Year 13 2024 - General support thread part 2

[Rollergirl11]

All welcome as our young people head in to their last full term before the summer exams. Between UCAS applications, receiving offers/rejections, learning to drive and taking driving tests, revising for mocks and sitting them the pace hasn’t let up for our DC.

This thread has been a lovely supportive and immensely helpful place to talk as we guide our DC’s through this challenging time!

Old thread here https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/further_education/4851165-year-13-20232024-general-support-thread?page=40&reply=132323436

One A-level complete, exams halfway through. History paper today was mixed - part 2 gave them the option of a topic they hadn't really covered, or something that gave no scope for argument 😬 Disgruntlement all round.

Very jealous of those who have finished, like a few here my son’s last exam is maths on the 20th. His history went pretty well this afternoon, but it will be a busy weekend as he has Latin prose on Monday and History and Maths on Tuesday.

Further mechanics was not too difficult according to dd. Only three exams next week, five the week after and finished!

DD now has one left on the 17th. So a whole week off. Feels a bit like an extra half term - she says she’s looking forward to not getting up too early tomorrow

Sort of odd stage for DS2 - less than two weeks of his 8 exam period left, but half of the sittings still to go. I don't think he has quite clocked that so am not pointing it out :-)

We're the same @SlenderRations. Still 6 of DS's 9 exams are left. Two this upcoming week and then four in the last week he finishes on Friday 21st with Chem 3.

He's been getting up later and later on non-exam days so this morning I'm braving the lion and will be telling him to get up at 9 so he can start revision.

Same here, one more in a week! Haven't actually seen ds for a day or two... he texted yesterday's was rough.

DD has done 4 now and 3 left to go. Has RE and History Monday and Tuesday and then final RE on the following Monday.

@MirandaWest does your DD not have final history on Tuesday?

@Rollergirl11 which board is your DD doing? Mine’s is AQA which I seem to remember from last year when DSs girlfriend was doing a different board had a different number of exams. Definitely done all the history here!

OCR definitely has a History paper on Tuesday morning, but it is only for an hour and worth 15%. I’m guessing AQA has two 2.5 hour papers rather than three papers lasting 2.5, 1.5 and 1 hour.

Yes, the ACA exams are both 2.5 hours 😊

@MirandaWest and @Jaxx DD is Edexcel. But she has 2 exams at 2hr 15 and one at 1hr 30 which totals 1 hour more than yours. How annoying!

OCR History A level is a total of 5 hours of exams + coursework (coursework =20%)

The three exams are:
(1) Paper 3 which he sat first!
2.5 hour (Thematic covering 100 years minimum)
My ds studied civil rights USA African Americans, Native Americans, Women and Trade Unions from 1865-1992. Worth 40%

(2) Paper 1 1.5 hour (British period Study- exam is both a source question and essay) Worth 25%

(3) Final exam is Paper 2 this Tuesday -just before Maths Paper 2 -is a 1 hour one. Worth 15%
The final short exam time does not seem to relate to the volume of material to learn .
It is a non British period study with 2 essay questions (in ds case 'democracy and dictatorships in Germany 1919-1963' and covers a silly amount of time and detail).

He has been fairly happy so far- although the British Period Study questions were not popular on his particular period paper, as related to a very narrow part of the specification(Anglo Saxon and Norman).

It is interesting to see how the different periods and boards cover the specification and how the exams are viewed.

Well done to everyone
We have chemistry 1 on Monday and music in the afternoon. It's been a bit of a crash course in chemistry these past few days. Then just the final 2 chemistry papers to do. Music tech all finished last week. DS described it as a rollercoaster of an exam. Firstly the files needed were not loaded into his computer. Then during the exam the computer crashed so IT had to come and fix it. Then when he went onto the college laptop to write the essay question answers it had logged off as hadn't been used for 2 hrs so head of exams had to come down and re log him on. He was quite sanguine about it all.

Thanks @LouisCatorze & @SooperOuting

I guess the fear will decrease over time. DS is becoming less worried about a reoccurrence, which is good in a way but may mean he relaxes his approach to the advice about not partying hard etc so it's a double-edged sword!

His year 12 mocks are going well, although the 3 next week are very close together, but as school are sticking with the original UCAS predicted grades it's less of an issue.

Incredible that some DCs have finished their exams, good luck for next week to everyone with papers next week.

@Penguinsa that's fantastic news about your check up results!

