Year 11 GCSE support thread 4 - more exams

The problem with throwing in some really challenging questions is that they really knock the confidence of the stressed kids sitting the exam. DD had done as many past papers as she could find and was doing really well, despite not being a natural mathematician. The really odd questions just made her feel that she couldn't do any of it. She could hear several people crying in Maths yesterday :(

At least she's comfortable asking about the meaning of unfamiliar words canny? I think there are many people who never do that
I'm sure she'll soon have an abundant vocabulary
dd asked me about a word the other day but I can't remember what it was now

DD was telling me about the cone and cylinder one and realised part way through that she'd emptied the grain out of the cone before the cylinder, in addition to dividing by a ninth rather than nine somewhere. But she cheerfully enough said that she'd shown her working so should get a couple of marks.

I think that's another problem with these wordy questions, if they bamboozle kids too much so they can't even make a start on them.

Anyway, she had a bit of a lie in and shes just left with DH. Suspect when she gets there it'll be maths post mortem rather than reading through biology notes. Her pissy teacher has put her off the subject, she doesn't care if she gets her target grade on this one (already fluffed the ISA and wouldn't redo as the teacher would have made it all stressy.)

The cone and cylinder question was only 5 marks ( out of 100) so its still very possible to get A*'s without answering ( this is what dd told me ).

Why are some exams being made harder in this very last year of GCSE's?It all seems a bit pointless.

Business studies and Biology today - let's hope Biology goes OK as this is one of her A level subjects.Dd amazed me yesterday when she asked me what abundant meant.It was on a past biology paper.Given she is pretty bright ( but English definitely not her forte) I was a bit shocked.She needs to start reading some decent books/newspapers.I'm blaming it on a useless American international school she went to for years .

We still have two more weeks here. I insist you all keep me company!

Then there's the freaking results day .

Given that some are reaching the end now, do we keep these threads rolling with induction days etc ? Hopefully we'll reconvene for results and moving into yr 12 anyway. I really want to know how it turns out for these kids - whether you're celebrating or needing support.

Believe me I'm all for keeping a sense of perspective and awareness raising about suicide. We need to talk about these things.
But can we do so with great sensitivity as these tragedies do happen to real families?
It's all too close to home here x

GCSE maths made the Today programme headlines today and they even described the difficult problem. Apparently they added it to stretch the really good people.

My apparently calm peaceful teenage boys went happily, but silently, to music today. The end is in sight for them. In fact I think they said some of their friends finished yesterday.

Damn fluffed the link.

Try again:

GCSE Maths made meme

Anyway it's funny!

DD has Music and Biology today. She says Music (Listening) is stupid as she can't now listen to the radio without deconstructing it...

DD said Maths was "tricky". It seems to be her word for anything that she couldn't do but doesn't want to admit it was horrendous!

I saw this this morning and thought some of you and your children might like it:

GCSE made meme [[http://www.thepoke.co.uk/2015/06/04/gcse-students-cope-trauma-maths-exams-turning-meme/]]

I feel for you Tilly, we had the same thing after AQA Biology in week 1 - simply couldn't get him to move on and revise for the next thing. And in my experience saying 'is the world going to end if you get a C in Biology' is not the road to go down unless you want to inflame things!

Errol I often wonder why I bothered with the NCT classes - my word the birth and baby thing was by far the easiest bit of the whole parenting journey.

But we must all count our blessings - a 16 year old in another school in the city hung himself before the exams even started meanwhile another one in a different part of the city has been caught running a cannabis factory.

Just had a kind of stressy but also exciting time with dd getting two tickets for her and a friend for the autumn Night Vale tour. Tickets went on sale at 9.00, we got through and completed about 5 mins later (after making sure we were ready to pay with PayPal, setting up new password etc) - luckily there were 2 tickets for us so all happy about that

Biology and Music for DS1 today.

Errol, you are spot-on there!

Guess those for whom Maths come more naturally were able to quickly unpick what was being asked, others had quite a shock.

Not necessarily. My dd is good at maths and she thinks she got the cylinder/cone question wrong. She still hopes to get a few marks for her working out.

Biology this afternoon, though she is only just getting out of bed now.

They don't tell you in NCT classes that in a few years time one of your functions may be teen's emotional punchbag.

Thanks everyone.

DH woke her up before he left and she had a shower and was getting ready, but when I went in, she screamed and shouted at me... which I probably deserved because when she was being rude and uncommunicative at 10pm I got frustrated and said that everyone else was in the same boat and that she needed to move on. Not a good start to the day

BTM I hope your DD is feeling better today. It is so hard when their confidence gets sucked out of them.

DS reported back pretty much the same as others, maths was ok until the last 4 questions which he said were fiendish. He managed to work his way through them but said some of the boys in the lower sets really struggled. Such a shame and really rocks their confidence.

We have Greek this morning followed by the 2nd biology paper this afternoon. Not too worried about the Greek but biology is his weakest science so he has had to put in lots of revision time. He did the horrible "leaf formation" edexcel 1st paper so hoping this one is better.

Good luck to everyone's DD and DS doing exams today. Thank God it's Friday!

The thing is if it was mainly down to the wording, that can really suck for those who are really good at maths but bad at words. I had a colleague who was an absolute genius but very dyslexic, I can imagine this might have tied him in knots. It's weird enough that they have a QWC question on maths papers.

DD2 had OCR higher maths yesterday and said it was bad but it doesn't sound as bad as the Edexcel one and to everyone dealing with the aftermath (no pun intended) of that one.

DD2 is at a sleepover - it's the first time I've let her out of my sight since she was in hospital but her friend is lovely and sensible and her parents are lovely too so everything should be fine

DD1 has her uni final exam this afternoon so there is no respite for a worried mum here. She promised to text me and let me know how it went - hopefully before the cider kicks in and her texts become incoherent and full of "I love you, mum"

Well yesterday's maths doesn't seem to have upset ds too much he was up at 6 revising for Biology as he wants to do not at A level and hes predicted A* he felt he needed to get his confidence back. He's done some past questions and asked me loads about coeliac I think he's hoping that comes up so he can not only put biological answers but human perspective ones as well.

So glad it's the weekend tomorrow.

Next week we've got
Chemistry ADDITIONAL Tuesday Edexcel
Rs 2 papers on Thursday OCR
physics ADDITIONAL Friday Edexcel

So not too bad and then more science and graphics the following week. Last exam is 19th June, it can't come quick enough.

Good luck to everyone today tilly hope you're DD feels better after a sleep.

Wording definitely a problem I think. Very annoying for the DC, I really feel for them.

Hope your DD is OK today BTM, it is tricky trying to keep them going when they have a bad experience.

and to all the parents and to the DC, keep crossing those exams off everyone!

Yes it sounds from forums as if the wording was a big issue and different to what people expected having done lots of past papers. Guess those for whom Maths come more naturally were able to quivkly unpick what was being asked, others had quite a shock. I feel very sorry for those at DD's school doing the higher paper who had to contend with the fire alarm as well.

I've heard a fair few complaints of the Edexcel AS and A2 Maths papers this year with reports of people walking out in tears at various schools round here.

Think it's a bid to stop grades increasing so it can be said exams are more rigorous now but is changing the goal posts mid play for a lot of them yet again.