Countdown to exam results. Anyone else feeling anxious?

LetsFaceTheMUsic With you on the tongue biting thing. DD1's insurance choice isn't bad but being one near my old home town that used to have a shite reputation I am biased agin it even if it has improved.

MrsWeasley Why thank you

hooch & littlemiss (& others ) I think we need a specially padded cell thread for us double result parents!!

I agree with glauring in some ways but not in others. Yes we can't know how it is going to pan out in the next days /weeks but we are living in uncertain times, a Gove inspired dystopia, so much more unfair than when my DD1 sat her exams (Year 4 at uni). The goalposts have moved but no one knows or understands how or where. There is no justice in it, just depends on exam board and subject. I do think we have to be prepared to be there for our DCs and to understand if they are on the receiving end of the unfairness. It might be a lower mark than predicted for not working hard enough or mucking up the paper, but it might be rubbish marking, and it might be politicking.

Good thing is unis have cottoned on, and they face more difficult times too. So whereas one dropped grade would have meant a gap year and retakes for DD1's peers, there was no margin for error, the playing field is a little more in favour of our DCs.

Just trying to keep believing what I keep telling DD2, it's done now, worrying won't get you anywhere, Thursday is just when you find out, no point worrying.....

Agree, some great points from glaurung, a true voice of experience.

DD told me that some of her friends (different school) got GCSE English results TODAY? guessing that's IGCSE?

I'm anxious, DD has AS on Thurs (they did some early in year 11) and GCSE next week. I really hope she has done herself justice. Good luck all.

I think glaurung has made some very good points, have a large
because we haven't got a gin emotion yet

Good luck to you all!
My own dc are a few years away from GCSE but I am nervously awaiting A2 results of my (what looks like last ever) Year 13 class.
Maybe as usual I am more on edge than they are

We're awaiting DS1's A2 results on Thurs and DS2's GCSE results on 22nd.

DS1 is predicted to do very, very well. He has this week, however, decided that Uni is not on the cards this year. Maybe he will change his mind, maybe not, I am not overly bothered as long as he is happy.

DS2 was on course for A*s and As in all 3 sciences and maths (don't panic, no gaming went on, he only sat each module the once!) but now we have no clue what with the fiasco Gove has created again. He does deserve them though, he has worked his bloody socks off and wants to do science A levels. He already has 3 As in the bag from last year, so the pressure is off a teensy bit.

It's my fourth and last summer results day, and my most relaxed one yet (thanks to an unconditional offer and plenty of other distractions at the moment). I do sympathise with the anxious though - it is worrying especially when so much rides on some of the results or when exams didn't go quite to plan. As far as possible though do try NOT to get too hung up on what may or may not happen as far as overall pass levels or any modular unfairnesses may lie, as these things are not easy to predict and may well not pan out the way you think. Wait and see, and then moan if warranted when we have the full picture would be my advice. Modules taken as late as possible usually benefit the sitter due to increased maturity and this will go some way to counter any harsher marking that may or may not be applied this time, schools that choose the fully terminal GCSE route usually get very high results, and my guess is that this trend will still hold this year (obviously I may be wrong, but it's really not worth worrying about until we know for sure).

Awaiting A2 here as well. It's very marginal as to whether he'll get the grades he needs for his first choice university so it's everything crossed for Thursday.

Love the thread. Ds 2 has A2's on Thursday, Ds 3 has Gcse's week after. Arggghh! What have I done to deserve this ?

MissMarples I like your style.

Awaiting GCSE results here. I am hoping and praying that DD has pulled the magic C grade in English Language. She resat the exam modules in Jan. Grade boundaries weren't given only marks. Unless they really gerry mander the grade boundaries she has a high C grade in the reading paper ( she got 38/40) and we have our fingers crossed that 30/40 is at least a D grade. With CA's ranging from what her teacher thinks should be mainly B's we are hopeful. I dont think I will be getting much sleep next Wednesday night.

Awaiting AS and A2 results. DSs are very calm. My nerves are like a string bag of runny shite.

And I so so so want DS1 to go to his first choice as his insurance choice was a moment where I had to bite my tongue hard.

Psstt MNHQ can we have a gin emoticon...pretty please....just for this fortnight?

This where we sign up then?

A2's this Thursday......GCSE's next Thursday.

I shall be on Valium by then I think.

Also, can I join in the waiting for A2 results here. DS2 needs 3 A grades for his course.

Russians, isn't your daughter in Y10? So if the results are not as you/she hoped, can she not resit them in y11? Or does her school do the A level syllabus over 3 years?

How do you mean 'pretending to have done', though, Russians?

To be honest, I think we probably all feel in one way or another that our dc might lose out: like many, my dd had a combination of modular and final exams, but I think I would just do my own head in trying to second guess the ways in which that might count for or against her in the time between now and next Thursday. I don't think Boschy meant to sound 'alright jack' at all; rather, I read her post as 'thankful for small mercies', which really there's no harm in being.

My dd seems fairly unstressed so far, but given than I dreamed last night that my kitchen was full of mice and both my children's hair was crawling with nits and then I went to collect my GCSE results but they were all in code which I had to ring a number to find out, I think my own anxiety is growing!

Herons of course, the more the better!

God, my typing

Ah well - unless Gove is posting here under a pseudonym it's nobody here's fault, the debacle about to unfold. But it is terribly worrying. And I don't even drink!

Modular exams have always gamed the system. That's why they are so popular. And that's the main reason for the frade inflation that has been apparent for so many years. And of course modules don't have to be easier in and if themselves, except for that whole not doing all your exams at once (although pretending you have done) thing but all the information management being leaked to the press and to teachers at the moment indicates that for most subjects the results are significantly down this year, and most people believe (because if the way it's being handled and based in the English experience last year) that the much lower results this year will be because of harder marking. So anyone in this year's cohort who did loads of science modules last year, when marking was less politically controlled, will be at a massive advantage compared to a child of similar ability doing either modules or terminal exams this year. I guess this year's Y10 module takers are potentially as screwed as the terminal exam takers, but they might benefit from a relaxation next year IF there is a huge outcry this year and it looks like it might be politically advantageous to the Tories to fiddle with the marking again.

A proportion of this year's GCSE cohort are sacrificial lambs to Gove's ego. And people adopting an I'm alright jack view while admittedly unsurprising is still not very nice to see.

Hi - I have to declare an interest here, I do work for a university but am also the mother of 17 year old triplets. If results do not turn out exactly the way you expected and the student is good at/interested in arts, media or architecture it is worth considering creative arts degrees? they often have different criteria or will take portfolio work into consideration.

Sorry Russians , i didn't realise that so much had changed this year, all the schools round here are working to the old system and next years exams will be the first straight exams.
Mrs Weasley,can i join and bring lots of

Doing modular exams is not 'gaming the system' it is simply following the rules of the present system (albeit a system that will no longer exist after this intake). What is gaming the system is entering borderline C/D students in every available sitting of an exam until they get an all important C at the expense of quality teaching and learning and denying those students opportunities for studying other subjects. It is also entering weaker students for btecs instead of gcse because it counts as a gcse equivalent in the league tables. Schools did not have to do terminal exams this year, so it's a little unfair to say that schools choosing to do exams in a modular way are 'gaming the system'

Last year my dds school entered their students for the OCR modular maths exam. Their maths results dropped by 14%. The terminal maths exams were far easier to get a C on so no modular exams are not always easier.

Maybe we should wait and see what next week brings before getting hysterical.

Russians, I didn't realise there was so much disparity this year! It's stressy all round