GCSEs 2012 support thread

[Kez100]

Here we go........hold on tight!

Mice and Men here too in preparation for 3 Eng Lit exams next week. Don't think dd does short stories (must check).

We all get hayfever at this time of year and it's not helped at all this year by a massive field of rapeseed in full flower right opposite our house. Streaming eyes all round. Oh well, another good reason to stay at school as much as possible.

Do check because this was the mistake my daughter made but your sons sounds a different exam syllabus because he has three papers and she only has two.

She has:

One paper:
20% short stories
20% mice and men*

Second paper:
35% poems*

other 25% was controlled assessment.

She knew the work they had done on * was in the exams but the short stories have been glossed over a bit and a long time ago she just thought had been for practice. She found out yesterday it was for real! Hence the last minute study-race!

DS has 2 Eng lit papers next week, his most dreaded subject. One is on Mice and Men and An Inspector Calls, the other is on a poetry anthology - Moon and Tides plus a previously "unseen" poem. He hates English in every form and poetry most of all. I keep saying that after next week he never do English again. He has done countless CAs throughout the last two years.

Kez100 - your DS sounds just like my DS2, he's the youtube boy, DS1 is far too self righteous to break a rule.

There's a whole section on Of Mice and Men on BBC Bitesize. It breaks it down really well, I think. I'll be doing it with DD this weekend, although she really likes the book, so I think she'll be OK on that one.

Not so sure about the poems on Thursday though!

We've had a break from exams today, but she's still at school doing a Geography revision lesson. I'd have let her off going, as it's Friday and the exams aren't until after half term, but DH (the rotten old sod!) made her stay!

I have Revision Guides on 'Of Mice and Men' and 'An Inspector Calls' which I adapted from other stuff on the interent for my classes (Eng teacher as well as GCSE parent this year). I'll email them to you if you like - PM me email addresses.
Glad all is going well at the moment. DD is going to her friend-who-is-a-boy's house tonight as she says he can help her with Physics. He is excellent at it, but since he used to be her boyfriend and they are very fond of each other I'm not sure what revising will happen... I'm out anyway tonight so couldn;t supervise here.

York notes are fab for the longer texts, they've really saved DS from having to trawl through his notes as he really doesn't like English. He does find An Inspector Calls a lot easier though but I think that's because of the type of question asked.

Maths AS and Drama theory today - went okay, said "my head wasn't in the right place" but I did fine. Oh dear! Poor things feeling they have to put in super performances! Lots of pressure for our youngsters, no where near as stressful/competitive when I did them 30 years ago.

Just off out to try and see the Olympic torch arrive. Be back later and will PM for mice and men when I get back . Thanks.

I'm out for the rest of the evening, Kez , but will see to it tomorrow.

Very jealous of you having things to do tonight! I'm hoping there will be something good on the tv!

cardibach I have pm'd you.
My DS has been helping his ex girlfriend as well but with biology . Over the phone though!

well 2 exams are short and back to back, so might be considered to be one by some people Kez, and there was 25%CA too, so I am trying to check now before dd goes off out...

OK, We have on Tuesday:
Modern Drama (A view from the Bridge), followed by Prose from different Cultures (she thinks this is Mice & Men).

Then on Thursday 'Heritage Prose and Poetry' (she thinks this is Jekyl and Hyde and a Gillian Clark Poem from an anthology, but there is an alternative unseen poem question and a compulsory unseen bit of prose question somewhere too).

So no short stories (phew!), but she did sound worryingly vague about it all.

Monday: CHemistry x 2
Tuesday: English Lit 1 (Mice and Men and unseen poetry)
THursday: Physics and English Lit 2 (Inspector Calls and Heroes)
Friday: Food Tech.
Bloody hell, I'll be at the end of my tether by then, never mind DD!

Seems like everyone's DC have pretty full on weeks next week! DS has -

Monday: Biology - Units 2 and 3
Tuesday: English Lit - Of Mice and Men and An Inspector Calls
Thursday: Chemistry - Units 2 and 3 + English Lit - Anthology poetry and unseen
Friday: the dreaded Latin!

Chemistry and English lit next week. She seems to keep going on coffee and Haribo at the moment. Are other DC's off their food or is it just DD?

