CALLING YR11 PARENTS! There are 24 academic weeks, until the start of the GCSE's! Come and share your top tips for revision!

[MaureenMLove]

Yes, just 24 weeks! I don't know about you guys, but I'm going to do my level best, to support and encourage DD to achieve great things.

These are the plans we have.

We have left the first six weeks of term, to settle in again and work out where we need some home support. Now the hard work begins!

We have the work books from school. We have the power to bring home plenty of passed papers, thanks to me working at a secondary school and we have the power to get all A* - C grades!!

Monday's are designated English, Tuesday is Maths & Science, Wednesday is French and Thursday is French.

We're going to make flash cards, with equations, formulae and other maths rules on them. And the same for other subjects, like key words for French and Geography.

We have identified areas that need extra attention, by doing some pass papers and we are going back to basics to get them to go in and stay in!

Sooo, do you have any other top tips to share or would you just like to join my quest to guide our yr 11's to a bright future!

Ours works differently to yours. Daughter has Maths next week, so her revision is almost over (although will have to stay topped up in case she doesn't get the grade she wants) . Then comes Science modules - three after Christmas. So lots of current revision for those once the Maths is over. The rest of the time she is working on current home works as she cannot revise yet, she hasn't completed a lot of the courses themselves. Languages and English are ongoing anyway because of the ongoing assessments they get.

For her it's a case of ticking off as many exam grades as she can and revising for the rest from February half term.

I feel limp just reading your post. I've had five DC go through GCSE's in the past five years with DC6 sitting them in 24 weeks (I'll take your word for that!). I try to make them space in a too small house and I feed them things they like during study leave and I try to take them in and out to the exams so they don't have to hang around at school, but nothing like this, I'm not up to it - apart from which they'd hate it and they'd get to hate me. Horses for courses I suppose :). Best of luck!

Past six years, I counted wrong.

I think it's the constant controlled assessments that have me on edge! I've already had two boys go through GCSEs so with the twins I (hopefully) will have learnt a few more tips to help them through revision. I think my best though is not to take their word for it that they are revising - I need to see proof that good notes are being made!

DD has her 'trial' exams in January. Her school isn't calling them mocks anymore apparently! They do the trials for the first two weeks, then have a 'trial' results day. They have to go into school, the same way they would on 23rd August. There will be school photographers there, all senior staff and form tutors to congratulate, or not as the case may be!

A lot of DD' exams are module based too, but I have tried to explain that each one of them also has an exam next year, and even if it's only 20% of the grade, it might be the extra 20% she needs for a good grade.

I think it's finally starting to sink in for her. It's been bloody hard work, getting her to realise, but I think I'm getting there!

6 DC's Yellowstone! Respect to you, for still being sane! I'm in a big enough state and I've only got one!

Maureen, don't get in a state, or don't let her see it, that's my tip to you, FWIW. At least affect being chilled!

All our exams are linear except one module in one subject, so everything hinges on May/ June.

cat64 he's a he. She's a she.

Thank God my DS went to a boarding school!
I was spared this.

LOL! Oh, I sound so positive and like I have an angel don't I?

My boss describes the mind of a growing teenager the best. He says: The mind of a teenager is like a 50,000 piece jigsaw that you have to put together, to make a well rounded adult. You start with the corners and the edges and start to fill in the middle. Occasionally, a piece goes in the wrong place and you have to try again, but eventually, all the pieces full into place.

I think that sums up perfectly how it works! This week, the pieces are in the right place. Next week, however, I might lose a piece or put one in the wrong place and she will fall apart and we have to start again!

She's not always so happy to comply. No doubt, there will be a social function that she just has to go to, so we'll end up arguing! I will treasure the happy thoughts I have on it tonight though. Long may it last!

And don't worry, she doesn't know I'm worrying about it. She does at least have enough of the jigsaw in place, to know I'm only doing it for her own good!

That's what I meant cat: Maureen has a girl and you a boy! It's a different world very often.

Ds has an Italian controlled assessment tomorrow -he is still up trying to memorise his spiel as I type . We also have maths GCSE Units 1 & 2 re-sits coming up in a couple of weeks

One of the most difficult aspects of the GCSE years for us is DS's Asperger's Syndrome, which means his Executive Function skills are poor. In other words, poor lad CANNOT keep track of when his exams are, and what they are for. He is also allowed to sit his exams away from the other pupils, which adds to the total confusion. We've had invigilators refuse to let him leave the exam hall (when he's gone there by mistake) because they aren't aware of the situation.

Because some subjects are modular, he is never sure whether exams are the Real Deal, or mock exams, or practice tests or whatever. It's been hard for me to keep on top of this on his behalf - I'm in the 2nd year of a university degree course myself and find it hard to organise my own work!

Fortunately, in Year 11 the teachers seem to be far more pro-active about keeping parents informed, and exam news and timetables are posted on the school website.

Is anyone else getting outside tuition? I can't afford agency tutors, but pay a lovely young friend who studied the same GCSE subjects as DS 7 years ago and is a history graduate (DS is a history geek ) to spend a couple of hours a week helping him to revise for any upcoming exams, and going over stuff he may have missed having his head stuffed down the bog through classroom distractions.

We are hoping for expecting 6 A*-A grades and 3 Bs

24 weeks is half a year! And there's holidays too. Dd has just changed school (I admit this isn't an ideal scenario), so I don't think we'll be worrying about revision for a little while yet.

just

am i supposed to know there is 24 weeks left?

am i supposed to be designating days and making flashcards?

Just to clarify - I get some (youthful) outside help for DS because although I do a lot of work with him at home, I took my O-level exams in 1977 - and frankly, for all the use I am helping him with 2011-stylee GCSEs, I might has well have been educated on Mars .

You might find, once she has a kick start and guidance, she takes the revision on herself. My daughters room walls are covered with formulas etc for maths next week - started off by some flashcards provided by school on areas of class weakness.

Sounds like a bit of an early panic to me, Maureen. Stay calm.

My DD has her mocks next week so luckily is already into revision mode for them so I guess that's a head start.

Bear in mind, though, that there is still much of the curriculum to cover and presumably many controlled assessments to do, so I'd say don't spend time yet on reivisng at the expense of covering the new work and performing as best she can in the CAs.

FWIW, my DS didn't really revise much at all until the Easter hols and my DD1 started at about Feb half term, I think. Partly the differences between them but also just the volume of course work (as it was then) for their subjects.

I'm not panicking, honest! I just feel that a little every night, for only 4 nights a week, means you can reap the rewards at the weekends and holidays and it becomes the norm, so not a shock when you have to buckle down and lose your social life after Easter!

She has her mocks straight after Christmas, and I'd rather she didn't have to spend half the holiday with her head in her books, so just trying to guide her gently into a routine, which she can change from time to time, because she's started early enough.

I think getting stale could be a real problem.

Doing badly in mocks can be a very useful wake-up call too.

Correspondence cards with mfl verbs copied on to them, stuck to what ever is next to their bed so they can read them as they fall asleep.

I will be starting revision for ds this week, just going over stuff from last year, and making sure he knows it. I normally ran an after school revision class from now until the exams for revision/help with breaking down exam questions and how best to answer them (am an examiner),/ to cover bits of the syllabus that they were either confused on, or had missed. It worked.

Thanks for your comment Scaryteacher. She is doing exactly that right now!

She's putting key words in French on one side and the english on the other side. Then we can do what we used to do with pre-school flash cards.