Last term of Year 13. Gulp.

[OhYouBadBadKitten]

Can you believe it?

last thread

All welcome no matter which path your dc have chosen.

DD was happy with today's biology.

Is she ocr?

AQA

Sorry I menat fantasys dd

I am glad your dd liked her biology paper lonicera

DS1 had learned lots of statistics for this afternoon's US Politics paper. The right topics came up, but he forgot to include most of the stats he had learned.

Tomorrow he will be comparing dystopian novels. Perhaps he could include some statistics from Trump's presidency to illustrate some of the dystopian themes.

I would assume people doing the same exams but on different days will be doing different boards. Dd is doing AQA maths, and her exams are on different days to Edexcel, which my school do and are next week (I think, I'm not teaching y13 this year). She doesn't have 4 chemistry, just 3. The C3 and C4 are maths modules, with the C standing for core. She has done one chemistry exam last week, one this week and one next week. I'm afraid I don't know which exam board she is doing for physics and chemistry, I'll ask her when she gets home.

DS said Biology 2 was "alright". That could mean anything.

Chemistry 2 tomorrow. His sciences are AQA but Geography is Edexcel.

Apparently I got the order of her exams wrong for this week. It's Tuesday chemistry, Wednesday C3, Thursday physics, Friday C4. I apologise if I panicked anyone by giving the wrong days. If anyone is likely to be wrong it's me. Dd knows which exams she's got when, so I don't have to other than in a general supportive role (which is great cos I'd have had her revising the wrong subjects)

DD didn't like her biology exam today (ocr A). Apparently more like a geography one ie lots of ecology and not enough proper biology. Not a disaster though she hopes!

Any one do Business today. Dc thought was okay, and his arms ached from writing so much. Hopefully it was quality as well as quantity.

Well DD said the dreaded drama paper wasn't as bad as she thought it was going to be, but that she only had 5 minutes to check over her 4 essays - good she had enough to write about, but hoping she got the right end of the stick re meaning/interpretation . She said Biology was 'ok' but a bit heavy on stats questions & one question threw her completely. She's now lying on her bed as really tired from the adrenaline kick so she's having a night off revision. Next one is Thursday & then next Monday.

Best of luck for those sitting exams tomorrow!

Ahhh very glad to hear the dreaded drama was better than expected Lashings!

Sorry to hear Biology was tough, but it seems it was difficult for everybody so hopefully will be reflected in grade boundaries.

DD said that there was one question a lot of people couldn't answer because they aren't doing chemistry. As she is she managed to answer it quite easily because she is (and is practising past papers as I write this)

A cheater was dobbed in apparently. Caught with a phone.

Well done all for today. DD has English Lit tomorrow but seems quite calm about it. History on Wednesday will be the one that stresses her out I think.

Glad she liked the biology loni
Yes OCR Gretol
Dd has revised history all day apparently
English she said it’s her best area tomorrow
ursula
As in the student was actually using the phone to cheat or it went off and they were caught?

oh no!
dd said someone in her school was escorted to the toilet and "used the break to look at her phone". I don't know whether this is entirely true. I think there is a certain amount of hysteria at dd's school surrounding cheating. In the sense that they are all so frightened of being caught cheating yet almost jealous, and it becomes a sensational topic. I think the formulas (and needing to know them off by heart) have made things worse.

Everyone was aware the student had been cheating since exams started. A mother phoned in to complain.

This was actually last week, and gsce not A level.

oh wow, that's bad Ursula.

omg!!
I think the mother was right though, the damage it does with all the pupils talking about it, but there being no action taken to prove or disprove, and possibly other people thinking that it is not fair and taking their own decisions to cheat a tiny amount. still I wouldn't want to be the one responsible for shopping someone.

Student view seems to be if it is in their exam and could swing the boundaries then they will get involved.

Well a tough day here.

Ds had 2 maths papers. The second non-calculator one was unlike anything anyone had seen before. Ds described it as “wordy”!

His friends doing further maths struggled with the 2nd maths paper.

Once that was over I had to tell him his friend passed away at the weekend.
Not easy - there were tears.

Funeral is on Friday but in another country so we won’t be able to make it.

Sometimes it feels like time stands still with these exams and everything revolves around them for a few weeks but then reminders come along that real life is continuing Unrelentlessly all around us.

He has a 2 day break now before geography (his uni subject) on Thursday.

I hope no one was too disappointed by today’s exams and that revision went well for everyone else.

They have been told often enough what the consequences are for taking phones/smart watches into the exam hall so my sympathies are non-existent. There will be students working really hard sitting alongside someone who thinks they can have a short cut to success. I know their brains haven't finished developing yet and they are still capable of making questionable decisions but this one is pretty clear cut. Shall I risk all the exams in this session and my university place by cheating?