GCSE Support Thread 2013

We have copies of the timetable pinned up all over the house. Plus it's programmed into our icalendars. I'm not in the country the whole time, so the timetable has to be where everyone can access it, because with me not the her brother is as likely to remember what is going on as her dad!

Dd starts on 14th May..no idea how many exams she's got.
I am keeping well out of it.

But she is working hard, bolstered with confidence from passing maths a few weeks ago. Oh joy. We had that down as a retake in November

DD1s first exam is 13 May. Her last is 20 June. Actually, no, her first exam was last Tuesday, when she did her creative task for music. She has 12 papers before half term, and 12 after. :(

Can I join in? Ds (y11) taking ten mostly IGCSEs this summer. No modules so it's all down to these next few weeks - eek

After a year of arsing about he finally started to do some work at Easter and his form tutor says he's been much more focused since the start of this term but I do worry that he's left it all a little too late

He is ridiculously bright so is in no danger of failing any of them however he's convinced he's going to get all As and A*s which I just can't see happening with the amount of work he's done in the last year although he's certainly capable ...

He's come down with a stinker of a cold this weekend so concentrating yesterday was all but impossible - fingers crossed he'll be recovered by the time the exams start on Thursday.

Has anyone else's dc got a really long drawn out timetable? Ds starts this week but the last one is not until 20th June

Good luck to all the dc starting this week too

When you get your results from school, they will all be on one sheet: btecs, gcses, whatever.

Certificates are issued by individual exam boards, so will not all be on the same certificate.

For some things only gcses count: eg our local sixth form college have a place-limited "academically very able" pupils programme. Eligibility is based on your mean average grade (last year an A average would get you in), but they only count gcses, nothing else.

As to whether you have to declare them, if you claim the qualification, then on certain things - like UCAS forms, you have to put everything on. In some circumstances it's acceptable not to.

Creamteas, congratulations!

My DD is also doing a diploma in ICT (work in progress). I do not fully understand is the status of such a diploma. Ok, it is an equivalent of a GCSE. Does it appear on the GCSE list? How does that GCSE list look like? Can you "hide" from it the things you'd prefer not to show?

Sorry, I feel that I asked these questions before, but just can not remember the answer. :(

DD heard today that her coursework for the ICT Diploma has been moderated and confirmed as a Merit :)

She has completed two units which gives GCSE equivalence as far as I know.

So that's one less to worry about

Same for DD but you can't stop them getting their ideas together at home. they then just have to remember them to reproduce at school.

Shes did all hers before half term. Disappointed with her ensemble marks there was a slip up and she thought it didn't matter as you get the extra for it being a more difficult piece - except she never so has asked for it to be checked.

DS is doing Edexcel music and he wasn't allowed to do anything at home. He spent most of half term doing stuff with his compositions in school because its all meant to be high control.

I checked the exam form it is Edexecel

She also got an A in ensemble but doesn't know about the other 2

How many performances and how many compositions did she do? Actually it must be edexcel - or AQA maybe? -because she recorded her composition at home, right? You can't do that with OCR.

I wish DD1 had done Edexcel. It sounds more sensible that OCR. The OCR creative task marking (she did her creative task on Tuesday) seems to be extremely random every year and apparently schools that sat the paper in January were howling with anguish when the marks came back in March. Makes me very concerned.

It's Edexel.....DD thinks

The OCR listening test is also on 24 May.

If it's OCR then there are two performances which are marked by the teacher but have to be externally moderated, and a creative task which is externally marked (and involves composition) and a listening test which is a written paper lasting 1.5 hours.

Is the composition marked by the teacher?

Yes that sounds right about the exam

No, listening sounds like the written paper.

If it's Edexcel, there's 2 compositions and 2 performances, each worth 15%. The written paper (listening and appraising IIRC)is worth 40% on 24/5.

Still listening to do (I think) - are they practicals?

Great news KatyMac - Is that all the music practicals done now?

DD got an A for the composition bit of her Music GCSE

Roisin Its OCR Gateway separate Physics, Chemistry and Biology.
Done first modules in yr10 and got a*/a/a - desperately wants to keep to that level, doing Physics A level too.

Fortunately not till after half term, (when just those and Geog left) so will have more revision time once other subjects out of the away.

Thanks for the links - is AQA syllabus much different?

Oh dear, circular, that doesn't sound great.

Giving benefit of the doubt, schools have been royally messed around this year with more content and skills, and goalpost moves regarding the ebacc.

Any revision at home will help. Those revision videos are great. Don't forget you can download past papers, mark schemes and examiners reports from exam board websites.

This is a great online resource for AQA Science Basically, it's videos teaching you through all the different sections of the course. There are smartboard graphics, plus a voiceover/narrative, plus printable handouts and points where he tells you to pause and do an exercise yourself.

I'm not a very sciency person (and what school Science I had was 30 years ago!), but I find it very easy to follow and understand.

What exam board circular?

Underwater Not retakes. in chemistry they started late as had not covered enough of syllabus to start when they should have. Physics due to inaccurate information from teachers, so part being redone.nBeen through about 5 Physics teachers in the last two years.
Deadline for both end of tis week apparently. seriously impacting her French revision, which is first exam 13/5.

And it gets worse - they have still not finished the syllabus and have been told that will need to learn much of P6 and C6 at home.