Exams today, anyone else biting their nails?

[CristinaTheAstonishing]

Dropped off DS for his exam at Sutton Grammar. Scarily long queues. Anyone else biting their nails?

Anyone?

Yes, it was not as easy as expected.

Some tricky maths Qs. English.

Don't know really, what did yours think?

DS did his today. Seemed quite confident when he came out but he has done on all his mocks and they were a very mixed bundle... just have to wait until the results in March now. Glad it's all over and that DS was not traumatised by the whole thing. Told him we're very proud and the whole point of the exercise was to give him the opportunity to do it - you won't know until you try!

DS came out with a smile on his face. Turns out he didn't finish the Maths questions, thinks he did OK at VR and at English.

I agree - not being traumatised by it all is v important. I had started shaking and crying when I saw the queues. It was 8.30, by the time I left at 9 they'd dwindled to nothing. But it's that first image that stuck.

This morning on the way to the exam we witnessed a traffic accident (one of the cars involved was going to their daughter's wedding, we briefly exchanged numbers). Later had another shock (property-related), on the way back from that my car broke down. It was a horrible day, all in all. At least if DS passed this exam, something good will come out of it.

Good luck to your little ones too. DH got details for properties in the area today. A bit premature, I think:)

Sounds terrible. I take it that the accident was not too serious and that your boy/girl could focus on the exams.

I am still few years away from exams, and also thinking of remaining private to save the child from the stress.

How many people take such exams? Like few hundred or so?

Are there interviews?

What sort of things do they ask on the exams like your child took today? Do they ask general knowledge questions on the news? Is the maths focused more on making it difficult and how difficult (ks2 / ks3), or on putting the time pressure?

I take it there is also comprehensive and the essay too... is this something diffcult? Is this abstract or practical? How much time for the essay? Is it enough?

Thanks, and well done for getting through today. At least you can relax now.

MoM - my DS wasn't stressed at all. It was us fretting and worrying, not him. I wish he'd shown a bit more interest. There's no general knowledge questions off the news, it's pretty standard stuff, eg write a letter inviting your friend to stay with you. I don't know if this was ever given in an exam, but this sort of compositions, you get to use paragraphs, punctuation etc. Verbal Reasoning we did from books from WH Smith. Maths was a bit more advanced than he did at school, but I feel that is a particular weakness of Maths teaching at his school. It's unlikely DS will pass this exam as he just isn't good enough at Maths but it's good practice for the next one and he's not too bothered either way.

Cristina, it is so wonderful that your boy is so relaxed about it. I am sure that he has done very well indeed.

I do not understand how the maths at these questions can be more difficult than in school. This means that you cannot really pass the exam without the tuition?

What types of questions are we talking about?