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Original poster

Nat 5/Highers etc - Anyone getting ready with their S4 - S6 dc?

862 replies

weegiemum · 05/04/2016 15:39

My dd1 is in s4 and about to sit 8 Nat5s. I don't know who is more wound up about it - her or me! (and I'm a teacher!!).

Wondered if there's anyone else out there to hold hands with?

DD is sitting English, Maths, Ghaidlig (Gaelic native speaker), French, History, Art & Design, Physics and Design & Manufacture. First is English on 5th May.

OP posts:
Groovee · 06/05/2016 13:31

Did is annoying me. She told me that she was going out to revise at 10am. 3 and a half hours later, no revision and she appears to be going to a cheap cafe for afternoon tea!

She's working tomorrow, so she'll have to revise Sunday!

OneMagnumisneverenough · 06/05/2016 13:47

Ds has fannied about all morning - it will be interesting to see how he has got on. I'm wondering if yesterday's relief at it not being too bad will lead to complacency for some of them?

YoScience · 06/05/2016 13:54

Seems like DD's school isn't the only one overly concerned with results before pupils needs then!

Good luck to everyone doing Geography, DD was quite confident this morning, but sent me a text just before the exam to say "forgot all my formations, lol" Which hasn't filled me with a lot of hope! and not quite sure it's a lolling matterHmmGrin

OneMagnumisneverenough · 06/05/2016 13:58

ha ha (maybe!) I asked DS if he wanted to run over anything with me beforehand and got the response "like what?" To which I had no idea. What will be will be. I have no extra passenger this time so I will get no clue about the paper etc. I'll come back here for the view on whether it was tough or not.

rogueantimatter · 06/05/2016 14:48

DS was pleased with the higher geography paper this morning. Surprised by how many topics weren't in it but thought he had plenty to write. YY to worries about complacency.

Sorry to hear about the disappointing art class. He can celebrate on 31st.

Original poster
weegiemum · 06/05/2016 14:57

I think its important to pace themselves, which is why I'm not going crazy over a day off today for dd1, she'll be sick of maths by thursday! Hopefully sick enough to scrape a C! Dh is a maths whizz (chose medicine over maths but only just!) so is pushing her revision on this one, I'm staying well out! I can help with French and History!

OP posts:
prettybird · 06/05/2016 15:04

Ds won't let me help him with his French Hmm

He's rightly confident about his Maths, so we're happy about him going to the cinema tomorrow.

YoScience · 06/05/2016 15:30

DD is really disappointed in how her Geography exam went. She thinks she has made a few silly mistakes on 4 of the questions and found it tough.

I've a feeling this is going to be a re-occurring theme.

She has 4 exams in 3 days next week, maths, italian, graphics and music.....not looking forward to that at all!!

OneMagnumisneverenough · 06/05/2016 15:31

I think DS thinks he is now off the hook study wise for the next few weeks as he doesn't need to do anymore Hmm.

Ok back to Geography - it "wasn't too bad" and he reckons he's passed. I'm not used to getting info so apologies if this doesn't make sense. In the last section there is a choice of 6 questions but they'd only been taught stuff so they could answer two (guess on a theme) and one of those was tricky and people had found it a bit difficult - he didn't think it was that bad and thinks he answered it ok.

OneMagnumisneverenough · 06/05/2016 15:32

"Yo" after a bit of reflection she is going to it was okay again? :)

Tough week for you next week, we have another two, Engineering and Maths.

YoScience · 06/05/2016 15:56

That's good your DS found it not too bad OneMagnum! Smile

Yeah DD was trying to explain the paper to me too, seems they only answer some questions on each topic/part! No idea Grin

prettybird · 06/05/2016 16:26

Ds has brought home the paper to show me Hmm

He also thinks he's made silly mistakes. Hopefully that's just exam negativity second guessing after the event.

YoScience · 06/05/2016 17:26

DD brought home the paper too, we've just gone through it. Sounds fine to me.

Their teacher was outside the exam and apologised as there was a question come up that she hadn't taught them! Seems like they had all made an attempt anyway.

Sure DS has done well PB. Smile

I feel exhausted!! Grin

IndigoApple · 06/05/2016 22:37

Hi, just found this thread and it's been interesting reading. DD is in S4 and sitting 6 N5s.

She found English harder than expected yesterday despite being well prepared. She was disappointed with the choice of Norman MacCaig poem and said she wished she'd done the Higher as Memorial came up! She also found the close reading hard and didn't know what stratospheric meant. I think it's knocked her confidence a bit.

Biology next which is her best subject. I'll be helping her with some Biology and maths revision over the weekend.

She's also doing physics and chemistry. I'm shocked at how little the syllabus has changed for the 3 sciences since I did my O'grades on the 80s!

Original poster
weegiemum · 07/05/2016 07:17

Thanks for the feedback on Geography!

Dd1 is already starting to stress over maths on Thursday - in the kindest way it's her worst subject (got 29% in the prelim and 49%in the resit). Luckily she has nothing till then. I'm no good at maths but dh is a whizz and can help each evening.

OP posts:
Groovee · 07/05/2016 11:00

We have a tutor for maths. Dd doesn't want to be the one who cried again like she did in the prelim. Her calculator stopped working during the first paper and she had to ask for another one. Then she just looked at the questions and panicked. The tutor has been a confidence builder to try and get her to stop panicking. She got 2% off a B but for Uni she needs Nat 5 at a B. But her confidence after the prelim was rock bottom. It's helped massively to build her confidence.

unlucky83 · 07/05/2016 11:09

DD went into school yesterday -- wanted to see her friends and they were going to revise together ...when she got home I found out she had been revising geography - she isn't doing geography Confused (but her friends were.)
I also got an email from her drama teacher saying she still needed to hand some work in....and she says she has now and then she hasn't - or has handed something in - no idea what she is playing at there -need to pin her down and find out what she is playing at ....

hidingwithwine · 08/05/2016 09:46

I was in Waterstones yesterday looking at the Higher Graph Comm revision book, which had last year's paper in it. DS got it online on Friday and did it - and got 50/70. I'm hoping if he does that well on Tuesday, along with the 50/70 he already has for his project, will be enough for a B? Hmm

OneMagnumisneverenough · 08/05/2016 10:09

I'd think that should be a B no problem. Are they meant to know what score they've got for their coursework?

hidingwithwine · 08/05/2016 10:15

I asked DS and he said his teacher (head of dept) had got them back and told them. Not entirely sure that he should know. Also wondering if perhaps it's a work of fiction and a wee white lie to boost DS' confidence, although his friends know their scores too.

OneMagnumisneverenough · 08/05/2016 10:27

Ha ha so who knows then? DS1 wouldn't speak to a teacher anyway so even if everyone else knew he still wouldn't.

hidingwithwine · 08/05/2016 10:33

I'm just hoping the 50/70 thing holds for Tuesday. DS only took GC as he enjoys it, it's got nothing in common with what he wants to do. However he needs a B for uni.

Groovee · 08/05/2016 11:08

Does anyone ever find out how the grades are broken down once the results are out?

Superjaggy · 08/05/2016 11:18

Groovee it used to be the case that schools were given exact results so that they could decide whether to appeal poor results... But there are no appeals for Nat 5 now so I'm not sure if that's still the case. Should still hold for Highers though, I'd have thought. But the information isn't given out freely, you'd have to ask.

Groovee · 08/05/2016 11:36

I'm just wondering because at the Dance show last winter, they had a girl do her drama monologue which she got an A for, so was wondering if the school still got a break down.