2018 Scottish Exam Support Thread

[Groovee]

Practicals have already started for many, folios are being worked on... here's the 2028 thread to get us through.

I have Dd sitting 3 highers and D's sitting 6 Nat 5's. Oh the stress.

at "peak" - and

Headteacher at ds' school is an English teacher by training; she would be mortified.

Two weeks minus two days and it will all be over for ds

I was also a bit at the bit about wearing full uniform being "vital" (on another slide). i appreciate they don't want standards to drop but there is nothing like sitting in a polyester blazer to focus the mind properly on your exams....I mean does it really matter if they sit an exam in shorts and a t-shirt?

They're still expected to wear uniform for exams at ds' school - but it's a lot less strict than at your ds' school. Ds' substitute for a blazer has been a hoody - zip up or over the head depending on the weather. They're not even all black (dark gray and navy as well as a black one).

Only S6 allowed to wear black! Even then if they want to wear a jumper it's still blue.DS2 struggling to fit in his blazer but as he only needs to wear it for exams after today, he'll just have to lump it.

Ours have to wear uniform when sitting exams but can be smart/casual dress for any non-exam days when they might come in.

Iirc Wax the blue for your ds' school is quite vibrant!

Black is the base colour for ds' school.

....although the S6s all have one fewer white shirt now after they all signed each other's shirts today! Ds even got the First Minister's signature on his - as did quite a few others.

The blue is vibrant but not so much on the jumpers, those are quite nice :)

DSs shirt also signed. Just as well he didn't get the FM signature as then I'd have to burn it... :o

Have sat DS down and had a chat about his revision plan. I've told him that when I get in from work he needs to be out of bed! I'll not be amused if he's still in. Ed when I get home. Dd will be fine.

She is our constituency MP - and was visiting on constituency business (not actually for the Leavers Assembly)

DD is now on exam leave. She's dropped one Higher (French) so has 4 to sit. Sadly her mental health has nose dived over the past few months so now my aim is to get her through exam season with an escalation of panic attacks etc and sod the results. The pressure isn't coming from us or from school but from herself. I no longer care about results/uni etc. I just want my happy daughter back who eats, spends time with us and has good mental health.

*without an escalation...

bloody autocorrect

Sorry to hear that Yoga are you around to spend time with her while she's on study leave or do you work? I felt bad as work full time (felt like the only mum who did!) but spent a lot of time with DD in the evenings last year when she was doing Highers, testing her on BBC Bitesize, going out for drives (to Starbucks....) etc. Also made sure lots of nice food for her in house. It's stressful at the best of times

That's such a shame Yoga :( As you say, this is a time for keeping well and not worrying about the exams, there are many many years ahead to get to that, there are many roads that lead to the same destination.

Must be so hard for you Yoga - and even harder for your dd, who won't be wanting to have panic attacks.

I never actually had panic attacks, but with hindsight my parents' approach of saying (thoughtfully and they thought helpfully) "We don't mind what results you get, as long as you do your best" inadvertently put a hell of a lot of pressure on me as I knew my best was really good (....and I ended up with 6 As for my Highers)

Dh and I have tried to be very careful with our wording with ds to avoid that sort of pressure (dh also has bad and not supportive like mine were memories of his mum complaining about his 99% for Arithmetic O Grade - "What happened to the 1%? ") . So for example, the response to a Prelim result or a past paper (as he's doing at the moment) would be, not "That's good/bad/whatever" but "Are you happy with that....do you know where you went wrong/right....do you know what you need to do next....do you want/need help?"

But there again, he's pretty level headed and self-directed and won't let us help with anything as we know nothing unless it's French the day before the Oral Nat 5

to both of you

Thanks folks. I'm a teacher 🙈 but am off Fridays so will be around for her Higher English. She breezed through 7 N5's last year and had all A/B whilst her brother sweated through S6 exams. I'm a support for learning teacher so I work with self harming/stressed/anorexic children in primary so I know how these things can escalate and where they can lead. Trying to keep myself and DH calm whilst also supporting DD.

Sounds like you have a plan

It's hard when it's your own child though. No one wants to see them unhappy. If you could take away the angst for them you would.

Hugs Yoga. My niece has gone into stress mode and it's so hard.

Came home from work to a mound of dishes and 2 teens awaiting their slave to make lunch 🙄. I usually come home, make my lunch and Potter about. Might ask work if they need extra hours done 😂

Hope she gets through exam season ok Yoga - and that you survive as well!

My DD appears calmer this year than last. Had Spanish H this morning and then went for lunch to the local spanish restaurant with all her pals... Think it helps that she has her exams MUCH more spaced out than she did last year.

DD3 was chalk white with terrible dark circles after working from 0800 to 1600 today . She had one stop to nip to the shop for Super Noodles.

But she didn't need to persuaded to accompany her maw for late afternoon stroll and that put some colour back in her cheeks. She's worrying soooo much about N5 Maths on Friday . I wish she'd had a different one to kick off with.

Well Geography went well, apart from the fire alarm going off half way through!

My daughter found geography on the hard side of ok. She ran out of time and missed a question for 6 marks which is 10% of the total so her expected A is now more likely scraping a B. The question on vegetation hasn't been covered by her class anyway apparently. So not the start she had hoped for.

Oh no @weegiemum - was it a prank/false alarm?

Oh no @weegiemum. I remember one of the business studies exams using the macs had a power cut when I was at school. The next nearest school had space and taxis had to take the candidates there with teachers to ensure no cheating.

@decena Hope your Dd is ok post exam.

Ds found it ok, but I'm a Geog teacher (or used to be!) so he was well prepared!!

It was a false alarm but they had to evacuate, and stand several feet apart so there was no talking! They were given extra time, obviously, to make up for what they missed. Ds was remarkably blasé about it.

Both ds and dd1 have Nat5 maths on Friday.

We have H music today, AH maths tomorrow and Nat 5 maths (again!) on Friday. Hoping for kind papers... Best of luck for everyone for this week and hope those who've already sat and don't think they've done their best are mistaken.