GCSE 2019 support thread 6

I Think 4 A levels is going to be a lot of work for Dd . She’s insisting on a diverse range too.
She’s unsure of which direction she wants to go and has just picked subjects she can’t bear the thought of dropping. She got 9s in all her choices, but I’ve said she needs to see how it goes and be prepared to drop one if it’s too much

Darbs he is 2 marks short of getting an A Grade, his form tutor has said it should definitely go for a review, I need to speak to exam officer next week.

DS's school also start their gcse courses in Y9, which I a bit more ambivalent about. Not sure if that is common practice or not.

@Rugbylife - do you know how close to the next grade he was? That will dictate if he should ask for a review. My son was 1 mark off next grade so we are requesting a review. His mark was on the sheet he got and so I checked grading boundaries online. His teacher confirmed and agreed to request review. So check the mark first to see if he’s close - be aware Mark can go up or down

Yes, we're in Wales. Very glad they do it this way here, seems much more humane, having lurked on this thread and seen how tough the Y11 exam season is! DS I think will do 17 papers next year instead of 23 👍

He also now has a good idea of where he is in the science subjects, which ones are only just over the marks required for a grade and which are only a couple of marks off the next grade. Plus he worked really hard and has seen his grades go up from his mocks, so a useful demonstration of revision = results ahead of much tougher Y11.
Not a fan of Gove, I must say.

This terminology has been lost over time with people calling a Ca pass and then the government compounding this by calling a 4 a standard pass.

Technically, only a U is a fail.

A 1- 3 is a level 1 pass : all that in required for many college courses, which will be level 2. 4 and above are level 2 passes.

The post serms dominated by high achievers, well done! My son got 2x 4s only. All others were 3s. I assume a 3 is a fail but someone referred to their dc needing 3s for college so I am confused.

My Ds has passed 12 GCSE’s and failed one, don’t understand why they are made to sit so many exams, when only 5 are required to progress to Sixth form.

@Arewedone - I’ve finally worked out how to tag on here. Your DD can sign up to civil service job alerts when the time is right, if she puts the criteria in it will email her when recruiting. Also the Home Office does a graduate scheme, DP isn’t around at moment to ask but pretty sure the Foreign office will too. Means you get fast tracked to higher grades. Interestingly DP applied for the Home office one (internally as he was already working there but lower grade) and was rejected. Quite funny as he got to the grade they promised in 5yrs much faster and has surpassed that now. He dreams of being an ambassador of an overseas embassy and is only one or two grades away now. I’m a civil servant too (Home Office), my eldest son (age 25) is too! At the moment none of my other 2 children plan on joining us but you never know. There’s certainly worse jobs. If you work hard good chances of promotion and working across different government departments including overseas (Home office has opportunities abroad too). For me it’s a great place to work as it’s family friendly, flexible, good for working mums (offers term time working, part time, flexi time, consolidated hours and home working). Plus a good pension

Singing is that in Wales? Modular GCSEs have been scrapped in England now with everything based on final exams. My DD had to sit around 23 papers over 4 or 5 weeks.

Is that Wales? No more modules in England (because Gove...)

My DS is about to start Y11 and has done some GCSE exams this summer. It has been really useful I think - he now knows how it all works, has experience of revising when it really matters, proper exam conditions etc and will have fewer papers to do in Y11. The whole year does this in quite a few schools in our area.

Having said that, these exams have all been on 1 year's worth of study IYSWIM, not a full course. Might not be the same for all exam boards or all subjects but WJEC sciences, history and RE are modular, so you can learn a part of the course, do the exam and then forget that bit and move on to studying the next bit. He has not done a whole 2 year GCSE in one year, which I'm sure would be very tough.

Lots of amazing results here, in tough exams.

My wee brother got a 5 in eng lit, the whole family was hoping for a 4 so pleasant surprise.

I have to say there’s a lot of people’s children doing a lot of GCSE’s. That must be really stressful.

I did the old ones 4 years ago and did 9. DB is doing English language, Maths, double science, geog then two BTECs. 8 including English lit.

Regardless there’s always options, my cousins GCSE history went up two grades last year.

Good luck to all future A Level students they are very very tough but worth it. BTECs are just as worthy and for many degrees (including nursing - I say with A*AB in academic a levels) more useful.

I randomly stumbled upon this thread but got engrossed! 😂

well done to all the families for surviving GCSE season x

No, they won't be because only the first exam taken counts in the league tables. That's why early entry has gone from most state schools : because they do tend to perform better when they are actually the age they are meant to be.

I had a friend on Facebook celebrating her daughter's Year 10 English GCSE. She got a 6, one mark off a 7. I managed not to comment on the fact that, given another year, she would almost certainly have scored a 7!

Dd's school told me she can't resit any exam she has taken except the core subjects (English, maths and science) so I don't thi k her school is doing it in order for the kids to be able to resit...

@Possiblynotever the other aspect to consider is if taken early a student may not fulfil his true potential, maybe requiring a resit and Uni’s do not like re- sits. At DCs school only native speakers could take languages 1 year early in order to potentialise maximin scores.

My ds took 4 GCSE’s Sciences and English Lit last summer in Y10 he got C in them all, his teachers wanted him to resit them this summer, he refused. Got his results yesterday and he did really well in chemistry the 2nd paper he got an an A but his overall grade with last year’s C becomes a B, hopefully he can still take A level. Did great again in Biology but was 2 raw marks/4UMS from an A which would bring his overall grade to a B it currently sits at a C so he can’t take it at A level. He is desperate to do this at A level and deeply regrets not resitting the Y10 exams, I want to get his paper for this year remarked but he thinks there’s no point. Should I do it anyway? Part of me thinks it’s your own fault for not really bothering in Y10 but the other part of me feels I need to try and see if he gets a re-grade.

It's more actually that they don't accept or like resits. I don't know of unis or sixth forms having any issues with early entry.

Ofsted take a dim view of it, though, as it can be a way of gaming results, and also , they say they don't like the extra pressure it brings to students in year 10.

Early entry GCSE is certainly becoming rarer as there are league table implications re resits.

@Possiblynotever - hey I’m not an admissions officer! This was the info we were given at DCs school.

Really??? Haven't they thought that this could trigger mental illness problems at such a young age? We are talking about more than 10 subjects!
Especially for boys who tend to be a bit more relaxed....

@Possiblynotever it’s because Universities like to see you are capable of handling the workload, time management, pressure, self- motivation etc

Sorry, DD school....