Gcse 2018 (10) The one with half term

It makes sense to me, Oratory1! We have the same child it seems. Unbelievable similarities

Agree that understanding as you go along is key. It is really more about attitude rather than amount of time put in. DS realises now he took very little from all his lessons and homework in year 10 and start of year 11. He was getting good feedback from the school and was not on the problem radar as was engaged and handing in decent homework on time - but he wasn't focused in terms of realising he needed to take things in and understand them and also ensuring he had full notes. Before mocks he had little recall of what had been covered in the lessons, was whizzing off homework quickly to get it done and not looking at the mark or feedback when given it back. So it was effectively like learning everything from scratch for mocks and beyond. Some of that was due to his dyslexia but some of it was attitude/approach. DD2 by contrast was hardly doing any work at home so seemed to be working less, but was fully engaged, rewriting full notes as she went along and learning what she could from returned homework, and seeking help when something wasn't clear. I didn't explain that very well but hopefully it makes sense. DS says the main thing he has learnt from GCSEs is how to learn - I hope he s right and can take what he now knows into sixth form

DS1 did not start revising until November of year 11 (and he had a break from Mid-December - Mid-February). Starting so late was a mistake with hindsight.
He told Ds2 that his main tip would be never to leave a topic in school without fully understanding it. I think this is all you have to do in year 10, apart from homework, class tests etc

From Y10: Early start with revision sessions / making topic summary 'mind maps' / designing 'interactive' revision activities for topics and planning revision sessions for increasing amounts of time as exams get closer seems to have kept DD working steadily and hopefully, revising productively.

Y11 has seen the increase in number of practise papers - Christmas holiday was the first time 'serious' revision really kicked in, and the same has continued until now with 4 exams remaining in all school breaks since then (and extra on weekends throughout the term - LOTS of homework in her school).

Hi bombula - yes, some good advice already here, and a good idea to get them into good habits.

My advice would be to help them sort out their files and notes as soon as possible, as some schools are better than others, but mostly DS seemed to have loads of loose sheets and booklets.
For quotes, DS liked Quizlet. Not only are there lots on there already which you can just copy to your own folder, but it means that revision can be slotted into odd bits of time spent travelling or waiting etc since a teenager and their phone are never parted!

I just wish DS had been a bit more thorough with his homework and end of topic tests throughout the GCSE course as it sometimes feels as if he is learning stuff for the first time, rather than 'revising' it (but that may also because he forgets things very easily too...)

Kick if your DD is getting 8s in maths with no revision, it sounds like she will be fine.

That piece of information would make my DD cry, as she has worked SOOOOOO hard on maths, and still can't seem to crack a '7'! Considering she started Y10 on 2/3, I think she's done incredibly well to make the improvement.

Predicted 8s for Music and Spanish - wonder how they will pan out with the 'relaxed' approach to revision over the past week....

I'd suggest taking a look at the various syllabuses to make sure you have a vague idea of what you DC is doing.

As you'll see from this thread there is a lot of variation between boards on what is required. My DS has 'open book' on Macbeth but others didn't. There was also a horror story of a couple of schools having taught the wrong set text!

I think it would have been helpful to gave been more on top of notes (DS1 is very messy) but the CGP books are excellent.

I think starting early makes sense for many DC but for my DS he only really knuckled down for the January mocks- and then again from the start of the Easter holidays.

Oh and i definitely agree to start early. Dd is a great example of what not to do on that one!

She did no revision for mocks and only really started revising on 1st May. She's done a lot since but it has been stressful and I suspect will show in her results.

She's the queen of doing "just enough" so will probably be happy enough in August. After all, why try to get a 6 when a 5 will do?!

Anyway she's actually doing maths this morning which she wasn't going to do because she got an 8 in the mock so didn't think there was any point.

bombula dd had a big long list of quotes that she made as homework as she went along but in the end she decided it was far too long so she slashed it to approx 2 sides of a4 which she memorized in a couple of days (although she was fairly familiar with them already)

Afterwards she said she used some of them and also others that were relevant that she just knew from studying the texts.

My tip is don't make the quotes too long. Around 6 words max in most cases.

bombula

DS2 made quote banks as he went along.
Each main character and each obvious theme had a quote bank, which was in the form of a table:
Left column: point
Middle column: evidence (quote)
Right column: explanation/analysis

Closer to the exams, he practised writing the quotes using a look/cover/write/check method.

bombula DS's teacher sent them a list of quotes to learn for some of the texts. He just memorised them, one at a time.
CGP guides are useful too, as are Mr Bruff books (some are available in print and electronically, others only electronically)

I don't think you can infer much from our experiences because each school does it slightly differently and, I suspect, DSs teacher will do it slightly differently next year. She sent DS some useful pdfs, and I am fairly certain she got them from the TES website, but some if them arrived too late to be usefully embedded in the study (e.g. 12 hours before the exam). Also DS's school doesn't arrange for CGP discounts, or any other discount.

