Year 13 -2025/26 - Support, discussion and looking after each other (new thread from y12)

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Hello
I have started a new thread following on from this one
https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/further_education/5340007-year-12-202425-support-discussion-and-looking-after-each-other-thread-2?utm_campaign=thread&utm_medium=app_share

Similar vibes here @JessyCarr! It was similar with GCSEs where I remember doing really late nights and last minute revision. My DS takes himself off to bed at 9:30 the night before an exam! His approach is probably better.

I think what is different to when I did exams is that they have time at school doing past papers, know the marking scheme etc. where as I'm sure I was getting taught content right up until the exam and I don't think I did any past papers!

I'm debating what to do about the schools direction to do six hours per day during study leave (two hours per subject) when mines doing 4 subjects. I cannot ask him to do 8 hours a day Mon - Fri ...can I?

How about doing the six hours split between the four? 1.5 hours per subject per day. That’s more or less what I did for 4 subjects, though each 1.5 hour session was actually 2 x 40 mins with a 10-min break in between.

Yes, I think this is what he will end up trying to do. Maybe 2 hrs of physics and FM per day and one each for maths and comp sci to start with, as physics and FM are first.

Roll on end of June!

Oh wow, @wonderstuff, your daughter sounds like my son. Micro is definitely his weakest, although he’s had a better teacher this year .

Thank you @Fabfabfab😊 good news for your DSs NEA.

i certainly did more revision than DS is doing @JessyCarr! DS is doing edexel I think.

I’ve got DS some Kalms and Rescue Remedy as he has difficulty sleeping and relaxing ahead of the exams. DH has offered to drive him to school.

DD has all her normal lessons right up to mid June and no leavers events which feels a bit sad. She has no exams until after half term but is finding some motivation and doing about three hours a day on top of the lessons. Have you seen all the leavers tik toks with the Derry Girls sound tracks? They are making me cry.

DS has woken in a better mood today, I might try and persuade him to do two papers today.. 😮 maybe Chem and Physics, that’ll make him happy. 😄

He is lucky that they finished their content weeks ago and have been just revising at school so I’m hoping that’s been a boon. I can’t imagine him doing six hours a day.

Hope you had a good birthday @Ventress 🍾🥂

Hope you had a lovely birthday @Ventress, belated best wishes! 🎂🎉 DS is very certain of his uni choices, which is both weird and a relief after weeks of agonising!

He is very focused on revision and has been working hard but was saying that he can’t remember anything. He has started revising online with a mate in the last few days which apparently is helping.

Many thanks for the pencil case reminder, @MamOfTwo! It took DS a while to find his. We’ve now also done a full stationary check (he also needed a ruler).

Can’t believe the first exam is tomorrow! Best of luck to all fellow economists! His next one is geography on Tuesday (both Edexcel, I think).

He is another one with a prom in late June, which seems like a while off but I am sure will come round quickly!

Happy belated birthday @Ventress
DS is quite chilled today (it won't last I'm sure)
A month today and he'll be done.
Geography 1 on Tuesday (physical) History next Tuesday (Russia) Geography 2 (human) on Thursday. Then History 2 (Germany) and History 3 (War of the Roses) after half term.
Leavers assembly on Friday, prom on 3 July, Greece with his friends on 5 July.
Mad to think we almost done with school.

Thank you all, you are all very kind 🥳

DS will be done within a month too @gingercat02. He has two this week, three next and three in the week following half term. I can’t believe it will all be over soon.

DS has decided to drive to school and will pick up his friend, who is also taking economics so they can test each other.

Good luck to all those taking exams tomorrow! And this week😊

Good luck to all of our YP in this final challenge. Hope all goes well 🙏 💕 ☘️

@Ventressbelated happy birthday to you.

Good luck to all the economists tomorrow.

DS seems a bit too relaxed at the moment. I think the application process was so stressful that he’s almost at the stage of thinking A Levels are the ‘easy’ bit which worries me that he’s feeling a bit complacent. I am trying very hard to bite my tongue. Doesn’t help that his first exam is not till after half-term.

@ArchitectureMumhaven’t seen those TikToks but did manage to turn on the TV as Mama Mia was playing Slipping through my Fingers…

Here we go folks! Good luck to everyone with their first exam this morning.

Good luck with Econ exam today everyone! We set 3 alarm clocks just to make sure we got up in time. DC is looking much calmer than I ever felt during my own exams!

Good luck to all those starting their exams today.

DS doesn’t start his until June 1st so he is still pretty chilled, though he has dropped a couple of shifts at work and isn’t training as much with his favourite sport. It’s so different for everyone. He’s still waiting to hear back from LSE then can finally confirm his first and insurance choices - phew! It’ll all be over by June 12th. Then I can start worrying about him and his friends on their first foreign holiday without any parents….

And they’re off! DD has finally gone (fortunately school is only 10min walk away). If there was an A Level in faffing and anxious hair grooming she’d ace it. Best of luck to all those with exams today.

Well DD seems happy enough after Econ 1, of which I have received quite a detailed rundown! Time-pressured and she didn’t have a chance to proof-read, but seems to have got her ideas down and now quite pumped (finally!) to get prepping for the next one. Nothing more here until Econ 2 and Politics 1 next week.

Same here @JessyCarr. Lots of time pressure but DS seems quite happy with micro econ - phew! Glad your daughter found her exam okay today. Always good to get that first one out of the way!

Hope your young economists and English language and literature students found their exams good today.

English lit (Hamlet and poetry) on Wednesday for DS. I offered to take him out for lunch but DS has headed to his room to do timed English essays.

I have been a little ott as I’ve got DS a small gift for after each exam. Today is a new pair of tennis shorts 😊

Great to hear @JessyCarr and @Ventress. DC is also really pleased with how Econ went today. He somehow managed to finish early (maybe it was all the adrenaline) despite usually struggling to get through the whole paper but although I initially thought maybe he had missed a section he reassures me he answered everything and that it was 'easy'. So it seems it was a great start to the exam season and will give him a bit of extra confidence for Wednesday's English exam.

@Ventress how thoughtful you are with all the gift ideas. We have ordered a nice few things from 'Treatbox' which should arrive tomorrow.

DS is also pleased with how microeconomics went today. Glad to hear it was a good start for others too 🙂

What a lovely idea to do gifts, @Ventress and @Fabfabfab! I’m afraid I haven’t even thought about it beyond an end of exams gift. But then we have both A levels and GCSEs happening simultaneously so not sure we could pull off gift per exam financially or mentally! Maybe there’s a market niche for exam equivalent of advent calendars?! 😁

People on WIWIKAU are saying that AQA was both easy and not particularly time-pressured, so perhaps he took that one? Good to come out pleased, anyway!

I always do an exam survival kit. Bath salts, calming stuff, little inspirational sayings, and food, (mostly food, he's a 17yo boy)
He still digs out his positive tomato from his GCSEs quite often.

DS was very positive economics 1 today (Edexcel) which is good.

Glad to hear most people who took found it ok.

FM on Thursday.

@JessyCarr he’s OCR. I know very little about the different exam boards tbh!

@ComingInByAnsible love the idea of the exam advent calendar. Great business idea! We are doing just the one gift (treatbox). Having a DC doing GCSEs at the same time sounds tough - hope you are managing to stay calm in amongst all the teenage stress!

DD said micro was okay, she said she locked in for the full 2.5 hours which she thinks is record concentration! She said she was so exhausted she needed 3 chocolate bars today! Whatever gets her through.