Year 11 2023-24

My DS has mocks in early December so he's doing a bit now. They have a lot of 'revision clinics' at lunchtimes and they are testing them regularly, so I hope that his mocks will be OK....from what some of the teachers said at a recent parents evening, the school (boys only/grammar) often find that they do poorly in their mocks which gives them a wake up call so they pull their socks up for the real ones!!

Mine not revising yet either, mocks are in January. Not quite sure what he should be doing at this stage, he's quite unfocused, not completely lazy, just in denial about the task ahead and not very effective.

Am I the only one with a DC not revising yet and a school not running revision sessions?

My DS is in the same position ( I dint think he's lazy though, just unfocused so he does the work but is not effective. He got 4s and5s and has been doing the same- morning and evening 1 hour revision in the summer and has added an hours revision in the evening into his homework. I have no idea if its sustainable. I Hope so. Going toothed open evenings seem to be motivating him at the moment.

Oh, I just spotted this on active.
DS is Y11 and a lazy sod (wonder where he gets that from 🤔)
He scared himself with 4s and 5s in his end of Y10 exams.

He's done an hour a day of revision over the summer and continued with that plus homework in the week and 2 hours a day at the weekend

School run revision sessions in maths, english, and science at 8am, so he has started them this week (science doesn't start until after HT)

Does this sound reasonable and sustainable? I know he will have to really graft after half term for his mocks in January, but I'm hoping this will develop as school up the pace a bit

Wow, @Waspie 5 is a lot!! That said one of the boys from my son's old school has just joined DS's college at Cambridge having done 5 A levels (and got A stars in them all 🤯).

No-one was interested when my son did his - it made no difference to the offers he received, but it did give him a talking point in his interviews. (He had them for Cambridge, Imperial and Loughborough).

My daughter took 3 As and an EPQ and was given a lower offer for one uni as a result, and they said they would drop one of the other grades if she also firmed them..but she applied for geography.

I think it is definitely better to get 3 stellar A levels than 4 good but not exceptional ones (if you are capable of that). The competition is so intense for home students, and will increase for as long as unis can't increase funding via fee raises on UK students.

Thanks all, interesting about EPQs. I am torn - on the one hand I think it could be an excellent way to study a topic purely because you love it and, perhaps, receive a small discount on university grade requirement (as @JustHereWithMyPopcorn has said). Plus it gives a taster of the type of study required as an undergraduate. But, on the other hand, perhaps the time investment could be better spent working on the A level subjects to achieve the best possible grades.

DP did five STEM A Levels back in the day @Panicmode1 (one was further maths) and is absolutely insistent that DS does no more than three. The super selective grammar DS may apply to offers up to five A Levels but only 2% do this. All other colleges/schools we're looking at only offer three as standard and four if one is further maths.

That sounds good @CactusPeach . At DS' school Year 11's have maths last period on a Wednesday and this has been extended by an hour to allow them to do past papers with tutor support. I hope some other subjects follow suit as this seems like a good idea to me.

Also his subject matter was something completely not subject related, just something he was passionate about.

My older DS did an EPQ alongside his A levels (two essay based ones and one science) and received a reduced offer from a couple of his university choices for it. It was an A* though and I think the EPQ would need to be B or above to have any impact on university entrance selection. What I would say is that it is excellent practice for doing independent research, long essay writing and referencing which is definitely useful for if they go to university.

My DSs school have stepped up more past papers for homework and now started revision classes for some subjects. Impressed as he has signed up as soon as a one of his choices came up.

Thanks for the Maths Buster info. I've subscribed and my DS is finding it really helpful.

We're in the midst of attending 6th form open days to try and get an idea about next steps. Currently looking at a mix of A level, BTec and core maths - we've identified possible subjects based on what's left after discounting the ones he doesn't want to do!

@waspie My daughter had an extra 40 minute session each day for the last three weeks, one subject per day and they're running revision classes in the first week of half term too, which unfortunately we'll be away for so she'll have to catch up.

@waspie at my son's (grammar) school, you have to take an EPQ if you do 3 As. My oldest did 4 plus an EPQ, but one of his A levels was Further Maths, he wrote it on an engineering subject he is passionate about, and has gone to Cambridge, so he isn't typical!

Hi all, joining the thread as I have a daughter in yr 11 this year and a son next year 😬

I have killed the thread! Ooops.

Are your children's schools running revision sessions through October half term? DS has signed up for two of the days in subjects he wants some support in.

Anyone have thoughts on EPQ? I asked two of the teachers at one of the college open days and neither were very positive, particularly if the student is doing three essay based A Levels. The exception being if they have a particular skill which lends itself to a project based EPQ.