Phone froze so just saw other messages! Bombula - school gave them some quotes and they did some flash cards themselves for a homework. DS had to do loads of geography papers over the summer but that paid off - if doing history suspect it would be useful for that, too.
Sosentueto best of luck to dgd for the interview!

Lobster no problem!
I think it's very difficult to do English language exams if English isn't a favourite subject. I think a lot of schools, like last year, have struggled with fitting everything in. I really admire all the dcs who are practising those papers!

Hi bombula
I can tell you how my DS has approached y11, although I won't know how successful its been until the 23rd August!!!!
We got him all the CGP books for his subjects (schools tend to sell these at a discount) he then went through them all and made flashcards question on one side answer on the back (he has made 1000's of these). He started in September at an hour an evening moving up to about 1.5 -2hrs from Xmas and then final stages 3 hours. This was possible as his school only ever set about 2hrs of homework a week, so he had loads of spare time. Probably from around February he started to actually go through the cards. He also kept up all sport and meeting up with friends, because he started early there has been no last minute panic.

Good luck - main advice start early!!

It’s been fairly mellow. Friday after the exam she did nothing, which was fine, she was exhausted.Quite a bit of revision otherwise, but she went to a friend’s on BH Monday (to ostensibly do some work but not sure if the 3 of them did much) and we had a meal out for a relative’s bday on the Sunday eve. Other than that she’s been working, but getting up quite late apart from the morning she had a revision class at school. I just have to let her get on with it tbh and thankfully she does work otherwise I’d have no say in the matter.

H iall,

I have been following this thread for a while and have been impressed with all the advice and support you have all offered each other. As I have dd in year10, I was looking for advice

Please could you tell me how did your dd/ds learn all the quotes for DR Jekyll & Mr Hyde and Macbeth? Did they have a set list from school or did they make their own?

Also, if you were going back to end of y10 what is the best piece of advice you would give, is there anything you would have encouraged your dc to do different?

Sorry for all the questions but looking forward to the responses

Sostenueto Good luck to your DGD...

I'm going to book DD an appointment to try on 6th form uniform next week after an exam...I envisage skirt being a nightmare because she has long legs and is 5ft 9ins and its a pencil skirt design...so best to try first.

Sostenueto that's a brilliant place for work experience, and must be in high demand, good on your dgd!
Does she want to do medicine?

Sostenueto does your DGD want to be a doctor?

Morning all! Dgd off to have informal interview at local hospital for work experience in neurology department today. She's gutted she won't be able to go into theatre till she's 17 but otherwise she's really looking forward to starting. She is also going to look for summer jobs.

Loose thankyou so much for sharing your knowledge and wisdom, it really is very helpful indeed.
I'm another one who has been struggling to keep up - the thread moves so fast that I end up skimming it then running out of time to respond!
to everybody going through difficulties with health and family - this is a stressful enough time without additional worries.

DD sticking to about 5hrs a day, and taking the evenings off to see the boyfriend/friends.
She's camping in a friend's garden tonight and I'm just lying here listening to the rain . . . At least there's no storm tonight! But I imagine they'll all be a bit soggy by morning!

I can't think too deeply about grade boundaries and percentages or making predictions - I'll tie myself in knots and drive myself bonkers!
At this point all I want is for DD to pass what she needs to - anything else will be the cherry on top.

I hope everyone is managing to get some rest, especially our amazing DCs.

Thanks loose. I'll pass all that on. She's come on so much since end of y10 where she just froze and didn't even attempt q5. She finds it so difficult. And she hates it.

I think as well that her teacher (who dd adores) has struggled so much to fit the literature syllabus in that they haven't had anywhere near enough time on language. I find it crazy considering how essential it is to pass language. Today dd told me they'd never done a leaflet and she wouldn't know how. Mr bruff to the rescue again!

Kickbishop you absolutely can use some of the devices in a speech, though. The most appropriate tend to be rhetorical questions, saying 'you' and 'we', using repetition for effect, rule of three, alliteration and so on. I agree metaphors and similes could sound forced but in the end they are just fancy comparisons.
Yes, only using commas and full stops would lower the SPAG mark. However, you'd be amazed how many people misuse commas!

No shooting you down Cblue, but

1. in every exam ever invented there's always a one mark difference between those who just fail and those who scrape a pass. So, this is no different.

2. there's only 2 ways to decide who passes and who fails an exam: either you pass by getting a set score or you pass by being in the top half (or whatever). Both types of exams have been around forever, but, granted the set score is more common. The problem with the set score is what happens when the questions get marginally easier every year for 20 years? Everyone knows the answer to that because it's what happened to the old GCSEs and they began to be disrespected by universities, further education colleges, employers and the public at large.

Setting a % to pass feels unfair, and it is, but which is worse: creating an arbitrary % cut off or running exams that no matter how good you are, everyone just disregards your results because they say the exams are too easy to be worth talking about?

Re how we are arriving at these grades in dd's case they have been marked by her teacher. Dd rarely uses a semi colon but writes with clarity and good expression (weak points are SPAG). I think her 4 was probably not addressing the question - her usual grade is 6/7

Loose - your post is very reassuring