Y11 2023-24 thread 4

Hear hear! for all the lovely young people and a 🥂 for their parents!

Fingers cross on both counts @anoukis Hope it goes well for your daughter this afternoon.

A bunch of lovely young people represented on these threads, some overcoming adversity and personal challenges, to do their best in these exams. So proud of them all

You’re right to be proud @anoukis. Best of luck to your DD this afternoon - she deserves it after such sterling efforts.

I'm so proud of my DD - ahead of the Add Maths exam which is this afternoon. Last one! 😌

Around Feb mocks she was scoring around 40 marks in Add Maths, which is just about an E pass. Add Maths was taught as an afterschool optional class 1 hr/week to those in set 1, but it was a bit on and off. We even consider dropping it.

She's worked so hard independently since Feb - using the OCR textbook, exam practice book, Bareau videos, and integralmaths.org and has managed to score over 70 in the past couple of weeks in past papers. This means an A/B grade, depending on grade boundaries.

I know grades can be important to some extent, but TBH I'm just happy with all the work she's put in to get to this stage, for all 24 exams. I hope the results will reflect her hard work but we have a whole summer to enjoy before that!

PS. @Waspie DD has 'threatened' to clean and declutter her room too, here's hoping 😀

Sounds like music was difficult but the end of the road is in sight for you all now.

DS has bounced back. Had a few friends round the other night to watch the England football match, has played tennis and <drum roll please> has cleared out his room! Wonders will never cease. It's actually pleasant to be in there now - no faint underlying smell of gym changing room because of the tennis shoes and rugby kit stuffed under the bed.

He's cleared out his exercise books and is just keeping those he's taking for A Level, plus science and maths (just in case he changes his mind on A level choices later). All of his old uniform is either washed or waiting to be washed and will then be returned to the school for resale. His locker key however is AWOL so we won't get our deposit back on this.

I raise the dreaded words "summer job" and so he's spoken to his tennis coach about doing the Level 2 coaching course over the summer. This would mean the club could employ him for the kid's holiday camps they run, and he could offer his own beginner's coaching (usually private lessons for the under 8's) which the club are happy for their young L2 coaches to provide as it leaves the more experienced coaches for the older kids and adults.

I'm frankly stunned at the amount he can get done when motivated

Does anyone have an exam today? If so, good luck - you got this!

Friend being over has helped a lot and DC has gone to bed tired but happy (and having baked some muffins with friend). They are actually setting their alarm for really early tomorrow to go for a walk with another friend.

We will be on holiday the week before results, getting back day before so hopefully we can largely forget about it until then. By the sound of things they should be safe for getting into their first choice of sixth form; their main 'worries' are 8s not 9s in their best 2-3 subjects, which is not a problem but they seem OK with the dreaded English Language, which was the only potentially worrying one, although it's also one where it can be hard to judge how well you've done.

Dd said WJEC music 'could have gone better and could have been much worse. She said it was hard, especially the 'describe' question. She said there was very little on the set pieces which seems unfair as they did set them.

WJEC seem to be making things deliberately hard this year. I work on a school and I've heard it from lots of people about lots of subjects, GCSE and A level.

Maybe they will still award the marks for "What are the typical characteristics of music from this region" to the ones who got it wrong, providing they correctly give the characteristics of the 'wrong' region? It seems odd to choose a piece that was so difficult to distinguish, that all the kids are saying the same thing...

(Still don't know what the right answer was!)

Edexcel music was tough too, DS is really ambivalent about how he's done. But... we are done!! Feels like the main thing right now and we are off to celebrate his resilience, perseverance and all the other ways in which he has had to mature over the last month. August is a long way and so right now it's about the journey rather than the destination.

WJEC music was tough too by the sounds of it.

Uniform has come home damp and sandy!

DC said exactly the same thing - they said they couldn't place the instruments.

