English Lit GCSE paper today - Macbeth question

[Katrinawaves]

Any teachers who have seen today’s English Lit Ed Excel GCSE paper please or anyone who’s kids sat it?

My son came home to beat because he felt he’d answered the question on Macbeth well but as he was discussing it we thought he’d maybe misunderstood the question 😵‍💫

He thinks the question was about how Macbeth displayed guilt but we wondered whether the question was actually about the theme of guilt in Macbeth generally and so if he only wrote about Macbeth himself (as he did) he probably hasn’t done very well! It’s only paper 1 so I know he has a chance to do well enough in the other paper to achieve a pass but if anyone actually knows what the question was that would be helpful!

I explained at 22.07

well you are bound by confidentiality

AQA: I asked the kids what came up as I had them after the exam. Macbeth was the Macbeth hath murdered sleep extract and ACC was Ghost of Xmas present or Jolly Green Giant as the kids call him. OP I wouldn't worry. Move him on to revise Animal Farm/inspector and his conflict poems. If he focused mainly on Macbeth, he may still have written insightful info (guilt before the murder, hallucinations, guilt after, insomnia. Regicide: divine right of Kings, breaking GCOB etc.). Comparison with Lady McB would have been good (Neptune/All the perfumes) and how her guilt eventually consumes her (A little water/out damned spot!). But...as others have said, it is done now.
As long as he did his best, you cannot ask for more than that.
Xmas theme perhaps harder, but if he mentioned charity/forgiveness/Christianity, social reform, and Scrooge going from scolding and spurning carol singers and charity collectors to providing the Cratchetts with the biggest turkey/rejoicing in the Xmas spirit etc then he'll have done enough.
For any who love a post mortem...
"How does Shakespeare present the theme of guilt in Macbeth? | MyTutor"
https://www.mytutor.co.uk/answers/52122/GCSE/English-Literature/How-does-Shakespeare-present-the-theme-of-guilt-in-Macbeth/

"The theme of Christmas in A Christmas Carol - Themes - AQA - GCSE English Literature Revision - AQA - BBC Bitesize" https://www.bbc.co.uk/bitesize/guides/zg8qfrd/revision/2

But for the love of God, don't get son to look at what he could have said. Will not help him.
Get him to do short plans on Kamikaze Vs exposure, remains Vs war photographer etc
Prelude hasn't been up for ages and Tissue never seems to come up, but seeing as Supernatural wasn't on for paper 1 and redemption only a bit for Scrooge, I wouldn't stress it.
They'll all do what they can do, on the day xxx
Masses of luck to all 🍀 God bless us, everyone! 😉🥰

Edit: Edexcel, no idea. DD said she heard it was how does Shakespeare present murder...

I am not a teacher, but year 11s were straight in my room after the exam to tell me how they got on and they were telling me all about the questions. They were delighted with the questions.

😂😂😂

Actually it’s you who should be ashamed. And all the other vile mothers on this thread who have attacked teachers for breaking the rules and me for things I haven’t done and have said I haven’t done.

I shouldn’t have to explain myself to anyone on this thread but once again for those of you so keen to judge

1. have not interrogated my son about anything. He phoned me and left a voicemail message (as I was in a meeting without my phone) to tell me how he thought he’d done. I didn’t ask him to do that. He wanted to.
2. i haven’t made any comment to him about how he answered the question or how he has done overall other than to say I’m glad things went well today
3. Ive told him repeatedly that he has worked hard and whatever grade he gets will be the right one which reflects that and he can only do the best he can do
4. hes one of the Covid generation of kids so my poor mallgned husband (who isn’t putting pressure on him either) still thinks he is on track to get the grades which equate to how he did in his SATs. For numerous reasons he isn’t likely to - they will be lower. My husband does worry about his kids future (I know he should be ashamed of himself for that 🙄 apparently) so it will help my husband to reinforce before the results come out, that those grades are not realistic and that my son will have done very well if he gets grades which are significantly lower
5. if I really was the monster some of your competitive harridans think I am, I’d have asked parents I know IRL the question. I didn’t and chose an anonymous forum exactly because I didn’t want any pressure on my son.

