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

Have you seen the world university rankings today? It's made me feel better about DDs choice - I know rankings aren't everything by any means- but I was worried she'd made the wrong decision by turning down Durham.

Does anyone else just feel sorta of low level queasy through all this...

@Wheresthebeach yes!

Hello :) I was on this thread ages ago but fell off it when I was getting concerned about DS not doing enough and then felt a bit silly coming back again. But someone (can't remember who 😳) also on the Year 11 thread encouraged me back so here I am.

Having a year 13 and a year 11 is hard work at the moment 😄

DD (year 11) has basically been revising all year. Or possibly longer.

DS has not but he has been doing A Lot recently. He's doing Maths, Geography and RE. Has applied for a deferred place to do Geography (and finally clicked on the UCAS button on Tuesday.... so now has firmed Newcastle and insurance is Liverpool).

RE this morning was "good" - Geography yesterday "pretty good". Maths on Tuesday not great. And the first Geography paper also OK. 4 down and 4 to go.

The house is a tip with the detritus of revision spreading everywhere....

He also likes to talk about whatever is on his mind for Philsophy/Ethics/Geography mostly. Often as I want to go to bed!

His stats are:

@MirandaWest / DS / Geography / FIRM: Newcastle (AAB), INSURANCE: Liverpool (ABB)

And it's 2023 entry although I am still not totally convinced whether he wants to go to university or not but we shall see.

Welcome back @MirandaWest ! I've also got a year 11 and 13, but I can't keep up with two threads so I just post here!

Dd also had RS this morning and thought it went ok in the end, all the questions she was hoping for came up. She met a friend from a different school in the uni library yesterday and he's taking RS with the same board. They discovered that they've been taught a completely different structure for how to answer the long essay questions. As both their schools get good results, she decided there must not be only one way and opted for his approach on one of her answers, as she didn't have enough points for the way she'd been taught. So that worked out well!

Ds did History this morning ("really good" apparently!) and Physics this afternoon.

@MirandaWest
Welcome Back Miranda. Please don't ever feel silly, we are all so different here, and all are welcome.

My ds1 has never worked hard until recently, but maybe in a different way to your ds - He's far too cocky for my liking. I've actually enjoyed watching him in the last few weeks, work hard, possibly for the first time ever, but be a bit stressed (which I've actually enjoyed seeing, as it seems normal).

Hurrah! You made it back, MirandaWest!
It was me that encouraged you to on the year 11 thread - I’m another one with DCs in years 11 and 13, and I actually started the year 11 thread back at the beginning of year 10…but couldn’t keep up with posting on both places, so mostly post here.

DD had geography yesterday (WJEC) and was quite happy with the paper. She’s firmed Birmingham for this autumn (not for geography) but may yet decide not to go to uni this year if she doesn’t get the grades needed.

DS said history this morning was better than expected, crazy - Edexcel. Hoping he feels the same about physics this afternoon.

@mango0 gosh 12 seems a lot. Ds only has 5.

Ds had Philosophy of religion this morn. (RS) He just says "it was ok" when I ask. I'm not going to get much more for him. He has a headache this afternoon. He can't rest as he has history exam tomorrow. He keeps getting headaches. He said it's all the revision causing them. I hope it's just that.

Glad its not just me @scabby1

@icanbewhatiwant DD getting constant headaches too. I think it's revision/eye strain and a boat load of stress. She's largely relaxing now, and doing 'revision light' to avoid stressing herself out. Monday is going to be the worst with Chemistry. Debating driving her, but rush hour traffic in London a nightmare so I may get up stupidly early, check the trains and be ready to hop in the car at 7:15 (assuming a minimum of 1 hour in rush hour having looked at Google Maps).

@Wheresthebeach you have extra stress with the trains too. Ds only has to drive to school. Both dc's had headaches Tuesday. Ds3 was off school, ds2 went in to do revision, but didn't stay long. Both of them blamed it on me, said I'd given them covid. But that was 14 days after my first symptoms. I stayed in my room the next 5 days. So I was fairly sure I hadn't passed it on. Ds3 did 2 negative tests. Ds3 was fine the next day. Ds2 has his headache back again today though. I hope he will have a rest some of Saturday without revision.

Well DS is back from Biology and said it was hard. he also said that the advanced information was ignored and that there were 10 and 12 mark questions on topics not listed. Apparently there was also a question about something that they have not been taught and none of them knew anything about it!! What the hell is the point of giving that advanced information about long questions if they aren't going to stick to it? Like this isn't hard enough for them!

Initial report from DS is that politics was really really good. I haven't spoken to him yet so don't know if he finished the paper this time - fingers crossed 🤞

DD also not happy with bio (OCR). Only had a text, but a calculation they didn't know how to do and about 60% advanced info with the rest other stuff ☹️

@seeline yes, similar percentage I think. He was expecting small questions to be on other stuff but they had big mark questions on stuff not listed. He was hoping to bump up his mark on this paper to counter the harder papers following.

@mummyinbeds good news on the politics paper, hopefully he finished it!

@JustHereWithMyPopcorn he did indeed finish it, with time to spare. Maybe staying in bed until 12 helped 🤣 The questions were what he was expecting and he seems happy which is nice to see.

Hopefully the biology wasn't as bad as they initially feel. It does seem very hit and miss with the AI.

@JustHereWithMyPopcorn OCR like @Seeline ?

DS says the AQA paper overall was medium difficult & his friend who gave him a lift home thought the same. Questions were almost all on AI topics but they sense a 'dodgy' mark scheme. Some of his class thought it was a good paper.

No we're Edexcel Biology B @EwwSprouts , I see a few people on twitter saying the same thing. He says he answered all questions but doesn't think he's going to get as high as he hoped to on this paper.

@mummyinbeds oh that's good news! 😁

Twitter does not seem to like OCR biology either

DD thinks OCR was 'fine'. That's about all I'm getting...

Popcorn that sounds rubbish about Biology.

Ds just got home and said Business as really good. He "smashed it". He'd revised everything, the 3 calculations he found easy, managed his time well (which he didn't in one of last years mocks). He says his writing is really fast atm!

He's 2/3 of the way through now. Finished for the week. Next week : Monday am; Thursday am; Thursday pm (2 on final day - not helpful), but then he's finished.

Welcome back @MirandaWest ! I’m another one with a y11and. Y13 who can only code with one thread so post about both on here ….

dd (y11) sent a brief text to say his

What went wrong there?! …history and physics were both ‘ok’ which is a miracle for physics.

rubbish news on biology and advance info. It seems so, so demoralising you tell the kids where the paper will focus then not do it! Better not to blooming bother. Poor kids