Thread 33 - Lovely Jubbly Jubilee Break, then back to Exams

[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. Possibly a move to Parent of Adult Children Board in future?
previous thread

I’m feeling that the lists of what will be on the papers have done more harm than good.

Yeah oblomov, that's basically what my DS said. Twitter is indeed aflame!

Sorry to read about horrible maths papers. So disheartening.

Just seen the news about rail and tube strikes. Last week June so the week DD has three exams. Driving her will be insane due to traffic, obviously her trains cancelled, and even the day they are running it will be chaos. Just stress nobody needs.

Piggy, I've just looked at Twitter, and it is as you said!

Gosh @ExtremelyDedicated your DS sounds just like my DH ! Flags and football🙄

I sent Dd a free month on the Calm App she says she is using it. Was quite positive 7.45 thus morning (she wanted to be an hour early,...) I then get a dramatic text that I didn't pick up before 9 !

She was happy with the questions ...apparently Othello extract was 'sexy'. Starts new job tomorrow too!

Ds2 also said the maths GCSE Edexcel was hard & he rarely says exams are hard. He said he finished but couldn't do some of it. He's normally pretty good at Maths. I think he wanted to get a 9 so he's pretty despondent.

Just been reading about the awful Sociology and Maths papers . I don't understand how they give out an AI and then not stick to it.?We can only hope the grade boundaries reflect this. Does anyone think If this continues there might be outrage and they'll have to scrap the exam and give out TAGs again?

Very impressed@crazycrofter , that your Dds shopping expertise extends to the mysterious realm of returns. Mine hasn’t covered that part of the syllabus at all. Quite similar to the Psychology paper tomorrow. She insists it cant be revised for cos it’s all research methods and stuff. BBC seems very far away right now. Definitely think we will be in Clearing.
Xbox and Gaming qualifications are making me smile. I spent hours screaming at my 2 sons that Xbox wasn’t going to get them a job.They both ended up in the Games industry.😂

@Shimy I can't imagine it. Grade Boundaries will just be very, very low. They have to stick to the percentages of A* etc that they've promised.

Its crap, but all the kids will be caught out so boundaries will be low.

DD reports that OCR GCSE Maths was extremely hard today too. And that she did need her compass which was a relief after all the faffing this morning.

Just curious - what are the lowest grade boundaries anyone has ever seen, those of you in the know?

@Wheresthebeach That's comforting to know. @singingstones I think one of the lowest has got to be A'level Maths 2019 but I don't exactly know what they were but they were ridiculous if that's helpful.

Found this from 2019:

Leaked A-level grade boundaries have revealed students who get 55% in their maths exam will qualify for an A.

The grade boundaries have been leaked the day before sixth formers across England, Wales and Northern Ireland are due to receive their A-level results.

Documents also show that this summer, 43 marks (14.3%) would result in an E grade - considered a pass.

Grade boundaries for Edexcel's maths A-level show that 165 out of 300 marks were needed to achieve the top grade.

Last year, 184 marks (61%) were required for the same result.

The leaked boundaries also show that 72% of marks were needed overall for an A* in the maths A-level this summer, along with just over a third of marks (34%) for a C grade.

Ds just back from Maths OCR (late start due to clash). He said the paper was very hard. Because he finished later than his mates, he doesn’t know how they found it…..

If anyone is on WIWIKAU, it's all kicking off!

Not sure ow reduced grade boundaries work on papers where students all answer different topics?

Thanks @Wheresthebeach , dd deliberately chose an appointment on a day I don’t work so I can be part of it too. Nice to know they still need us!
It seems to have been a tricky day for lots today. it seems glib to say ‘onwards and upwards’ but hopefully they can put it behind them and crack on with the next which is easier said than done I know.

Piggy, I Love a good bun fight !

I read a thread on the Secondary board where a poster said that the various exam board’s results are ‘standardised’ - for want of a better word - when the boundaries for each A level subject is decided. Dunno, if this is actually the case but that notion wouldn’t be an unreasonable suggestion given the lengthy wait for results?
For me, every time DD has said a paper was ‘hideous’, ‘nasty’ - that’s the clean version 😂- I’ve looked at the 2019 grade boundaries for her subjects.
Most of DDs subjects - based on 2019 boundaries- were about 70% for an A- although looking at some papers the lesser weighted ones ( 2 have 4 papers) were 60%
The A stars are well into the 80%
Sooo, for her , based on 2019, and what she’s sat so far Ive said:
if you’ve managed 2/3rds of the paper or 3/4 you’re still in the zone!
Hope that makes sense!

Ok 55% for an A makes me feel better. And that was 2019 and this year will have more A grades than 2019. (I know it's impossible to tell the relative difficulty of the papers, how people have done etc etc, I am just looking for crumbs of comfort )

@singingstones I think that the A boundary will go below 50% for Edexcel for this paper, whether it does overall depends on what the other papers are like. I can't really comment on WJEC.

Sorry to hear about the horrible papers 😩😩 Ds said the mark scheme for edexcel Maths GCSE was leaked and he’s marked his paper (from memory) and would have just got a 7 (based on 2019 grade boundaries). I don’t know if he needed the compass/protractor etc i bought yesterday @ExtremelyDedicated but I’m hoping so, as it was £4! He wasn’t at all stressed about the fact he’d lost his maths set yet again; he reckoned the maths teacher would lend him one but that seemed too much of a risk to me!

@Zebracat good luck for Psychology tomorrow! Let’s hope your girl knows her stuff really 🤞 Dd is in the library and forgot to take her flash cards so I’ve just had to photograph them for her.

DS can’t remember his answers for the Edexcel maths paper, crazy, but thinks he did better than the first paper and had worked out he got a 7 for that (based on 2019 boundaries).
Hope both our DSs are right!

Was it ED and Cantonet that were flagging? Us too. After sociology today, ds has psychology tomorrow, so I've just spent the last hour testing him, which I love. He's now in bed. I don't think I've ever seen him so dead beat, tired and knackered? as if he had nothing left!

Ds told me confidently earlier that he had plenty of time to learn his Jekyll and Hyde quotes for tomorrow. I checked on him at 8 and he was fast asleep 😫 Obviously the late night Star Wars caught up with him! Should I wake him?!

DS has EDEXCEL Politics tomorrow. Praying it's a good one and he finishes on time.

Good luck to everyone, @crazycrofter By now he's had a good 1hrs nap, so i'd wake him up.