Countdown to exam results. Anyone else feeling anxious?

[jellybrain]

Waiting for DS1's Gcses results on 22nd of August. He did really well last year but, all the talk of moving grade boundaries has got me worried. Fingers are very tightly crossed for maths as this is the subject he struggles with most.

[TheOriginalSteamingNit]

Oh boschy I can sympathise with that!

I think your point about them being at the schools they're at is very apposite: we don't get to choose for them to do modular exams any more than they do: they have to play the hand they're dealt, and I think many of them have worked very hard and in good faith, so good luck to all of them, I think.

[boschy]

I totally agree TOSN - they can only do what is asked of them by their school, whether its modular ("cheaty" according to some) or linear (which suits some more than others). Personally I was linear, mug it all up the night before, splurt onto page, forget all about subject. I think there is an awful lot of hard work involved in modular.

oh well, only 8 days to go and then we can all deal with the celebrations and the fall out as appropriate. For DD1, resitting maths in 6th form is pretty much a given, unless there was a fair wind and a kind god back in June.

[TheOriginalSteamingNit]

Apparently I'm not allowed to sit and wait in the car park while dd gets her results and I have to wait for a text

[mindgone]

especially for all the other "double whammy" parents waiting on two lots of results! It's bloody hard isn't it?!

[boschy]

ah TOSN, I am allowed to sit in the car park, but only at the very bottom where I cant actually see anyone. then I had a nightmare about her running down with her results and getting knocked down by a car!!

oh sod it, there's no point worrying is there? what will be will be, to channel Doris Day.

[redqueen45]

In exactly 9 1/2 hours DS1'll be receiving his A Level-like results, the Leaving Cert. Results here in Ireland being earlier than UK. Just trying to decide when to give up attempting to sleep, & go & start mopping the floors or arranging all bookshelves alphabetically... rest of bloody house slumbering peacefully .

Haven't fully grasped Irish points system, & fiendishly complex college offers thing, where you go up your preference list, as others with higher points accept place elsewhere, & decline others.... think proportional representation, it's a bit like that.

God knows how it's calculated, only know I'm bricking it. & if he's borderline will spend another week chewing fingers off till we find out if he's got a place - only 18 places on the course last year

Missing straightforward UK offers system

[ravenAK]

I'm an English teacher, who had two C/D borderline GCSE sets last year.

I keep telling myself things can't possibly be any worse this year.

.

[boschy]

raven respeck... I know it is so hard for teachers as well as parents.

the trouble is that english and maths are the gateway subjects arent they. yet many young people are not suited to either; surely there should be a different type of qualification for those who dont want to be mathematicians or study english lit?

[Gruntfuttocks]

Sympathies to all who are waiting, it's ghastly. Did it 2 years ago with DS. His father and I were lying in bed wide awake at 3.30am... he texted us at 5.30 with confirmation of his uni place - came through before the actual A2 results. Longest night of my life.
DD took hers last year and applied for uni post A levels so we avoided some of the angst on results day, but now she's saying that everyone else is really excited about results day, and she doesn't have anything to get excited about as she already has her unconditional offer - gee, you can't please some people!
Only 6 years before we get to do it all again for DC3...

[ravenAK]

Well, there isn't much requirement to study Eng Lit boschy - the gateway GCSE is English Language, or English, & there's absolutely no reason for any moderately intelligent, hardworking, well taught 16 year old not to get a grade C (unless they're being used as a political football, as last summer, obviously...).

Eng Lit's a different GCSE - increasingly restricted to higher ability students as we teachers have to game the system, sadly.

GCSE Eng/ Eng Lang measures an ability to understand & use language which is fairly crucial to further academic study. It's certainly demanding, but it really should be something most students are able to pass if they are decently taught & work hard to hone the necessary skills.

If you don't manage it then yes gateways start closing - two out of three of our local sixth form colleges won't have you for the vast majority of their courses without a C in English.

It's a bit stark, I know, but their experience is that if you can't pass English GCSE despite working your butt off, you're unlikely to cope with A Levels, whereas if you are relatively able but failed because you chose not to do any work at KS4, they'd sooner give their over-subscribed places to someone whose track record suggests they'll make good use of the opportunity.

Last year I had 60 borderliners who were either 'strivers' or 'able but idles'. Based on the previous year's grade boundaries, all but half a dozen would have been OK - once they were mucked about with, another 10 came out with Ds.

Now you could certainly argue that one way or another these were not especially academic kids, & that they should, from the outset, have been funnelled down a different pathway from 'go to college & do A Levels'. But the way the rug was unexpectedly pulled from under them was cruel.

