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

Well Politics 1 (CCEA) went well - “pretty decent” was the summing up from DD. She admitted it was the paper she was most worried about and so is relieved it’s over and went as well as it did. 1 down, 5 to go.

The verdict from this morning's history ... I don't think it went terribly.
Now just about to start English

Dropped DD off for English, she was very nervous as so much rides on getting a good grade. It's going to be a long afternoon.

DD was as happy as she could be with history. She was pleased with the questions. That’s her done until after half term.
god luck to everyone else with the rest of the week

It's pretty hot here today and they have to wear uniform for the exams, feel a bit sorry for them. Don't think it is the case at all schools.

I haven't heard back from DS yet about History since he has English Lit. Before he left this morning he said he's fine with History as long as there was no question about women so fingers crossed..

Just waiting for DS outside school to see how Physics went. Fingers crossed all!

Okay, verdict for AQA Physics - much harder than the mock. It was meant to be on Y12 content but included a Y13 topic he hadn't revised. He's quite downhearted but not as pissed off as I thought he might be.

DS had PE today, he is hopefully doing Sports Science at Uni so it’s his favourite subject. He said the 20 mark question was amazing and the rest went really well. He has Psychology Paper 2 tomorrow so he has come home and disappeared upstairs to revise.
Feel like I’ve been waiting all day, DS had his exam this morning and my 12 year old is in the schools County Cup football final this afternoon (which has never happened before in his schools history) so also waiting to see how he got on!

I've got an 'it was alright' for AQA physics so far - will hopefully find out a bit more when he gets home. he's definitely not being effusive about it though

Mine didn't like the Physics much and it's meant to be his best subject.😥

Looking at The Student Room and lots of people are saying physics was a very hard paper (this is AQA) so hopefully the grade boundaries will reflect that @GMH1974 It's so stressful isn't it!

DS did the AQA Physics and said it was tough and a dreadful paper. Twitter and TSR seem to agree!

DD is upstairs crying and won't speak about it- English. All she's said is she wrote about the wrong thing after talking to her teacher.

Oh no @FancyFanny that sounds miserable. Hopefully it's not as bad as she thinks?

I've got a 'quite hard and extremely weird' for AQA Physics now. He says some of the questions were worded very oddly. Hopefully the grade boundaries will be floor level on this one!

Glad/sorry everyone else's DC found the Physics so difficult, that has made DS feel better. @FancyFanny so sorry about your DD.

History went ok for daughter- and she's happy she be we had to think about the Tudors ever again! One question was similar to one they had recently done in class. Only issue was the writing, nine pages for one of the questions and her hand started seizing up. But good news - she finally heard from her last Art Foundation application which was an offer. She probably will stick to the one she's accepted but this is a competitive course so glad she got an offer.
So sorry to hear about your daughter's English @FancyFanny - hopefully she hasn't done too badly. One feels so powerless! Nothing we can say will reassure them.

DS said AQA physics was ‘mmm OK, I dunno, it was really hard, finished it but messed up the timings a bit, and there were a couple of questions that I had no idea about’.

That also seems the consensus on TSR, so hoping the grade boundaries reflect that too.

I have a very distraught DD after the AQA physics. She has worked so so hard and knows all the content inside out but said it was unbelievably hard and incomparable to previous past papers. Physics is her weakest A level (big BIG regret choosing it) but she has shown such determination to get her head round it and now she's in bits thinking she has no chance of meeting her Uni offer - needs a B - was predicted an A. Confidence completely broken so dread to think how the next 2 papers will go 😭

DS similarly has massive regrets about choosing it, @Guinefort . He was doing Geography as well initially and we really didn't know which one to drop. I'd really advise anyone against taking it unless Physics is their thing.

Did anyone's child do OCR Physics? My son really needs to get an A* to meet his predicted grades and go to his first choice university.

Ds found history ok but isn’t happy at all about English lit. He has an A star for his coursework but thinks todays exam will mean he can only get a B. He only needs a B but he’ll be very upset with that since he was predicted an A star

@GMH1974 - yes my DD did (OCR Physics A). She wasn’t happy at all. Said it was much harder than all the past papers with lots of oddly worded questions where she wasn’t quite sure what they were looking for. Most of her class felt the same although there were a couple who though it wasn’t too bad.

@GinandDubonnet Thanks for letting me know.

My DS did OCR. Physics is his weakest subject but he’s done endless past papers to try and up his score. He said some of it was fine but a couple of questions which seemed differently worded / different style to any he’s come across before. He did find some consolation in the fact the strongest in his class all commented it was harder than they expected. He’s just concerned about the high grade boundaries from 2019 and hoping they end up more like 2018!