Year 11 GCSE countdown. Revision angst begins.

[Fastenurseatbelts]

Ok. DS1 has broken up for Easter and we now have to all accept that this is it. He has been doing dribs and drabs since mocks in February and an hour- ish in the evenings of stuff set by teachers.

Nowhere near what I remember doing for my o'levels a million miles ago. Friends tell me their kids are doing nothing yet. Not sure I believe them though!

Waiting for reality to kick in with him but he still seems to be treating it all like an end of topic test in class!

What's happening in your house? Are you staying well out of it or like me walking round waving a CGP guide 24/7!!!!!

DD did AQA chemistry units 2 &3 and was pleasantly surprised how well it went this morning. Sociology went quite well yesterday as well.

DD has spoken! She said that unit 2 chemistry was good but unit 3 was hard. Every one in her cohort seems to be in agreement.

OMG my DS hasn't texted me yet either and neither has his girlfriend which is very unusual for her! I'm panicking! I too have been on student room!

Text from dd!

V brief but said it was better than biology. So i feel relieved now.

I've had a text from DS's GF and she said it went ok. She was previously worried about it (predicted A*) so thats good.

DS reckons his chemistry went ok. Thank god!

Physics for us. Apparently the questions were "strange".

Wad that physics igcse?

DD did physics IGCSE today. She said it was a very "wordy" paper.

DS has returned - was v glad he had revised one particular topic over breakfast! There was a major question on it apparently (OCR chemistry). Thinks he has done OK although dropped one mark as, he realised too late, he calculated something as having dropped 'by one third' instead of 'to one third' . . . Arghhh! I only said this morning to make sure he reads the question! Oh well, he said the rest seemed fairly straightforward.

And apparently the RE (AQA) was easy and he wrote reams. Just hope it was relevant!

He's now eating cake!

DD found chemistry 'ok', questions were as expected and most of her peers seem to have found it fairly easy so are expecting higher grade boundaries but it is on to history now. Think she is getting into the swing of it now, as she knows the best thing to do after an exam is forget about it and look ahead!

Next week is far more challenging here in terms of number of exams, mostly 2 a day but she is already exhausted and taking a power nap at the moment. Half term will give some respite as she has already given herself permission to take a day off completely.

Edexl C1 apparently was "easy" and RS also went well.

ds agreed Physics was wordy with fewer but more mark heavy questions.

DD is curled up on the sofa revising geography. Should be in school, has nasty virus off DD2. Probably won't go in tomorrow either.

If the attendance says one word about either of them (DD2 is much more likely to be in disgrace, she's been off far more), I'll suggest she'd like a clearly infectious virus spread about!

Fuckityfuckfuck. Dd got sent home with temperature, sore throat and shaking. She is currently in bed, she has first history tomorrow.

DS1 found OCR Chemisty ok. One strange question about efficiency of bus travel vs car travel that didn't seem particularly to do with chemistry.

RE full course 1st paper, he found much harder and it's the paper he's most disappointed with his performance on, so far.

Ohwhat, sorry just read your post. What does the school recommend? Is history vital?

Sending get well vibes to Ohwhats DD (fortunately DD1 doesn't have an exam until English lit on Tuesday).

This is to be followed by the burning of "Of Mice and Men" and I'm not sure she's joking. She declares it a very boring book, the plot for which fits on a very small post card.

Poor girl.

Post mortems are to be avoided, although I can understand the need to do these. I think these can be misleading and their energy needs to be focused on the next exam.

After a very heavy first week, I expect everyone to feel tired already - roll on half term as they get a proper break then.

need help please. PE exam tomorrow. Everytime we go over the path of blood through the heart it seems to change. Tried looking at various diagrams online but can't seem to work out which way the blood is going.

Starting with red oxygenated blood, is it lung via pulmonary vein to left atrium to left ventricle to body via aorta and back as blue de oxygenated blood to right ventricle via superior vena cava to right atrium to lung via pulmonary artery and then repeat?

Dd had edexcel IGCSE physics today and said it was a very hard. I have told her to forget about it as she has history tomorrow morning. It's full on and the stress levels in our house is 9.999 recurring at the moment.