5 weeks of GCSE gloominess?

[CocktailRarebit]

Its started off well, a bit of excitement for a couple of days, if only for the novelty .

But last two days of DS16 returning from school - a misery festival of questions answered wrongly, revised the wrong things, yada yada yada.

I know I'm supposed to be the selfless cheerleader or mute adult listener therapist, but isn't it all a bit wearing? Plus whatever I say seems to annoy him more .

Still 4 weeks of this to go .

Any advice?

Tapas - only advantage is that no.2 dc is unbelievably laid back, so I probably wouldn't even know she had an exam.

dc 3 on the other hand wins the crown for drama queen of the year hands down, so God help me when she gets there....

Interesting what a PP said about lack of communication. My DD rings me after the exam and says very little, almost shellshocked. Then later that evening she’ll be full of it and analysing and discussing how the paper went. She definitely needs that processing time, we are in the swing of things now and I know when to speak about it and when not to. It’s not that they don’t want to talk, it’s that they probably are unable as they’ve spent every ounce of energy.

I get no communication at all!

On the other thread - GCSE 2019 support, people post their dcs comments. I ask ds using them - Oh so I heard the last question was hard? Then I'll get some feedback. Otherwise s'alright is about it!

Anyone else’s DC doing the IGCSEs? We’re 3 weeks in now. He has the second English Lit paper tomorrow, then nothing until after half-term when he has five more spread over 2 weeks.
He’s just done Maths and Geography yesterday and Spanish and Physics today. So by lunchtime tomorrow he will have done 5 exams in 2 1/2 days!

I don't know whether to feel grateful or eye rolly that I have the opposite, from one DC in particular every single exam is oh my god it was so terrible and EVERY question is recreated in detail with associated drama (think out flung arms and lots oh my god right let me tell you ) Physics today was a particularly notable example of this

Also have (slightly less dramatic) DC doing A levels at the same time and this will be repeated in following years due to the timing of my DCs which seemed sensible at the time, can't think why now Some are more relaxed than others, I don't know who worries me more tbh!

Currently I'm using
"I'm sure it won't have been that bad honey"
"Everyone else will feel the same"
"You're not doing that subject for A level so don't stress too much"
"Soon it will be over and you have the summer off"
"I'm sure you've actually done very well"

Interspersed with "what would you like for breakfast?" and "you should get an early night" aka go to bed

I don't even drink!!!

to all that do however, and to those of us who don't

Physics was a ‘could have been better could have been worse’.......roll on half term!!!!

I am so pissed off with hearing how I had ‘easy’ GCSE’s in my day so I don’t understand hers are hard

I didn’t have GCSE pod any internet or YouTube 😡

I have one doing GCSEs and one doing A levels this year. It's hideous, stress levels are sky high and I'm absolutely spent. Next year I'll have DD2 doing GCSEs, the year after DS doing A levels and the year after DD2 doing A levels, so I won't be able to look forward to my birthday in June until 2023...

PookieDo there is far more content in todays GCSEs, even compared to when DD took hers in 2016. More schools are following the syllabus in three years now rather than two years so that they can cover the content.

There are more resources to help with revision, but there is more work in the first place.

No I do know that it is just really annoying that every time we talk about it this is her ‘comeback’ to me
I’m not disputing there is more content but she has loads of resources which I did not have - it’s not a competition and it is very frustrating that she keeps banging on about it in this way. It’s not relevant to now what I did then!

I tend to think with Maths you can either do it or not after 2 years
Not true, there are so many 'facts' to learn in Maths too and even if a student is fairly confident with the facts, exam practice is necessary to be able to apply those facts. I used to liken it to a plumber who knows what every tool in his bag is for but he also needs to know which tool to use for which job. (Yes plumbers can be she too, before the eagle eyed leap in).

Oh pookie you'll hate me as you came here to get away from this but I actually do think a lot of GCSEs (especially maths!) are way harder these days.

My DC does also keep saying this to me too though (and it does annoy me a little!) so I just say well if everyone else finds it very hard the grade boundaries will reflect it so you'll probably still do well! Technically you could get an A knowing 20% of the answers - if others know 15% on average.

I'll leave you all to imagine the shrugging, violent hair tossing and looks of contempt mixed with pity, for my lack of knowledge of Things In General as well as GCSEs.

Ugh that looks like a horrible stealth boast about my A grade DC sorry. I can balance it out by saying I've got another one who isn't even taking all the GCSEs and whose career advisor tactfully suggested a job "working with his hands"

I teach secondary AND have my twins taking GCSEs right now. I am surrounded by stressed, miserable teenagers pretty much 24/7.

I know it’s hard I have not once mentioned it was hard for me, it is that every time we talk about any exams at all DD says ‘you had the easy exams’
They were not easy for me and I failed maths TWICE and did resits
I know it’s hard, I did the blood sweat and tears thing myself, I’m not comparing how hard I had it to how hard she has it - she is!

I just feed dd, annoy her by insisting on kissing her goodnight and good morning and other than that she is totally disinterested in me or anything I have to say or do. She’s obsessed with her friends or revising (more friends, less revising) - questions about exams warrant minimal answers. I’m exhausted walking around on eggshells, should I stop her talking to friends (she’s at home but on FaceTime/phone/messaging) or let her get on with it? Should I nag her to revise or accept she knows most of what she needs to by now? Can’t wait for exams to be over

My issue is I really am pissed off with teachers telling students this. I honestly don’t think they need to be told ‘this is the hardest year yet’ and ‘its so different to a few years ago’ it’s just feeding the negative mindset

Poor DS1 has coped marvelously through 2 weeks of GCSE's and what finally stressed him today was losing a letter about his Prom🤣

Week and a bit off now😎

I think GCSE's are harder but the teaching my sons have received at their very average comp is in a different league to what I received in the '80's. My education was shit, I was completely written off before I got near an exam paper. I've done alright, and had a good career as a nurse but it's in spite of my education rather than because of it.

Pookie, I agree about the resources. Every time one of my stuff insists "well, how am I meant to know this stuff", whether it's about revision or homework I want to scream "THE INTERNET! That incredible thing which holds all the answers to the questions I've asked you and which you seem to spend so much time on without doing anything vaguely productive!"
I just had books.

But the marking criteria for today's exams is what makes them more difficult, not the content themselves. You can write an incredible answer to a question which displays an in depth understanding of the topic but if you haven't included X, y and z then it's worth very little.