GCSEs 2012 support thread

Science this afternoon and then we are done.

Yes, dd survived but even better than that so did I!

Revision was incredibly scarce in our house. I set up a study area, bought every revision guide available, revision timetable - the whole shebang but nothing worked. :( if it all goes pear shaped at least I know I tried. Hopefully she will scrape through to sixth form and get a wake up call.

See you all in August.

guineapiglet what a shame .

guineapiglet I would want someone's head on a plate for that.

It's ridiculous just how wrong schools can get things! Such a shame, especially at such an important time.

Oh my word guineapiglet that is dreadful.

Reading about how schools mess it up on the last day - how about organising a Year 11 end of year leavers party ON THE SAME DAY as half the school had two Physics GCSE papers - one taken with fire bells going off etc. This meant the other half of the school not taking the papers came in in party mood and the whole atmosphere at school according to various Year 11s was one of relaxed chaos.......... add to that the whole year having a police escort off school premises due to arrests being made for drugs. I was utterly furious with the school for even contemplating organising a party on the same day as important exams - what kind of message does that send to the ones who had worked their backsides off?

I can see why they have changed the year 11s, what I cant see is why they got to that point in the first place. Surely timetabling is bread and butter for a school?

Oh well, as DD said this morning, this is why she is glad to be leaving!

Gnome- That's awful. I suppose they've opted to change the yr11 ratrher than yr6 date as easier to get messages through.

Squirrels - If the Eng Lit is AQA, I think it follows two optonal routes. Both have tw exams and a CA. But it is possible to choose between which of the 2nd exam and CA are poetry or Shakespeare.

My DD has done a CA for English Lit -WJEC board.

Circular - DD sat the first Unit for OCR Physics, I think they have several specs.

Gnome - I'd want to rant as well!

GnomeDePlume what a shame. That last day should leave them with lifelong memories and it won't be the same if half of them miss it.
circular I don't think they did CAs in Eng Lit just two terminal exams.

That's very annoying GnomeDePlume and puzzling too as they have both things every single year!

Can I just say damn, damn, damn

The wretched school has managed to mess things up once more. Not satisfied with letting year 11 students down with poor teachers in maths (went postal, fired), history (was politely asked to leave), german (was reassigned to other duties more befitting her inability to teach german), they have even managed to mess up the end of year 11 assembly. Apparently it clashed with the year 6 transfer day. Now, I might be wrong but dont these two things come round with a certain regularity?

The leavers' assembly has now been put back to some random date two weeks later. This after formal invitations had been issued for the original date.

The thing is that the school has no 6th form of its own so all year 11s leave. This is an important final celebration and farewell for them. Many of the students have booked holidays etc on the basis of original dates. This means that the school has once more managed to turn a celebration into a damp squib.

Sorry, I just needed to rant. As you were!

Webwiz - thanks fir clearing that up.
Your two DCs must be doing the 2nd paper - DDs OCR physics was before half term.

So what was WJEC. DD only has Geofgwith them and it's supposed to be the most difficult.

Glad concert went well too.

Glad the band managed to put aside their artistic differences Webwiz
DD sat her OCR Physics last week or was it the week before( -exams are merging into one here!) her Physics teacher told them their paper was easier then the one the other sets sat in Jan, hopefully your DS has a similar paper tomorrow.

Oh and concert went well this evening- classical pieces in the first half and rock bands in the second. DS's band managed to put their artistic differences to one side and perform really well (they fall out more than Oasis!). We can tick than off the list now

circular magenta has a DD in year 10 and I have a DS but they seem to be doing the same exam board for a lot of their exams so we are both giving the same answers

DS is doing OCR for science and I did a face when he said no resits but hopefully it won't come to that. He thought Biology and Chemistry were ok and seems prepared for physics tomorrow.

I also did my O' levels in the Golden Age. What a myth that Golden Age is! For example I did one Shakespeare, one poet and one book for O' level English Lit. DD did many more texts and authors and was examined with extended essays (controlled assessments) as well as end of course exams. She was most certainly not allowed to bring her texts in. As other posters have said all you needed to do was cram and memorise.

The science subjects today as well are tested in much greater depth and over a much greater breadth of skill, than the so called Gold Standard O' levels. I agree that MFL are not as difficult nowadays, but then again I never really needed to know the dozens of irregular verbs I learned for French and greater emphasis on practical communication skills is welcome.

All our kids have had a really hard 2 or 3 years getting through these blasted exams, and anyone who says they are easy deserves a punch in the face. I feel desperately sorry for DD2 who will suffer the worst effects of the system changing over.

Magenta - are you and Webwiz the same person or am I getting confused on who I've asked what?

Circular - the papers were WJEC.

Squirrels - Stange what ends up in language these days. DD did To Kill a Mocking Bird for CA's which I clearly remember doing for Lit O'Level. Dread to think what their Lit CA's will be like.....

BringBack1996 - Ahh clashes. I'm sure DD's French CA had to be rescheduled this week as clashed with Maths mock and/or science CA preparation. And some bright spark put a lunchtime DofE meeting in the middle of it all. Next week will be fun when the concert rehearsals start clashing with the remaining science CA's.

Webwiz - What's the science exam board? Ours is OCR and I'm sure that resits are possible, even encouraged, Although really hope DD doesn't need to do any as they will detract from the next module.

Kez - DD's Geog group have been given the option to leave all their CA's to yr11. ie. just do some of the research now, but start yr11 with an empty file. Not sure whether that's better or not.

Not forgetting the fact that the teachers seem to have a knack for making their CAs clash with those of other subjects! DS once had german, english lit and physics in a week with history the week after. Hopefully next year the teachers will have settled into it, although of course by the time they have the exams will probably have changed again!

Circular - No the 4 hour M+M was for English language believe it or not. They had to write 3000 words IIRC and had never done anything like it before. They then did controlled assessments in English roughly every half term and sat the GCSE paper in June of Year 10.
Some of them did resits on the CAs and the exam although DS didn't. He got an A and it was clear that he was never going to improve enough for an A*. He hated English even before all this. It was endless and relentless.
Then there were the CAs in French........

I don't know how the CA's work but I assume if they took them in year 10 then they are valid until the end if year 11. The problems come with ones which are taken in year 9 or if the qualification is "cashed in" ie taken as finished.

I know DS will be offered a Jan resit if he has gone off track in the exam as I spoke to his teacher about it.

DS has been told he can't resit any of the science papers he is doing this summer but I assumed that was a school thing to get them to focus rather than an exam board one.

Squirrels - Sounds like there's a lot to look forward to next year then!
Was the four hour Mice & Men CA for Lit?

Webwiz - Not sure I understand how it works with the CA"s. Do they expire after a year? DD seems to think if she wants to resit the paper, she will need to do them ALL again, that doesnt sound quite right, as most were done in yr10.