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

Best of luck to all today - may the force be with them

DD is sitting the chemistry exam this morning and is pretty stressed about it, keeping my fingers crossed for her.
The train strikes are going to knock out the transport for her final two next week - current plan is to drive her in but this is an extra layer of stress that these kids don't need.

Final GCSE maths paper this morning. I’ve enjoyed helping DS with revision, but I suspect he’ll be very happy to get it done and dusted.

No exams for DD this week.

Good luck to everyone for today. 🤞🏻

Good luck for today everyone!

DD getting stressed again - basically had six days to do revision for 3 exams this Thursday and Friday. I don't think bio paper 2 has had much if a look in before now, and she's trying to combine that with business and psych final papers.

I was just heading to bed last night when she caught me to explain some maths she needed for Biology. Logarithmic graphs!! No - she hadn't done logs at GCSE! It's over 35 years since I did maths A level and I only got an E. Ah well - who needs sleep 😁

Thanks Crazy - Just got back from taking her to school, so all we can do is hope. Slightly dreading pick up...

Sorry to read your update @Zebracat . Hope she's feeling better soon. It's bloody tough.

@maggienolia DD doing Chemistry as well this morning. It's the one which has potential to go really wrong as when she's stressed the formula's walk out of her head on strike. Just hoping it's okay. DD is OCR.

@maggienolia We've got the train strikes affecting ability to get to school too.

Unified for Chem and Bio exams are affected. I've looked on Google Maps and on a 'normal' day during morning rush hour it's an hours drive. Imagine it will be worse with the strikes so difficult with a 9am start.

I think DD will need to cycle to school - which horrifies me as I have pictures of punctures, and broken chains and all manner of disasters.

Good luck to everyone today!

Good luck to all those with exams today.

DS has his two this week tomorrow.

He generally works late so will need poking tomorrow morning.

DD was (rightfully) miffed with him this morning as he left the lids of her highlighters off last night and seems to have drawn an elaborate triangular pattern which he coloured in using highlighters. Will grump at him later as today I am having the excitement of an in person work meeting (we all work remotely and have done for years)

DD has maths GCSE - she seemed almost a little sad that this is her last maths exam.

On the History, DS is sitting Edexcel same as @ExtremelyDedicated DS. Three papers (his were Russia 1917 -1991, Mao's China, and British Warfare) and NEA.

He does Edexcel Biology B (three papers and 11 core practicals) which has huge content and has a truly hideous marking scheme. The questions are more application based rather than just knowledge based. I don't think a lot of schools choose Edexcel for that reason, our school are sadists.

DS2 (Yr 9) is sitting his end of years this week (and a bit of last week), he clearly has no clue how to revise and I don't know how to teach him which is concerning as he's about to head into his GCSE years. 😧

I was chatting to DD about the Biology mark scheme yesterday (clearly I'm unable, or unwilling to concentrate on work right now!). She says the problem is that the text book will list, say 8 things that affect a biological process, a question will ask for 2 things that affect that process, however all 8 things listed in the text book don't count for the exam question. If you list more than 2, you lose marks. So you have to hope that the two you choose, are in the mark scheme.

Yes @Wheresthebeach , I have seen that on a YT tutorial thing - Biology Carol or something - it's crazy.

Dropped my two off this morning- one doing GCSE maths and one doing Chemistry - you could cut the atmosphere with a knife , the stress was palpable.
I kept silent ( difficult for me🤣😂)
I am just so looking forward to 24th.
We are doing open days in the next few weeks to decide where to apply for Medicine next year.( didn't succeed this year), so Keele on the 24th after her final exam.
Having two going through has been a nightmare. Esp as yr11 DD is still waiting for camhs.
Thank you for the various threads they are supportive esp seeing the same usernames.

DS was in a terrible mood this morning. Today is the only day he has two exams and he didn't have a clue which way round they were, was convinced he had to isolate over lunch because some people had sat the pm paper in the morning ( I assume they have to isolate but DS is sitting it at the timetabled time) and forgot to take his packed lunch. He drove to school with DD who text me to say he was being a total (swear word). He was still revising at 2am having wasted Thursday to Sunday evening doing nothing.

I have managed zero work this morning. Five minutes of the French exam left 😱

@coffeeandbiscuittime I was glad I didn't have to drive DS to school this morning 🤣

Enjoy the Keele open day. That's where DH and I went - I still feel very connected to the Keele bubble and can't wait to take DD to an open day sometime soon (not for medicine though)

Ds woke me up and asked me to drive him to school. It is only literally 5 minutes, which is why I've only done it a few times over the years. As I was driving him I suddenly noticed it was only 6.05am. He says he wanted to get in early and get some more revision done in the quiet area. I told him he was a weirdo, and that he has actually become more and more Asperger'ish in the last 6 months.

Similar morning here @mummyinbeds , year 11 ds was in a foul mood and didn’t realise Maths was before Business today, not after (my fault apparently for not telling him - despite the fact I wrote it on his calendar and he hasn’t actually asked me!). He tried to revise on his phone on the way and kept getting angry with it! He had a huge row with dd last night about who ate the last of the ice cream, so she’s fed up with him.

