's been part of my life for 2 years! Such a great book.

English Lit went well here. The main question on M+M was about Curly's wife and they have done lots of work on that character. He thinks he did quite well but is most worried about Thursday's paper which involves comparing 2 poems (36 marks) and an unseen poem (18 marks).
Thinks he's definitely done enough for an A, taking into account the controlled assessments. If Thursday goes really well he could scrape A* but he won't be disappointed if he doesn't.
PE theory tomorrow.
Has requested chips for dinner tonight.

This thread just popped up on most active and I just had a quick scan- as a secondary teacher, I wish all parents were as supportive as you lot! Good luck to all your DC, hope they get the results they need come August :)

Thanks Kez. That adds up. She's now just told me that controlled assessments for English Language are 60% of the grade. I can't keep up with what's what anymore.

DD happy with the exam and her answers. She reckons the exam is worth 75% of the exam, are controlled assessments 25% of the total?

Year 10 DD - 1st real GCSE exam today. Has been very stressy over the last couple of days. Scrambled egg and her disgusting mixture of coffee and hot chocolate for breakfast! Exam was Eng Lit - Of Mice and Men and unseen poetry. Had a text saying "It was actually okay" - fingers crossed then! Eng Lang next week; 3 science modules and 2 maths papers after half term. I will be grey haired by the end of it .....and I'm not even sitting the exams :)

Just heard from dd. English lit went really well and she was really pleased with what she did. This is cause for celebration in our house even without the actual result! Am so relieved.

Biology was fine according to DS .
OMAM and An Inspector calls here today. DS has had his nose in Cardi's revision guide for the last three days.

Early bacon baps sounds good. The year 11's are allowed toasties at morning break from the canteen but when they have exams all morning there isn't time. I have slipped a Mars bar into his bag.

empirestateofmind DD ate a spoon full of peanut butter washed down with black coffee for breakfast. Hopefully she'll be back to normal eating after the exams or her prom dress will be falling of her.

Mice and Men and an Inspector calls today.

Pride and Prej and An Inspector Calls here.

Backforgood nooooo don't go there. Luckily DD is too shy to even speak to a boy so I am putting it down to exam nerves.

magentadreamer that's hard work taking both English language and English lit in year 10 - have they left some of the controlled assessments for next year? DS has completed all the English Language stuff in year 10 and has the exam next week and that has been fairly flat out.

Of Mice and Men and Lord of the Flies here.
She went in early for breakfast revision, they hand out free bacon baps!
Hoping to eek out a B here also.

DS went off full of spaghetti hoops on toast,so hopefully no rumbly tummy there
He is doing An Inspector Calls and the Purple Hibiscus

Dd is up and dressed, apparently there is a last minute revision session at 8am in the dinning hall with breakfast provided. Excellent idea to ensure that rumbling tums don't disturb anyone

Good luck to all our dcs taking English Lit today!

The dreaded English Lit for DD today. DD has worked extremely hard for this, unfortunately for DD this won't be reflected in her grade. I'm hoping she gets a B grade - even if it's a skin of her teeth B grade but I suspect a C grade will be in the offing. If only there was a BTEC in English Lit DD would be far more suited and could show her understanding of the texts she's done far better than sitting in an exam hall knowing she will not be able to get everything down. The even more dreaded English Language papers are next week. DD is in yr10 and has 10 modules this time.

Cardi, DD plus a family friend say thank you for the OMAM revision booklet.

Yes, it is very worrying when you see a subject your dc is doing, but they've not been in for today .

2 down, 23 to go here! DS thought that the first biology (AQA) was harder than the second but put that down to bad time management. English lit tomorrow and he's read through some revision guides tonight. Fingers crossed it'll be enough!

Latin, OTOH, is proving a bit more tricky. The penny's finally dropped that he has less than a week to learn his vocabulary list and grammar and it's all getting a bit much. Last night was the first time in a while that we've had tears from him :(