GCSE Support Thread 2013

[wolvesarerunning]

I've been waiting for someone to start this (was on the 2012 thread last year and am unlucky enough to have dc 18 months apart in consecutive school years!) Please join me to support and share the angst with only four weeks to go now to the first written exam.

DD2 had Biology today, IGCSE so maybe a different paper to some on here.
She was really strong on it beforehand, getting marks way up in the high As on past papers.
She came out and burst into tears, just sobbed and sobbed. Said it was the hardest paper she'd ever seen and she couldn't do any of it and just answered random rubbish.
She's only just stopped sobbing enough to go to bed now.
I feel so sorry for her as she worked so hard and knew it well too. She is only young so she can retake if it is bad but she's not happy about that. She wants to do science A levels eventually so does need a good grade.
Her sister put in about 1/8th of the work when she did hers and got an A.
Feel very deflated on her behalf.

DD2 did Ten Tors in driving rain at the weekend finishing on Sunday and had her first paper on Monday afternoon. In between times my father fell dangerously ill on Sunday morning and died on Monday morning. I left home to come to France to see my father on Sunday evening. This won't be a week any of us will forget in a hurry. I hope DD2 is OK. DD1 is in the middle of A level exams (well, IB) as well. DNephew is doing KS2 SATS, my brother was meant to be playing in the US rugby 1/4 finals. Crap, crap timing. God knows how it'll all turn out. There's only one of us who's resting easy about this.

Dd said biology was ok except the last question, which nobody was sure about...

Duchesse - sorry for your loss.

DD1s infected foot has not got any better, in fact it seems to have got worse. And she hasn't had her tetanus jab (it's due on June 10th). Luckily, she has no exams until Momday now. And her jaw doesn't seem to be locking....so, it's off to the doctors this morning as soon as the younger kids have been dropped at school. Luckily she does have some revision materials at home (her plan was to go in to school every day to revise to give her day structure).

Shit, I thought I was posting onto page 11, sorry, that was rude. Really sorry, Duchesse - and Russians I hope dd's foot heals soon.

Nit - her brother keeps marching round intoning 'Gangrene of the FOOT' in a Doomy voice (copying me, I must admit, when we were watching Poldark last year - every time Elizabeth came on screen she was met with doomy proclamations of 'gangrene of the WOMB' (I do that, in my head, when I re-read the books too)). Anyway, my fault though it is, it's a bit disconcerting. But still, even allowing for that and the run out tetanus, compared to her broken fingers and her smashed in face, the foot really is the least of her worries right now. Unless she actually gets tetanus.

She is being so incredibly calm and cheerful about it all. Basically, she is my hero. What she's gone through in the last few months would have destroyed most people,I reckon. I'm sure it has had and will have an impact on how she does but the fact that she is just carrying on and isn't going all 'poor me' makes me incredibly proud.

Aw, she sounds lovely, what bad luck.

I just keep wondering what surprises August will bring in terms of sudden changes to grade boundaries etc - dd has worked really hard, but you just don't know what Gove might have up his nasty little sleeve!

Duchesse so sorry you're having such a bad time. Puts the GCSEs in perspective a bit

I worry about the results being manipulated politically too. DD1 was a victim of the whole debacle last year and looking at the past papers they seem to be getting harder and harder. After DD2 sobbing until gone midnight yesterday that the paper was worse than any she'd done before I'm dreading August.

Russians, hope your DDs foot improves soon. You sound very proud of her and with good reason :)

Duchesse and Russians, for you both - and your DC.

DD1 had PE theory yesterday, she doesnt care about it but only needs 16 marks to get her C - hope to god she managed that as it would be another one on the list.

IGCSE english today (she's got a C already, but they are retaking to aim for higher grades). Interested someone up thread said IGCSE was harder? my understanding is that it is actually easier.... she's still got AQA to come.

5 exams this week, 3 next week, then halfterm and 4 more after that. Finishes with maths on June 14 - no news about study leave yet, but am hoping she will continue going in for extra maths help whenever possible - god knows she needs it!

Poor old DD1 (I say old. She;s still only 14!) has 7 exams next week, and then 12 after half term. Whatever the impact of changing syllabus content, the process is just horrendous for the kids. Far more exacting than I remember from my day (we had longer exams, in some cases, yes, but fewer papers).

School pupils in the UK are among the most examined in the developed world (except for perhaps Singapore). Most countries have moved to graduation at 18. If there are tests at 16 these are not high-stakes like GCSE (and the number's usually about 5, not the 8-10 that's routinely expected of our 16 year-olds) but are designed to decide on 16+ progression. Much of this assessment is done by teachers.

Our Education Secretary, Michael Gove, says he wants to reform our exam system so that it's world-class. But it won't be because as I said above most countries have their high-stakes exams at 18. Even the CBI, hardly a hot bed of Marxist agitation, wants the exam system to move to 18.

