Year 13 -2025/26 - Support, discussion and looking after each other - thread 2 - exam time

[SilverBlue4]

Here we go

Storm cloud just come in. Hope there's no big thunderclaps - DC was genuinely worried about storm forecast this afternoon as they have an exam now and they really hate thunder!

Another one here eagerly waiting to hear how History went this afternoon, she seemed quite nervous as she felt under prepared. No rest either as she has another exam in the morning. Relentless, isn't it? (I also got caught in thunderstorm although it was kind of welcome after the heatwave, which I hated!)

History, War of the Rose's, was a beauty of an exam, I have just been informed!
Let's hope so, because Russia was horrible.
History 3, Germany, next Thursday morning and we're done ✔️
Thank.The.Lord!

Are you guys AQQ? DS is OCR and not finished yet… it’s Cold War.

great that war of the roses went well @gingercat02. Hope everyone else’s has been good including @Countrylife2002We had some little storms here too. DH took DS into school - not sure if we are supposed to collect him though.

I like your style @JustHereWithMyPopcorn😂 Glad chem1 went well.

thank you @ComingInByAnsible💐 I will also be glad when exams are over. I can’t imagine how difficult that is with two!

Yes history good here too thank goodness.

now where’s the gin…

Glad to hear the history takers feel it went well - fingers cross your DS does too @ventress .

@ComingInByAnsible I spoke too soon about the sunshine, we also had a massive thunderstorm with hail, that's passed now and the sun is back out but the sky is grey and full of rain clouds so I'm sure more is on the way. We've had lots of local flooding here, we also have overhead power cables and get relatively frequent power cuts but more often in the autumn / winter storms.

DD had History (edexcel - China) this afternoon too and seems happy. She has sociology tomorrow morning so has gone straight back to revision and suspect she’ll feel pretty burnt out tomorrow afternoon!

Only 4 more exams now - 2 x sociology, 1 x history and 1 x business. Last exam in 10 days - I’m counting down because I’m not sure how much cortisol my body can handle at the moment!

DC said History paper 2 was 'lovely' and they predicted the first question again. They weren't put off by storm, there was only a little thunder towards the end.

My dc did a level chemistry first exam today edexcel. How did everyone find it?

please tell me off if im on the wrong thread 🙈

Well sounds like the other history boards were nicer than OCR! DS said none of the big topics were covered (Vietnam etc). He said it was fine , just a bit “weird” as apparently the big topics didn’t come up last year so everyone was expecting a nice meaty Vietnam question ! Just Economics 3 to go now.

@4andnotcounting, deffo correct thread. Can’t help though as DS doesn’t do chemistry. Hope it went well for your DC.

Yes. What is going on in the AQA history exam team???? Oh my. I'm sort of relieved you said that. My DS was pretty upset after paper 1 (Tudors) and paper 2 has just gone a bit better but still really tricky slightly niche essays. The issue with history - and i did it as a degree, so love it - is that your risk is very high. You answer 3 questions in each paper, if one or two are not exactly what you revised and feel confident on you are sunk! In most other subjects the risk is spread across 20 questions. My DS was predicted an A* but is hoping for a B. How did your DD find paper 2?

He desperately wants to go to Cardiff for Politics and International Relations. The offer is ABB but i am confident they'd take him with BBB or equivalent. This should be well within his grasp but i'm catastrophising (silently, obviously not laying my neurosis on poor DS) that he won't make his grades . . . and he says he won't take up his safety offer (Oxford Brooks) as he only wants a 'top tier' Uni due to being worried about debt.

My ds was also thrown by the Tudor paper but was happier about the second one today - aqa Russia and revolution. I completely agree about the concentration of risk in the history papers which is different to the others.

DS had Edexcel History ( South Africa). He said it went OK but he was annoyed as there was an easy question that he panicked and couldn't think of a counter argument then came out and immediately thought of a load of things he could have put in. One of them was Steve Beko and the Soweto Uprising, and we'd literally watched Cry Freedom as an alternative to revision over half term! I bit my tongue...
@wingsandstrings My DS has an ABB offer for Politics and IR too. He was on a B for History anyway, and an A for Politics which he thinks went well so 🤞

Argh we have the first maths paper tomorrow and DS is off the the gym!

He says that he has done enough but I cannot fathom why you wouldn't be revising until the last moment. I then suggest if you have done enough why don't you revise for the two other subjects this week. But that was shot down in flames too.

So I am going to have to trust that he knows what he is doing.

That was what we were thinking after geography - so easy for it to all just go to pot. Hope your ds has done okay

My son did a past paper this afternoon and says that's enough and he needs to let the maths remain in his brain so revising for something else would be counter productive until afterwards...he will have another look over the spec and worst answered questions that his teacher sent them, in the morning apparently.

Dangerously, with 8 exams still to go,.I am very nearly at the point of thinking ah sod it leave it all now. Must not give in to apathy as it'll be catching ...tired!!

My DS did Edexcel Chem today and found it hard but OK. Hope your DC found it Ok too.

Similar, he did one paper, marked it, said he got 84% and disappeared upstairs most like to game again. Fingers crossed that tomorrow gets him the same sort of grade!!

I’m sorry to hear that the AQA history DCs didn’t feel great about today’s paper. I’m hoping that the feeling was the same countrywide and the boundaries reflect that.

DC had Edexcel History (Normans/Saxons) today and felt it went pretty well. Paper 1 last week was on his favourite subject so was great but this one was good too thankfully especially as it the topic was covered a year ago so not at all fresh in his mind. Sorry to hear ADQ was tough for some today. If it's the same as Edexcel then at least it's only worth 20% of total mark though.

DS had an EdExcel day - Chem 1 and Hist 2 (China) and is happy with both of them. Phew. He said he had a tiny wobble in Chemistry and then got ahold of himself and the rest was good. Glad to know he can pull that out of the bag - I told him to hold onto that feeling and remind himself in future papers! He's now done a whole third of all papers ... seems like a looong way to go yet!

DD is working away at Maths and planning to go in tomorrow morning and do some more. I think she should go to bed early and go for a walk in the morning to get oxygen to her brain. Maths needs a fresh mind so those of your DC going to the gym I think they are on to something.

History (Germany) was 'good'. Phew. Continued good luck to all YP!

DS came back relieved from history AQA modern Britain. He was very worried about it beforehand despite revising to infinity, as felt he was struggling to remember the full breadth of the topic. But it sounds like he was relatively fortunate with the questions. Luckily they weren’t interrupted by a power cut (he types so it would have been bad), apparently the storm was a bit distracting but he wasn’t sure if it was thunder or someone moving furniture around the school 😁.

Sorry today didn’t go well for some.
@Ventress, your DS history 2 experience sounds like my DS macroeconomics experience - hope they both did well despite the weird niche questions.

@AuntyBulgaria, gym sounds like a good idea tbf!