Applying for Uni 2019 Part 6: exams, leaving school/college (the end of an era), a long summer holiday and Results Day on the horizon

[NewModelArmyMayhem18]

Just when exam season gets fully underway our previous thread has almost filled up. Everyone welcome .

The week after half term is a killer here. Most of Dds exams in 4 days.

DD did English Lit this afternoon, paper on Hamlet - not a happy bunny! ☹️

Finished!!!! DC1 has finished their final IB exam.

Then popped home to vote, then back into town to lounge around in the park with mates & beers.

Wishing all of the A level students well with the rest of it all.

BringOn Congratulations on the end of an era. Well to DS. Now the waiting starts.

BringOnTheScience chilling in the park with friends sounds the perfect way to end exam season.

Roll on mid June!

Error. Sorry to hear Literature as hoped. Why wasn’t she happy? Did she complete the paper or were the questions just difficult?

errorYup... mine was sort of ‘What?!’
The Hamlet ‘comedy’ question was, I suppose, sort of comedic?!
So far her other two subjects have also thrown a curved ball too! So I think her feelings now... ‘disappointed but not surprised’! 😏

Yep discussing Hamlet as a comedy! She thinks (hope) she did ok but it was a definite curve ball and unsettled her going into the second question.

What was this Hamlet question of which you speak??

piggy. It was along the lines of ‘How far does Shakespeare use comedy to make serious points?’ Sort of those words!

Ooh I'd love that question. Ds does the other spec and Shrew. It was about "taming" so a bit...tame. And his unseen poems were about childbirth...on a love paper...!

ohh.... that's a hard question.....

It seems a theme in Eng Lit this year (at GCSE as well) to cater for stretch and challenge. I nearly wept at the thought of my less able, shall we say, year 11s doing War Photographer and a question on Moses in Animal Farm.

One of my students did profess that they had no idea who Moses was...

Our weakish year 11 s were happy with War Photographer. They didn't do Animal Farm, though. That sounds rough.

Must be honest, I didn't think war would come up again so have spent ages going over London of late. Harumph. WP is a good poem, though.

The Q was actually Moses AND Benjamin. Because AQA obviously even themselves realised you couldn't get a whole answer out of Moses! FFS. Hoping for Boxer next year!!

😳I read animal farm so many years ago I can’t remember who any of these characters are but the names are very familiar. Was Boxer a pig? There was horse called Napoleon too wasn’t there.....those were the days.

Always a good pub quiz question on AF...

We do Animal Farm with year 7!

Well done to your DC Bring - IB over!

Do you have another DC who might go down that route?

I have a DC in year 9 and ideally would like them to go to DS’s school for IB (the school doesn’t offer A levels) but it will obviously be their choice.

I think I read it in yr8 maybe 9? Didn’t need it for our GCEs

Oh dear shimy; Boxer is a horse... my favourite character in the whole of literature. His ending made DS2 burst into tears when he got home , having held it in all day. Bless him.
Napoleon is a very unpleasant pig.

AF is actually great at GCSE. The kids love it and it's fab for context. Don't wish to start a row, but I think doing it at Year 7/8 reduces it to a far lesser text than it is and does it a disservice.

Piggy you’ll have to pardon me 😂. I’ve obviously swapped them round. I did not study in the U.K. and so AF was not a major text. Just an insight into a different genre of literature. We all struggled a bit with it as the setting was very British which many couldn’t really comprehend.

I'll let you off shimy. You probably know more than my year 11 !!

I know it’s a satire involving animals acting like humans.
I know the animals drove out the humans but then became like them.
Some slept In beds??
Some wore hats???
Some animals were considered a higher class than others
And that’s about it.

I’m sure piggyjnr knows more than that, bless him.

@blametheparents My DC2 couldn't be more different!!! They're y10, really struggle at school for multiple reasons, and therefore doing very practical subjects. Likely destination is the local technical college for a vocational BTEC alongside GCSE maths & English resits.

DC1 has had a lovely afternoon, gently boozing & chilling with friends.

Quick question. .. when you get your results, how do you know what you scored, not just the grade. Also how do you know what the grade boundaries are for the subject. How do you know how close to the boundry you are and whether to ask for a re-mark. Do you have to rely on the school telling you or do you find out for yourself . Thanks

I haven't read Animal Farm since I was about 12 - think a reread is well overdue. Same with 1984 and Brave New World

Isn't it like with GCSEs, minesawine? I seem to recall DS knowing how close he was to grade boundaries for those. Would A Levels be any different?

Gosh, I still haven't got over the expense of the £300 thrown at wasted various GCSE remarks. So won't be keen to go down that route again...(I say now - remind me of that in August!)

Presumably universities won't wait for a remark to consider whether to accept a young person or not (unless they are done in a matter of days), so is there really much point?