Thread 29 - Covid Cohort - Whirlwinds and Waiting

[OrangeCinnamonCroissant]

This is a thread for supporting all young people post GCSEs 2020, regardless of their educational setting. It is respectfully requested that all are supportive and helpful to each other. If you want to start a debate, e.g state vs private, please don't within this thread. Please also be sensitive when responding to threads about grades.

Some of us have been here since first thread back in yr10, some will be new. Everyone has been friendly and helpful in the past. Everyone is welcome. It is hoped this will continue.

Our DS/DD may go down various paths (such as employment, apprenticeships, higher ed) We have decided for anyone interested they will most likely find us within the Further Ed board.

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And is that revision for the May/ June exams?

Yes. Once homework stops she’ll have a different plan. Be interesting to see what others are doing. School gives no guidance. At parent evening they said ‘don’t burn out’

@Piggywaspushed I think dd started revising maybe a week before her mocks. She is diligent in comparison to ds! But she also procrastinates. She definitely didn't start revising early enough. For the two exams she has this week (today and tomorrow) she started revising on Sunday! She generally manages to get A/B grades with that much revision, so hopefully she'll do a bit more for the real things and get her predicted grades. But if not, it should be fine as her offers are ABB.

Happy 18th Popcorn's DS 🥳

Don't think we get study leave and DD still has quite a bit of content still to cover especially Sociology as her teacher has been off sick for nearly a term. She is doing a zoom class for them at the moment and today told them they all did so badly in their mocks last week and no one got higher than a D and paper 3 was a disaster - no kidding miss, you've not taught them that topic. @Piggywaspushed is it true they need to give more than 2 pieces of evidence per paragraph or essay as one lad read in a mark scheme it's only two.

Dreading parents evening end of the month.

Re revision, DD will be doing it mixed in with finishing content I guess. She needs to start her History coursework properly and record her dance pieces plus teach and record some to younger students - all before Easter... eek!

DD starts study leave from May 11th.

I think she will be commence revising during Easter break, up to her exam start mid May. She returns back to school on April 21st. I’d say she’s diligent, but has stopped studying in her bedroom as the bed/phone is too tempting and will make our lives hell as we tiptoe around her in the kitchen

I don't know what markscheme the boy means and which paper but the two bits of evidence might be about referring to two other studies in the research methods 20 mark question? That's two in total.

There is no rule about x amount per paragraph!

Keep these exmaples coming - it's interesting. My students are not naturally able so not people who get As without much effort.

I thought they would be more anxious , having not done GCSEs and worrying about TAGs,

At home, I only have my two extremes. Zero revision DS1 and super diligent, has never stopped revising DS2! He has been revising for A levels, in the broadest sense of the word, since September. September 2020...

I suspect dd will plan to start revising in the Easter holidays but will actually commence in earnest when they’re back at school.

@Piggywaspushed For mocks just before half-term DS revised in his free periods at school and in the couple of weeks before did a little some evenings. No sport outside school was curtailed (does a lot). I hope he will start in the Easter holidays but he has no idea when study leave starts...

I definitely wouldn't be banking on study leave. The exams start earlier than normal this year.

My year 13s largely said they had done between one hour and a few weeks revision. No one had done more than this - most had done no revision until the exam week . I was surprised... am obviously terribly naive!!

DS revised over half term for his Psychology Mock. 3 sessions a day for 2 hours each. By Thursday though he was getting fed up. The Mock didn't include research methods, so only 50% of the course. His ADHD doesn't help.
I remember dd1 doing hours & hours every day to get 2× A's & a B 4 years ago.
We looked recently at her Vet marks & the last set of exams she was just in the top 10% of her year. So she must be reasonably bright. But A's/A*'s seem to be so much more common these days.

@Piggywaspushed - just asked Dd who said she will start revising fully 2 weeks after her Mocks so around 28th March, (she has been revising for mocks but not as much as she plans to for A levels). She has a planner on her desk all filled in.

Re Course content covered - she said all subjects have at least 1 topic to cover yet.

Re Study leave - seems I misunderstood, DD doesn't know what her school is doing but meant she had heard the government has said no one should get study leave...

She is correct - the government announces this every year...

DD starts study leave on 13th May- first exams 23rd, 24th and 25th May, one per subject.
For mocks ( last week) she did bits in frees and then spent most of half term week revising
She reckons she is going to start doing bits now for the exams proper as she doesn’t want her Easter holiday break to be all revision

@Piggywaspushed - DD said she's read that no more than 4 hours per day should be done as it's counter productive. So that will be her limit when she starts revising properly. She's always an early starter, she'd find it stressful otherwise.

DS says he is doing about 5 hours revision per paper for the mocks and hadn't thought about when he will start revising for the A levels. He has 2 exams before half term and 6 after half term, so in his mind he might be starting mid May, but I hope he will do some at Easter.

Oh yes, 4 hours per day is a lot whilst they are also at school but Iguess that includes free periods. I'd say at the weekend DS probably would do about 3 - 4. On a Tuesday when he has no lessons he does about 5 hours but then some of that is set work. He stops at 3.30 so I think he likes having no work in the evenings on a Tuesday.

I will probably get one exam paper/focussed work from DS a day and then an hour watching videos together every day on topics, plus the tutor time.

I forgot to say that DD has already said she will not be working as hard as she did for her Yr12 mocks as she felt it took it all summer to recover! She did get covid in early Aug which didn't help.

So she wants to start earlier but not work for as long each day. She is a late worker, often starts homework at 10.00pm..

Interesting to hear about different revision patterns! DS had a revision talk this week, and they were suggesting 3 hours would be a 'Gold' night, 1.5 hours would be a Bronze night....

Both mine have started on 'proper' revision again this week - A level child is aiming for about 2 hours/day, GCSE child between 1.5 -2 hours - they've both done RAGs and the plan is to prioritising topics every Sunday ... lets see how long it lasts....

Gosh, I feel a bit like a slave driver now, as I’m making DS revise for 2 hours a night for his GCSEs (started last week), on top of his cello and piano practice.
DD is doing at least that for A levels too… and I am panicking, thinking it’s all too late

I think different subjects might have different demands as well.

My ds1 doesn't seem to do much work. He revised for a couple of hours each day during Feb 1/2 term for his mocks. Then went running, out with girlfriend, etc. He had already done 10 actual exam practice papers, off his own back, and handed them in. He got his Feb mock sociology paper back today. An A, just off an A*.

I hate how easy he finds it. I gave everything I had and still only got a B in my Russian and German History A'level.

I don't think Piggy's class are typical though. By all accounts most of ds's friends and his girlfriend are working hard, putting in the work on a week-2-week basis, and probably do a good couple of weeks of hard studying for the 2 weeks between mocks.

Ds's school made it very clear at yr 13 open evening night, that they didn't want students revising silly number of hours. 3 hours a night, after a day of school? Stuff that. I did that when I was doing my accountancy papers. Fucking miserable. I ended up failing two!

DD works incredibly hard, too hard in fact without giving herself a break. I'm not sure it's all that productive but she feels she needs to keep working.