Gcse 2018 (10) The one with half term

ds has done about 3 hours of History revision today, then lots of Formula 1. dd has been to library to meet up with friends to revise, then a fair amount of time applying fake tan to her legs..

We had a wild night here in London, ds rushed out in the storm to take photos of the lightning, dd said she was too frightened to sleep in her room (very different approaches!)

I am bad tempered about mess again, have spent a while picking up bits of paper on topics that are "over" and putting them in a box (in case of retakes, ds2 says we must preserve them) The cat promptly sat in the box. Puts it all in perspective!

Someone mentioned free lab experience days. If anyone's interested in engineering/physics summer courses or free cyber security experience days google Smallpiece Trust. They still have some spaces for this summer too.

DD doing some history revision at we speak! Not sure how long it will last though.

No storm here too bluebelle we had sun all day yesterday and most of today apart from a short sharp shower about 4pm.

Wow mmzz 20 days to go - I can remember when we were all chatting at Christmas and saying 6 months and it will all be over! Bink of an eye and we are nearly at the end!

Sostenuto - make sure you take time for yourself as well as the DD and DGD - they all need you to be fit and well

We had a minor disaster today - sitting on the patio in the sun with the parasol up as it was hot but breezy. Next minute the wind picked the parasol up and away out of the table and in the process broke the glass top into a million pieces - my phone and glass drinking jar were on the bit of table that stayed in tact and were swiftly removed be me. DD and I sat there in stunned silence until DH appeared to see what had gone on. I sent him to get us both a pair of shoes as we were barefooted and there was shards of glass everywhere on the patio. took me half an hour to sweep up and get out of the cracks in the patio. Been to buy a new table this afternoon, so can still sit out.

Revision has now stopped - half an hour!!! Better than nothing I suppose. There is always tomorrow.

DS3 has kept up with his 2 hours a day plus Tassomai. He just took Friday off, as planned on his revision timetable. He's got English and history revision sessions at school on Tuesday. Sticking to the 2 hours a day plus whatever he does at school automatically gives him a break on weekends and half term. I know it's quite a small amount of time compared to some of your DC, but it seems to be working for him. He's consistently done those hours every day since the start of Easter and it does mount up.

Dd hasn’t done any revision since Friday.
She’s been working too hard for the last year and I felt that she just needed some time out.
She went to the cinema with some friends today and had a great time

I showed DD the PMG list and her comment was that the list covered most of the Spec for paper2...but agreed that the only certainty would be that DNA and Genetics – this must come up!! 3.13, 3.14, 3.15, 3.16, 3.17, 3.18, 3.19, 3.20, 3.21, 3.22 which is DD's preferred topic anyhow.

I'm almost sure that DD will adopt an approach of doing as many past papers as she can for science paper2's, they are just 1 hr long so quite easy to fit into with other revision.

No revision today but back to the grindstone tomorrow - DD trying to cover 1/2 day of History with ANO subject (past papers) for the rest of HT.

@Cblue - that makes sense, you had me confused when you mentioned A and A star. DS1 is mainly iGCSE and has a mix of numbers and letters.

I think it makes sense to pay close attention on topics not in paper 1 for the sciences but I wouldn't rely on topics not coming up again in a slightly different way. Those setting the exams have a slight sense of mischief / creativity about them.

DS1 also doing Ad Maths but seems to be going a bit of work now even though the exam isn't until the 19th. It's the one he's least confident about and I think it's not a bad idea to plug away at it now - certainly helps in advance of the 2nd Edexcel Maths paper,

DD is just over half way through her papers and half term is a welcome break. She took yesterday and today off, just some music practice and then is getting back to revision tomorrow.

We had a lovely trip down to see my sister today. We got several dresses for sixth form in the Next sale a few weeks back and my sister is making some alterations for DD to those and a couple of summer dresses. My sister also made us a lovely lunch and the motorway was quiet too.

Nice to have time together today. We are looking forward to the 15th!

Here is Physics Edexcel paper 2:

1. Energy - Forces doing work

1. Forces and their effects

Here is Biology (sorry, my mistake Biology and Physics aren't the names CGP uses):-
Photosynthesis
Limiting Factors of Photosynthesis
Transport in plants
Stomata and Transpiration
Adaptation of leaves and plants
Plant hormones
Commercial uses of plant hormones
Hormones
Adrenaline and Thyroxine
Menstrual Cycle
Controlling fertility
Homeostasis - Control of Blood Glucose
Diabetes
Thermoregulation
Osmoregulation and the Kidneys
More on Kidneys
Exchange of materials
Diffusion and the Alveoli
Circulatory System - Blood
Circulatory System - Blood Vessels
Circulatory System - The Heart
Respiration
Ecosystems and Organism Interaction
Investigating Ecosystems
Ecosystems and Energy Transfers
Human Impacts on Biodiversity
Conservation and Biodiversity
Food Security
Carbon Cycle
Water Cycle
Nitrogen Cycle
Indicator Species
Decomposition

If anyone is interested, I have the list of CGP guide topic names for Edexcel GSCE Triple Chemistry, Biology and Physics .

