Sign in here if your child is in Yr11 - taking GCSE's this Summer.

[Milliways]

Hi
Apologies if this has been done this year, but I found a similar thread very supportive when DD started the exam treadmill (not at Uni) and we are about to start again with DS.

Milliboy is 15, late Summer baby so cannot get a job until the end of the Summer hols, when they will have all gone. Good news is - this gives him more revision time

He is at a boys selective Grammar school, so the pressure is on to achieve. He also wants to aim for a decent Uni so understands that good GCSE grades are vital.

Still doesn't make the whole process any easier for him or me :)

Who else has boarded the 2011 Exam Express?

One more for my son...June 28th AQA Physics! An 11 day gap! Hope momentum keeps going!

We've only got one more to do as well - German, next Monday. However school is now being arsy about the boys being needed for a 20 minute choir practice at lunchtime for leavers day 3 days a week between now and end of term.

Neither they nor I are impressed - we both work (me from home) and don't see why we should take that amount of time out right in the middle of the day. The choir leader said they could come in all day and take part in the activities on offer - which on investigation are swimming if they can get a life guard, watching dvd's, helping with the junior school, or loitering in the school ground - loadsa fun!

I really don't feel inclined to push them on this, but don't want to make it awkward for our youngest who will still be at the same school. Why can't they just leave them to relax once they've finished?

Emmspemms, yup my boys are off to a w/end do at someone else's house. They will be reasonably close however as they are all camping in some field - I shudder to think what will be happening, and am very grateful that I will only have 6 of them overnight at some point in the next couple of weeks.

My DS thought the German was quite difficult today with the last 2 questions being 'very difficult'. Anyone else get any feedback?

DD had Latin literature today, which (do the exam boards never learn?) had several mistakes on it! - there were two comprehension questions about a story involving two characters, and two questions about character A were asked referring to character B's name instead - then later on they mixed up the authors of two of the texts. DD didn't even notice, apparently - just assumed the question referred to the right character. Presumably they'll do the usual "no candidate will be disadvantaged" spiel, but wouldn't you think they'd bother to read the papers carefully, given all the publicity there's been about mistakes this year? Miraculously, DD seems entirely calm about this - maybe because the end is finally approaching?!

Exactly the same here Cup. I've got DS3 and two friends playing FIFA in the room next door who all took the German paper this morning and all agree completely with what you say (all got A* in their mocks too).

DS2, I'm running ahead (DS3 is next year....)

I'm a bit late to this thread
Ds had his last GCSE on Friday
good luck to all DC's who still have exams left though.

DS has a long summer ahead now, we've suggested he looks for a job but he's not 16 till 19th August so don't know how eligible he will be. He already has a paper round. Me and DH have lots of tedious jobs that we don't want to do interesting jobs inside and out to keep him occupied!

Yellow well at least that is reassuring. If they all found it difficult, it must have been a hard paper. Maybe next week's will be easier.

alice - agree that they seem unfazed about it. DS said he hand-corrected the question and got on with it (so it's unlikely there'll be any adjustment needed).

At least your DS noticed the mistake, boswellia! I feel sorriest for anyone who noticed but panicked and so lost time - presumably those who responded sensibly, like your DS, or (deliberately or otherwise) ignored it and read it as it should have been written, like my DD, will be ok, but if it caused some candidates to stress and lose time, that's a real shame. Am waiting for the BBC to notice ; )

how very mature and calm of your child boswellia, great behaviour.

Oh dear Alice and Boswellia. My DD didn't notice the errors at all in the Latin Prose paper. Not sure what that means. She's not at all looking forward to the Poetry paper tomorrow which rather frustratingly clashes with History so she will have to do one followed by the other. Hard day and then GCSEs over!

Was the error in the Piso and Germanicus question btw?

Yes aliena, it was Piso and Germanicus, we were chatting about them on the bus there, so he was pleased about that. DCs doing the other question would probably not have noticed.

MABS thanks! He's not usually calm or mature, but the chat on the bus maybe brought the characters down to earth for him. Am trying hard to be cool and calm these days, and will be glad when it's all over and I can let the stress spill out.

I see the Latin shambles has indeed made it to the BBC, and that OCR also had an A level Physics paper error on the same day - but both pale into insignficance compared to AQA foundation Maths having part of the wrong paper printed in the middle of the right one!!
The errors weren't in Piso and Germanicus, they were in Canius and Pythius, one of the two short stories. And they also said that the story by Cicero was written by Tacitus, not that that would actually have affected anyone. Nightmare!

DS had first day of freedom yesterday , he has done some half hearted job hunting , but is on xbox upstairs now.
There was a party on Saturday evening , at the empty house, 9 boys invited , 2 got drunk and were collected by parents , 1 was drinking shots , no surprise there then.
Had to collect DS at 8.30 am Sunday , he had stayed up all night so spent the rest of the morning in bed.
I'm glad the GCSEs are done now , hopefully get some good results in August , but DS is so laid back , he's not worried at all.
Cant believe there's been so many mistakes on exam papers! Is it a particularly bad year ? Or is this normal ?

dd has an interview for a little job at a hotel on Fri! am so excited i may get her out of house..

DD very upset about her final Maths module and has taken to her bed, completely exhausted. It is such a long haul for them, isn't it? And she still isn't finished - Statistics next week. Seems to be going on forever - and all her friends are finished.

DS has his last exam (History) tomorrow, they're all off to a field party tomorrow night to celebrate the end at last.

Re. jobs, he seems totally disinterested so I'll be giving him a list of housework jobs to do each day from Monday. Hopefully after a bit of bathroom cleaning for a week he'll decide he does want to do paid work after all...

alice - there were two 'mistakes', they wrongly attributed the author of Clodia to that of Piso and Germanicus, and confused Canius with Pythius. It is a bit of a shambles but I hope most DCs would recognize this. e.g. Dickens from Shakespeare and Tom from Dick. I think (aliena) that's why DD may not have noticed, or she may have gone for the other question.

Let's hope tomorrow's Verse goes well! It's over for us then too.

Hi Boswellia and Alice. So any mistakes in the Latin Verse paper today? DD did not find it easy. Oh well all finished now!

no mistakes noticed here! - DD had History and Latin scheduled to clash so had to have one straight after the other this afternoon -hideous meltdown this morning with the stress of juggling them. But now they are all over - I can barely believe it. Nice ready meal from Waitrose as treat tonight and lots of trashy TV. Good luck to those who've not finished yet - soon!

We're done too. I didn't wish to ask about the paper, no more need to calm nerves since it was the last one! Family outing to mark the day, none of us mentioned the elephant in the room - that this is the first of at least thirteen consecutive years' worth of exams (sigh).

taking dd to London tmrow shopping in Kings Road, God help me!! x