I ran into a couple of them in CEX the other day. Nice to see them smiling & enjoying their summer - I remember the tears this time last year only too vividly.

[mayaswell]

ravenAK you've just put into words exactly what is making me feel so anxious.
I have 'able but idle' who I fear/know is going to be adequate in every but English, and he had so many warnings that 6th Form are going to tell him they're not interested.

I'm more concerned than I ever was for myself, he seems quietly confident.

[hoochymama1]

Oh Gosh, we're going to see a film today just to take our minds off it fat chance Yeay to the padded cell, Missmarples as long as it has loads of chocolate and mind numbing medication.
Both Ds's are deffo marginal, but I'm trying to put a positive face on. Hope everyone has a calm day

[mindgone]

Wow, Millais! 3 together is way beyond tough!! Best of luck with it all :-)

[LetsFaceTheMusicAndDance]

Ok I know I'm stressed out now. I have just washed the bathroom ceiling.

Someone slap me hard!

[twistyfeet]

bathroom ceiling?
Thank goodness this is the last of the 3 older kids with A levels. A big gap until number 4. He can shove off to university (while we change the locks) and take his vile room with him
Number 1 has finished her degree and is going to do some post-grad thing in the US in poncy arty films so flies off next week and number 2 is looking at Phd's to apply for.
Meanwhile I'm still dealing with Student Finance for two of them. 'Dear Mrs Twisty, you havent supplied your P60 and wage slips for the last 400 years'
'Dear Knobends, I clearly stated in triplicate for all 3 kids on all of your fucking forms that I am a stay at home Carer with no wage, dont you read them, love Twisty'
argh

[alistron1]

dd1 gets her gcse results next thursday. She sat 5 last year and did well, but not as well as she wanted. She can collect her AS general studies and english igcse results tomorrow >

[LetsFaceTheMusicAndDance]

To be fair, it was minging - like the rest of the house. Well there's no point doing much cleaning durig school holidays.

[Shootingatpigeons]

Have been very busy last couple of days but just woke up to a stomach that seems to be filling with lead. As ravenak says last year it was heartbreaking to see the tears of all those kids affected, at the A*\A\B boundaries as well. Until it became clear that schools and colleges had all had the same experiences and admissions grades were relaxed.

[teacherwith2kids]

Wishing everyone luck. Am nervous myself on behalf of a relative, a head in a school in an extremely challenging area, whose job - and in fact career, as losing this job would effectively mean they would never work as a head again - depends entirely on the school breaking the 'magic' floor level this year. The fact that in that school achieving the Government's floor target requires FAR greater progress from their cohort than getting 100% A-C in my DS's green leafy comprehensive, and incomparably reater than from our local superselective grammar is not relevant - below floor target = back into SM = sack the head. I have never seen a school work so hard for their students - open all hours and all holidays for study clubs, catch up sessions, summer schools etc etc etc - but all will have been in vain if they don't break the floor target this year.

[boschy]

if the politicians would stop fucking about with kids' futures it would be good.

A levels tomorrow - none for mine, but I am a school governor so am interested anyway.

Good luck to everyone for tomorrow, and only another 8 days for us GCSE parents...

[teacherwith2kids]

(I am not saying, by the way, that aiming for every child to have 5 good GCSEs including Maths and English isn't important. I am just fristrated by the lack of contextual information when it comes to discussing 'good' schools. Of course our local superselective grammar gets good results - any single non-A is a relative failure given the ability of the children it admits. A represents oinly expected progress for all of those children. But if way over 50% of your intake arrives at L3 or below in Year 7, then even exceptional progress does not guarantee 5 good GCSEs at the end of Year 11, and my strong belief is that progress not absolute grades should be the main indicator when considering what a 'good' school is)

[prettydaisies]

DS is waiting nervously for the post. His iGCSE results in English and Spanish were apparently posted yesterday.

[duchesse]

DD2'S are out next week. A little nervous as her exam period began on the day of the death of her grandfather, and her step-grandfather died a month later when she still had 4 or 5 to go (weird subjects meant her exams were spread over 6 weeks).

DD1 did the IB so thankfully she was able to travel this summer with her results already in hand.

[Mumofthreeteens]

Nervous, twitchy and very worried and that is just me! Spent the morning looking at sites to find out what to do if the A2 levels go dreadfully wrong. Last year ds failed 2 As subjects and severely reduced his options for uni applications. I so hope he has done well.

4 years of constant stress in August is crazy. At least here in France the kids get their bac results mid July so everyone can chill for the rest of the summer. Dc2&3 will not return to the UK to be educated especially with Gove's unfair reforms.

Good luck everyone. &