Did your kid struggle with GCSEs this year (2025)?

[Internationalvelvet]

My kid struggled. Did yours?

Sorry to hear that. My DD was okay with them but her school has done mock weeks twice a year from year 7 so she’s had 5 years practice and found the real thing far less stressful as they were more spread out. If it doesn’t work out on the 21st August, retakes in January are always an option. I hope it goes well for your child.

GCSEs are tough. I had no idea how many exams they were going to have. Lots of pressure - seemed never ending. There’s been a few news articles lives that suggest this years GCSE students are the cohort that suffered alot due to covid as the shift to secondary school wasn’t supported by the usual transitions and gaps in knowledge.

In what did your teen struggle?

Yes, and she was only doing 1!

Did you join in the y11 support thread on the Secondary board?

Every year group feels they were hit hardest by Covid .

Not at all but we put no pressure on other than to try your best. They came out of every exam happy which was good enough for us.

In my opinion the ones who struggled were the ones that want nothing but perfect 9s.

Dd didn't really struggle she was pretty chilled about the whole thing really, except for the physics paper, the day before and day of she was snappy and stressed but once she came out of school she was her happy self again.

School prepared them quite well, the had a lot of extra prep, teachers had them after school or during lunch for months before and had them doing previous papers at home that the teachers marked and critiqued. And they had mocks since year 9 so were used to sitting for exams.

It probably eased her mind that the the college she wants to go to for her A levels told her she just needs 5 5's to get in so that took a lot of the pressure off her.

What an arrogant thing to say and such a poorly disguised
stealth boast 🙄

Well we won't really know until results day but DS seemed pretty chilled about the whole thing. He found some hard but others easier than expected

Sorry for the typos! I’m tired tonight.

COVID has so much impact on every generation I guess! 🤷‍♀️ Not saying this year is impacted more but that was a suggestion from teacher survey and articles in The Times.

I hear more and more of kids aspiring to or being pleased with getting ‘’enough’ for the next step what ever that is - less aspirational due to a loss of faith in the education system, which is too focused on rote learning less about applied knowledge and the journey of learning. Maybe not your Oxbridge but there seems to be a shift to focusing on strengths and dissolution with grade boundaries so not bothering if it feels out of reach.

I think there been so many exams/mocks it reaches burn out.

If your child comes out from exams feeling they’ve done their best and can be happy with that - that’s great. Some are just relieved it’s another one over.