I posted about this on the Local Schools Network:

www.localschoolsnetwork.org.uk/2013/02/reform-will-make-exams-system-on-a-par-with-the-worlds-best-thats-the-rhetoric-but-whats-the-reality/

boschi - iGCSEs are supposed to be harder but there's no reliable evidence to suggest they are. iGCSEs were aimed at the international market not the English one. That's because there was no way that coursework from international centres could be verified as the pupil's own work. It would also be difficult to moderate coursework from overseas. So coursework was not used in iGCSE.

There's pleny of anecdotal evidence that iGCSEs are harder but that seems to come from those, mainly independent, schools who use them. In England there's a prejudice in favour of independent schools - anything they do is judged superior to what is offered in state schools.

It's a prejudice which is shared by many politicians including Lord Adonis, Labour peer.

But in the last round of the PISA international education tests, the OECD (who run the tests) found that when socio-economic background is taken into account, English state schools outperformed private ones.

In other words, the success of private schools is down to their intake of advantaged, usually high ability children.

Well the IGCSEs my children sit do seem harder than the GCSEs their friends sit when you compare past papers.

Plus there are no modules. No coursework. Just exams. And fewer 'applied' questions in the sciences. Some of the Maths they do is done in the AS course of other boards.

Plus no retakes--at my children's schools. One shot and that's that.

DD has 1 gcse exam today and 1 tomorrow. I don't know what we'll be like next year when she has more than 1 subject !

Abuelita and Abra - interestingly diff pov! DD1 is at a good school (sec mod as we are in a GS area), and their objective is to get the DC the qualifications they need to move on to the next stage (as well as ensuring they are rounded people etc etc). We were told that IGCSE english would be less appealing to eg RG unis, but not an issue for us.

HSM - get the wine in! I stocked up in Aldi this morning... although expressed stress levels are not high, and we dont nag apart from the odd 'have you actually done ANY revision?' stress is being expressed through the medium of tantrums at deviations from what she expects as the norm... eg DD2 needing to stop at Sains to get tampax on the way to school this am!!

DD1 does not have tetanus. She has some stronger antibiotics now, and she has had a tetanus jab (plus diptheria and polio) which she should have had in March, and which had been rescheduled for next month in school. She's also had some Very Good News (we hadn't got tickets for a Thing. And now we do have tickets after all). So she is much more cheerful.

Obviously there are people who have worse runs of luck/health coming up to exams. I was at school with someone who was diagnosed with hodgkins disease in the week before our O levels started, and one of my best friends lost her mother not long before our A levels started. I myself was very sick during my O and A levels with a chronic illness. But still, all that notwithstanding - DD1 has had a very tough couple of months and yes, I am very proud of her because she never gives up, she never stops smiling, she completely counts her blessings at all times, and she isn't all 'woe is me'. She's a great kid.

bsochy I think the real problem for schools with the iGCSE until recently has been that it did not count in the league tables, . My highly selective DC's school for example that only did IGCSE Maths and English (for getting 0% GCSE A*-C in the crucial subjects) was always at the bottom of the league table for the county. It takes some guts as a school to make that decision.

Now I believe they are being counted as GCSEs in the league tables it should even out the playing field a little.

Added to that the fact that IGCSEs are harder than GCSEs for most pupils and the school risks a lower pass rate/ lower grades, now that it is counted in the league tables. Only really self-assured schools sure of their population are going to use them tbh.

thanks duchesse, its interesting isnt it? I'm a gov at our school, and we do have incredibly strong management team who are totally committed to getting the kids what they need to reach the next level (whether academic or not). we know we are going to appear to fail hideously in the ebacc equation, because of our clientele and their interests/abilities - doesnt mean we're not a good school though!! and we are ahead of our 5 a-c target inc english and maths... also ahead of national target I think, which is pretty good for totally non-selective, non-leafy suburbia type.

Oh dear - dd, who has been very calm and collected thus far, has come home almost in tears because she got 62% in the further maths practice exam they did last week (I think it's an iGCSE, but not sure - you can apparently get A** in it, so no pressure there...).

She now thinks she'll find A level maths impossible, that she was wrong ever to think she was good at maths, and that she doesn't get it at all.

Have pointed out that the Further is only an extra bit of stretching, 62% is perfectly fine for now, there are weeks yet and she can go to the extra sessions, nobody expects her suddenly to be able to do everything, and difficult things are sometimes.... difficult.

She is like me, on this - 'if I can't just do it without help, I'm obviously no good at it'.

We have no idea what a 62% equates to - she says in a normal exam with normal boundaries it's a C, but might be different in this. ANyone know? And thanks for listening!

SteamingNit If its aqa further maths igcse then last year it was 64% for an A*

store.aqa.org.uk/over/stat_pdf/AQA-I-GCSE-GDE-BDY-JUNE-2012.PDF

so if thats what's she's doing then a slap round the face with a wet fish is in order

I think it's AQA but not sure and can't ask at the mo as she's out - but yes, I just checked their boundaries too and it certainly doesn't seem as grim as she's painting it!

We'll see! And thank you

Pretty daisies - that was dd's verdict on physics too - he's hoping there's a lot more maths-y questions in the next paper