Please read the words!

[Switch74]

I teach English in a secondary school and my subject's first GCSE exam is tomorrow morning (8:45 am on the timetable).

I updated the VLE to remind my class what's on this exam and that they're invited to revision with breakfast before tutor time, to calm their nerves and give a final recap.

I just received a reply asking what time they can leave as their parents have booked a table for tea!

*were
fecking autocorrect on an Eng Lang thread 🤣

Breakfast club is handy to ensure pupils are in in time. I’m assuming the revision session isn’t going to be hardcore, just a few choice phrases, reminders of what to look out for, pointers at what the question may be asking, reminders to look at mark allocation, turn all the pages and don’t miss questions. Reminder about the change in papers etc

Me too,

Last minute cramming saved my bacon particularly memorably in my second year Anatomy exam at medical school. It was never my strongest subject, but I'd prepared pretty well and went to bed quite confident,feeling I'd done as much as I could I could, and what would be, would be. At about 2 am I woke literally covered in sweat, having had a nightmare that a particular topic had come up on the exam and it was something I'd forgotten to revise. Curiously, the subject was something I had completely omitted and I lay there for a bit wondering if it was worth looking at it at this stage or whether the extra sleep was more important. I eventually got up, got my books out and worked til dawn before managing another hour or two's sleep prior to the exam.
I made the right call. There was a long question on exactly what I'd read up on a few hours earlier. I would not have even been able to start it otherwise and not attempting any one long question meant instant failure, however well you did in the rest of the paper. I passed very comfortably in the end though, whether it was good luck, divine intervention or whatever! Prior to this happening I was always a bit sanctimonious about the need for good preparation and never relying on last minute revision...never again!!

When I read the OP I assumed the kid was asking about leaving after the exam in order to get to wherever they have "Tea" booked and that if the kids parents had booked "tea" it was probably a bit of a treat somewhere.

I don't think it's so unreasonable that a kid who hasn't sat year 10 exams before isn't quite as clear as a teacher who does it every year that they will be leaving at the end of the school day. And their parents might well have assumed something different based on their own experience of GCSEs 30 years ago and asked the kid to check.

The double negative in fact means what I meant. My employer expects me to teach something, as opposed to nothing. Nevermind the fact that it's just expected on top of the normal workday, in addition to effectively being on call to students through this period.

Anyway, I'll see who turns up and I'll tell them to give a relevant answer to the information they read, looking for contextual clues to show clear understanding.

They have been taught well and are capable. It is also stressful and there's lots of information. However, a standard letter about start and finish times, and an invitation to the relevant subject each morning since the exams started ought to be enough not to prioritise dinner plans over what's immediately important and even mention them to a teacher.

Doubt the boy in question will be up yet since he sent me three stories in the middle of the night. Not sure when I'm supposed to mark those!

I think it's great you are providing an early morning check in on the day of an exam, and would be very impressed if I were a parent!

However, I really take issue with you how you talk about your students & by extension their families:

However, a standard letter about start and finish times, and an invitation to the relevant subject each morning since the exams started ought to be enough not to prioritise dinner plans over what's immediately important and even mention them to a teacher.

I just can't understand your snarkiness about 'prioritising dinner plans'. It's clear from your posts that this student got confused and mixed up a whole host of times.

This added to your update that he sent you work in the middle of the night indicates to me he is likely stressed rather than disinterested or prioritising his free time.

Have a bit of empathy?

You’re not bad at explaining at all. You mean revision and breakfast before 8.45am, when the exam starts. Assuming the exam lasts about 2 and a half hours, they will be finished by 11.15am - nowhere near tea time.

Why are PP confused? 😕

I agree. I've never found last minute revision to muddle. And it absolutely saves me when there are formulae or dates to remember because my memory for that sort of thing is abysmal.

I hope you communicate more clearly to pupils than you do on here, OP!

It was perfectly clear. Do the people finding it confusing have a GCSE in English?

Really? I get the teacher's frustration. The sense of entitlement in asking this sort of silly question without a moment's thought must be so wearing to have to deal with. The teacher has nothing better to do mentality. Who'd be a teacher in the UK?

I don't think his question related to the revision session. I think the conversation went something like

Student: Mrs X says we can go in early for a revision session.
Parent: OK. Can you check whether you will still finish at the same time as we've booked a table for tea.

It's really unprofessional of you to come straight to mumsnet to take the piss out of him and I hope his parents see this.

Me too!!!!

Everyone repeats this guff but it’s quite untrue. I have 2 degrees and last minute cramming always worked well for me. 🤷🏻‍♀️

I've got three and it doesn't help. So now what you gonna do? Raise me another personal anecdote?

I remember the exact same thing that I read on the bus on the way to school coming up in my exam that morning.

Sometimes you get lucky.

It doesn't sound like you like this child much. I feel sorry for him.

I know last minute cramming can help. In one of my degree subjects we could answer three, four or five questions, but obviously the fewer you answered the more in-depth the answers had to be. I disliked the subject and knew I had no hope of achieving that and would have to go for five. The morning of the exam I swotted up one subject from the wonderful Coles' Notes. My revision was so limited that the only way I could scrape together five answers was by doing one question on the Coles' Notes subjects. I left that one to the end, made my writing look really hurried, and jotted down the points I had learnt that morning as if I didn't have time to write a full essay. I then happily forgot everything I had ever known about the entire subject.

And I got a 2:1 in it.

I dont know

i also wonder how early some of these people are having tea

i do think that its fair enough that the child may be a bit confused through stress and has asked a potentially silly question

I just received a reply asking what time they can leave as their parents have booked a table for tea!

Prompted by other posters, I've re-read and see what they mean. Perhaps "what time they can leave" refers to the school day and not the session that was the subject of the mail they replied to. They would still be in the wrong, but the problem is not failing to understand the words in the incoming message, it's failing to use enough words in their reply to make clear they were changing the subject.

I don't think they do think the revision will prevent them attending dinner. I think they're asking the separate question of 'when does the exam end' and ignoring your notice.

They're just asking there because it's reminded them there's an exam and they need to get to dinner after.

Your posts are very hard to understand OP. Maybe work on your own structure.

Oh and to add to the anocdata ds1 was doing his gcse geography

he had revised but the morning of the exam in the ‘playground’ some friends of his was doing some last minute revision and ds1 joined the group, it was part of the subject he hadnt looked at in too much detail

obviously it came up in the exam 😀 weirdly ds1 was angry not pleased

(on another note a friends daughter was told that certain topics wouldn’t be in her recent exam so the children should not revise it, the topics came up. A lot of upset children i should think)

I think it may be you who is not reading for meaning, OP. There's nothing in that query that suggests that they think the revision class is after the exam. Why would they, especially given that it includes breakfast? I read it as checking when the exam ends.

I'm an English teacher and would also presume the parents are asking what time the exam finished.

😂🤣 lol at this thread 🤣

🙄🙄🙄