GCSE supporting - to half term, and beyond!

DD has finally returned exhausted. Thankfully no exams tomorrow. History this afternoon. She had a nightmare with the keyboard (allowed to type) which got stuck in caps lock mode so had to go outside with an invigilator for 20mins while they sorted it out. She said it was ok and she got in the zone when allowed to return but has only got home at 5pm and off out to dance in a minute. She's going to need a lie in tomorrow.

Said the only question she made up an answer for was about some Bishop or another.

The big square will be (1 plus root 2plus 1) squared (root 2 using pythag)
Ech of the 4 triangles is a half times 1 times 1

Add together.

Yes you do find the square and triangles. It also had to be expressed in a particular format with an integer, brackets, a root and a^2 - I can't recall it exactly, but lots of chat online.

@Hellocatshome

I think that's what my daughter said she did - I want to say the answer was 4 but I may be wrong......

Do you not just find the area of the square and then 4 little triangles and add it all together or am I missing something?

DD had both maths and history AQA . Maths was “really good” history a “bit rubbish “she said. She is hoping to improve her grade a little in the third history paper next week.🤞

DS says this one was almost too impossible. He did attempt it. Edexcel Higher.

She seems ok. Said she was panicking revising and forgot start time . I can't wait until this is all over. She has no exam tomorrow then "just" biology Friday so an evening off is in order

That's awful.

Well my dd found maths ok which after disaster of first paper which was good. She said the last question (if that's the squares and triangles one) she found ok but lots of her top set friends found it really hard although got there in the end.

History she said was 9.5/10 but its a favourite subject. They do Cold War and Anglo Saxons. She did say there seemed to be a lot of people just sitting there with head in hands not doing anything though.

DS2 said Maths was ok apart from the final question which he didn't know understand at all!
Love to know what it was as he's pretty good at Maths.

He said History was ok....his stock answer for most papers so could mean anything 😂

Ds never finishes all the questions in Maths but got a 5 in mocks. Going by the 2019 grade boundries you need an average of 17 marks out of 80 in the higher papers to get a 4.

DS had AQA Maths in the morning and Edexel History in the afternoon today.

He thought Maths was OK. But History was always his Achilles heel and said he didn't like it as some of the questions were weird.

DS loved the maths paper but he has been teaching himself the Alevel syllabus for fun (weirdo) so understood the harder stuff like the last question. History less good as they only just finished Power and the People in time and he wasn't confident on it. Hopefully the first paper will bump him up enough to get a pass at least. Only 6 exams to go and DD finished her alevels today so pressure is off for one child!

DS2 maths Edexcel, said it was good. Maths is his subject
History he said he had no idea on some questions, he's missed so much of the subject it's a write-off tbh.

@ReformedWaywardTeen for DS2 English is his nightmare subject. The SENCO has told me to argue with 6th form to do his A Levels if he doesn't get the 4. DS2s maths teacher is very keen for him to stay on and is senior management, which may be helpful as well.
DS2 History exams look like 2 on his timetable, it threw me off

Another Edexcel IGCSE here. DS agrees with the consensus here that there were a couple of questions which everyone in his year group found difficult, so, yes, that's reassuring.

@ReformedWaywardTeen horrendous that they missed Maths off her timetable. I wonder if it would be possible (if it's even in her interests) to get that mark disregarded from her grade. A special consideration 2% or so is not going to touch the sides.

History shows on DD's timetable as 2 separate exams. Something to do with how they code the options. I wonder if your school uses a similar system. For us though, one is only 2 mins long so you can see it's "fake".

@ReformedWaywardTeen that sounds awful ... so sorry. Poor DD. That would throw anyone.

DD has just returned. Apparently maths was 'good' but last question she just divided it into a square and some triangles and got no further.

History Cold War was great but she thinks she waffled too much on Elizabeth's Government. I've suggested she has an evening off!

That's really awful. I'm sorry your DC had a rough day.

@Covidisdrivingmecrazy gosh that must have been scary for you! Hope your dd found the History exam ok.

Dd is home, all I got from her is ‘fine’ when I asked how they went. She’s exhausted, no exams tomorrow, hooray!

I've asked school how on earth the wrong timetable was sent to us but they don't know.

That is really bad.

Might be worth checking rest of exams with the boards published timetable to be sure there are no more nasty surprises ahead- you can usually google and find them or https://www.bbc.co.uk/bitesize/articles/zw27tcw has most exams boards up there.

DS is home now. He thought Maths was okay but the last few questions hard. It's not a very strong subject for him but he seems a bit more positive than for paper 1.

History was better than he thought. Anglo Saxon topic easy and American West not too bad. He said the AW questions were a bit weird but he felt he did decently.

We have had a nightmare today.

DD went in, expecting two history exams today.
Gets to tutor time and someone says it's maths. On their timetable it says history.

Maths is their worst exam subject. But they must have a 4 or they have resits and can't do the A'levels they want.

The member of staff she told said "oh well just get on with it". Problem is they're OK if they know it's that exam but not if they don't.

They spent all morning after it getting really upset down the phone and think because they were so stressed they flunked history as well because they didn't manage to and everything.

I've asked school how on earth the wrong timetable was sent to us but they don't know.

No exams tomorrow so hopefully they can relax

My son thought the last question on the higher maths Edexel question was really hard and the only one he didn't attempt to answer. Apparently a news article about the paper said the last question has also been used in A level maths! ( sorry don't know how to link to article)

Ds found the History hard. He said he just froze and couldn't get things down that he knew were there in his head. Its such a lot lf content for them. I think his concentration went as he had tried so hard in Maths before hand.