Honestly, some of you need to take a long hard look at yourself and ask yourselves why you would leap to conclusions of the kind you have and make such harsh judgements of another mother. The cynic in me says it’s because you are projecting your own inner feelings about your own children and partners on me.

Whatever the reason I am comfortable that my son feels supported by me, that he knows I will have his back come what may, and that I am interested enough in his life to want to understand what he’s telling me without having to point out to him where he may have gone a bit off track.

No other schools do Jekyll and Hyde?

Yes lack of professionalism

Do grow up , I know it’s hard to accept

This! The dissection of exam questions by parents is madness. Support and encouragement, and reassurance if they feel they’ve done badly is all that’s needed. I’ve always taught mine to try to avoid any discussions post exam, because there’s nothing that can be done, and discussing it isn’t going to help the situation. No wonder there are so many teenage mental health and anxiety issues if parents are adding to what is already a fairly stressful time. I’d be pretty annoyed if my children ended up unnecessarily worried because other parents were getting this involved and encouraging discussion between children after an exam.

Yes we had J&H, reread it myself and felt quite sorry for Jekyll by the end 😉

A wise teacher once told me not to over-analyse the exam afterwards because it would help nobody but would cause stress and worry when absolutely nothing can be done about it now.
What’s done is done. Just remind him to carefully read the questions on his next paper.

My daughter thought she did the same 2 yrs ago, after answering differently to her friends. She agonised about it all night, looking at how things are marked in exams etc, did herself no favours. She passed her alevels with great grades. Dont get caught up on one exam that he definitely got marks in x

For the love of God, read my posts. Literally none of this happened. Stop making stuff up to try and look superior to others. It’s not a good look. And does nothing to promote the good mental health you are wanging on about whilst deliberately trying to bring a stranger on the internet down

My son seemed to think that it went well. He and his peers were apparently quite pleased which questions came up.
Which i have to be relieved that hes not stressed (he has worked hard to revise) however he thought his mocks went pretty well and he got 2 grades lower than his expected grade....so....who knows

If you were found to be telling staff and repeating what you saw in that the role of scribe most schools would issue a warning - that is a fact .

Grateful for your post OP. My son came out in a terrible mood but wouldn’t talk about it …. I am somewhat comforted to see that others also found it difficult. Hope your boy doesn’t feel to bad when he realises that it was viewed as a tough paper.

@Katrinawaves I hope you and your son are ok and I wish him well with the rest of his exams…and to all of you with children taking GCSES

Who said I’d told staff…youre making stuff up now!

I wasn’t actually referring to your comments, which is why I didn’t quote you. I’m referring to the general tone of the thread (and other threads), and many posters who are dissecting exam questions and adding to stress levels of these poor teens. Teens aren’t oblivious to parents’ anxiety. You do seem rather sensitive though.

DD also found A Christmas Carol question very tricky! Good luck to them all, it’s a lot of content and a lot of pressure for them.

You are quoting what was in an exam paper that is still embargoed in a public forum!!!!

My son also said Macbeth was easy, but ACC was hard. It’s done now, on to the next!

My kid did (of course, could be the same school!). She was pleased with the questions. She was dreading it being Banquo and Utterson.

To be honest, I don't think parenting advice is a bad thing if your son came home happy with his performance and your plan is to undermine his confidence going into his other exams. Remind him to read the question by all means, but you have no idea if he did well or not and planting doubt in his mind will only cause anxiety and sleep loss.

When I picked up a bunch of boys from their senior school assessments a few weeks ago the last thing I did when I dropped them off was to make each of them promise me that that they would not think or talk about their exams until after results were out. I suggest you do something similar.

Managing your DS's father's expectations should not be a priority.