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

I guess the thing with tassomai is that its based on the little and often method and the reason they ask questions a number of times is because its multiple choice so you could be a lucky guesser!! People do seem to be genuinely impressed with it, my only concern would be that you have the knowledge but not the exam technique and I get the impression it doesn't deal with this - could be wrong.

Kick: I've just emailed them to ask them to change her targets because it's almost impossible to keep up but in a way it is keeping her focused
I tried that with Tassomai on the phone and they wouldn't change anything. They said he just needed to keep on. I explained that it was very near the exams and that he wouldn't be able to do the whole thing so did they have an accelerated one. No. So we're no longer on it because it was impossible to put in the time needed and there was so much repetition. I guess they were concerned DS would do it in a month and then I would not pay another month? My opinion on this business is that they should not charge monthly, but a flat fee for one course instead.

Thanks everyone. This is really reassuring. It's good to have a benchmark. I'm surrounded by the parents of super driven kids who are working 4hrs or more in the evenings and all waking hours at weekends. They are very organised and robust and don't look like burning out but I don't think that level of work is healthy for everyone.

Kick - I would say my DD is probably doing less than your DD, she spends about 1hr on Tassomai most days(70% completed on Biology and just started Chem/Physics). She has probably done two past papers most weekends when she has not been working and has one hr French revision each weekend, coupled with 1hr here and there on other subjects at the weekend.

DD is fairly laid back (as i think are a lot of the girls at her school- I was shocked at how many went on holiday over Easter holiday period!). She will have a full week exam leave just before exams start so a chance to blitz Computer Science/Chem/Biology...the exam timetable has been really kind to DD and most weeks she has two free days.

Study leave begins on 4th May for DS. No before/after school revision sessions at his school but they are only doing revision in lessons now as all courses are complete.
Absolutely agree that it's quality not quantity that counts.

I'd say DD1 is now up to around 3 hours most days. That includes weekends, when she is also getting out of the house to take decent breaks. What I don't know is how productive those 3 hours are, but she seems a lot more focused and motivated now that the exams are in sight.

And on Sunday she managed to memorize a big chunk of German which she can use at her speaking exam. I'm a bit concerned at just how nervous she is about the speaking exam, given that she's opted to continue German at A level, but we'll worry about that later!

Kick DS's study leave doesn't start till after the half term - which he's mightily unimpressed with!!
He does between 2-3hours of an evening and 6 at a weekend, he's not overly impressed with school revision on the whole feels not a lot gets done but he's someone that likes to do things his way.

So your DD may be doing a lot of effective revision at school which will make a huge difference, plus I think its more about the quality of revision rather than the hours spent, tassomai sounds good quality as its interactive, if she is doing lots of questions and then marking and identifying weaknesses and working on those, you don't want her just revising her strengths!!

Kick DS is doing 2-3 hours after school and around 6 hours on Saturdays and Sundays. But it does take him longer than 'normal' to work through material and he has accepted that, while the next few weeks are going to be tough revision-wise, he's going to have an absolute blast in the long summer holiday!

Kick Don't despair - there is a real mix on here. DD is probably very similar to yours. She has a revision class after school on 3 evenings. She goes to work for an hour on Monday's and all day on Saturdays. She should be doing 2-3 hours each evening, but DH & I are not allowed to discuss it with her. She should do a full day on Sundays, but spends most of the morning faffing before she leaps into action. I'm a professional exams tutor at post grad level, so I can't know a thing about revision & I'm not allowed to get involved, except to buy her post it's & revision cards & Ben & Jerry ice cream.

Outside of school in the week, I’d say it’s an hour to two hours a day but this depends on what else is going on. It could be less than an hour some evenings. However, he does more on Saturday and Sunday. We don’t have study leave either.

Can I get a quick feel for how many hours your dc are doing now outside of school? No study leave here so i know revision is happening all day at school. It's still all a bit reluctant here and i really thought by now the fear would have kicked in.

Dd has a timetable which has her doing 2-3 hrs a night after school and 4 hours on Sunday. Nothing on Saturday because she's at work all day. I'd say she's scraping towards that but never goes over. Also if I go out and leave her to it she doesn't do anything.

I know this is generally quite a high achieving thread but I just wanted to compare. I might not like the answers

Dd started tassomai 18 days ago. She's on 23%. She really likes how it's weighted to focus on the first papers which are before half term. I've just emailed them to ask them to change her targets because it's almost impossible to keep up but in a way it is keeping her focused.

She isn't doing much other science revision now though. I wanted her to do it as well as traditional revision but she doesn't see the point.

DD hasn't been given a personalised timetable yet or date for her MFL speaking exam. I've taken the dates from the generic timetable on the school's website, but I'm being ridiculously paranoid that I've missed something! She has a grand total of 2 free days in the first fortnight, then no free days until the day before further maths on 19 June, then It's all over.

Another fan of Tassomai here. Dd is feeling it’s really helping her. She started in February & is on 71.7%.

Thanks for the birthday wishes. April is a great month for it!

DS3 is still cracking on with Tassomai. He's doing about 1/2 hour on it a day on top of the rest of his revision and says it's particularly useful with improving his knowledge, but obviously not so good at helping with exam technique. His teachers are concentrating on this more in lessons, going through exam style questions and what sample papers there are available. It seems like a reasonable balance, (hopefully.)

It's interesting how many of us on this thread have DC with some specific learning difficulties, dysgraphia, dyslexia etc. DS3 doesn't have anything diagnosed but with DS2 having ASD I recognise his quirkiness. He certainly struggles with writing at any length but verbally he has lots of good ideas that he's willing to share in class.

His first exam isn't until 14th May, computer science, so still a few weeks to go.

We just redrafted revision planner ahead knowing what we know now. Feel like this is match half-time, sort of.

That's right mmzz
Agree GCSEs are a slog!

Teenmum I think more than any other exams GCSEs (and O Levels before them) favour the excellent crammers amongst us. DD aced hers but if anything DS has a 'deeper' understanding of the subjects but will find it harder to hit the (often very prescriptive) mark schemes. A Levels are better in that respect I think, obviously there just isn't the breadth of subjects to be learned and hopefully they've chosen subjects in which they're naturally interested/strong. GCSEs are just a slog and I can't wait for them to be over!

Because we were conceived at the start of August... holidays...sun...beach 😂

Cherryburn - I have had several people say that the GCSE exams are the worst bit given the amount of information they need to learn on a wide range of subjects. I am an undiagnosed dyslexic - its only when I use a grammar correction app - I realize just how bad my dyslexia is. I often speak in halting phrases, leaves sentences incomplete...my spelling was awful at school but in those day's nothing was diagnosed.

Happy Birthday to Brainmelt too....April is such a busy birthday month!