Gcse 2018 (10) The one with half term

DS not happy with Edexcel history -crime and punishment.Bit gutted for him as it’s his best subject. Will be hard to pick himself up from that as this week is hellish anyway. Feel a bit like crying myself. He wanted so badly to do well in it.

mmzz - I am sure your DS has done well...DD hasn't passed a History exam yet (D in mocks) so I'm just glad she thinks it went well and she finished the exam...she said one of her friends found it tough - but it is all about perspective because DD's friend wants to take A level History so there is added pressure.

I'm pleased for her, Teenmum. Your post makes me nervous though because everytime everyone finds an exam for, DS seems to find it difficult. He should be our now but has to go to a couple of revision sessions (useful ones) b efore he can come home.

DD pleased about History...she said the questions were on the topics she knew most about ...said it was the best History exam she has done so far ...so all smiles.

here is the series:
www.hoddereducation.co.uk/Subjects/History/Series-pages/AQA-GCSE-History

EllenJanethickerknickers I'm not sure whether to tell you this now, but there were text books for that, or at least the USA one. DS has the USA one, which I bought from Hodder Education for £14.
ISBN: 9781471862946

Some interesting comments re 11+. For what's worth, DS has been saying that those among his mates who didn't have to go through the 11+ were finding all this more stressful because it was a first for them. Him on the other hand keeps saying how much he learnt from the 11+ in terms of effort input=results, keeping up the preparation over a long time, keeping calm, sitting in a room wit other 300 kids under huge pressure, etc. Could just be anecdotal of course.

DS3 is doing AQA history USA and WW1 today, the two topics there weren't any revision guides or textbooks for. He had to, gulp, use his own notes! Friday is Medicine and Elizabeth. Only 2 exams for AQA but 1hr 45mins each.

Stick we had one of those exam heavy weeks when we started a couple of weeks ago. Not sure if this is the right thing but we adopted the approach of only focusing on the exam for that day on that day and not thinking about others. Then as soon as one was done we would forget about it and put it out of our mind. Then focus on the next one/two the next day. Compartmentalising was the only way we could cope with the sheer amount of content and exams all requiring different skills.

D'S went in for AQA history today. Grumbling about the length of the exam. He had a history wake up session at 8.

Fingers x for all of our DC

I now realise that nobody is 'overinvested' on this thread and that everyone's input differs markedly but is appropriate to their own dc and specific circumstances

Don't panic - a huge choice of topics even within boards not just between boards !!

I'm too struck by how short the history exam is compared to the huge volume of the syllabus, They will clearly only be tested on a small proportion of what they have covered. Conflict and tension between the wars and post Tsarist Russia for DS today

There is obviously a percentage of students who won't get high A level grades from some Sixth Forms, but that doesn't mean that YOUR CHILD won't get the highest grades they were capable of, in that less selective Sixth form.

Oratory dd is at a [state] school where A level students can easily come away with 2 A's and B in humanity/science subjects yet the Gsce admission bar is 6 Cs and B in your A level subject. Students who are rejected by another Sixth form which demands all A's and A*s end up going to uni with the same results as the students who got in with the A's at the selective state sxith form etc. In the end the student who misses high grades can still do well at a Sixth Form which doesn't filter them out at that stage.

And of course statistically the Selective Sixth Form will be seen as higher achieving because it takes so many more academic students and they will add up to higher A level results. It is not the teaching or even the cohort which makes the A level results higher, it is the raw material of the students.

History for ds2 today too. We had a last minute meltdown over a some sheet of information he wanted to take in for last minute revision, but couldn't find it. Dh was quite surprised how upset he was; personally I'm amazed he has been so calm throughout, clearly he has been just about holding it together and one little wobble is enough to set him off. Still, over soon. An hour to go before he comes back, oh yes he has an Eng Language booster first. No time to fret about each exam before you are carried off on a wave onto the next challenge..

I'm invested but not very efficiently Dh told me off for suggesting something about essay plans - I think the children find my advice creates tension. If I can give it discretely about two weeks before that is fine, but otherwise, I've been advised to "stay out of it" by all the children. I think it gives them headspace to work out their own strategies, which are quite different from mine. Ds likes flashcards, whereas I like doing A 4 mindmaps..it just would clash if I tried to interfere, and anyway I don't know the details enough to judge what level of answer is competent. I noticed with the RE exam last year that what I thought were quite woolly answers got high marks, and you needed to know far less than I imagined to get a 6/7. You certainly didn't need to know many Bible quotes (which rather shocked me)

@hmcAsWas - those 11+ threads are something else - and I can say that having done it with DD. So much angst when the reality (in hindsight) is that they're all great schools and the DC do well wherever they end up. The only positive about 11+ and 13+/CE is that it leaves the DC very used to taking exams and revising. This is all good experience for when GCSEs begin.

I may wander over to the 11+ frenzy threads about applications for academic London day schools and point out its not all sunlit uplands once you are there.

This made me smile! They won't pay any heed though as it will seem theoretical for their DC, even the ones that had to be tutored to within an inch of their lives just to get in.

So envious I couldn't type your name properly TawnyPippit

Tawnypit I'm so envious!

Yes Oratory quality of school also makes a key difference. My own DC have been lucky but (as part of that) I certainly felt that I could mislead my DC even in the subjects I'm comfortable with (History and English) and that the teachers knew far better than me, so from the start I left well alone. I've no idea how things might have turned out if they'd gone to a less good school but it's far more relaxing for me to have that luxury.

Good luck all examinees!

And get well soon wee pup

Re this from the other thread on AIBU (which I now plan to take a nosey at): "The crowd universally said YABU, so the OP trotted back in and said she's positively laid back compared to "some of those GCSE threads on other boards".

I will admit that hand on heart I made snap judgements about this thread in the past when I wasn't posting on it (and had glanced at it a couple of times for 5 minutes); I felt that everyone was waaaaay too invested

But now I am happy to confess and atone . I was far too hasty in my judgement, and I have found this thread highly informative, very supportive, often humorous and a safe place to vent your GCSE angst. Not sure I could have done without it - especially since one of my closest friends is quite dismissive and appears to think I am making a massive and disproportionate fuss over dd's GCSEs (she really has no clue as her ds is in Y9)

Are we going to be the first to finish? DS finishes this Friday. By lunchtime he will be done. This week he only has English language x 2, the second Maths paper and Music. Very much in the home straight now

Results day is going to be very difficult for us. DS's school is crystal clear that to get into sixth form you need to get a set of marks that gives you an average of higher than B in 8 subjects. So basically he needs an A average, with the ability only to go lower in one subject. We were sent a letter at the beginning of this academic year making it clear that DS was in jeopardy of not getting that and it may be sensible to have a back up plan (which we have in place). So poor old DS has spent this year knowing it is all a bit precarious and has applied himself with great maturity but I suspect we are not quite going to hit the level. Its been a really hard year for him I think.

I may wander over to the 11+ frenzy threads about applications for academic London day schools and point out its not all sunlit uplands once you are there.