Y11 2025-26 - Trying not to melt and pushing through the final weeks

No he has no adjustments I'm not sure any would help in exam situations it's more social situations, conversations, verbal communication he struggles with.

I really think after would be better but he has huge issues with secrecy which he will see this as if he ever finds out we knew for a while before telling him

Perhaps tell him afterwards. Its a lot to process. Does he already have adjustments?

Agh so DS's official diagnosis of autism has come through today. Do I tell him now and risk him being upset/confused/conflicted for the rest of the exams and also probably spend all his free time watching YouTube videos about it or don't tell him but then he does know it was expected this week so then he might think I'm keeping things from him.

Oh and in terms of physics it was "fine".

@wincher how is your DS and how did he cope with the exam? Hope he is on the mend.
My dd (also ill) said it was ok, she didn’t need to use the extra toilet breaks, but she has been exhausted on the sofa since with stomach cramps. I keep cursing fate for the timing of this illness - but then there are many many kids dealing with all sorts of things much worse than this. It’s just life. Sucks though! My family keep suggesting it is down to anxiety which is winding me up no end.

DD isn’t doing iGCSE, but said exactly the same thing about knowing an answer as soon as she walked out of her AQA paper 😂

DD says that AQA Triple Physics and Media Studies were ‘actually good’. One more subject ticked off too… feel like English Lit, Sociology and Media are the ones that she’s struggled with in some of the mocks so hopefully all good from here on in.

@Stowickthevast - Hamilton is a big fave here too

and yes, @Caddycat - mine would also be smashing it if there was a musical theatre exam (oh why can’t that be part of Media)

Kids Week tickets on sale next week I think - planning to try for Hadestown as a reward for surviving the exams.

DD finally reported back on AQA separate physics higher went well. Although in her words it went OK ! got in the 80s maybe 90s for marks.
Now to revise for Geography and Maths !

Edexcel iGCSE physics was a mixture - two of the 11 questions were “weird” one frustratingly she figured out as she walked out (it was concept she knows well but they worded differently 🫥) quite a lot of complaints about from the other students. The other one she thinks was probably obvious but she was “too tired to think anymore”.

Trying to get motivated for maths & geography tomorrow now

DD said OCR Physics was a disaster and she cried at one point. I felt really sorry for her, she has done so much to try and bring her grades up in the sciences, but it is what it is.
Onwards, at least she likes Maths and History (2 of her A-levels choices alongside art) fingers crossed they go well.

Weve been pretty hands off with homework and revision and son seems to be doing well so if it ain’t broke we’re not going to try to fix it. I just asked him what he uses for revision. He said loftily that reading his own notes would not be a good revision method (school gives them advice on effective methods).

He said he mainly uses past papers to check what he doesn’t know and then revises gaps. He said he uses Cognito for science Seneca some some other subjects. For English he does his own ‘blurts’ for English and History etc. And looks back at notes to see what he’s forgotten. he sometimes uses AI to make himself quizzes.

apparently Edexcel higher physics paper 1 was ‘ok’ and that’s likely as much as I’m going to get from him.

Physics AQA triple higher seems to have gone well here too, Maths tomorrow, then History, Music French and English Language rest of the week

Not as good as chemistry but better than biology...

Exactly what my daughter said 😂 mostly relief here as Physics is her least favourite science

DD said it went ok (AQA Physics higher triple). Not as good as chemistry but better than biology... Not sure what that means. She said last page was hard. Not too sure what to make of it. Her post exam happiness is mostly relief it's over apparently lol.
@JustOneMoreMargarita your comment on SIX made me laugh. If only there was a GCSE on musical theatre, DD wouldn't even need to revise!

Physics (AQA triple higher) was good here. My daughter said it was a good paper 👍

Russian reading/listening exam next this afternoon 🤞🏻

DD has Physics (Triple/higher) and Media today. She probably won’t update me until after school as she’s worried about forgetting to turn her phone off again if she turns it on in between exams.

History looming here too - she’s super-confident on Henry and his Ministers (although hoping for a question which involves Anne Boleyn as that’s her main interest). Slight worry she might include her extensive knowledge of the lyrics from SIX in her essay. Less confident on Cold War I think

My son did ok on physics he thinks. He mistakenly spent ages revising forces last night which are paper 2! But he woke up early to go through paper 1 and did fine in the end

My son did his Alevels last year. His notes were chaotic and mostly illegible and didn’t use any of them for revision. Managed to pass all 3 with okish grades enough to get into uni. Watching videos was definitely his most used resource.

Well done to your DD! I've been looking at Reddit to see what topics came up but quickly realised that between the different exam board, combined and triple, foundation and higher, there is just too many papers to work it out (Teens on Reddit are not organised in their posting lol) DD finishes in 5 min.

DD reports Physics AQA Combined was a good paper. One more paper ticked ✅.

History is like the sword of Damocles. It's a part of history I'm not familiar with so I feel less able to help and her school taught paper 2 first, it was the November mock paper, so her knowledge is less strong. She worked hard though so we will see. I can't wait for history to be over.

Physics here today.
DD doesn't use her notes either, to be fair she's been inundated with revision material from school so between that, CGP books and Save my Exam I felt there was already too much material she could look at.
I agree with those who said the half term broke the momentum DD had. The heat, MIL visiting... 😅There was no rest, she revised all hours and is now more tired than before... I noticed the silly mistakes are increasing. She did a physics past paper were she got every calculation wrong because she converted the unit wrong...

My DD also doesn't use her school books and notes from lessons at all in revision. To be fair, she is an organisational disaster so the books are in a state but I do worry about A Levels. Surely they need to have written useful notes from lessons to be able to revise? She has mostly used pearson revision guides for science but I don't know whether that kind of thing would still be suitable for A Level. It does concern me as I was a very neat, colour-coded, note taking student!

She seemed quite happy today going off to Physics. It's one of her strongest so hopefully it will go well. It's the mountain of history content needed for later in the week that she is getting overwhelmed with at the moment. She's very much looking forward to never doing another essay based subject after this week is done (🤞if she passes English!)

Morninf physics here and just sent off a very miserable looking DD. Shes lost all her drive though she is putting in the work.

Ive got to ask teachers who are invigilators - those pupils that go to sleep what do you think that is about? Do you think it’s dissociation of some sort, finding the exam just beyond their capabilities?

You must have so much self restraint from not waking them up and saying ‘just give it a go!’