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

mmzz I don't think that's a stupid thing to do at all. If it was History or something else with masses to learn it would be too risky, but for Eng Lang I think it's fine.
Sadly DS only has Paper 2s for Bio, Chem, Physics and Maths after half term so not much room to leave anything till then. At least he'll have almost 2 weeks to blitz past papers I guess (and the Science paper 2s are only an hour long).

Hi mmzz! I'm muddling through thanks and surviving hope all fine with you and DC?

Another vote for Mr Bruff on YouTube for English, both literature and language. He has some brilliant stuff on exam technique and how to write top level answers.
DD1 based most of her English revision on him 2 years ago, and DD2 is doing the same now.

DD2 is on the verge of a meltdown tonight. I think exhaustion from a ridiculously busy weekend of dance, combined with the stress of French oral on Thursday has really had an impact.
So I have cancelled her dance lessons evening, she's going to do 1 hour max on French revision then get to bed by 8pm!
I haven't enforced a bedtime for her in years, she's usually pretty sensible and manages her own time well, but tonight I will be tucking her in and lights out, no arguments!

She is doing roughly 2-3 hours per evening on average, at school they still haven't finished the course in anything except psychology. But most subjects are putting on extra revision lessons am and pm every day.

Although they've had ofsted today! So everything was cancelled after school yesterday and today.

I agree with Bluebell about the departments being in competition with each other, that certainly seems to be the case at DDs school. It might be worth asking the pastoral team to intervene if any dc are being pulled in too many different directions.
One of DD's friends taking art, drama and graphics had to do this as she was repeatedly expected to be in 3 places at once.

English teacher here - I'm about to take a class so can do more in detail later but would definitely prioritise English lit at the moment.
What are the texts?

Yup - and I think that's doable this year as with fewer papers than there used to be there is less after half term and they are more spread out. DS just has English lang, history and the second half of maths and sciences after half term. Needs to keep history ticking over now because of the volume of stuff but the others can largely wait.

Romeo and Juliet
An inspector calls
Frankenstein
Power and conflict poetry
Dgd aqa too.

Hi all! Sorry I haven't been on dgd been in hospital for a few days. A lot better now and back to school today. Hope everyone is fine and surviving stressful teens!
Will read last thread to update myself. Update of patio only 37 bricks to go! They look better when they are wet.

He is on AQA, doing:
Macbeth
A Christmas Carol
An Inspector Calls
Power & Conflict poems

DS is doing similar. Only revising things that are before the half term and is going to thoroughly go over everything else over his week off. I think it's a good idea tbh.

Thank you all!
Will take a look at Mr Bruff tonight. He gets so frustrated with it because he just doesn't know what to do. Doesn't help that they haven't finished any of the texts at school either...
Will also definitely keep encouraging him - he's getting quite worked up because he also wants to quit his job but is worried about not being able to save.
Can't believe there's only 2 weeks til written exams start, seems like only last week he was off to first day of Year 7!

Hi Brilliant science results there that's amazing. For us with English, DS had been doing lots of general stuff at school eg poetry analysis or Of Mice and Men themes and quotes etc but still didn't really know how to tackle a question. There are only three questions in Lit and 5 or 6 in language so we just went through each one setting out exactly what he needed to do step by step, how much time to spend on each and the simplest way to tackle each question. breaking it down so he had a clear picture of the whole paper and what he needed to do at each stage - it seemed to get over some sort of mental block he had of thinking he couldn't do it - now just needs to practice !! You'd think that s what they were doing in school but clearly not in English !

Welcome Teaa those mocks results are brilliant well done your DS.

For English DS has recently started to listen to the Mr Bruff videos, plenty on here really rate him. There is also a book by Mr Salles for English language which DS has looked at not sure what he thinks though........like your DS he much prefers the stem subjects to English. I'm sure others will be along shortly to give you a warm welcome and some fab advice

Hi all, hope it's okay if I join this thread.

DS(16) is in Year 11 and is quite stressed right now! Had his French Speaking today and says it "went alright I guess". He also got his science mocks back:
Biology = 155/200
Chemistry = 160/200
Physics = 166/200

He's really struggling with English - he's very STEM-oriented and can't seem to get his head around it!

Any tips to help him be less stressed? He struggles with anxiety too, and didn't sleep last night thinking about his French exam today.

No study leav here. Dd is in school 6 days a week until July.

She does have 2/3 optional early morning sessions plus a compulsory maths revision session on Saturdays (45 mins) with a teacher school have brought in especially.

Revision wise she’s doing several hours at weekends (mostly Sundays) plus about 30-40 mins of Tassomai on her car commute.

She sometimes has homework in the week as well, usually 30-45 mins worth. Not every night though.

I know at DS's school the departments are effectively competing against each other as once GCSE and presumably A level results are in they are then ranked in order of how each department preformed and I guess no department wants to be at the bottom!!

Oratory school revision sessions can be good for exam technique and tips so I'm sure it all helps!
Kick ha! There is no way DS would do 4 hours a night! I'm impressed he revises as much as he does - it's mostly science revision though.

Hmm DS struggles to do more than an hour a night then not much on Saturday then say 3 to 4 hours on a Sunday. Could be partly down to the fact that he doesn't finish school til 6 and has Saturday school followed by games and is dyslexic and gets very tired. I am a bit concerned that with no study leave at all I am reliant on useful revision being done in lessons and free periods etc at school and hoping that its useful. Torn between thinking a lot of the day is frittered away at school and not useful but on the other hand the routine, exercise and being with friends and having teachers on tap is helpful - I guess swings and roundabouts and I guess its down to him to focus and take what he can from the lesson time.

Or offer a discount for pupils on PP - but its a commercial business so not going to happen!

DD will get through Biology in under a month - I think she has done 70% in 16/17 days....but they only charged me £10 yesterday to add Chem/Physics until 5/5 and then I will be charged £45 for all three ...that should see DD through to the end of the courses.

blue you're not wrong. It does mimic the actual questions in the exam. I understand that it's little and often, so better done over several months which is the reason it should not cost a fortune.