Thread 47- Covid GCSE Cohort - Summer's running away from us!

[OrangeCinnamonLatte]

...it will be Christmas before we know it.

This is a support thread for our young adults post GCSEs 2020, regardless of their educational setting, and their results ( or life updates for those who went into work or have had results earlier). It is respectfully requested that all are supportive and helpful to each other. If you want to start a debate, e.g state vs private, uni vs employment please don't within this thread.

Some of us have been here since first thread back in yr10, some will be new. Everyone has been friendly and helpful in the past. Everyone is welcome. It is hoped this will continue. We were previously on the secondary board and then further education, now we shall be here in 'Parents of Adult Children' gulp

Our DS/DD may continue down various pathways ( employment, apprenticeships, higher ed). Experience is that everyone is welcomed wherever, whatever their child is doing we have some in work, gap years , apprenticeships etc too. Lots of contributors with different experiences and always sympathy and advice to be had.
Previous thread https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/parents_of_adult_children/4792342-thread-46-gcse-covid-cohort-searching-for-summer-solstice

Fingers crossed for good weather @seeline. 🤞

😱 @mummyinbeds can you contact anyone or is it too late??

@singingstones he has until 9am. He should have until 2pm tomorrow which would mean he could go to bed and then carry on in the morning. We've sent a query about the extra time via the online link but doubt this will be seen before 9am so he's going to have to just get on with it. He's finished his first question - he's going to have to be quicker with the next two.

@JustHereWithMyPopcorn we've contacted the link on Moodle. All phone lines were closed until 10am 🤦

@JustHereWithMyPopcorn has your DS finished yet? Any tips on how he manages to get answers on the page in under 11 hours of per question?

What a nightmare, good luck to you both mummy.

Can he sleep tomorrow if he needs to stay up very late / all night? (And can you? 😬)

I hope you are fully equipped with supplies for what could be a long night...

@mummyinbeds what a nightmare for him ☹️ really there should be someone manning that when it’s 24hour exams.

No he’s not finished yet. He’s set out his arguments and is now trying to go through them and make the language better and make them read more fluently. He’s very tired and hardly had any breaks today. His thought processes are slowing down.

The resits are sounding very stressful. Good luck to the students who are ploughing on.

Keep going @JustHereWithMyPopcorn DS. We're two thirds through question 2. I say 'we' but I'm still very much in the support role. If I read any more of this horrendous text book I might attempt que 3 🤣

Is it making you want to take up law again? 😂

Sounds like he's gone up a gear to be 2/3 through the next Q already, keep going! 💪

I do still sort of work in law but haven't had to answer questions on case law since my final exam. I could never study law ever again. Never ever. It is so hard. I'm not sure how I did it in the first place. And DS has to do this in French too 🤦
I've just made coffee

Extended exams are horrible; I've taken a few of them in my time! Many sympathies. In effect they are mini-coursework essays. The ones I've taken even expect proper referencing, which you'd never do in an 'in person' exam.

Good luck to all the resitters.

id never even heard of these extended exams until this thread. Sounds very stressful.

He’s done! I’m off to bed. I hope your DS is motoring on and will be done soon too @mummyinbeds .

Thank you for the support everyone.

I'm too old for an all night exam sessions!! DS's laptop has decided enough is enough too, just to add to the stress. Now transferred to my laptop. Still on question 3 part 1 😭

How's it going, mummy?

How is it going @mummyinbeds ? I’m hoping it’s handed in and you’re both fast asleep. 🤞

Crikey.extended exams. So glad that’s not us.hope all participants now sleeping like kings. Its a beautiful day here, off for a walk.

Good luck to those on their exams.

Hope ds makes it on time @mummyinbeds ! I thought going back and forth to Nottingham for in person exams was a pain but those 24 hour exams sound worse!

I really dislike these type of exams. The intensity of them is mentally exhausting. By 9 hours in I'm convinced you're just writing gibberish.

They sound like absolute hell. Presumably nobody is expected to write for 24 hours so how long are they really meant to take? 6? 8?

I would have been awful at these - watching telly and procrastinating for the 1st 12 hours then pulling an all nighter to finish it 🤣

DS took 15 hours with very few breaks - probably not much more than an hour in total. He did it in the kitchen so I was regularly in there supplying food and drink to keep him going. No TV but possibly some procrastinating...

They do sound like a nightmare, I'm another who'd never heard of them until this thread (DH and I have science degrees with very little essay type requirement). Hope it has all gone OK for everyone.