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!!!!!

[pigsinmud]

I've no idea how much ds1 is doing - not enough I suspect. I've never had to nag him, but I think he needs to step it up a level now. He has drifted through school not needing to do too much revision and getting reasonably good marks. However, he needed to do more when he started year 10 and he didn't. He was bitterly disappointed with a C in Core Science at the end of year 10, but I hoped it would show him how much more work he needed to do. I'm not sure it did though!

Instead he got a girlfriend and they seem to spend the evenings texting each other. She is lovely, but unfortunately she is super brainy and gets fantastic A*s with little effort....that is not the case for my ds1!

Anyone else find those CGP guides confusing - too much information on a page.

[eatyourveg]

ds was told the results of his controlled assessment in one subject yesterday which was higher than he thought it would be but the teacher issued a caveat - don't take any notice, it could be 2 grades higher or lower if they change the grade boundaries! Not much use when planning which subjects to focus on the most then and its now made him worry that in the subjects where he thought he was safe, he may potentially not be anymore and he's wondering whether to bother with his weakest subject at all

[pigsinmud]

eatyourveg ds1's school have not given any results of controlled assessments to the children this year. In year 10 Ds1 was told his science ISA was a B...in fact it turned out to be a D which dragged his core science mark down from B to C.

[Nocomet]

It's quite idiotically pressured.

Had our school suggested one after school revision class we would have exploded (and our parents would have said fuck off as school was 12 miles away in a bus free area).

OK school is only 5 miles, but no public transport here either.

I'm tempted to invoice school for petrol and time spent driving to an throw.

WTF have they been doing in lessons for the last five years.

[Nocomet]

To and ??? My minds gone blank as to the spelling

[ancientbuchanan]

It's awful. I cannot get him to take them seriously. Provided revision packs ( yes, the cgp have far too much on a page, esp for dyslexics). And he has lost his English notes.

Where oh where?

Science has had a downward trend.

This pm, after school broke up, he's just wanting to play FIFA. That's despite having had to be off for days ill.

It's infuriating.

[TeenAndTween]

nocomet to and fro

[totallyuseless]

So glad I saw this. I am really starting to worry. DD got all A* in her mocks and now thinks she knows it all, shes not done any revision. I don't think a month is long enough to go over every subject thoroughly. I really think she will get a nasty shock come the real exams unless she knuckles down now.

Its so stressful.

[havewinewilltravel]

DD did her English Language and Maths GCSEs in November so they are out of the way, thank goodness.
Revision has been on-going for quite some time here with revision classes before school and after school, during October half-term (for Eng.Lang. and Maths) and planned for the first week of the Easter holidays (they break up this Friday). DD is very driven and motivated so she is doing a lot on her own too. She sets herself very high standards so it is all quite stressful.
She also swims and therefore is still training 6 times a week, not to mention competing at weekends, so I'm always very glad when she takes a bit of down-time for herself and goes out with friends.
Will be glad when it is all over!!

[Nocomet]

TeenAndTween
My mind had gone totally blank. I think the stress is getting to the parents more than the DCs.

I was a bit unkind to DDs lovely and very hard working teachers in that post. I'm enormously grateful for all the extra work they are putting in.

However, I think it's time they let the pupils have some time at home to start revising.

They have exams starting on the 12 May, but no study leave until into June.

Rangers is on hold because several of them have AS levels, but DD1 is still singing in things.

I hope she'll say no to the concert that's absolutely in the centre of her exams. I wouldn't be surprised if she doesn't.

DD1 sings if she's stressed and can't sleep, so I prefer to keep out of it.

[Jellykat]

totallyuseless don't get too stressed, there are some DC like my DS1 who naturally retain a lot of info, he just refreshed a couple of things at the last mo. and sailed through, from GCSEs right the way to a 1st class honours degree.. It may be with straight A*s in the mocks, your DD has it under wraps.
God, that sounds patronising! i really don't mean it to be - i'm just trying to reassure you

[DustyDaisy]

How much revision are they advised to do in the holidays? My ds thinks 2 hours a day with weekends off is enough! I think at least 4 hours. He thinks I am a 'slave driving control freak'!

[TantrumsAndBalloons]

Dd has finished ICT and English language.
Also the first 2 parts of triple science

She has been revising from 4-6pm every night since feb. she is also in school for about 75% of the Easter holidays for extra revision classes.