I had a call from his school at 9.30, which sent me into a panic when I saw the caller ID! All sorts of scenarios were running through my mind, but they just wanted to know if he wants to sit the ECDL qualification, which involves being in school the next 3 Wednesday afternoons. Seems a bit last minute, especially as I just booked for the 3 of us to see Noel Gallagher a week on Wednesday, so I said no! I’m 100% certain ds wouldn’t care about an extra qualification.

Hope all do well in exams this week.
And calming thoughts to all those stressed, including zebra and Seeline.

Good luck for today's exams. We have 2 this week and final Maths paper next week.

@icanbewhatiwant - I am sure you have checked, but here is the AQA timetable and it looks like there are only 2 exams for History filestore.aqa.org.uk/admin/t_table_pdf/AQA-TT-GCE-JUN22-CONFIRMED.PDF

Fruity tough decision on the Covid thing. I think that if she feels like she is fully back on form she should do it, but if not it may be better to miss the exam as it is a more straight forward story if she is contacting the university. Remember the grade boundaries are going to be "generous" and it is so hard to assess your own performance. I would look at the 2019 grade boundaries for Economics and see how far apart the A/A* and B/A boundaries are -- it might be comforting.

That sounds a tough day @Coffee&biscuits. I wish you the very best of luck with the Medicine reapplying. We went thru' this with dd1 ( Vet. Med.) and it was so much easier the second time around. I have also had a Ds with Camhs involvement. They were so incompetent we ended up going privately. But to be fair some Camhs are better then others. But it was & still is to a certain extent, such a difficult time for us, so major sympathies.

@Zebracat I'm sorry to hear about your dd's issues last night. On the positive side at least you know how valued and important you are to her, in spite of the tough exterior and I guess everyone's allowed a crisis of confidence occasionally.

Ds1 has his final Psychology paper this week & ds2 has one GCSE. So it's relatively quiet.

I have Covid like symptoms for the first time so I'm trying to stay away from everyone. DH is crap at ministering to the teens though & gets really irate whenever I'm ill. I don't want the DS's to get ill before their exams though.

How annoying is it when you have typed a reply and then the page crashes!

I've just been catching up with highs and lows of the last few days after not having much time online.

Sound like Biology was tricky last week, and just in general reading the comments about the mark scheme. Maybe dd was right to opt for English as a 4th after all.

Sorry to hear about DS's struggles @Shimy.

And about your girl's @Zebracat. I don't know the background but it sounds like she's had a lot to contend with, and while yes a lot of DC have 'something' some have a lot more than most! I hope she can draw strength from the fact that she's already achieved a lot more academically than others in her situation might have, I meet a lot of young with backgrounds of childhood trauma as part of my work and very, very few studied a-levels/beyond. I think you were absolutely right to not agree to her not sitting the exam today, I really hope she had a good night's sleep (and you too!) and today goes well for her.

Dd has psychology and Maths this week, then next week it's all about the Maths.

I'm starting to feel a knot in my stomach thinking about her offer. 3 As. It seemed very achievable before exams started, and then even after her comments about English Language I wasn't worried, but the Further Maths paper 2 has me concerned, and she still has mechanics, her weakest paper to go. Still, she doesn't seem worried, and she has been working hard on mechanics revision. Looking at the 2019 grade boundaries for an A it was around 200/300, so hopefully she will manage it. Maybe she'll smash it and I should have more faith but it's not that I doubt her ability, I just know it only takes one bad day/paper to have a significant impact.

Good luck to all with exams today!

Thanks for the kind thoughts. She went off quite happily this morning in new clothes, supposed to be for her holiday, but they do give a little boost. Th3 exams this afternoon. I will be disappointed if she doesn’t sit it, don5 care about the results.
I have a stinking headache and sore eyes but tested negative for covid. I have a procedure in hospital on Saturday so I really dont want that cancelled.
This thread has so helped me to retain a sense of perspective. I would have been much more worried about her if it wasn’t clear that lots are finding this really difficult. I think I’ll go to M&S and get her some of their overpriced buckets of chocolatey deliciousness etc.
I have no idea what she will do in the Summer. She is going away with friends immediately after the last exam on 24 th. Then 10 weeks till results day.

Lord I hope chem is going ok for DS. He has extra time so it is long and he was v anxious. A decent paper will set him up well for the next two - a bad paper will crush him.
dd was happy with maths gcse - she says this paper much nicer than previous 2. Onwards.

What revision snack/treats are you all supplying? I feel I am maybe letting DD down on this front. She is GF which makes things harder, but she could do with a boost!

She has no real plans for the summer. I am trying to organise a family city break for early July - possibly Amsterdam if anyone has any tips? Looks like DS1 has a break in his busy schedule to join us so could be our last family holiday

Other than that, I think she is hoping for a small BBQ in the garden at the end of July for her 18th. We also have a day at the cricket for the Hundred competition. We all went last year and had a great time.

Our revision treats include for DS Pringles, blackberries, chocolate shreddies, beer for nights off. DD likes haribos, smoothies and Lidl chocolate brioche for exam morning breakfasts. Plus strawberries and Fab lollies for both.
Trying to provide healthy home-cooked meals, but their body clocks are a bit up the spout - they often need food IMMEDIATELY at odd times, so we have had a few deliveroos also. Not long to go now and we can all get back to normal I hope.