Year 11 GCSE Exam Support Thread

Littleham- ??

If you really need to know the exam dates now, they should all be published on the various boards' websites - the AQA ones are. But you need to know exactly which of the various papers are the appropriate ones.

We were promised exam timetables on 22 January. Mock results on Tuesday.

Does anyone know how long it takes to mark the mock and send out results? DS had his mocks over the last two weeks and Friday night there were tears because he says he's failing and he doesn't care bout school anymore (which he obviously does or he wouldn't be crying!)

The suspense is killing me. I think hope he's done better than he thinks he has an he won't get too demotivated.

Hmm, DD claims hers isn't out yet and the Examinations officer said cut off date for entrance for Japanese was something like 6 Feb. Having read this has just made me email exams officer again to confirm she has entered DD for Japanese now I have someone to take the speaking exam with her as she didn't email back confirmation after I advised her of this. We are at the point where getting the 5 she needs is a bit dodgy so can't risk her not being entered.

DD has said her first is Geography. That first week of exams is DH'S birthday snd DS' s SATS week so will be busy. I am going to stock up on Rescue Remedy, a home pathic remedy called Aconite we all used for finals and some hypnotherapy downloads for her.

Brief arrived for her Photography course work which is 40% of final mark . Luckily it is right up her street.DD is saying she is going to ask to go down a set in English possibly with her old teacher as not getting it with one of her new teachers. Think that is sensible.

Maths tutor tomorrow, just hoping that goes ok.Not seeing anywhere near as much work from DD as I would like but biting my tongue at this stage as she won't be capable of sustaining a big concerted effort for long and want her to peak at right time.

I really hope things will be smoother sailing with DS when his time comes, exams don't phase him and he does well in them - though he will be the new GCSE'S so anything I have learned about them now will be out of the window no doubt.

I've been looking at DD's exam timetable too.

The first 2 weeks before half term is OK. But the 2 weeks after half term looks very heavy. Luckily the only day she has 2 exams on same day is the very first one.

Scary isn't it? At first glance there is loads of revision time once exams start, but divide it by the number of exams and it's only about a day and a half per exam. I reckon that means everything needs to be well learned prior to first exam and just refreshing and fine details once they start. No idea how DD will manage that.

DD has given me her actual exam timetable today. Starts on May12th ... my DB is getting remarried on the 9th, guess I'll be going to that alone leaving DH to look after DD. Shame, would have been a nice chance for her to meet the extended family (we're geographically widespread) but I think she'll chain herself to her desk.

Most of it's quite spread out, one subject on a day except for two bad clash days: Electronics and Drama AM/Geography1 PM, and then Computing/German Reading/German Listening AM and Geography2 PM. So she reckons she'll drop a level on Geography. Could have been even worse - she was doing Additional Maths as a twighlight extra, which is a 'free standing qualification', whatever that means - but the exam was on the second of those days, which clashed for quite a few people (though not as badly!) so they're going to do Further Maths GCSE instead - the exams are after all the others and she says it's not as hard as the Additional Maths.

DD doesn't need a scribe as such, she needs a prompt saying 'tell me more about that' (which isn't allowed). If I do that she can expand OK, but somehow she can't do that for herself.

ds1's mock exams are over this week - he's had 8 exams. He has 8 more Mon-Wed next week.

He had the result back for his music performance tasks mock (individual and group) and hasn't done as well as he'd hoped/expected. So he needs to work on that asap, as the real thing is very soon next month.

Can I ask again then if your child has dyspraxia and struggles to get enough words down but could answer the question verbally why don't they have a scribe, I know it takes a bit of getting used to and you need a scribe who has knowledge of the subject especially in the sciences. But DS has had a scribe since year 7 and he had one one his moks and that is why he's done so well. Is this not normal practice? I know in my primary schoolnwengavr scribes so I thought it was standard for people like DS with these problems.

Thanks for that link Errol - it has some useful stuff on it.

If there was some magic way of getting DD to sleep properly every night, I would happily pay £££ for it. She wants to sleep, but can't get to sleep

DD got offered a place at the sixth form interview, as long as she meets the minimum requirements!

I went with DD to her 'exam preparation evening' tonight - she reckoned it was a bit of a waste of time that she could better have spent actually revising. Mind maps and 'memory palace' type stuff... maybe some people find it useful but TBH seems like a bit of a distraction to me too. The bloke who did it has a website with various resources that maybe could be useful
www.timmilner.info/stuff/index.html though some of it was pretty obvious stuff. The points at which discussion (dissent from the girls, assent from the parents!) broke out throughout the room were firstly when he said that at this stage they need 9 hours sleep every night (mine gets about 8 which is I think not too bad) and secondly when he suggested pulling the wifi at 10pm - which we actually do but (as you may deduce from the time of this post) we do it selectively, DH set up the router somehow so DD gets cut off but we don't.

Thank you bigtillymint.
Maths C
Geog B
Biology B
PE C
And amazingly a B in English
Art and Drama still to come but should be B/C

DD so pleased and surprised.
I still have concerns regarding final exams as she can totally misread or misinterpret questions but it is still brilliant.

Yes I know this is exam technique , but it's only recently that he's had the ability to actually do this , as previously he only write one line answers , as couldn't get what they wanted from the question .
Especially the longer questions that are looking for detail in answer , but also looking for the points . He could answer this verbally to you but not be able to do same answer onto paper as unable to get it from his head down onto paper .
So that he learning to check that he has point and detail rather than just continue with loads of details on the one point , which is what he use to do . So she getting him into a routine of doing one point then one detail about that point , then stopping and doing another point rather than writing more details about the same point . Which is what he use to do .
Where as if he was telling you the answer he seems to be more aware that he's repeating details to a point , I don't fully understand how and why he does this .
So thought May teen daughter could do the same thing , although every child is different and he is being given additional time , which helps as takes him time to process what he's read , then he also has tendencies to mistake what the question is asking for .

DD is another who has dyspraxia and doesn't write enough.

homework, that's basic exam technique! Do the teachers not do that anyway?
I feel bad that those DC with added difficulties haven't been particularly well supported

Teen get her teachers to work on this area with her now , my son does this , so his English / history / geography teachers are all now saying he needs to write as many points a as question has marks and to explain each point with phases/ details to back them up. This is working for some of the longer worded questions , so he knows that he has to give at least four points in and eight marked question to get towards half the marks .

It's hard cause they also tend to lose the extra marks for spelling / punctuation / grammar before they even started sometimes.

You definitely need to get her assessed for whatever additional support she finds helpful , school need to put her forward for this and sure dates for these exams where January sometime so ask tomorrow , both in email form and telephone recording what said , which you can also place in your email.

She is already allowed a laptop.

Since we got the report (only last month) I have asked she be re-assessed for extra time. Not expecting to get it, and tbh not sure it will help as she finishes early as she doesn't write in enough detail.

We've chatted tonight and she says blue paper helps so I'll get her to see the SENCO to discuss that.

She is also being allowed to stand up and stretch in exams (she's in a concessions room due to laptop) which she says is helpful for the longer ones.

I agree, teen. Get onto the senco and make sure that your Dd is down to get all the extra time/access to a scribe etc that she is now entitled to with the diagnosis. DS is dyspraxic and dyslexic and has varying amounts of extra time access to a scribe for some tests and computer for others. Fortunately our senco is v pro active and has been since year 7 so it's a well oiled machine for his exams now, and it's showing in his results, he was also predicted all Cs but has As and Bs.