Mine's eating like a pig, sue , but not healthy things, oh no. Any rubbish she can find! I am a bit woried about malnutrition

Yes a busy week here next week.
2 x Biology on Monday
Eng Lit Tuesday
PE theory Wed
2x Chemistry and Eng Lit on Thurs.

DS normally hoovers up food. I know he is stressed when he doesn't eat.
He normally stops eating a few days before an English controlled assessment. So far he has been fairly relaxed but I know the English Lit is the worst subject and I suspect he will go off his food next week. I have been encouraging a big breakfast and putting "exam treats" (ie chocolate) as well as snacks in his bag.

Those revision guides went down well cardibach, especially the M+M one, thanks.

Just thought I'd say, I'm very proud of my DD and all the effort she's putting in to her exams. We have not had one bad word or stroppiness at all. She had a melt down just before they started, but sorted that together and things are just fine.

I've seen a few threads about teens that are being a real pita and not doing anything towards their exams and I can honestly say, we are doing OK! I'm not keeping her in at the weekends tied to revision books, but she knows that at some point, I will suggest we look at some work together. There is a fine balance between work and play, even during the exams and I think we've found it! (Oh so smug! Watch me combust in a weeks time and regret everything I've said! )

Hope everything is peachy for you guys too.

Glad to hear that your DD is coping so well MML.

Right. Am now making a concerted effort not to mention the words "exam" or "revision" for the next five weeks. I've gone into slight panic mode and DS is very laid back about it all. Full on next week and haven't seen much signs of revsion. Thankfully there is no study leave so all lessons at school are geared around revision and he has been to quite a few after school sessions as well. He keeps telling me to chill and that everything is going to be fine so have decided that unless he asks me to test/help him with revision I am going to let him get on with it. It doesn't help my cause that he didn't seem to do much revision for all the modules and got A*s, A's and B's but this time it seems a bit "final" and I'm afraid his blase attitude is going to bite him in the bum and undo all his previous good grades to lower his final grade. Whenever I ask him how an exam went he always says "fine" - that's all I get. I don't want chapter and verse but a bit more info would be appreciated. Everything is on a need to know basis.

I suppose I am harking back to my own exams (seems donkeys years ago now). O'level and A'levels where it was literally two years worth of work to revise for an "all or nothing" exam. I seemed to live in my bedroom for about two months. I'll be glad when it's all over and then I suppose there is the anticpation of the results.

Bloody football finals, cricket all day on the tv, laptop and iphone doesn't help my cause.

I think that's the trouble with me too Petal - my mindset is how we did our exams - all on this exam. ds is very chilled about it all - he's been doing GCSE modules since Autumn of Yr9, as far as he's concerned this is just another set. To be fair, he's come home for 5 or 6 hours today (slept at his friend's last night and is going back to watch the match there tonight), in order to revise, and he's got a very quiet week next week - Chemistry on Monday and Physics on Thursday, then nothing until the following Wednesday!

The thing is I don't want to have to say "I told you so" when the final grades come out. I don't know how they work out these goddamned module scores. He must have taken about forty odd exams already since the end of year 9 - maybe that's why he is so chilled about it all. He knows what grades he has already got in some subjects so, as you say Backforgood these are just another set of modules to them. He seems overly reliant on the school revision sessions. Oh, I don't know, maybe it's me that needs to take a chill pill.

I just keep remembering the "sick" feeling I had all through the May and June of 1978 and 1980 (yes, that long ago!) and turning over the exam paper with dread because two years worth of work was potentially going down the drain.

I think it is a good point that the modules make them more chilled. My DS already has some of his GCSEs and he's retaking a few as well as sitting some after two years. Since yr 9, like you say, he has been doing public exams.

Will change for my DD in Yr 7 though as they are scrapping modular soon.
On the whole, modular system has helped my DS work in short bursts - more his style.

I have jsut read Jekyl and Hyde

Ds doesn't really enjoy this book and thinks the question on it will be tricky.

Although I don't like the amount of testing done at primary level, I do feel being tested frequently at secondary makes the GCSE exams less stressful for teens.

I have one doing A level and one doing GCSE this year, trying hard not to nag and be suitably supportive instead