GCSEs 2012 support thread

[Kez100]

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

BringBack1996
I'd do it all again tomorrow. Too old though. 1996 changed my life.

DC6 has 23 exams starting next Monday across 11 subjects, all linear. Vile timetable with lots of heavy subjects twinned on the same day - the worst timetable any of mine have had to date.

at thought of 23 exams. You know, I've been trying to remember how many exams I had when doing my O levels (old gimmer here). It was definitely 2 papers for some subjects, but I have a hazy recollection of my entire fate in History being decided by one 3-hour paper. Which I rather flunked.

Similar situation with mine, Yellow. What subjects is it that your DC chose to get such an awful timetable. DS does triple science, two options with three exams each and one which has four

Honestly don't know how they all manage it!

Dd doesn't seem stressed, but maybe she just hides it well. She is very tired though (also does lots of sport) and has always had concentration issues. Luckily her timetable doesn't seem nearly as bad as some (20+ exams must be horrible - I guess it's the way things will be in the future with the move to all terminal exams).

English Language is her least good subject - is there any way to revise for this one?

I think DS is starting to get a little stressed, came back from work this afternoon having a big moan that he had to do an extra 20 minutes on poolside. I think he was hoping for a quiet 5 minutes looking after the reception in the sauna area to read over his physics. His exams go from the 15th May to the 26th June.

I asked DS how he was revising for eng lang - apparently they have been told to 'analyse' newspaper cuttings!

My dc3 is three and I thought I had a big age gap.

Congratulations by the way BringBack.

No help with EngLang revision I'm afraid. Ds says you can't revise for it.

Any help from you lot also greatly appreciated. I really font know what I'm going to do with him.

The one with the hair, get the marking scheme for his exam board and learn it. Get the timings down pat, see examples of work, learn the key words and phrases, it all helps get extra points. Def possible to get a better grade even if its not possible to revise. Start a new thread there are some lovely teachers on here who can help.

Hello.

DD has her first one on 14th May. French like a few others. Then it's a steady flow of English Lit, RE and another French before half term.

After half term it's double science x 2 and Geography x 2. Think the last one is about 28th June.

She's already got IT, Art, Maths and English Language in the bag. Oh and a BTEC in Careers? Not sure why that was necessary, but she got a Distinction in it!

At her school, they have been doing a thing called 'Going for Gold'. For each A-C you get, you receive a badge and when you reach the magic 5, you get a gold tie. She is collecting her gold tie this week.

That's brilliant thank you IDon'tKnowWhyICare.

I will do that and tell him what you said. He only tends to work when there's no escaping it atm. :(

First exam 15th May, 11 in total.
Dd a very reluctant reviser! She seems to think an A grade will just be handed to her on a plate. Not sure how I'm going to get through the next few weeks let alone her!

Good luck to all DC.

DS2 is sat at the moment revising music, or rather watching the BBC wildlife prog.

I'm not pushing the revision at home too much tbh. I'm in a fortunate position, that I work at a local secondary school, so I can get my hands on hundreds of extra revision aids for her, but when I asked her what I could get for her, she said that practically every lesson she does at the moment is revision.

She's got several spaces in her timetable now, as she's completed Maths and English already and she's been going to other departments for work and seems to be really focused doing it too.

I will try to persuade her to get on a French revision website that we use at school, which is mostly learning games, but very good and she has just finished reading Of Mice and Men again, so we're going to watch the film again tomorrow.

RE - she's quite good at letting everyone know her opinion on things, so I have a feeling we'll be OK on that one!

Ds does have lots of "frees" as he puts it. Supervised revision. I think this will be his saving grace!

Does anyone know, if a college wants maths and English do they mean both English? (This is what I have told ds.)

I would read that as "an English", rather than both but I wouldn't tell your ds that.

I think it's generally English Language they want, but no harm in DS thinking it means both!

I've just been looking at BBC Bitesize. It's pretty good for all subjects, including English Language Just suprised myself on a couple of French tests too! If you haven't looked before, it's worth a look. Some of them are even exam board specific.

When Gove gets his way, it will be 24 exams with everything riding on them - no modules, no early entry, no controlled assessments. And probably only one exam board as well.

That'll be easy to timetable.

Thanks Maureen, I'll get her to check out Bitesize tomorrow.

I wouldn't be sad to see the back of controlled assessments GetDownNesbitt - they have been a bit much over the last few months (especially the French ones).

I will tell DD1 about BBC bitesize. Not sure what the reaction will be though. She has studied hard all year so I think has the knowledge.

She has announced that she doesnt want to talk about anything happening after GCSEs (prom, holiday, 6th form etc). However she also doesnt want to talk about how studying is going.

We are rapidly exhausting topics of conversation!

Controlled assessments have taken over our lives for the last couple of years! Different departments within the school didn't seem to have very good coordination so at one point he was preparing for english, geography, history and science controlled assessments in the same week. It really is madness!

The French assessments have gone on and on! I lost count of the times DD came home from school telling me she'd done an exam for French!

She had a 6 hour (so all day) Geography CA last week. It should have been 3 x 2 hour assessments, but the department got the deadline wrong, so they had to take them off timetable completely for a day. DD was really pissed off, as she also had an Art deadline to work to and she lost 2 hours of Art that day.

I think DS's geography carried on for a month! It was a ten hour or so assessment but they kept getting the timetabling wrong so some weeks they wouldn't work on it at all . Better that way than all at once though.