GCSE 2018 no. 6: stress, struggles and success (hopefully) *Title Edited by MNHQ*

It's very interesting to hear how variable schools are. A maths teacher who lets students know that he'd rather go to the pub than support their revision is pretty shocking really. Although WhatsForTeaas son is hopefully learning some extremely useful life skills by cracking on with his revision without being spoon fed. Hopefully??!

DD1 had a final mock German speaking exam after school today and came home smiling and spouting lots of convincing-sounding German. Or at least I'm convinced. Hopefully it does actually mean what she thinks it does!

Hello everythingisginger and welcome :) . Your DS sounds just like mine - although we are very fortunate in that DS is staying at the non selective school he has ben at since 11 so no worries about getting in. He is though trying to get the grades for his preferred A level subjects up as high as possible and they're the same as yours. For CS he needs a 5 in Maths and 4 in English, for maths he needs at least a 7 and for physics a 6. Maths should be ok - even if he misses out on an 8 he should get a 7 (although he has only just recently got confident enough in maths to do A level and a 7, whilst fine in itself, may make him doubt himself for A level). The same with physics - they would probably let him do it but I would worry with less than a 6. And he has to pass his English which is not a given (2 and 3 in the mocks). So if he slips up he could still stay on but would have to retake English which he'd hate and may have to reconsider subjects to may be a business B Tech alongside Computing rather than physics/maths. But even that wouldn't be the end of the world so we don't have to really panic. Best of luck to you and your DC. Does he have a plan B.

DS is good at maths and also makes some silly mistakes. He's reduced the number by going through his exam paper and re-working everything out. He really wanted to take Further Maths GCSE but he wasn't able to (not sure why). He's having trouble with his Maths teacher right now, actually. The teacher will only print stuff out after weeks of asking, and then never marks anything (none of it, so the class dont know how to improve), and simply doesn't seem bothered. Would prefer to "go to the pub" than put on any after school sessions

To the pp who asked about revision lessons, DS doesn't bother with them. The teachers are way behind on finishing the courses and most of his year group don't care about passing (deprived area) so DS gets all his revision done at home.

We've had a breakthrough with Macbeth. He's beginning to understand and be able to analyse it, which is good. He saw the RSC play today and actually enjoyed it.

stickerrocks if I’ve been following all the helpful explanations above properly the top grade for Add Maths FSMQ is an A.

I also noticed from the link theSecond posted that Further Maths Level 2 has 2 exams (3.5 hours in total) whereas FSMQ has one 2 hour paper.

DS is predicted an A for FSMQ but doesn’t sound so impressive with A* and A^ for the Further Maths!

DS2 and his Mathsy friends have been referring to it as 'A hat'.
A* with distinction sounds more impressive.

My Niece also got the A^ two years ago and referred to it has an A* Distinction.

HesMyLobster - Well done to your Dd with the French Oral - Dd has her French Oral at 8.30am on Monday and I'm also glad its first thing too ..at the moment she's fairly laid back saying she's going to treat it as if she was going in for a chat with French teacher ..I have a feeling things may change come Monday (but hope not).

Superdoodle - DD's CS teacher doesn't know either which way the grades could go - when I spoke to him at parents evening he stated that it could be two grades either way from the mocks - so DD could have a 9 or a 5...He judged 85% to be a 7 in mocks...

Oratory1 - I'm with you - crossing fingers that DD gets the results she needs to go onto the next stage ..she's working fairly hard....and a lot more focused than I have seen her..

DD's final paper is the FSMQ Additional Maths paper from OCR. Anyone know what the range of grades given is?

My DD who did the further maths 2 years ago called it A star with distinction!

DD1 called it A star with distinction (she got one 2 years ago) I like A hat though!
Tbh when it comes to uni applications etc there is no option for it, so she's ended up writing it as just plain old A*

DD2 had her French oral this morning.
I was so worried about her, she was practising at breakfast and shaking so much she could barely hold her spoon ( not that she ate a lot )
It was first thing, 8:30 am, (thank goodness so she didn't have to stress all day) and she had to go into school early for it.
She has just finally replied to my anxious texts to say it went well and she's really pleased with it.
Phew!

French is one of her A level choices, along with Psychology and Biology. (She's hoping to do a psychology degree and eventually be an educational psychologist)

It's a shame she's not considering drama, it's certainly one of her strongest subjects, but she'll keep it up as an extra curricular at least.

