GCSEs 2012 support thread

[Kez100]

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

English teacher alert!
Bit concerned about all the teenagers revlieved never to have to do English again. Have they not realised that it is a core subject because they will need it all their lives? Are they not planning to write a UCAS personal statement? Any job applications ever? No letters/phone calls of complaint?
Anyway, glad all is going well for everyone.

DD is doing English A' level - a late change of option, inspired I think by her wonderfull English teacher!

Another one here whose ds is glad to be ditching English. Yet he's always been good at it! Anyway, said it was "fine, good, easy in fact." Somehow those words worry me.
He's had a full onslaught of hay fever this week, so is dosed up to the nines.

Tomorrow he has Additional Maths and Science. There's a timetable clash so he's in isolation in between the two. Somehow though, he's got to manage a flute lesson at lunch time. The music department are going to try to get him a chaperone if they can.

clam wouldn't it reduce his stress to miss his flute lesson? Will anything terrible happen if he misses one? (Speaking as a grade 8 flautist)

squirrels it's a lifeguarding job, though she also landed a voluntary post at an old peoples home for an afternoon a week this weekend as well.

On the English front, it's imaginative writing she particularly loathes and while you might regard some personal statements as works of fiction she's generally OK with factual stuff.

It is definitely the exam DS is glad to have over, not the subject IYSWIM? I think what he dislikes is that the marking is so subjective - in other subjects he knows how he's done as he finishes but is never sure with english. They also had a talk from the principal examiner who told them that they could get marked down if the examiner was in a bad mood/tired. Not exactly inspiring confidence!

Being fluffy, DD thought Latin was really hard too. Also believes you need 55/60 for an A* and thinks she may have dropped 3 or 4 marks. Makes me wonder, if that's what they define as 'hard' how easy must 'easy' be!

gettingalifenow - Thanks for that - DD was worried she was the only one - one of her friends thought is was hard, the others thought it was OK (or so they said). She felt bad because she saw her teacher just before the exam and he wished her luck and said he was sure she would get an A* - she feels she has let him down.

DD's another with physics module 3 tomorrow. It is a strong subject for her. With this her science GCSEs are done. History, Geman and statistics are then left for after the half term. School is slowly coming to an end, trickling away rather than ending with a bang.

Ds had English today, first question on life saving was just up his street as he is a life guard.
He and his friend had a pact to use the word elephant in their English exam. Friend also LG , It appears they have answered the question about a situation they were unsure of the outcome, net writing about someone who was drowning who was the size of an elephant, not sure what the examiners are going to make of that.

cardibach He's not in the least bit stressed! Can't help feeling he should be but he was doing some Additional Maths practice papers earlier and humming away merrily to himself! He's quite happy to go along to his lesson. the weirdo

DD sat the WJEC English Language Writing and Reading papers today, she felt they both went well and didn't run out of time without getting all her points down which is fab for DD. On TES some teachers aren't happy about one of the tasks.

Physics tomorrow then nothing till after half term when it's two in the first week back then one a week till the end of June. Then it's the wait till August!

English Lang re-sit did not go as well as planned. Dd and friends thought it was quite tricky compared to the first paper.
Science ideas today, quietly confident. Then study leave, I think I'm a little bit in shock that my only has completed school and now starts a new chapter!

Angst here over Additional Maths today. Then physics. Not my idea of a good time but after this, nothing til after half term!

Physics here today as well.

@knitted, I know it's shocking how fast times goes. The first day of school seem like yesterday to me.

Dd mentioned this morning that she had a question based on a mumsnet thread on her English paper yesterday! It was a thread on the rights & wrongs of primary school leaving parties/proms.

DS just called and said the AQA physics this afternoon was horrible. It was the one he was most confident about and he said he couldn't even understand half the questions!

Glaurung that's hilarious. Hopefully your dd wasn't too distracted by the thought you were possible reading said thread whilst she was answering the question.

Oh griffin, we are just the same. I've just collected ds from school and he said that AQA physics was the hardest paper he has done since he started gcses in year 10 (and he has done every physics paper since 2007). Hopefully the grade boundaries will be lower, but why do they make the papers so different in difficulty to previously?

Really bruffin Oh no. DS was already worried about it and then our cat was killed by a car right in front of him as he and DD set off for school. I suspect he wouldn't have been in the best frame of mind.

WJEC Physics paper was very hard last week, too, IdontknowwhyIcare . I hope it doesn;t cause them a problem.

I highly doubt it put her off her stride Idontknowwhy - if it had been a thread in which I had been discussing her that might have been another story! It's just amusing that these threads are thought to be such works of literary genius that youngsters should study them imo!

Sorry to hear the physics has been tough. Hope the dc managed to do themselves justice regardless.

Oh cardibach I'm so sorry for your dc. Poor ds just before his exam :-( hopefully it didn't affect him too much. something lovely for dinner and a big hug. Hopefully nothing for him tomorrow.

Bruffin sorry iPad corrected you to griffin???

...especially orm's lad - poor cat too.

Bugger I meant Orm's ds. Think I've lost the plot with all this.