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 feel desperately sad for your boy, Shimy.
Its something that could happen to any student, in any year, but especially this year, after the horrendous, unending stress of the past 2 years.
I hope he’s able to be kind to himself and draw some comfort from how his other exams have gone, as well as focusing on those still to come.

Im sure it feels like the end of the world right now, after all his hard work, though. I’m so sorry.

Oh@Shimy : poor Ds and poor you: how incredibly frustrating and sad. As others have said, I do think the toll on our gangs skills, mental health and confidence can’t be underestimating - they have coped with so much over the last few years, and the pressure they have been under has created fault lines that will crack open unexpectedly I think. I’ve seen it with both my two.
As everyone has said of course there are options but that doesn’t help right now. So just sending love to both of you.

DD has a close friend who has a place at Bristol for medicine.
She has been living in student accommodation for the past year, supported by SS; her mum took her own life a few years ago and her relationship with her dad became abusive during lockdown.

Shes missed a lot of school this year, due to depression, and sadly missed the maths exam this week because she overslept.

This cohort has been through the wringer - it’s no surprise their MH is struggling.

@Shimy I’m sorry to hear your update. If its any consolation, my Ds, also predicted an A in Edexcel politics, found yesterdays paper hard and feels he didn’t do as well as he had hoped to do. He did the devolution source question, which he thought looked easy, but once he got into it he found it really hard. He then ran out of time for the other questions. X

Oh bless him @Shimy ! 💐
He does need to be kind to himself and put it behind him.
He’s done well so far and he can pull it back over the next papers(s)
Thinking if you both.💐

PE seems to have been OK, but DS annoyed with himself for getting an acceleration question wrong - I think it is because doing A level Maths and Physics he over-thought it. Would be really annoyed if he missed an A by 1!

I went to the dentist this morning. Even though they phoned last week to rearrange today for next week.

I don't normally do things like that. I do feel all of a, not quite a dither, but I'm not all there.

Bless us all, at these strange times.

Oh damn...one of DD's friends has tested positive for Covid. They were in Bio exam together yesterday, and revising in the very small 6th Form library before the exam.

Well...this is a bit more stress to throw in the bucket. She had Covid a few months ago so I'm hoping she still has immunity. Gulp.

@Shimy I’m so sorry, that’s heartbreaking.
he must be devastated, just concentrate on looking after him and yourself to get through this. Understand why you don’t want to be in the thread right now but I hope you’ll come back sometime

@Shimy , that’s rubbish for him and for you., I know you probly don’t need advice, but I have found the power of an over the top cheesy declaration of love and positivity can’t be beaten. Ours feels she just messed up on the War of the Roses paper, her best thing ever, and may get a D. I texted back that she will always be our A*, and got back heart emojis.
I save my gloom about lack of revision etc for the thread, and tell her we will find something wonderful for her , whatever the results. I love this thread, because it’s not competitive, so obviously you know what’s best for you, but if venting here helps you persuade him that fluffing your best subject is not the end of the world, that, for me, and probably all of us, is a better result than inside gen on when accommodation opens or the best combinations of Alevels for PPE.
These young people are so precious.

@Alsoplayspiccolo that’s awful for your DD’s friend, she has had SO much to deal with on top of covid and all that has happened.

DS reports that Edexcel History (Partition of India) was “ok I think”.

DD (y11) is lying on the sofa shattered. She has 5 exams in 4 days Mon-Thur next week then only one the week after and she’s done. Next week is going to be tough.

@Shimy sorry to read your post 💐 I hope he can get back to his other exams, I'm sure there will be other routes to go down.

Ds said he was coming straight home from history exam, it finished at midday. It's almost 1.30pm and no sign. I hope he's ok.

Ds1 text me earlier. He's doing his final
exam for his Biology degree today. He has a 24 hour exam. He messaged to say he doesn't understand any of the questions. Not sure what I'm meant to say to that...I am not sure how he cannot understand any questions. He didn't reply again so I hope he's getting on with it.

@Shimy I’m so sorry. But if there is anything I’ve learnt in 4 kids-worth of public exams and uni applications it includes (a) kids are often rubbish at adjudging their performance; (b) there are lots of places in great unis for great courses for kids who do less well than they had hoped; (c)a drop in grades can lead to thinking time and new decisions which can often be better, in hindsight, than the original. Courage ma petite!

DS found the China paper really good.

My two are both back, reasonably happy I think. Dd says she's going back to the library this evening with her friends, but she needs a bit of a nap first. Apparently she went to bed at 2 and got up at 4 to do more revision!

Ds felt like he 'couldn't be bothered' in English Language, but it's ok because he's already got at least a 6 in Lit?! I'm not sure why he's so confident about the Lit exams, because he's never actually passed one previously..

I'm glad it's the weekend!

DD said PE paper (AQA) was good, went really well and was better than the 1st paper so that's a relief. She seems exhausted. Wants to rest, revise and go out all at the same time.

I'm off out out tonight - going for a meal and to see Top Guns with friends so looking forward to that - although massively worried about coughing so I may end up missing out on the film - will wait and see how I feel later. If I go in I will need to sit on the end of an aisle so I can go out if needed. I can imagine the whole audience turning around to look at me every time I cough - I may need to make myself a placard saying "it's not Covid, I tested, it's just a chesty cough" or similar :-)

@crazycrofter sounds liked your DD is feeling a bit better?

DS on WJEC Physics ‘that wasn’t great.’ Hoping he isn’t the only one feeling that way.

It's really interesting how much optionality there is in history and yet so few get any history that looks beyond the UK , Germany and the US. Partition of India sounds interesting.

DS thought the US option went well. He likes the paper so was always fairly chilled about it - he said the source was 'niche'. He has taken to making his own Quizlets to fill time...

Two exams on Monday and then history (Tudors) aaaaages away.

😮

www.aqa.org.uk/news/an-update-on-gcse-physics-higher-tier-paper-1

Glad today sounds like mostly positive experiences. Nice to go into the weekend.

DD being pretty chilled at the moment. Not a lot of revision going on, just rereading and working hard at staying calm. Can't seem to get her to do her sport at the moment, which is a shame as I think it would help. She feels training will just add stress so I'm shutting up (and muttering to DH).

@Piggywaspushed of DS's three history topics (that I have helped revise!) that one has been the most interesting. He had 20thC American Presidents a couple of weeks ago and has Evolution of Warfare from 1790-1918 still to go, so it has all been fairly modern, which suits him. I think it very much depends on the teacher's specialisms within the subject.

Despite my best efforts DS hasn't got out of bed today. He was in a happy place yesterday after politics but seems to have had a total collapse today 🙁 He hasn't eaten or even had the cuppa I took up to him this morning.

Yr12 DD spoke to her Core maths teacher today. Apparently the bits of the exam she didn't recognise were covered at GCSE. DD asked if this might have been in lockdown when there were 80 plus of them, from several classes, in each online maths lesson and she learnt absolutely nothing. The teacher thinks it might have been. Covid, the gift that keeps on giving 😭

Wow, that is ridiculous! I don't know what the right outcome is, but giving everyone 9 for that question will just squash the grade boundaries again. From their point of view I suppose it at least means that grade boundaries won't look really low, will just look like everyone did a bit better than expected. But what about the kids who wasted time trying to answer that question?