TheSecond you pronounce it 'A hat' apparently, according to DS1's maths teacher.

Thanks.

Yeah, I've been told that the maths A-level is hard. I'm hoping DS can get through it without a tutor, but I suspect not.

Hi everythingisginger I have one in Y9 who wants to do Computing. For him, the Maths might be the sticking point. His Maths isn't bad, but I'm not sure it's strong enough to get through Maths A-level.

Hello. I'm new.

I've been lurking for a bit. DS1 is in year 11 and I am (internally) stressing the hell out about GCSEs. I'm lucky in that he is hard-working and open to extra help (DH for physics, me for English, and tutor for maths). But, that said, he's still a more-or-less averagely-achieving kid, with a skew towards Computer Science (8?) and Maths (7?).

He wants to do CS, Maths, and Physics at A-level and my biggest fear is that he won't get in to sixth form. He needs to get his Physics up to a 6 (from a 5) and, ideally, pass one of the Englishes (both 3 in mocks). He doesn't have a plan B. He wants to go to uni and learn how to code computer games (felt like a kiddy idea when he said it several years ago, but it has stuck!)

Anyway, good luck to all your DC, and hello.

EllenJane very belated well done to your DS1 on the A^

Does anyone know how A^ is pronounced?

Doom !! That was meant to be some - hoping predictive text isn’t trying to tell me something !

Thanks Bluebelle yes working hard and (currently anyway) relatively calm, happy and establishing doom good friendships via revision the collective torture of these gcse s so counting my blessings. I do accept though that some of you will be wanting to keep pushing to ensure your dc meet their considerable potential

Thanks for the welcome and well done to all those dc with amazing coursework results. It must be such a boost to go into the written papers knowing that you've got a solid start.

I think I'm most worried for ds about the OCR Computer studies. Like everyone else we're in the same boat of having very few practice papers to go through. And of course there was the debacle with the NEA being culled after having spent lots of time on it!

Anyway.....I wonder what your thoughts are on how the scrapping of the NEA will affect grade boundaries? I was pondering this and think it means they may be lower....where do you think the 5/6/7 boundaries will fall (maximum of 160 marks across 2 papers)? I've asked DS's teacher but he wouldn't even try to guess!

DS1 did the AQA further maths level 2 and got an A^ 4 years ago. My understanding is that it's not as hard as add maths FSMQ, but very useful as a bridge between the old, easier GCSE and A level maths. His school no longer offer it as the new GCSE has so much more content.

Oratory don't worry I'll keep you company - the way I look at it is that DS is working hard that's all I can ask he gets what he gets, no point fretting over something we have no control over

Good advice mmzz - if ds has lots of time spare for checking he’s also does some of the questions again on spare paper as if he just checks what’s there he doesn’t see the errors

Sorry cross post on the maths

Great results all round - don’t think you really need to worry about English whatsfortea. Feeling a bit more out of place on this thread but I ll stuck with it as your a supportive bunch :) :)

DS is deciding whether to take further maths which is an Aqa gcse but still with letters and also an A^ above an a star. Different to the FSMQ add maths which is a free standing maths qualification - I think it’s meant to bridge the gap between gcse and a level.
He hasn’t done any work in further maths as he doesn’t want to risk slipping back in the ‘normal’ gcse which has only just started to come good. But I think he ll do a couple of papers and if he gets over 50 % he may give it a shot as the grade boundaries are low (unless I’m mistaken) and it’s after all his other exams. And a b or even a c wouldn’t look out of place amongst his other grades. I may have got all this wrong though. He also makes slips in calculations - very dyslexic so puts the wrong number in the calculator and transcribes numbers wrongly and also reads words incorrectly - even so far as muddles up multiply and divide etc The difference lately is he s managing the harder questions so is completing the whole paper which is a big step forward.

Good luck to all starting already and hope the dc holding up

They can't call it an iGCSE because CIE own the trademark.

DS2 is doing the Level 2 certificate in Further Maths (AQA) it has letter grades which go up to A^. DS2 needs to get an A* (and 8 in Maths GCSE) for his first choice sixth form.

www.aqa.org.uk/subjects/mathematics/aqa-certificate/further-mathematics-8360

mmzz those tips are very sensible.