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Secondary education

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Original poster

Science GCSEs level 1 start this week!

190 replies

OrmIrian · 10/01/2012 13:03

I'm hyperventilating on behalf of DS1.... who had one wobble the day before he went back to school but is now irritatingly calm. I am dragging him kicking and screaming through his revision books. We have had lots of eye-rolling, tutting, surreptitious looking at the laptop, attempts to distract me with the Flight of Conchord DVDs.... but we've finished Biology! Hurrah! Exam on Thursday

Just chemistry and physics now..... Hmm

It's a bloody nightmare. I avoided science as much as possible at school and just scraped a C in biology. At least it makes DS feel better - he does at least know more than me.

Anyone else ?

OP posts:
Original poster
OrmIrian · 10/01/2012 16:04

No-one?

Am I all alone in my little buzzing cloud of stress?

OP posts:
Hullygully · 10/01/2012 16:05

Oh ello. Yes "we" have bio on Thurs and the others next week. AND maths.

GetOrfMoiiLand · 10/01/2012 16:11

Yes, same as Hully.

It is a fucking nightmare. DD text me all this morning after an English exam saying 'I have failed, it was crap, ran out of time'

She is really down in the dumps about it and very stressed. Sad

Original poster
OrmIrian · 10/01/2012 16:19

Oh no getorf Sad Do you think she has really 'failed' or was it just worse than she thought.

I hate exams. i didn't know watching your offspring do them would be almost as bad as doing them yourself.

OP posts:
Hullygully · 10/01/2012 16:24

Do you revise with them?

I do, I think I could take the sodding exams myself.

I am dreading the CA part of the sciences.

Dd is the year below Ds (yr 9), it has just been announced her year will probs return to linear, can't decide whether to be sad or pleased.

Fingers crossed for dd, gerrof.

GetOrfMoiiLand · 10/01/2012 16:25

It's crap. I am sure she has done well - she is always like this about exams. She really freaks out about them and gets in a complete state, just the sheer thought of them I think.

It is going to be a looooong 6 months.

Hullygully · 10/01/2012 16:26

oh yes.

ds had a CA on the war poets recently. I have never learnt so much in so short a time.

GetOrfMoiiLand · 10/01/2012 16:29

I do revise with her for some subjects, but with some she goes to revision club at school every night (and some Saturdays) and she has had her fill of it.

I revise with her for History (exactly the same modules as I studied at GCSE, History of Medicine and American West, so is like going back in time) Geography, English and Sciences. We get into shriek mode for maths (she is being tutored as we have had so many rows about algebra) and the rest she does on her own.

I am booking a holiday at the end of the month for the beginnig of July in order to have a relax after the whole GCSE crap.

Hullygully · 10/01/2012 16:30

The rest?

Is there anything left??

Holiday booking demn good idea.

I do everything except maths - which I can't!

GetOrfMoiiLand · 10/01/2012 16:31

Has anyone's child asked if they can go away with their mates to somewhere like ghaslty Cornwall for a post-GCSE piss up?

DD hasn't dared yet, I am waiting for that to rear its head though.

GetOrfMoiiLand · 10/01/2012 16:33

Oh the boring crap like technology and business studies.

Hullygully · 10/01/2012 16:35

Not yet, but ds is 14 - I'm he will tho!

Hullygully · 10/01/2012 16:36

He's only doing these four modules, then he does more next June, then Jan etc. Which means it's absolutely constant and horrid.

GetOrfMoiiLand · 10/01/2012 16:41

Oh no, he is only in Year 10 so you have got more of this stretching into infinity

She is a good girl, I hope she does well, but she gets so upset (she is also dyslexic, she gets extra time etc but she is so lacking in confidence about academic stuff bless her).

Mrsrobertduvall · 10/01/2012 16:47

Thank god it's not just me.
Dd is taking 40% of her gcse science on Thursday (yr 10.....why I have no idea)
She is ok on biology but physics and chemistry might as well be written in another language.
She has ocd/panic attacks...she does exams in a separate room but it doesn't make much difference. I keep telling her it is only an exam..it is not the end of the world, scrape a C, that's all you need.
My mantra is keep calm and carry on...this cannot destroy a whole family.

Freakyfroggie · 10/01/2012 16:49

Getorf, my dd had 2h 15m English exam this morning and was really pushed for time. Maths tomorrow! What is science level 1?

Original poster
OrmIrian · 10/01/2012 16:52

I wouldn't be revising with him if I had any choice! DD will do it on her own. DS1 has to be led/cajoled/threatened to do any work. I have let him get on with it up till now but his current levels are a disgrace so I can't anymore.

OP posts:
GetOrfMoiiLand · 10/01/2012 16:52

Probably the same exam as your dd then freaky. Iwill tell dd that she is not alone in running out of time.

MrsRobert - your poor dd with anxiety attacks. Sad

Mrsrobertduvall · 10/01/2012 16:54

Just waiting for her to come back from a science revision class...will be able to tell by the slamming of the door whether it went well Sad

JWIM · 10/01/2012 17:09

Can I empathise/sympathise?

Y10 DD doing Biology module this Thursday (we are curently doing test questions which we will discuss row about in due course no doubt); chemistry and physics and geography next week. Biology seems less angst ridden than physics (mock was not good) and chemistry. Geogrphy I think she is confident based on test questions and mock last term.

DD works hard and is diligent but I think the exam treadmill of modules and CAs is beginning to sink in - not sure if the 'all at the end' exam format I did way back in the dark ages was better.

Original poster
OrmIrian · 10/01/2012 17:17

Geography? DS is doing geography but no mention of an exam as yet..... Help!

OP posts:
GetOrfMoiiLand · 10/01/2012 17:21

I loathe geography. I don't care about urban zones and weather patterns ffs.

JWIM · 10/01/2012 21:45

Well, after the anticipated row then tears, wailing and gnashing of teeth we are back on an even keel. What will be will be and the next round of modules revision will have more parental input - no doubt that will be wrong too!

Geography is Thursday next week I think - not sure which exam board.

Best of luck to all taking and supporting.

upatdawn · 10/01/2012 21:49

DTS are mid mocks at the moment. It seems that minimal revision has been done but I suppose mocks are there to give them a kick up the backside. Or should I have sat with them to make sure they revised, are mocks really that important Confused

Hullygully · 11/01/2012 08:20

I think mocks are useful for a first stuffing of the noddle with the stuff they need for the real thing...