GCSE Supporting - first week nearly over

I totally agree with this. DS is a solid 4-6 student and was advised to do foundation at Easter as well. He finds foundation really easy, but that's not to say he'll definitely get a 5 - and he needs a 5 for his future choices. An intermediate paper would have been perfect for him.

Thank you @grass321 dd said apparently they need 50% for a 6, not sure if that’s accurate and I suppose the grade boundaries change each year. I’m hoping the other papers will be kinder.

DD said maths was good (CCEA - M4) Not the easiest paper she’s ever done, but pretty good and she was happy with it. Only one question she couldn't get, and she had plenty of time to spare so had time to go over everything. Other people said it was awful though and said it was the hardest paper they’ve ever done so who knows!

I know a few kids who found it really tough. My son thought it was ok but he's doing A level maths.

Hello - new to the thread but have a GCSE sitter. Maths today was "not too shabby" edexel higher tier. Despite thinking they received zero marks for the last question as they had no clue 😱

For English earlier in the week apparently there was a "gorgeous" question. Not a word I'd ever have used about exam q's so that made me laugh. Most importantly DD has actually coped - this time last year for mocks we had refusal to go in due to terrible anxiety. Getting through these is a major win, doing well will be a bonus 🤞🤞

Finally heard from DS. It was 'pretty good' apparently. He is a boy of few words 😂

DS edexel maths said it went ok and he thinks he's got the 5 he needs for college. School said he's capable of a 6 and he sat the higher paper but he's consistently underperformed in mocks only getting a 4, so we'll just be happy with a 5.

My DS is thinking of doing the next maths paper back to front so he can leave the exam on a high and like he is capable as opposed to stressed because of the very difficult questions at the end. Does anyone have an opinion on doing it that way? Makes me nervous for some reason!

So sorry didn’t mean to panic everyone with my protractor story - it was meant to be funny! Worst thing is, after I spent ££ on a complete maths set (all I could find) he didn’t even use it lol.

good to hear re equipment @Hellocatshome and @ggccsseeeee , hopefully most schools do similar.

Hope it went well for everyone Yy esp @TeenDivided ’s dd

btw while “easier” exams may mean higher boundaries, IME these vary only slightly, and even if they are a bit higher, it’s soooo much better for students to sit an “easier” exam where they feel they really can do it and as a consequence write more fluently.

Hope those that were retaking and anxious about today are ok

IGCSE maths Edexcel - pretty much as expected but we don’t tackle the last third of the paper so they try to focus on ensuring the first half is correct! DS took great delight in telling me he’d checked one of the answers needed to be given as 3SF…… we laughed loudly as this is a major breakthrough in our house for a child that rushes through, doesn’t check or read anything properly! Just have to hope there’s not too many careless mistakes and the first half of the paper or so is right…..

DS text me that Maths higher was 'lovely'.
Have a restful weekend everyone.

Marking my place...

DA has struggled to get up this last year. He's always there for form time, just a bit late. Clearly he can't do that with the exams but he's in the habit of skidding in and we're trying to not argue about it most mornings.

Haven't heard from him on maths. Fingers crossed. On a good day he could be a 7. Bad day, it's a 5. Fingers crossed for all of them.

Just heard from DS who said it was 'good' he's doing higher, predicted a 4 so that's surprising after some of the comments on here. I'm not sure what board

@Saisong same for my DS, he's definitely on the cusp but the school refused to move him to foundation as he has the potential to achieve a 6. Really wish there was an intermediate paper!

Ds said maths was great- beginning to think he may be over confident!! A positive week for us. Just hope he has done as well as he thinks....,,,,

Sounds like my DD did the right thing in moving down to the AQA foundation paper, after her teacher suggested it after Easter. Maths is not her favourite subject, she really struggles with decoding word questions. Give her a bit of trig or algebra and she is fine funnily enough. She needs a 5 for college.

I'm a bit disappointed in the division between higher and foundation though. DD finds the foundation papers very easy - consistently gets 5, but only gets 4s in the higher papers. So this strategy is definitely her best bet. Pretty sure she could get a 6 if the right questions came up. I wish there was still an intermediate paper that could better accommodate those middle ground kids, who can calculate but not apply higher order skills.

Another one here whose DS is a maths whizz and even he said it was a bit tough. I think it was AQA. He hasn’t done a huge amount of maths revision as he’s been focusing his attention on English where he really struggles. It’s such a hard balancing act.

Waiting to hear about OCR maths here.

AQA higher here. DD hoping for 9. Said it had lots of hard problem solving. She was fine but it was definitely harder than the mocks

DD said Edexl Higher paper was OK - better than expected. Pissed that exact values didn't come up as she had learnt them all parrott fashion.

SHe did say that a lot found it swful though - there were girls crying she said.

@OhhLaaLaa

My daughter was moved down a set at the start of Y10. It was the best thing that could have happened for her. In set 1 the pace was just a little too fast for her and she felt really negative about it. In set 2 she has a great teacher she has clicked with and they just take things the tiny bit slower that she needs.

Similar here with computer science not heard from DD and I think awful exam scheduling for her. Hoping maths hasn't sent her into a spin as although she has always done well in maths we had similar discussions around further maths which she opted not to do. Not been a bad week overall though for her content wise and one week down!! Hope everyone gets some down time over the weekend..chemistry first for us next week which DD is nervous about. Bring on the end of June.

Strong mathematician DS here….said it was harder than mocks. Tough questions which really challenge the top set kids, some questions hardly anyone answered

The more difficult questions will always be hard

When DD says it was ok she means she could answer a few as opposed to none - she is just aiming for a pass.

The harder questions she knows are out of her reach so she won't include them in what she deems hard as to her there were always going to be impossible