Year 11 2023-24

Ds's school have said max 3 days rest but to do some work the rest ofvthe time. I'm getting DS to do 2 hours a day, but he has mocks last 2 weeks of November. He reckons his friends are doing 40 minutes to no revision (!) but I know some of their parents, and would be surprised if that were true!

How many hours this week (half term) are your children revising?

Choose 4 to start here too - DD wants to do Eng Lit, Politics, History & Latin, with the choice to drop one .We have a 6th Form A level open evening at her own school tomorrow.

First round of mock exams started today for DD. She has done very little revision. I'm trying not to nag or fret. I will be v curious to see how she does

The funding is for 5 hours per subject and they should be expected to do 5 hours per subject again outside class. In one 6th form ( DS's first choice) they have 10 hours guided learning where they work supervised but on their own stuff.

Birthday during November mocks here too I have no sympathy though as I'm a June birthday so spent every year until I left university having exams on my birthday!

DS is at a science day at school today and has another for psychology tomorrow.

We've done three college visits so far with three more to go. DS really liked two of them and wasn't as keen on the other, although he loved their English Lit syllabus compared to the others.

Thanks to those who have given me advise on EPQ. DS is now saying he'd rather do two similar A levels than an EPQ, e.g. Ancient History and Classical Civilisations plus his favoured Modern History and English Lit. So starting with four but he would have the option to drop one of these before the first half term if he wished.

From the visits we've done so far it seems fairly standard to have two sessions at each subject per week. Each session of 2.5 hours. I seem to remember having 6.5 hours per subject per week when I did A Levels a million years ago.

Nothing at all, but entry requirements do seem much lower than for science subjects. Dd is definitely cleverer than me!

Nothing wrong with humanities!

Actually 7 is required for maths and chemistry at the college we're looking at but 6 in psychology and Spanish with 5 or more at a 4 or above the basic entry for A-levels/level 3 study. I got 4 Bs and 3 Cs back in the day but got good A-Level grades, granted I did do humanities.

We have exams for selective 6th forms during half term! And some more in the couple of weeks afterwards. No mocks until January, fortunately. Hope everyone gets some sort of a breather over the half term break.

Not only has DD got mocks directly after half term, her school are also doing sixth Form open days and taster sessions early Nov.

So she's feeling pressure to decide her next steps at the same time as exam angst. Which feels very unfair, although I understand it's necessary timings wise. So much pressure on them though. Lots of hormones racing around doesn't help.

Thanks was surprised to see how low they could go 1 year it was around 24% for a 5.

It's the silly mistakes a lot of the time. Maybe I think it's because I'm not great at maths either. I think 3 papers is excessive. Surely 2 is enough? I'm going to get him to do an entire paper over half term just so we can spot how he's doing.

@WhineyVaginey Roughly speaking you have to resit Eng Lang / Maths if you don't get the magic 4. However for A levels and level 3 courses they often/generally require you to have passed both already. So in that case you need to do a Level 2 course for 1 year whilst resitting before progressing to level 3. You can't generally retake anything else.

In theory they can do Level 2 functional skills instead of GCSE resits, but in practice that will be up to a college as to what they offer. Where DD2 went if you got a grade 3 for GCSE you had to resit the GCSE. Which sadly is why DD is now 19 and has no L2 qualification.

@TeenDivided Physics is my DD nemesis. She did a paper last week, put her head on the table & said "I just want to end myself"🙄oh the angst!
@wonderstuff Birthday during mocks here too

DD is ruminating & catastrophising, I've told her it's not the end of the world if it all goes tits up! No-one died. It's so hard to find a balance, I'm mostly leaving her too it & providing snacks & tea.

I'll be glad when it's all over. Feeling for you all if kids will struggle to get to college, are you allowed to do resists along side other courses? Seems particularly regressive if that's not the case.

What is your DS like with stamina and silly mistakes?

The foundation paper is definitely way more accessible, but you do have to manage the easier questions well before getting through to the grade 4/5 ones.
I don't think it is ridiculously difficult though agree some of the grade 4/5 questions are a challenge. iirc it is ~55-60% for a pass?
Agree though that some goes above 'basic maths' such as the trig, algebra, and angles of a polygon.

If he keeps plugging away, he will hopefully get there.

This us what I'm worried about with my DS. He was on the higher tier and was getting 3.9 but he has now been put into the foundation paper, which he finds much easier and prefers the teacher but I'm worried that he'll end up having to get a huge amount right yo get a pass. I did look at the past papers. They are ridiculously difficult! Surely that is far more than they will need for basic maths!

Because maths is tiered, you need a relatively low mark to pass on the higher tier, as the lowest you can get on the paper is a 3, otherwise a U. Whereas for the foundation tier it is a relatively high % to pass as the highest grade is only a 5.

They are coming round fast DS mocks 2 wks tomorrow ! Male sure to check the grade boundaries if they are doing past papers was shocked by some for Maths!

A 7 is a standard requirement for maths.
It is also a relatively common requirement for sciences or MFL.

I think they like a 7, 6 is ok but they suggested that less than a 7 in certain subjects is really hard on the student???

7 for Alevel? That’s higher than the entry at our local (& v good) 6th forms. Dd is doing an hour revision each evening for mocks, poor thing has a November birthday so is in mocks on her 16th.

She is doing okay apart from English, I was pretty surprised reading her work yesterday how much she’s struggling to write formally, she just doesn’t have a sense of it. I’ve told her she should start reading news reports. She has an English tutor once a week who’s great, hopefully she’ll get there!

Have persuaded the SENCO to assess her for extra time, she’s never actually finished an English timed assessment and her spelling is shocking, she gets p & b confused, I’m sure she’s dyslexic. SENCO seemed to think because she reads well (in untimed assessment) it wasn’t worth looking into. I’m afraid I was super awkward until she agreed to at least do some working speed assessments.

Mocks in November for us too:
DS has been having 2 hours a week extra English and 1 hour maths at home with a tutor. He’s started an hour after school 3 days a week revision club. He struggles to be self motivated but is trying bless him!

One thing that had surprised me is how much harder gcse is compared to when I was at school! It’s bonkers! Also his school are quite direct in saying that to do A level they want a 7 ideally. 🥴🥴

DD has her mocks in November & has been revising for a couple of hours most evenings & a stretch at weekends.
She really wants to stay at her school for A levels but I've told her she needs a back up. There's an A level parents meeting next week & then she'll need to get her choices in.
Bit of a wobble today as life seems to be coming at her fast. I think I'm becoming one of "those" parents, I looked at her today in her teddy bear ears hoodie & thought "They're TOOO young for all this pressure".
And breath. All shall be well.

@Dispairrepair I think you are right about not knowing how to revise, I was also one of those people and found it hard to then teach my children how to revise - well, I didn't really teach them to be honest. I know my older DS struggled with this too but did find working with a friend helpful. Our school engaged an outside company to talk to the students the best methods of revising statistically, while still understanding that this doesn't always suit everyone and discussing what else may work.