Year 11 GCSE Exam Support Thread 2

Me too.

DD broke up last Thursday.

For those still in school, how long do they get off?

Fingers crossed for her HSM. I keep forgetting some of them haven't broken up yet.

HSM thoughts with your DD. Mine also worries about maths; definitely her worst subject.

Teacher's advice is go through the paper skipping any that look difficult, then go back later when you've nailed some questions, that way panic doesn't rise and you don't end up spending too much time stuck.

DD has French speaking as her big job today. She's prepared about forty answers to probable questions and her teacher emailed revisions last night. So today she wants to learn them.

I'll be testing her methinks.

Ds up again at 6 physics bite size today no more mocks today thank god. He's just waiting on an easter plan from school which is due today. Then I am letting him have a few days off over the bank holiday weekend. Good luck everyone else.

Oh dear - hope she calms down and gets some rest.

HSM. The advice on here about Rescue Remedy, deep breaths and reading the Q's three times helped DD.

I suppose if they've got to get a cold, better now than later.

Love the dress SugarPlum.

to everyone finding it hard to motivate their dc's into revising. Not sure that dd3 achieved a lot today. The cold bug has arrived.

Oh no Dingit That length of time really intense in a foreign language.

It is DD on the dress, she is really pleased with it thank goodness.

Oh another short dress, is that her wearing it, she looks lovely sugarplum.
Dd had a melt down today, not sure if it's a coincidence she's been at school for 3 hours doing French

Thank you

Lovely dress and congratulations!

Ooo, I am an Aunt ! He seems ok thank goodness and so is his Mum.

Lovely dress, sugar!

Very impressed with the DOE stuff and Fairnuff's DS' s revision ! Quiet day for DD today but she did a lot yesterday and is going into school tomorrow plus Maths tutor.

I'm a but flappy as my nephew to be born imminently on the other side of the world at 35 +4. So to divert myself I shall show you DD'S dress that arrived earlier.

fairnuff - wondering if your DS is dutifully setting aside an hour to ponder his citizenship duties. Agree that allocating PE time to a run is a really good idea though!

Just bumped into DD in the kitchen - looking wistfully outside at the wind and saying she's really looking forward to DofE and sailing/windsurfing, but that it'll seem a bit odd come the summer when she can do those things but not have to work all the time! (not that she's actually working all the time, of course)

errol yes it was the practice for both of them. Maybe that's why they can/could both call.

The real thing for DD is in a couple of weeks, DS is after the exams (far more sensible IMVHO).

word - is your DS on the practice? They may be allowing them a bit more leeway than they would in the assessed re phones (esp given the weather!). They're quite strict on the assessed I think. Last year's bronze, the route took them right by one of her friend's house, they got grilled a bit whether they'd stopped there at all (nothing more than a pause to talk to friend's horse!).

It's changed because he's taken control of it

That really is what makes the difference - they really do have to take responsibility for it themselves. All we can do is support, and that sometimes means backing off. We had something like the thing oddboots described, it was useful - for one thing it meant that everyone was on the same page, they couldn't pull the 'everyone else just does x and stays up till y on FB' type line. If nothing else maybe this thread provides evidence that revision hours equivalent to normal school days during the holidays is about what schools expect (6 hours per day for 10 of the days is what DD's recommended as enough but not too much) and what other kids actually do manage.

There seems to be a whole range of how much work they are doing! DD is going into school for revision sessions 10-2.30 AFAIK (am away, but on my way back!) and then some at home I think. Don't want her to burn out, so happy with that and no pressure to do more!

Ds's plan to stick to his school timetable is working really well. He did make me laugh yesterday when I asked him what subjects he'd revised and he said Chemistry, Spanish, PE, History, English and RE. I said 'What on earth did you revise for PE?' and he looked at me funny and said 'You saw me Mum, I put on my shorts and t-shirt and went for a run'

So he is taking his timetable quite literally, getting up at normal school time and taking his lunch at the usual break time. He likes this because he gets it all done by 3.30 and has loads of down time in the evenings.

They all like to do it different ways and whatever works for them is best to go with. This is the boy that liked to do the bare minimum before and never put in full effort on his homework. It's changed because he's taken control of it but it was touch and go for a while.

One thing that has worked in the past with reluctant homework/revision is giving them jobs to do instead. I've said to him in the past that he can either spend an hour revising or an hour cleaning and let him choose.

I've also taken away privileges, electronic devices and stopped doing favours (such as giving lifts) in the past to try and motivate my dcs to take some personal responsibility.

Another thing that helped was talking about breaking down homework/revision into manageable chunks. Sometimes it can just be too overwhelming to know where to start. All the sciences break down into 3 separate papers, RE has two papers, History has 3, etc. and it's a lot to organise. Revision guides can be helpful here, as the book can be split into sections.

Anyway, just some things that seem to have helped in our house with both A levels and gcse going on this year.

Well done to your dc's Word, it takes some courage and dedication to get through the DofE awards

dog Sounds very sensible to me. Once they start they need to keep going until 2 or 3 weeks after next half term so many will need to recharge their batteries after the solid 2 terms of y11.

My dd is away on an orchestra residential for the first week of the holiday. I've told her to take no school work and just have a fun-packed 7 days. She's a good solid student - not a high-flier - but I think she deserves a well-earned break before returning to the grindstone!

This is probably rather controversial!