Y11 2025/26 The Final Stretch

I remember very little about my GCSEs in the 90s. The main things I do remember are the English coursework and, for History, a question that included a picture of a plague doctor. I also remember my form tutor invigilating in the exam hall and making all sorts of noise, which completely put me off. Even now, I’m very easily distracted.
I don’t think I would have coped well with the amount of quote memorisation expected for English today - at times it feels more like a memory recall test than anything else.

It’s frustrating hearing my daughter talk about how much work and revision she’s doing, especially in content-heavy subjects like Science, only for exams to focus on topics that were barely covered in class. (Her school didn’t even finish teaching all the content). Today’s Biology exam seems to have been a perfect example of that for her.

I did my GCSEs in 2004. Evidently blocked out the level of stress!

I did lit in 80s and took in annotated texts.
If I catch my DD looking up stuff about exams she’s done I’ll tell her to stop!

DS has done iGCSE biology today (edexcel) and reports that 'it wasn't an enjoyable' paper - biology definitely his least favourite of the three but he seems fairly relaxed.

I am feeling very old reading some of your GCSE dates I did the first ever round of GCSEs back in 1988, can remember lots of exams and more coursework components but definitely the same kind of range of subjects.

I also remember quite a lot of student stress but we had it so easy in comparison to today's students for the simple reason that the internet didn't exist!! Obviously there are many benefits to the internet but I do also think it makes student stress today a million times worse. Because of course they (and we) can obsess about everything, pre and post exam, by going online, looking at social media, winding each other up into a frenzy of anxiety over whatsapp or snapchat and so on and on it goes. Sometimes I just think we'd be better off without most of it.

I am deliberately not looking at any online content or feedback or anything, other than posting here, and trying to keep everything as low key as I can. DS is currently winding down watching gaming shite on Youtube which admittedly is still internet rubbish but at least not Reddit!

DD said what a waste of two years as next to nothing they had been taught came up and there where very strange questions.
That was triple AQA. Thankfully she did 2018 paper yesterday which was strange so not upset the grade boundaries for 2018 for a 7 where only 102 a 9 was only 132 out of 200 so can hope till we get the results !

So far … and we’re only 3 exams in… but the feedback from others has matched DD’s so I’m hoping it’s reflective with grade boundaries.

I also think dd is definitely suited for alevels containing a decent weighting of coursework and not solely relying on exams.

I haven’t looked at gsce Reddit but suspect all ye kids have. DD in foul mood after AQA higher biology but says she’s no idea if managed to scrape the 6 she needs for A level. So tough as she has revised a lot for it, albeit all last minute

https://www.reddit.com/r/GCSE/s/2aG6QPtppD

lots of 16 year olds talking about their exams!

DD thought AQA triple was ok but then talked to her friends afterwards who all said it was really hard so is now doubting herself.. It is one of her strongest subjects that she's planning on doing for A level though so hopefully she's fine. She did say quite a few things she likes didn't come up and a lot of the questions were more practical so maybe that's why people found it difficult.

She has an exam free day tomorrow but then 2 on Thursday and dreaded History on Friday.

Impressed with those who can remember which exam boards they did for GCSEs. We definitely didn't have 100% coursework as we had a paper on war poetry in which I quoted a Cure song! I think we did Lord of The Flies as coursework though, good texts in retrospect.

Dare I ask what the Reddit thing is?

In times gone by we got study leave, so only had to go in for actual exams.

My son is having full lessons around exams, and that’s a lot so I can imagine it feels much more brutal for your son. I hope the rest of the exams go well for him!

My DS also a bit meh about biology. He’s clawed his way up from being predicted a 5 last year to much higher predictions partly as a result of a decision to switch from triple award to combined science. In his case because the exams were shorter. He says there was one question he didn’t know at all, but overall happy enough but largely because he’d revised the required practical a lot as he didn’t understand it for months.

after that and RS I am mainly just pleased he hasn’t yet hit a complete neurological breakdown. I think today was the worst day with one exam scheduled to last 2 hours 37 and one 1 hour 34 plus additional rest breaks. He’s now revising for geography for tomorrow fortunately that is only 1 hr 53…. I hate the fact he needs the extra time. It just eats into everything and the exams are so bunched together. I noted the comment about times gone by with several exams a day, but that not being possible given extra time. I still feel there are several exams a day and with the extra time there is NO downtime

I can imagine! And maybe my son knows and hasn’t told me.

I don’t seem to be able to open Reddit (even though I registered a while ago) and perhaps that’s a blessing

Yeah I wish mine never knew about GCSE reddit.- but he was the one who told me about it!

I’m grateful for the day off tomorrow myself let alone Dd. She’s told me, three exams in, that she’s done. I’m stifling the obvious response of reminding her there’s still 20 odd to go.

Same board. Son said it was ok. He’s pretty academic but I think biology his weaker of the three.

what will be will be I guess!

also not going to tell him about gcse Reddit … better to move on

DD didnt call me straightaway and i was so worried. She was taking AQA triple higher. Biology is her better science but she said it was a little unusal in the wording of some questions but nothing that she didnt know, although said she said something stupid for one of them... she's too scared to hazard how well or not she might have done. Why do the results have to take this long!

Same with DD here.. wasn't easy apparently.. Edexcel triple science Biology

Mine isn’t either, and I won’t be telling him 😂

Good luck 🤞

Glad to have found this thread! It's our first time going through this, so I'm grateful for all the advice!

It's a difficult week for us with 2 double exam days, English Lit and Business yesterday, Biology today, then Geography and Computer Science tomorrow.

They study unusual texts in English Lit, so her social media feed full of people delighted with Macbeth has sent her into a panic about grade boundaries! Business OCR, she came out crying (as did several others). Biology wasn't as bad as she expected.

Geography and Computing tomorrow, which are her worst subjects, so we'll be glad to get to this point tomorrow. There's no time for effective revision as this week she's only not had an exam this morning, so 6 of the 7 slots up to Thursday lunchtime were filled with exams (then nothing Thursday afternoon or Friday!)

Bring on 15th June!

Yes. We’re aiming for a 4.

Exactly the same as dd.

Is anyone else’s DC doing igcse edexcel maths .. just lining up the knowledge ready for Thursday … as I’m sure most will be GCSE 😊… DS has worked his way up from 4 to 6 - he needs 6 for his options

DD said combined Biology was ok. I honestly wouldn’t put too much store by their perceptions of how an exam went. No point doing a post-mortem. Just on to the next!