Do you have a Year 11 doing GCSE this summer?

This looks like a good site for the non poem side of the Eng Lit GCSE

www.litcharts.com

Gosh Cat, that's interesting. I wish I'd known that ages ago - something quite simple for parents to help with, getting them to read an article or two a week and perhaps discuss it.

DD is doing A Level English Lit and has been helping DS a bit. She says he is being asked to do some of the stuff she has to do at A Level, like context, though perhaps not in quite as much depth.

And in response to the quality question: The scope/range of texts for Literature is broader than current AS/A2 Literature but resposes do not have to be so deep. For AQA English Paper 2 Section B writing (point of view) students' work needs to be of almost publishable quality in a broadsheet newspaper to get top marks. They need to have been regularly exposed to high quality broadsheet news (weekly great,once a month ok) and to understand the way points of view can be presented in writing.

Portico I teach AQA. I have also got extensive AQA and otger board GCSE examining experience. With reference to a pp who was confused about one teacher giving a grade 2 and and a tutor giving a grade 5 - without seeing the paper I can't say but will offer that no two English teachers agree marks. We agree levels usually (formerly known as bands) but can quibble for days about marks. What is important is rank order obtained by one marker doing a batch of marking. They can then say that X response is better than Y response and the reasons why. As long as your children are clear on what they need to improve upon then the grade they have been given is neither here not there.

Hopefully by next year they will have more of an idea of what they're doing....not that that helps our kids now.

What I don't understand is dds mock paper which was marked as a grade 2. Now I understand that they don't know where the grade boundaries will be but afaik they've been told that a 4 is basically equivalent to a c and a 5 is a low b (or whatever)......so dds teacher gave her a 2 but when her English tutor saw her paper (tutor is a working English teacher and examiner) she saw it and said it was a 5. Said it was high C, low B and that a 2 is equivalent to an F or an E. surely there's a lot of difference between an F and a C? So why do two teachers give two widely different grades?

Son got 4 in mocks for English and 7 for maths. Needs 5 and 8 for college (wants to do maths A level).

Out of interest, been looking at eng lit revision guides. Is it just me but the level they seem to require for A grade is what I'd expect for a reasonable A level standard (is it just me?)? Having said that I didn't do A level myself. But I'm not a complete dimbo and they seem to be expecting an awful lot in terms of insight and use of language.

He's working reasonably hard but not as much as some of his classmates I should imagine.

Does seem like a shed load of work, though. Feel for them!

Can I just very gently urge caution with English and English Literature 'results' from mocks and also predictions. There are no clear grade boundaries to go on,only last year's grade percentages nationally.

Hence Bert starting this thread, to try to see whether predictions and results match up at all! I think all of us here are very aware how inscrutable the process is this year.

Thank you cat yes the new grading is a bit of an unknown entity. I thought dd could relax about English having got 8s in the mocks but who knows?

Cat0115, which Eng Lang/ Lit spec do you teach. My children will follow AQA. Eng Lang is really hard, but I think the Lit paper is much, much harder.

Dd predicted a 5 for maths and a 6 for English but got a 4 and a 2 in her mocks. She needs a 5 and a 4 for sixth form.

Can I just very gently urge caution with English and English Literature 'results' from mocks and also predictions. There are no clear grade boundaries to go on,only last year's grade percentages nationally. Teachers (many of whom are examiners too)can use their professional experience to set internal grade boundaries but these will become 'fact'only after the exams have been marked in July/August 2017. I feel very sorry for current Y11s. I have taught through three significant changes to standards and this is the hardest time for pupils and staff alike.

Weekend not its!

It seems very very close! Feeling guilty now that I have arranged a. It's break for this weekend. I'm sure DS will enjoy it but three days away from the books ....

I think DS is targeted/predicted 6's for English and Maths. We would be delighted with these, and are hoping they are achieveable as he has been seriously ill for a lot of the year.

Good tips Portico!

Schemes, not homes...sorry

I am working with a neighbour's son. Slow progress, but getting him to understand command words from the specs. Think he was unfamiliar with this.

Also, getting him to focus on poor areas in a subject. He scans the board website for a paper, looks at question he is not strong. Encourage him to read up on that topic for 20 mins. He then attempts the 4, 6 and 8 marks questions, we then check against the mark scheme. Slowly, but surely it is working. Trying to point out to him that reading is insufficient if not complemented with attempting questions, reviewing against marks homes and trying to learn from mistakes.

It has built singidficant confidence in him.

Dd was delighted to get 8s for English Lit and Language in the mocks and is hoping for 9s but nobody really knows for sure how achievable that is.

Maths is iGCSE at her school so still a letter grade, she got a B in the mock, I think she is capable of an A but she'll be happy with a B.

The exams are really hard now gandolfbold and even my gdd is struggling with lit. I'm sure your D's will do well. History does involve loads of essays but if it is a subject liked by your child then they will achieve high grades.

The teacher was just saying that if DS misses what was a B and gets a C, as long as he gets an A in History he will be fine.

DS has some mild SN which means he finds English Lit harder.

Never heard of doing a history A level without a really good English grade. Come to that doing any A level without it, lot of essay writing in them.

DS Comp.

Predicted 7 for both Maths and English

Maths Mock he got a 4, English he got a 6.

He needs a 6 in English for his A-levels. I am so confused by the whole thing and just don't understand it. Luckily his history teacher is the tutor for 2 of the A-levels DS wants to do, and has said that DS should get an A in history, and if he does he can do those two A-levels without worrying about English.

*too

8 for further maths here to.

The 6 for maths is on the basis of passing a test of level 7 standard algebra one month into the course. They must also have been in the top set so coveredvthe 7/8 material at GCSE.