For OCR music, there was one 7-marker question that none of DS's class mates were sure whether it was Indian or Israeli/Palestinian music. He said his class were a 50:50 split. I've just been onto The Student Room and it's the same story there (although the split is currently leaning towards Israeli)! DS put Indian....

DC is back from their final, music listening. Unfortunately they're really not happy with how it went, which is a bit of a downer to finish on having been OK to very happy with the rest.

Though that said, they know they have top marks in performance and composition for music so honestly it's not going to matter a great deal other than that it might mean they get an 8 and not a 9. I think they are feeling down because they feel that the other two subjects where they had potential 9 expectations were only OK rather than really happy with them. They expressed it as 'this was my last chance at a 9'. I mean, honestly, you kind of what they want to say 'If that's the worst you have to worry about, lucky you', but I don't think that's helpful right now. Fortunately one of their best mates is coming over in half an hour and that should stave off wallowing and hopefully they can look forward to the rest of the summer ahead once they've got over that particular disappointment.

Such a shame this had to be the one paper they weren't happy about!

I just got a text reply saying 'good' for music (OCR). His responses are getting shorter and shorter the longer this goes on. I expect after further maths it will just be a 'kk'

DS has gone straight to the beach after music so I have no idea how it went or what state his uniform will be in! I was hoping it would be ok for Wednesday!

DS left for music earlier, muttering, in true Star Wars fan style, that he has a bad feeling about it. He said his brain is no longer absorbing information. I hope it goes better than he fears.

Whatever happens, we are going out to eat tonight to his favourite place. Sneaking in a family celebration of the end of the marathon before he celebrates with friends in a few days' time (they are waiting for further mathematicians to finish).

He had refused to contemplate work experience before the GCSEs and I have avoided insisting, but he'll have to start thinking about it soon. Will be tricky with the building work this summer.

Good luck to others still going!

Music and additional maths here this week then their year 11 prom at the end of the week.

Back to his sport competitions this weekend which we’ve both missed!!

He’s got gardening work lined up for family and friends through the holidays which is fine by me as it leaves some flexibility for enjoying the summer too.

Good luck to everyone finishing this week. Hang in there! end in sight!

Like other posters's DCs, DS felt really flat and sluggish this weekend. Luckily he now has a week's worth of work experience which I kind of imposed on him. He wasn't super enthusiastic but the alternative - moping at home on his phone - would be far worse. It's unsettling to see him so unmotivated to do things like resume gym/sports (he decided to stop during revision which I disagreed with but hey...) and spend all his time on screens...He'll be the first it isn't good for him but cant snap out of it himself...

Good luck with music and further maths!

We had such a good clearout yesterday. DD gave a box full of revision books to a Y10 friend. Decided not to save any of it for DS (4 years behind) as they’re bound to have changed the specs by the time he comes through. She’s decided against getting a shop-based job as she has several local families who like her to babysit and they seem to remunerate her rather well.

Best of luck to our musicians 🎵 this afternoon.

Music this afternoon. I can just hear DS stirring upstairs, so we'll be lucky to get an hour of revision in! He is seriously lacking any enthusiasm now, barely got an hour out of him over the weekend (he also has further maths on Weds).

Courage to everyone supporting their teen through the last few exams! Nearly there!

DS felt a bit flat and despondent yesterday. He said he'd been looking forward to all the things he'd desperately wanted to crack on with during the revision and exam periods, and now he has all the time in the world, he doesn't really know what to do with himself! This is a common feeling for me too... I'm glad he's having a week of 6th form induction next week, anyway. And this week I can take him to buy some 6th form clothing - JUST the sort of thing he wants to do, I'm sure!

Wow he is busy.
My DS just got up about 9am talking about finding a job but not sure whether to wait till after holidays told him it could take awhile to find one and start.

Just messaged DD - she is at least up and dressed. Planning to start maths revision at ten. Only doing half a day today and a full day of it tomorrow. We’re over the hill!