Thankfully she has done all this without me saying a word. However ds1 will be year 11 next year and I imagine this time next year I will be sobbing that he refuses to do any revision because he doesn't think he needs to.

[Northernlurker]

So glad to see this thread. I am in the camp of having a stressed and self pressuring dd. My job is to get her to feel good about herself.
Something of a result yesterday - she got an A* on a biology mock and the highest mark in the class.
She has done the revision timetable for Easter - I don't remember doing ANY revision like that. The first week she is helping at our church holiday club in the mornings. The teacher saw that she'd only put French vocab down for the mornings and said that wasn't enough (!) so dd1 explained and the teacher apparently looked shocked at anybody doing anything other than revising. So I've told dd1 if anything else is said about it to ask them to ring me. I'm looking forward to that I can't wait for this to be over but am dreading results day. Basically dd's targets are all A* and a clean sweep of that is just going to be too hard. I'm hopeful about science and history, maybe maths. The rest we'll see. Aaaaaaaaaargh.

[TantrumsAndBalloons]

Do you think they put more pressure on themselves because of those targets northern?

My dd is also predicted a*s across the board so now she is thinking that "just" getting an A means she hasn't done well enough.

[lainiekazan]

Same here for ds.

Hitherto he hasn't done much work; he says he's starting in the Easter holidays...

[Northernlurker]

Yes I do Tantrums. I had a whole thread on here swearing complaining about that. And now I read that the new grades will have what would be the equivalent of an A** It's bloody awful. Just glad dd1 won't be effected by that but I have two more dds....

[yourlittlesecret]

nocomet We also live 6 miles from school and no public transport.
Since September DS has had after school seeions at least 3 nights a week, often more. At first they were covering curriculum stuff (don't ask) and now it's revision. He walks in exhausted on a Friday.

In answer to how much is enough? It depends on the child. I've been here before with DS1 who has a phenomenal memory and did very little revision. He came out with 8A* and 3 As. He's now doing A levels and it's a whole different story. He is working his socks off.
DS2 has the same ability but not the memory. I notice his method of revision is completely different to his brother.

[TeaAndALemonTart]

I'm worried about all A* targets too, as an A will feel like a failure, which is ridiculous.

I'm also sure that getting an A* will be harder this year.

[Asterisk]

I reckon Art (or Aaaaaghrt! as it's known in our house) should count as the equivalent of two or three GCSEs. It's as if they want to prove it isn't a 'soft subject' by expecting huge quantities of output. Pity because it's a great thing to do, but it's ruined by the stress of having to do so much.

[Nocomet]

Art is going to go to the absolute wire, I'm not pleased.
DD1 has done loads and loads, but they still seem to have heaps to finish.

I don't know when the hand in date is, but I suspect she'll still being doing her final piece up to if not beyond her first exam.

10 hour exam prep means no revision for anything else has been done and she's off on a school trip at the start of the holidays. Oh and she's promised to sing in the Easter services.

I just have everything crossed she'll muddle through in her normal indomitable fashion. She's dyslexic, she'll get A for science, and hopefully maths and art, everything else is in the lap of the gods and still would be if she'd revised every night since Christmas.

[Northernlurker]

dd was talking about what she had to do for Art but she didn't seem too freaked out. I'm actually really glad she took it as both it and textiles have provided some relief from the other subjects and I think she has enjoyed filling up the sketch books etc. Not to mention us running away from ducks and GEESE when we tried to photograph them and they charged at us (we foolishly took bread to lure them in)

[hellsbells99]

DD2 handed her final composition for music in yesterday thank god she has been staying late working on that rather than going to revision classes. Luckily no art here went through that with DD1 last year
Revision going very slow as she is still getting lots of homework with the syllabus in most subjects still not finished. Off on holiday on Sunday for a few days but broke up yesterday so hoping both DDs revise today when DD2 wakes up

[Nocomet]

Yep, DD has been staying to finish her music too and to rehearse drama. So hasn't made any other revision classes.

Fortunately science are quite happy to let her be, maths might like to see her, but she simply can't be in two places at once.

I really feel for art and drama teachers, they are trying to balance getting good grades from those who work while chasing DCs who have had IME more than enough warnings.

Sadly Ofsted had a massive go at the school for lower ability DCs results, so they daren't.

[Nocomet]

IMO