Ongoing A level exams: are your DC finding them hard?

[CaliforniaDrumming]

Ugh. DS appeared well prepared for the exams and has been working non-stop, but so far Economics ( his pet subject), Further Maths and Physics have all been very hard, apparently. Did anyone else's DC find them hard? ( misery loves company and all that). I hope the grade boundaries aren't too high.
He has a conditional offer from UCL.

Yes, dd is regretting not trying to get extra time, she has Autism and hypermobility which makes writing painful, she uses a laptop for English but not maths. She ran out of time on the maths paper so didn’t attempt the last question.

My DD was the same, she got 5 offers but decided on the one that did give her a slightly lower offer of ABB (York) as she has dyslexia. She was only screened last May through school; she had extra time and coloured paper for her mocks etc which really helped and has the same for these exams. It explained a lot of things over the years; never knowing anything much about dyslexia was why we as parents didn't pick it up. The guilt is awful though.
We did get her assessed formally in March, as expected she is dyslexic, as going forward to uni she did need a proper diagnosis for DSA. Fortunately that all seems to be going ahead ok.

Ha ha today's Further Maths paper ( OCR) was so hard that apparently no one in DS class could finish it, including the super-bright ones with offers from Oxbridge. DS is gobsmacked at the sadism of the examiners. I really hope they lower grade boundaries, but according to him, they will have to make an A 55% or so!

He needs an AAA for UCL. In retrospect, glad we didn't firm his Warwick offer which was AA*A.

Sorry no idea why that bolding appeared!

DS is doing AQA further maths and was ready to throw the towel in after paper 1. A quick read on Twitter and student room and it seems everyone thought it was a car crash, so he felt a bit better about it.

Physics paper 1 wasn’t too bad though they had a question about something not on the advanced information. Not sure what exam board that was.

I think this cohort have been massively disadvantaged by covid. DS didn’t even finish the curriculum for science and none of the exam technique sessions ever happened.

let’s hope the grade boundaries are kind.

Mine said the same- super hard paper. I really don’t understand why are the papers so hard for this year? Is it the children finding them hard or are the papers genuinely hard?
I will be glad when they are over!

My DS has found them all ok so far. He’s doing maths, further maths and Spanish. He’s literally been revising every hour of the day for months now. He’s done so many practise exams too.

DD did OCR FM today, has a Cambridge maths offer and said it was hard, harder than the past papers she's done. this is v unusual for her to say

DC1 had her last exam today, I’m so relieved as she has very complex additional needs which have made her education quite a journey, poor DH has clocked up nearly 2000 miles driving her to the distant exam centre, he is my rock doing all the driving as I’m temporarily unable to drive

DC2 had his 3rd exam and has 5 more to go but has finished his Geography now so is very happy to be able to concentrate on his two best subjects

I do feel so sorry for this particular cohort, one of DS’s friends didn’t read the paper properly today and wrongly attempted to answer all the questions. I just wonder if they might have been more seasoned if they did GCSE exams

are the students always saying the exams are very hard? I can’t quite get my head around if they are particularly horrible this year or if the inexperience of sitting exams for students is really stressing them out.

DS says that he has seen scholars in tears over further maths exams at the best of times!

I don't think it is the inexperience because DS''s school has been drilling them for months and he has done many, many past papers. As have his friends. His prep could not have been better.

I think the papers ( for OCR; don't know about others) are really tough this year.

Apparently in physics an incorrect formula was presented for one of the questions. DS said it was better in some topics, worse on others.

@KittenKong which exam board was this?

I think it was Edexcel AS level

Reassuring to hear that others are having the same experiences. DD is finding these A levels very hard and also saying not to expect that she will achieve her predicted grades and she is unlikely to get into uni

Also worth remembering that in addition to not actually sitting GCSEs this cohort have faced continuous disruption with lockdowns, home learning, isolations, some such as my DD have had repeated isolations. It has not been a 'normal' A level journey that's for sure.

How is everyone doing?

My DS has 1 more to go but lots of his friends finished today. He found papers 3 for sociology and business hard but the rest he said were pretty good. Last one is history next Wednesday.

Getting to the end now. Bloody strikes next week so that will be fun! Also had a loud demo outside the exam hall last week during an exam.

If all Dcs are finding the exams difficult the grade boundaries will be set lower....

I would state having a dd finishing her 2nd year at Uni (STEM), that Uni exams are a massive step up....unlike school you are not given details of how marks are awarded and even with the ongoing tests throughout the year, (even the multiple choice questions) there is no feedback after exams so you dont know which questions you got right or wrong.

DS has 2 more. He had one that was horrendous and the questions phrased in a really weird way but most have been ok. I asked if the whole experience had been as bad as he thought and he said no it hadn’t- I think in his head it was going to horrific as didn’t know what to expect so it’s all to do with expectation his perception of how they have been.

DD has 2 more next week.

She has found the English Language exams straightforward (her best subject).
Maths she said could have been worse so far, but she has found both papers tricky in parts - paper one had a question about Rhombus that really threw her. Biology she has found ok too - and yesterdays paper she said was good.

She did say that a lot of the chat online about Biology has been saying that some stuff came up that they were not given guidance on - but she said a lot of that seemed to be students not reading round the topic.

One more Maths and Biology to go!

DD has been finished 2 weeks and felt they went well overall ENG Lang/lit CIE Media studies AQA

DS has 2 left this week, RS and History which he’s been happy with so far and Geography which was ok but preferred the 2nd paper

I don’t think it’s kind or particularly helpful telling people that Uni exams are sooo much worse. All our kids are Ace because they have survived their most important educational years through covid so they will do just fine

And both of mine are doing non exam degrees because many Universities have realised that exams don’t get the best out of all students

Two more to go. Mostly ok, very annoying that 2 of the 3 physics papers had questions that weren’t on the advanced info. Heard from other parents that it happened with other subjects too.

so unfair to do that to them, when they haven’t had the experience of GCSEs throwing them a curveball.

can not wait for next weekend.

So for those taking the year out - what’s everyone up to?

My daughter has had a chemistry exam this morning and has another on Thursday. She came home today crying saying she's going to fail them. She wanted to apply for foundation year at uni but the college told her not to.
She said she could end up anywhere if she has to get in through clearing.
Don't know what's she going to do now.

Sal