GCSE overwhelm

[Examexsham]

Soooo much information. Too much information. How is this test of memory any good for anyone?

Anyways, please help! Are they allowed to write plans/notes before they start answering (I'm thinking RS/English etc, the ones that need more writing). Are they given scrap paper or can they write on answer booklet?

DS struggles with focus and organisation and quickly gets overwhelmed trying to store it all in his head.

There's no point in me teaching him strategies to ease up on the working memory overload if he can't write plans/notes during exams.

TiA

I'm a teacher and, yes, they can write notes and plan in the answer booklet and put a line through it (or not, it won't matter). I'm also an examiner and have marked and annotated work that I thought was the response only to realise a page in that the 'real' response was now starting and I had 'marked' the plan. It doesn't matter or affect the marks awarded.

Anyways, please help! Are they allowed to write plans/notes before they start answering (I'm thinking RS/English etc, the ones that need more writing). Are they given scrap paper or can they write on answer booklet?

English examiner here - yes to planning. It has to be in the answer booklet.

We were just looking at a past paper tonight and it actually advised in the booklet to plan your answer first. That was for English language.

I smoked a joint before one of my biology papers and got a B (think that’s a 7 or 8 in modern marking).

Sorry, that doesn’t really help, does it? What I actually came here to say was please try and relax a bit. You’ll always get some parents obsessing over their kids getting top marks in everything but in the grand scheme of things GCSEs aren’t actually that important. Passes for English & Maths and hopefully some higher grades in whichever subjects they might be interested in learning at A level or degree (if they want to do one) but no one has had their life ruined by not passing GCSE Geography!

Part of the issue is that we (teachers) are assessed on our students grades. Which is also a load of bullshit. But it does put pressure on students from some teachers.

I completely agree that there's too much to remember and way too much content for some of the GCSEs. Thanks Michael Gove.

When I was training we very much emphasised a sense of awe and wonder.....the joy of geography. These days I'm lucky if I have time to show them a news article on a recent event unless it's an actual planned case study.

It's true no one had their life ruined by not passing gcse geography. Even though it dominates my whole like currently!!

But also yes to notes on the exam paper. I tell my students to do an info dump on case study questions then select the relevant info for the question.

Another English examiner here- also confirm the above- planning in the booklet and definitely make a plan. Also, emphasise that your dc should check over at the end- amazing how many easy to spot mistakes are made and not corrected!

Thanks all. It seems each subject has its own recipe for a 'good' answer so we're going to focus on strategies to 'brain dump' into a good format for each subject so when he's answering, he has as little as possible to think about.

At the moment it feels like he's been given an empty room with a huge box of IKEA bits and bobs- nuts, screws, dowels etc etc and no instructions. We need to think what he's trying to 'make', what bits he needs and how to use the bits and he'll be able to create a great new room. But for now, it's all a disorganised mess.

I understand each teacher's subject is THE most important subject. I get the pressure.

I also fume at Gove's mess (I'm a teacher, too) and the fact that our kids are tested on memory rather than their ability to understand, think critically and problem solve. They had a perfect opportunity to stop and reset the system (COVID) but didn't.

As they say on Love Island, it is what it is.

Is he in Y10? I would think the school would do a lot of exam technique work in Y11. DS's school seem to try to finish the syllabus in time for mocks and then after that it is all about refining question technique.

Y11. The school have completely overwhelmed them and he's gone 'pop'.

At the moment it feels like he's been given an empty room with a huge box of IKEA bits and bobs- nuts, screws, dowels etc etc and no instructions

I taught Maths to A level and I always used a similar analogy, if you're training as, say, a plumber you learn to use lots of tools, the hard part is remembering which tool to use for what job. It's the same in Maths, it's not uncommon, sadly, to see candidates using the wrong skills in a problem and that's actually the hardest thing to teach/learn.
The other thing I used to say is If you're finding the paper hard, remember so will all the others doing it too! The vast majority of Year 11s will be feeling this way now, you're not alone!