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

Message from DS saying the Edexcel Politics was a nice paper, his jitters were making me too nervous to eat, thank heavens we have planned a trip to Wagamama! That's it now until Monday. Good luck to all those with sciences and maths this week

If the questions were badly worded, the exam board will be slated for it and the grade boundaries will be lower. Last year's politics questions were 'needlessly obtuse' and teachers threatened to go to AQA so Edexcel had to put out a statement saying they would use clearer wording this year. Sometimes exam boards need reminding that these students are 18, they are not at university!

DD said that biology "wasn't horrendous" but that the big questions were on a completely unexpectedly obscure subject, given the breadth of the topics that they could have covered.....so she's now expecting paper 3 to be awful!

Did anyone’s dc do OCR biology?

Dd said th3 same, obscure subjects, really hard but thinks she did okish , a bit meh

Dd did OCR Biology and said it was hard - don’t know any more yet as she’s gone for coffee with a friend.

And DD is done! Criminology paper 4 was this afternoon and that is everything for her. She is feeling fairly confident she did ok. Will find out in just over 2 months I guess! Good luck to the rest of your DC for the rest of their exams.

Dd now home and in tears about OCR Biology (she has always been good at Biology) and says there’s no chance of going to Durham or anywhere now. I’m so sad for her.

Did everyone else find it hard, @KittyMcKitty ? What's on Twitter so far about OCR suggests that they did. (Example tweet here, extra marks for topicality: https://twitter.com/abbielouise164/status/1666476020290011138?s=20 )

AQA Biology was 'ok'. Lots of obscure topics strangely worded.
Next up Chemistry 1 on Monday.

AQA biology 'ok, lots of application, some odd stuff, finished paper'. DD more positive than I was. She thinks biology is her weakest. I'm just glad no tears. Went out for drinks, snacks and sit in the sun. Revision again in an hour or so. History on Friday. Hope all are doing ok.

Well after a disastrous first paper in Film, DS had a far better second paper. I’m hoping with the NEA being a B this will help lift his grade. We have final English tomorrow but really feel he is at a stage that no more revision can help - he knows the books/quotes just hope that the question makes more sense to him than the Shakespeare. He has worked so hard but is really challenged by the timings even with 50% extra time.

To be frank, I’m not entirely sure what the purpose of exams are as they don’t seem to give much indication of future success. They also don’t actually determine intelligence. It seems to be testing how fast people can write or in my son’s case - dictate to a scribe despite having a stutter and language impairment. For what job are you truly measured on whether you get a document drafted in one hour as opposed to two? Surely better to take more time and care?

I know that my son knows his subjects amazingly well, could talk accurately on the subjects as well as the next person but all the exams seem to do is amplify the restrictions of his disabilities eg language impairment, speech issues ie stutter, anxiety, motor, processing speed etc. it’s a pretty rotten experience for the properly severely disabled.

There ought to be a better way of assessing people with such complex needs especially when he is so bright about his subjects. My son can’t even write a simple essay plan because he can’t actually use his hands to write. Motor is on the 0.5 percentile. Everything is so cumbersome for him. It’s very sad. He has to dictate everything but with a language disorder. Language is on 1 percentile and he stutters. Yet people on say 35 or 50 percentiles get almost as much time so the whole system is quite ridiculous.

But I’m extremely proud of him for taking these A Levels because for him it’s the equivalent of walking the Sahara or climbing Everest.

Maybe one day the exam board will device a better route because his love of and knowledge in some subjects is quite remarkable.

tribpot, I invigilated Spanish this morning, they all finished well before the 2.5 hours were up - fits with what your DS thought of it.

@tribpot thank you - yes she had seen the PS meme it seems to be in many comments about the exam. It seems most people at her school found it horrid and these are people (like her) who have always done well in Biology.

looking on TikTok has cheered her up a bit as where people were discussing answers she seems to have (in many cases) Put the popular answer down. She said it just wasn’t like any other OCR biology paper (and she’s done them all). Apparently some big topics weren’t covered in this paper so hopefully that means they’ll be in paper 3.

We've had a big hug and talked about how it’s fine to feel sad but she needs tomorrow to park it and move forward.

It’s Chemistry (Edexcel) paper 1 on Monday which is the subject she has struggled with so keeping everything crossed!

@ZittiEBuoni Oh that's really good - I was worried because ds left 5 mins before the end (he was the only candidate and busting for the loo, so no need to prolong the agony!).

My Dd was happy with Edexcel Politics Politics Paper 2 today.
She’s got English Lit tomorrow (OCR) and History (AQA) on Friday.

@Oaktree1233 didn't want to read and not reply. Just wishing your Ds and you all the best. I hope that the love of their subject will always shine through and take them onwards.
DD a bit down as she made a 'silly mistake'. A good night's sleep is what we need. All the best for those having exams tomorrow.

DD already up ready for English Lit this morning. Hoping for a good paper today for Beloved and Dorian Gray.

Ds has apparently been up since 4.30!!

Dd came into my room at 4am in tears because she couldn't sleep. Came into bed with me for the first time in a long time - not sure if she managed to doze a bit but I tried my best to reassure her that a sleepless night doesn't equal bad exam performance. I know this from experience!

English Lit paper 2 this morning, which is the one she is least confident about. Hope the questions are kind to all our dcs, best of luck to everyone taking exams today.

AQA Biology was 'fine' for DS and apparently he seemed happy enough after Maths. I have had to leave DH in charge as my mum was hospitalised on Monday.

DD also doing English Lit this morning. A Thousand Splendid Suns and Streetcar (I think?). Only an hour and 15 mins

She has gradually been putting her revision cards on a ‘done’ pile and it is currently about 12 inches high of cards. I think it is a nice visual aid for her to know she is chipping away at things. Final History paper tomorrow.

Sorry to hear about your mum @WhatHaveIFound hope she gets well soon.

@WhatHaveIFound sorry to hear about your mum, I hope she is on the mend x

A bit late to the thread but I have been holding my breath ( metaphorically) for the last 3 weeks. DS does not suffer with exam stress, which can be just as problematic since he doesn’t feel the pressure to revise. He is a bright child and pre Covid was predicted 8-9 across his 10 GCSEs and had a massive choice of subjects for A level. But like many was distraught by their cancellation and lost the plot for a while.
School were great and by Christmas 2022 he was back on track and is predicted 3 Bs but we will have to see.
Life hasn’t been kind and just as he started his A level course I was diagnosed with cancer, six months later my DH ( his DF) had a stroke.

So I have been tiptoeing along with him, helping when asked and attempting to cheer him on, not easy with a teenager, and we have made it through 7 exams with only 2 left ( one next week and one the week after).

He has answered every question and finished every exam. He is cautiously confident. Which is all we hoped for.
His last two exams are in the areas he is really interested in so hopefully he will revise.

Part of me is really sad though. He had massive potential, school were confident of his ability and he was a high flyer. He developed major mental health issues mid Covid due to social isolation. Academia has always been easy and still is but his total lack of motivation after lockdowns was hard to deal with. Even now he has a terrific fear that after taking his A levels they are somehow going to cancel everything again. When he spoke to me about it I was really shocked just how much the cancellation of their GCSEs affected them all.
I suppose it’s like working really hard to complete a project at work to have it cancelled and then not being paid.
That fear of having the rug pulled from under them is going to stay with them for a long time.