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

My heart goes out to those with DC struggling. Just a positive note, although it was a long time ago now but I lost my way during A levels and failed all 3. I was lucky enough to find a job with a day release study program and 6 years later gained my Chemistry degree (also met my husband). So there's always other options and if determined enough it's amazing what they we can achieve, different paths suit different people. X

Well said CB.
For me as a single parent (I'm sure it has been difficult for people in two parent families too)...

I don't think there has been a single week in four years when I have been able to rely on the fact that she is able to go to college/school as she should, what with the recrutiiment crisis - snow, teachers strike (and I'm not blaming teachers I know it is a systemic funding issue)...

but it has cost me (and DD ) as a person - too much, as you say almost as if we are self-harming.

I've just listened to the ted talk 'Womens' fury is a lifetime of wisdom'...it helped.

Things need to change. I was enraged (without wanting to start a public schools versus private schools battle here) - that public schools can do a different kind of G.C.S.E called international where 50 per cent is assessed work.

Had an awful evening yesterday - but today is brighter and DD and me are still telling each other we love each other which is progress.

Thinking of you all. Perhaps rain/thuderstorms will help...a bit

And it is so hard as someone said (as a parent) keeping things calm and steady in the house - through it.

Don't know about anyone else but i constantly feel as if Im failing and it isn't even me sitting the darn exams. Off to empty the dishwasher....etc.

Your comment kind of helps. My DD needs one A star and 2 AAs.

Hope all goes OK this week

Heat doesn't help does it, I was hoping for some rain but it doesn't seem to have happened.

And you. I've just heard that DD has got a job from the 23rd which is jolly good news and something else to focus on aside from exam woes.

@Forestfriendlygarden what do you mean by 'assessed work'? Historically iGCSE was always exam based, while GCSE was part coursework, part exams. Once the government removed much of the coursework from GCSE there's very little difference between the two.

Not sure hon, but there was a letter to the guardian about this, saying that 50 per cent of international G.C.S.Es were based on continuous assessment instead of all of it being exams written by someone who had worked in that field....didn't keep the reference but you could find it on their site ...

My DS did a mixture of GCSEs and iGCSEs, got COVID assessments in the end but it was due to be almost all exam based except for something like 10% history and maybe more like 20% English for two specific pieces of assessed work and there were strict rules about how much critical input they were given on them from teaching staff. I think. Maths,sciences, geography, languages all 100% exams.

good luck to all of those embarking on chemistry exams tomorrow.

Science IGCSEs are 100% exam. I know this because I've taught them.

Don't want to derail thread as is support thread for those battling exams, but here is the link to letter mentioned
https://www.theguardian.com/education/2023/jun/08/state-school-pupils-at-a-disadvantage-from-tougher-exams

@Forestfriendlygarden is this the article that you are talking about? https://www.theguardian.com/education/2023/jun/08/state-school-pupils-at-a-disadvantage-from-tougher-exams it seems it is only some iGCSE subjects that are 50% coursework like English and History.

Cross posted!

@Forestfriendlygarden I totally hear you. I’m a single parent too (and stayed too long in a bad marriage before that) - feel like I get it all wrong, all the time… then I remind myself that my parents never put half as much pressure on themselves to raise me and I turned out no better/worse than the rest of my generation. All you can do is your best. Congratulations to your DC on getting a job!

Thanks CB. It will certainly help household finances and probably DD's self esteem - as it is so different from studying eh.

So where's the source fir that letter? My son DID iGCSEs! I believe History may have a coursework component but not for English iGCSE. I've just looked it up and it's exam based.
It is often argued which is 'easier', and one study suggests there are more higher marks in iGCSE English (both) than GCSEs, but the opposite is true for science. So I think it's fruitless to argue this point and as my son my recollection is there was only coursework in subjects that you would also get in the GCSE equivalent (like PE).
I believe most independents do a mix anyway.
There are advantages for sure for privately educated students, but I don't believe it's because the exams are any easier.
Plus unis are looking at A levels results, and those exams are the same (and if the iGCSEs were easier, then one could argue that those students taking them were consequently at a disadvantage when taking A levels)!

Not sure I care very much at this point, though, it was just a random piece of info.

Link to letter above. Just care about wanting the whole thing to be over...

Looking at the Cambridge IGCSE info, coursework can form a proportion of the overall mark in most subjects, depending on whether taking them at foundation or higher level equivalents, or on the various subject options taken.

So English could include 25% coursework, History 30% etc.

Well to put an end to it, it's an international qualification so other countries may have their own markings. The iGCSEs taken in the private schools I know (four kids, three schools), there was no coursework other than possibly history.

I meant the A levels exams!

This is a support thread for those parents of kids doing a level exams!

So back to A levels - really hope it rains overnight and there's a drop in temperature/ humidity as sitting in a sports hall doing exams tomorrow am with limited ventilation is going to be a rubbish experience. DS has our tiny fan on his desk trying to stave off lethargy while doing last minute revision. Mind you, I seem to remember doing my A level equivalents in a heat wave back in the day...

Go look at the Cambridge IGCSE website then and look at the various subjects and the methods of assessment. Coursework definitely forms part of the assessment.

https://www.cambridgeinternational.org/programmes-and-qualifications/cambridge-upper-secondary/cambridge-igcse/qualification/

Cambridge IGCSE assessment takes place at the end of the course and can include written, oral, coursework and practical assessment.

There ^^ that puts an end to it.

Anyway … Comp Sci tomorrow afternoon and Maths on Tuesday afternoon.

Good luck. DD gone out for a walk. She has got fan on desk.

Hoping for rainstorm to clear the air...

Re igcse's, The schools can choose whether to opt for the course work module, my ds's school didn't do the English course work but they did do the history course work option, it's a written project worth 20%, he also sat 2 history exams.