WJEC here; two history papers last year, two this year, plus coursework - all more or less equally weighted judging by what DD's estimating she needs. (Maybe coursework is 15% and the rest 20-25% but I could be getting confused with another subject as she's doing all essay subjects with similar formats). @RainingCatsandDogs she would have loved to have had an Anglo-Saxon and Norman module! (Or more likely Welsh princes here) But the earliest she got was Tudors. Everything else at both GCSE and A-level examining various economic and political aspects of the late 1800s-1990s(!) in UK, USA, Germany and Russia. So limiting when there is so much of the past!

Thanks Lego Glad your DS is becoming less worried and that his mocks have gone well.

Yesterday DD announced it was like she was on holiday already as she only had 2 exams left and said she was working Sat. Suggested she postponed that until after Tues pure maths and mechanics maths paper and much to my surprise she did. Today she was talking about if she misses her offer but then quickly went back to revising. She seemed to think she'ld have As in the 2 exams when she sat them so think its just a nervous moment. Though am keen she revises maths as that's the essential A level for the courses and there may be less flexibility. Her first maths she thought was an A but next one will be mechanics which I think she needs to do more on and last one is stats which think is her strongest one. I amazed how calm she has been. I have been told not to make noise though so will be glad when they are over - have moved to gardening but the carpet really needs a hoover, its very tabby at the moment though can do Tues afternoon but Floof fluffs carpets at a rapid rate. Just going to have pancakes.

Yes, modules in History are really interesting as they are so wide ranging, yet schools seem to stick with the same ones.

If ds had described his interest in History, it would have been more leaning to world history, but we now see it's the earlier periods he likes.

Three exams back to back in two days next week, then over a week to the final maths in our house.

DD having a bit of a wobble today. She has her first RE exam tomorrow. She says she had been concentrating on English Lit and History revision as they were first and also because RE is her easiest subject. But now she is feeling like she hasn’t done enough and has convinced herself that she is under prepared and will do badly tomorrow. She is also really struggling with her hay fever today so need to make sure she is dosed up on antihistamines the next few days.

DD is getting a bit tense now and making comments. I have had that she can't eat Sunday lunch if we have it at lunch time as it's sweltering today (15C here) and she will not eat it unless served at dinner time. We have had it at lunch time. Then I got your drawings of cats have not shown any development over the last 5 to 10 years (wasn't aware they were supposed to develop in 40s) and you draw cats the same way you did 10 years ago. Plus you draw our old cat the same as our new cat and just make the new cat bigger. You need to practice. Then a pause and on the other hand our two cats did look identical with one just a lot bigger. And did 3 hours gardening with DH and got told I had taken DH away for too long. She's generally fine but can tell now she's tense. Though after Tues one she has an 8 day gap to 20th and her strongest maths paper.

Sending sympathy to all those with wobbly dcs. My ds just gets very quiet when he's having a wobble but will have this to come as dd is the snappy/goady/sarcastic type in those situations!

After a massive revision session yesterday ds is having a bit of a break this afternoon and has gone out to meet a friend for a couple of hours. He's done a past paper this morning and some revision and will do another past paper when he gets back.

He's woken up with a cold this morning though and was feeling a bit sluggish. Hopefully the break will do him good.

Sympathy to your DD on the hay fever @Rollergirl11 , I have it too and it's certainly a hindrance with exams. Even now there are days where I just feel groggy even if the other symptoms are under control. I'm sure she'll be fine, she'll have soaked up enough over the years even if she hasn't revised as much as she would have liked.

Not so much wobbly here, but I think DS is finding it a bit hard to keep up the momentum - with only one exam next week it feels like the pressure is off a bit but then he has 3 the week after so he needs to keep going. That said, he's used up all our printer ink printing past questions off today so I guess he's not that relaxed. * *

@Penguinsa your drawings of cats not improving 😂😂😂😂😂 that’s made me howl 😂😂

so much empathy with that!! DD is lashing out with ridiculous insults that I am trying to let glide off me but MAN will I be glad when Tuesday is over!!!!!

I'm printing the past papers at the library as our cheapo printer can't normally cope with anything more than 4 pages. £3 every time which I should charge ds for really.

Ds has narrowed his uni accommodation choices down today. Mostly gone for single en-suite which are around £6.5K. Unfortunately he doesn't qualify for the £5K annual bursary but it's a brilliant help I'm sure to others. I've told him to look into whether there is any other financial support available as sometimes there are scholarships etc.