Is it too early for an A level support thread!

[HereWeGo2023]

Hello all, apologies if there is already a thread but I can’t find one.
May had finally rolled around and the first exam is a mere 2 weeks away. Exam stress has hit our house! It’s feels like everything is about waiting at the moment - waiting for the predicted grades, waiting for the uni offers, waiting for the exams to start, and then the long wait for the results!
This is our youngest DD but the first one in further education so would love to chat to other parents going through this

Fantastic, @L1ttledrummergirl ! What a relief to be finished.

@L1ttledrummergirl woohoo! Amazing for you. What a fantastic feeling that must be.
enjoy

Thank you. I hope the rest go smoothly for all your dc.

DD also said Classical Civilisation was ok. She is relieved that that is it for classical civilisation.

They were in the same exam hall as those doing maths and had to wait while their calculators were checked to be in ‘exam mode’.

DS also did edexecel Geography and said that question wasn’t nice but overall the paper was better then the first one.

Edexcel Politics for DD this afternoon - paper 2.
First paper was ok (seems a long time ago now!) so fingers crossed for the second!

Well the day has arrived for the exam season to get going properly and @Travelban and I are both going through the same double of Spanish and Biology. Best of luck to everyone.

Dd was pretty happy with History of Art yesterday but feeling weird that she might never write another essay on the subject ever again. Went swimming in the sea with her friend after the exam - chilly but bracing! Wash that exam right out of your hair .

I was invigilating a mix, including Classical Civilisation and Maths (calculator checking was done before they entered the exam room) - my room was all the students with extra time and every single one of them used up every single minute, which is rare.

@tribpot yes good luck for today! How was your DS this morning? Dd1 said she hadn't slept much but she is already in school... roadworks have started near us and she didn't want to be late!!!

He's alright @Travelban - we haven't left yet as school is only just up the road. Very nervous, and his stomach is acting up but he's managing. He'll be home over lunch so that takes some pressure off.

My DS had some bad news just before his maths A level yesterday and he has totally flunked his maths by the sound of it. What’s the chances of getting an ok grade (he only needs a C was predicted a high B) with just the other 2 and a few marks from this one? I think I’m just trying to be optimistic but I think he has no chance 😞

Oh no @Georgieporgie29 , is it worth talking to the exams officer? It does sound as if a C might still be possible, it depends if he's done as badly in yesterday's paper as he thinks he has. I know as well that unis may be more lenient if they can, if they know the circumstances.

Thank you @tribpot his pm did speak to him afterwards and said they were putting a special consideration in for him which may give a 1-4% uplift if approved but it sounds like he’ll need a lot more than that. He had geography in the morning and felt that went really well and he can remember parts of that but he said he can’t remember any of his maths questions just that he was doing them but then couldn’t finish the answers. He wasn’t too bothered yesterday but I think when reality sets in this morning he may be panicking. He’s not going to uni but has applied for degree apprenticeship and needs a C for that 🤞

Politics and Biology for DS1 here today, in isolation in between too as both were 9am exams. With extra time it’s a long day and Biology has become a bit of a nemesis, the tension was high this morning!

Today so the peak of exams in our house, 2xA levels and 2x GCSEs, it eases off a bit after today.

The dreaded Biology here too.

Good luck to all taking Biology today!

Biology this afternoon here.

dd in room. Hasnt come out as yet

Her three psychology papers went well but I know biology is the one she is dreading.

Same for DS - he is quite nervous about this one and has gone to school already to revise. Hopefully the questions will be more straightforward this year as last year's questions were very opaque and there was a lot of pushback from teachers.

DD has biology today too...she left for library revision looking green as it's her least favourite subject. (She told me that a friend of hers who is off to Oxford in Sept, cried after every single biology paper last year, thinking she had failed - and she got a A star, so ther may be hope even if it's dreadful!)

Verdict on Spanish - "it was okay". Some of it sounded a lot more basic than I was expecting, e.g. match synonyms together and you needed to know that esposo = marido. Overall he felt it went well.

Same here, DD said it went quite well.... only one more Spanish paper to go, next week!! now onto biology!!!

@Panicmode1 Your story about the friend who cried after every exam but still got A stars has made me feel so much better about my daughter. She cried after the first 2 and came back looking very glum after the 3rd. Let's hope she's done better than she thinks she has! Although she's firmed up with the Uni offering her the lowest grades in the end (York), because she just preferred it there to everywhere else. Still needs As and Bs though.

@astuz this is my second consecutive year with a DC sitting As. Generally, it seemed that last year, the worse they thought it was, the better the result.

Biology can have tricksy questions. AQA, in particular. But - because of this the grade boundaries are low - 2019 grade boundary for AQA bio has 57% for an A and 68% for an A star. So it's perfectly possible to leave the exam feeling it wasn't that great - and still do well.

Okay, update from Biology "it was needlessly obtuse" (I didn't even know he knew this expression!). He thinks he did well but some of the questions were worded in a very weird way.