Here is Chemistry:-
Alkali Metals
Halogens
Halogen Displacement Reactions
Noble Gases
Reaction rates
Rate experiments involving Gases
Rate experiments involving Precipitation
Calculating Rates
Collision Theory
Catalysts
Endothermic and Exothermic Reactions
Measuring temperature changes
Bond Energies
Fractional distillation
Hydrocarbons
Pollutants
Cracking
The Atmosphere
Greenhouse Effect
Climate Change
Test for Cations
Test for Anions
Flame Photometry
Alkanes and Alkenes
Addition Polymers
Condensation Polymers
Disposing of Polymers
Alcohols and Carboxylic Acids
Production of Ethanol
Combustion of Alcohols
Nanoparticles
Types of Materials
Materials and their Uses

Yup AQA definitely separate papers with separate topics in each. Someone posted the list in the last thread - the biology paper two content is huge. Just been testing DS starting from the beginning and we only covered a fraction of it but he switches off after half an hour of so.

I did remind him how unfair it is that I gave up biology before O level as I found it so boring but I’m still having to do it now.

bishop each language paper is 25% I think, so the 75% is over the three papers, listening & reading are done on the same day, then writing.

Absolutely MarchingFrogs. But that's not what the link says. No one's talking about taking risks on trying to guess which questions will come up!

A levels and GCSEs next year in this house, but I doubt that either DC would dare mention it if someone had told them that there was no need to revise x, because it definitely won't come up - they and their sibling must have heard me say a hundred times that if it's on the syllabus, it could be on the exam paper. Make a grown up decision not to bother with a topic, fine, but it's no-one's fault but your own if you find yourself short of questions you can answer.

Of course, they might just decide to follow 'someone's' advice and not tell us...

Sorry if we gave you a fright Juggling, the link we were discussing is specifically for Edexcel igcse where anything can come up on Paper 2.

Thank you - that is what I thought but the talk of 'if it didn't come up on Paper 1' upthread made me wonder.
This is such a great thread for reassurance.

For AQA sciences, paper 1 covers the first half the stllanus and paper 2 covers the second half.

DD is also AQA triple and the answer is that I've no idea! But if so any scrutiny of what has come up on the first paper would be irrelevant! I have to say my comments were general across all subjects where there can be overlap, not merely science.

Here's the biology link I posted for anyone who missed it:
pmgbiology.com/2018/05/17/edexcel-igse-biology-paper-2b-2018-predictions/

I agree it's a dangerous game to try to predict questions. For us, however, we know that DS won't be able to revise everything so I guess you have to make some choices about where to start!

I was interested to know how accurate this Biology predicted list might be, so I did a quick check of the 2016 & 2017 list against the actual paper.
In 2016 four of those topics came up (out of 14) and in 2017 three out of 11 did. I'm not sure what that tells us!
The other thing about the Biology igcse is that they tend to mix up topics together in some of the longer questions, so you do need a basic understanding of all of it really.

A question as I am a bit confused.
DD is AQA for Triple Science. As I understood it Paper 1 and Paper 2 are different topics examined and you cannot get paper 1 topics on paper 2 exams. Am I wrong? Can there be an overlap?

No I wasn't implying that I have a monopoly on experience Cherryburn, nevertheless it is striking how things have shifted recently. They do seem even less predictable and more double bluffy in the past few years - it was noticeable even before the reforms - so worth saying it here, since we're supposed to chip in with our own anecdotal experience. The first DC took her GCSEs in 2006 and I've had a steady stream of DCs doing GCSEs and ASs and A2s since then, and there are some trends which are noticeable. But everyone approaches things in different ways, which is fine. Just a comment.

Yes, it's not my first DC doing GCSEs either. At DD's school the teachers routinely produced lists of topics not examined on Paper 1s, with the important caveat that anything could still come up. But given that there's a vanishingly small possibility that the topic areas on Paper 2 will be exactly the same as those on the first paper, I still think it's information worth having if it's used judiciously.

By which I mean I'm with you on not trying to do best guesses.

In very recent years across A levels and GCSEs I've known the DC come home to report the same topic being asked about in different questions and some huge topics being left out altogether (their verdict to the latter is always grrrr how could they even do that).