GCSE Revision - how much should they be doing ?

lanalon if your kid got all 8 in mocks then I would have a word with the school about getting some balance. Too much pressure on a kid that bright is easily counterproductive.

lanalon if your kid got all 8 in mocks then I would have a word with the school about getting some balance. Too much pressure on a kid that bright is easily counterproductive.

Dd is good at remembering song lyrics so treated the poetry in the same way. She's not started learning quotes for Frankenstein, Romeo and Juliet and An Inspector Calls yet.

Regarding English lit my ds really worked on his poetry and thankfully has a brilliant memory which served him well.
He also revised key quotes from each of the three novels to cover any of the past common themes. He said that as long as you know key quotes that it really helps.

His 3 novels were Romeo and Juliet, A Christmas Carol ( really struggled with that one ) and Blood Brothers which he loved and is also doing for GCSE drama so knew it inside out.

It's a stressful time isn't it? Roll on end of June :)

Hi Teen
Tbh, with 4 months to first exam, now is the time to start putting in the work. I only started with son last week. Wished I’d started in November actually. Lesson learned for son 2

Hi Red
He’s fairly disciplined at night, though always on iPhone when we go to his room. I wake him up at 630, bring him breakfast, so he does about an hour 645 to 745 - then he has a break of1 hour before he goes to school

Personally I think a balance somewhere between OlderThan and Portico would seem about right. But it does depend a lot on the particular DC and what they can cope with, and what school does in terms of mocks etc etc.

portico Your son must be very committed/self disciplined.
My DS drags himself out of bed at 7.45am to leave at 8.05am (10 minute cycle ride to school).
There is no way on earth I could persuade him to get up earlier and complete an hour's study before school.

We’re spending a disproportionate amount of time on Eng, especially Lit

Hi Older
Last summer I put together topic based legacy questions for all subjects, along with mark schemes. Son needs to just do those.

portico It is not, however, about how many hours you put in. You could do all the hours available and still not improve. Your DC's are obviously already very capable children. My eldest DD was the same. She didn't do any revision at all until Easter, and got 11 A*'s in old money. Quality always trumps quantity.

Re grade boundaries, I can only go on on Eng and Maths in 17 vs 18 for trends.

I agree with you about 3 year GCSEs. Boys ar at grammar school, and I know the school is able to work at pace. But 3 years would be easier for Eng Lit and Geography

portico your system for estimating grade boundaries assumes that they will only ever go up!

It sounds as if starting GCSEs in Yr10 rather than Yr 9 is a real drawback - I wonder whether it will end up becoming a rare exception? I can see issues on both sides - my DDs were very happy to specialise early, drop subjects they had no interest in (Music, DT, ICT/Computing) and choose what they wanted to do. Interestingly enough, Drama has turned out to be a godsend for my DD2, she's gone from being withdrawn and shy to being confident and outgoing, bold enough to apply to be a prefect (and succeed) and a peer mentor (ditto) as well as tying in really well with what she's doing in English. On the other hand, some of the students in her year ended up changing or dropping in Yr 9 because their choices were not working out.

DD2's school hasn't finished History, Geography and one bit of Biology - the rest is all done and lessons are revision. We're very lucky.

As the school has not finished the syllabuses, my son needs to reactive topical qns on content already covered. If you look at ast years grade boundaries, and uplift raw scores by 5 marks, that will give you an indication for boundaries 5his year. I used Eng Lang and Maths comparisons in 17 vs 18.

Well, if he's capable of all 9s, more power to him. Our school doesn't predict 9s because they are dependent on national scores and it's not possible to predict what those are going to be. Our focus is on getting the maximum grades in the subjects she wants to do for A-levels (Biology, History, 3rd not yet decided), 8 or 9 in English (mock was 8 in lit, 9 in lang), 8 in French and Drama and 7s in the sciences except for Physics where we'll be ecstatic with a 6.

Pointy things - they get a lot of downtime - but they still need to put the hours in. Son S weak in English but gained 8s and 9sin mocks for everything else. If he wants all 9s, he must put the hours in; and much more than he’s doing now

I live 5 minutes' walk from our school. Granted we started GCSEs in Yr9, which is a distinct advantage with the content heavy nature of them. It's still an awful lot for your boys to do, unless they get a lot of downtime on weekends.

Mind you, DD2 has been known to revise in the morning before school - she has to do it by herself because I'm off to work before she gets up. I'm lucky that both my DDs are very self-motivated.

Pointhings - son’s school stated GCSEs in Y10, so syllabuses are still incomplete, Just focussing on weak subjects in morning, so we can work strong ones in the evening. As we live in front of the school, we don’t have travel time to deal with. Boys still have good work life balance

OlderThanAverageforMN

We live 8n front of the school, so boys can afford to spend an hour studying before registration.

30 to 40 hours a week is bonkers, as is Portico's schedule. It's a marathon, not a sprint. If you want burned-out failing children, by all means push it that hard.

At this stage much of the homework will be revision based so counts towards the total. Our school is offering revision sessions every lunch time and every day after school. And yes, there is a card to be stamped, but it's about incentives, not 'fail to complete this and you won't go to prom'. If they get 30 sessions stamped between now and Easter, they get a £10 Amazon voucher. DD2 is attending every day and most lunchtimes (when she is not on prefect duty). She is diligent about homework, has asked for practice questions and gets them marked. She still has a life. A couple of hours a day after school including homework + a lunchtime session makes a working day longer than most adults have. That's enough - and weekend working pushes her well over that.

My DD1 in Yr 13 has a lighter load, even with 3 academic A-levels and an EPQ...

They've not finished the course at my DD's school. Most subjects won't be complete until Feb half-term ish. Our school does 3 sets of mocks Nov/Jan/Mar so dd started revising for GCSEs in time for the first batch. No morning lessons here but an hour a day after school atm,

re Prom passport. I too think that de facto compulsory extra revision sessions is a bit much.
My DD1 revised more effectively with me 1-1 for many subjects than in a group at school. Her school just had a total for usual stamps in planner that had to be reached (30 available per week).
I also think it is a unfair on the teachers to a) insist they run sessions and then b) have them filled with pupils who feel coerced into being there rather than actually choosing to be there.

Re: prom passport, my ds's school does exactly the same!
He started his GCSE's in year 9 too and has finished the curriculum for several subjects, history was first to finish.
He's already done English Lit in year 10 so one less to worry about.

His mocks were in November and they have the next ones in February.
He is absolutely exhausted :(

100 stamps!! Are there enough weeks left in the term?? I still think that is bonkers. They have done three years of the same stuff, now all they are doing is revision in lessons, they must be bored to tears. They really don't need the extra revision lessons as well especially after school...... what on earth is going on with these schools, where is the balance?

Dds school have finished the curriculum now so all lessons are revision. They started in year9. They have to stay to 1 revision lesson after school every day. There are also revision lessons before school and at lunch time which are optional. They recommend another hour each evening. There will also be lessons in the Easter holidays. They have a 'Prom Passport' in which they have to collect 100 stamps, which they get for attending a revision lesson. If they dont fill it up they cant go to the Prom.