DS and I made a revision timetable last weekend and he has been revising every day - or doing homework (which seems to be mainly revision based anyway). He is determined to get good grades in these mocks to apply to sixth form's with.

We have two open evenings this week. One an outlier (literally - miles away and he'd need to get a seat on the college coach to even contemplate going there). However this college has an excellent reputation and offers all three of the third A level choices DS is considering. It also has a great rugby team and associations with good universities in the county.

The other is DS's preferred choice at the moment. It's a 20 min bus journey from the next village. It runs only one of his third choice options but he would like to take this subject. It's a school sixth form rather than a college, but it has historically taken a lot of children from DS' school. DS also has friends who started there this year.

As I've said to DS these open evenings are as much about ruling out what he doesn't like as deciding what he does like.

following here on @Marisquita advice! Already seen lots of good ideas.

I'm in Costa because I turned up to my click.and collect too early, and just impulse bought them!

I'm really stressed out about GCSES. I'm really doubting myself on everything, including DS's school. It's very academic, and I knew that, but they seem to have let him coast, while they concentrate on the top and bottom. I did bring it up in year 9 and they said ' don't worry, we mark harshly'. All his school reports are all ' Oh he's so lovely, a pleasure to teach' but I'm wondering if that's just because he shuts up and doesn't draw attention to himself. He was really good at history and art, and now all his predictions in both those subjects are 4/5. He is top of his class in Spanish and consistently gets the highest marks in his class by some way but when I asked if he could try a Spanish higher paper, they sprung it on him with no warning, and he got a 4. He has no sen, has a supportive home environment, we talk to him about his work etc etc, but his predicted grades aren't enough to get him into the school sixth form. I'm so stressed out by it. Anyway, now I've got that off my chest, we've put a plan together of revision he is going to do over the week. I'm thinking of ditching my beloved day off to work 9-2.30 so I can sort the revision/ homework out and still have some time to do all the other stuff. The revision is things like ' Do one question on the history of medicine' so he has smart targets. He has 7, so as well as his homework( he's getting lots) he will do that, tick them off as he does them and then have new targets. He has spent today doing art, and he has been put into extra lunchtime classes for art. The next mocks are in November, so we'll see if that works. I'll look into thst CGP MATHS course. He's been doing maths genie, which he likes.

Thanks to @NellyNutmeg we now have the Flipscocards for An Inspector Calls and Macbeth, which are excellent.

Lots to think about here re possible sixth forms. DD has a firm favourite but any offer from there will demand very high grades, so I am keen to build in Plans B and C!

Checking in, so great tips, like the flip so cards, dd is struggling with English, despite being really good at it in primary and reading regularly, her school seems to have really dropped the ball. Love the look of the maths busters too, ds in year 9 struggles with maths, my invest.

Was out with mothers of my dd’s friends last night, we have decided we need a regular surviving being a year 11 parent support group. Our dds seem to be secretly doing homework, late night online homework group seems to have formed. Whatever works I guess.

Open evenings for college next week, I had hoped dh would take an interest but he’s not able to get home early enough, dd is set on her college (in Hampshire, no school 6th forms, just huge colleges) but undecided on A level subjects, Spanish (that she was really upset at having to take for GCSE) is a certain, psychology (which I think isn’t what she thinks it is but I know nothing), chemistry, statistics and biology all in the running. Last time she was asking questions like ‘is there lots of writing’ idk, I don’t remember how I decided, seems like such a big decision!

BBC Bitesize do some fantastic podcasts that are about 10 mins long. They're very well written and presented. We listen to one each morning on the way to school (30 min drive through rush hour). It feels relatively painless to do a short burst followed by whatever music DD is currently into.

I learned about photosynthesis this morning!

We're going for the 'little and often' approach. With a variety of techniques and tools.

Had parents information tonight overloaded with information. Lots of past papers and revision guides etc been loaded up on Google class rooms Going to start maths past papers this week. Maths teacher said 36wks till exams aaah !!

Am joining for the ride! I have a laidback DS whose predicted grades aren't stellar (4's, 5's, couple of 6's) and, to be honest, his results could go any which way on the day. He has no clue about what he wants to do afterwards so working out options and preferences may also be tortuous. My fingernails are likely be non-existent by this time next year. Hoping we can all support each other through whatever is ahead.

@HRTeenageMum 😂lol yes but with Instagram as I don’t have TikTok although DD does so may spam her on there as well. Ordered all the CGP books. At the end of this at least I can say I tried to help. Thanks for all the tips folks.