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!!!!!

Trichotillomania *

LIZS was it the cyclic quadrilateral question?

yes apparently that is the one ! He found one of the angles but couldn't work out how to find the others.

That's the question DC couldn't answer either.

A day off for dd (and me from breakfasts) today......I de-stressed by cycling to work. Geography and English tomorrow and history on Friday.....then the headach that is maths revision will start.
My dd seems to have a mental meltdown as soon as she is faced with a paper. If we sit with her she can do it all really rather well but left to her own devices just freezes

LIZS Exactly the same with my son! What did he think about the penultimate indices question on N, X and Y? My son found it hard and tried to get a mark on it.

Can I join in? DS1 also did English yesterday (Inspector and OMAM), has an A* prediction, although English is his weakest subject and thought it did not go well. I knew it was bad news when he remembered to text me after the exam as he has forgotten on every other day! I didn't particularly enquire at the time as wanted him to just forget about it and focus on RE in the afternoon but hope it didn't affect that exam or make him nervous for tomorrow's other English exam. Can't wait for this to be over - he started on 8 May with Drama and won't finish until 23 June with the last of Triple Science. It's so drawn out!

Sounds like the indices was a bit of a right off too . Apparently they all found that one hard and few were successful in answering it.

Oh dear. Ds1 now has stinking cold - really blocked up and sinus pain with it. 2 to go until half term...

I suppose we should be reassured that they all found the same questions hard.

Sunshine because it is the most popular text by far and a simpler text than say Purple Hibiscus or Mister Pip. Since most examiners are teachers they know it inside out. Therefore it is much more difficult to write an A* response where you have to show a level of sophistication and originality. There is very little that will not already have been written by the previous 100 candidates you have marked. Last year a ridiculous amount of our pupils were awarded full marks on that question.

I meant by doing either Purple or Mister P.

My gosh I had no idea they had to have original ideas for GCSE English I thought original ideas were for PhDs! I did my GCSEs 25years ago and remember doing OMAM!

Well the mark scheme calls for "insightful and imaginative interpretations of text", pretty difficult with OMAM, especially with yesterday's question, very straightforward but one of the key extracts that every class in the country will have analysed in detail.

Poor dd is stressing about English tomorrow .....time to break out the baking bowl I think.....it hasn't been used since the difficult spanish paper on day 2.....

Well they can because they are novels without loads of revision sites/ guides to parrot so the pupils actually have to think for themselves. Plus you must remember that it is not as if markers have a whole school's papers anymore so if under 10% study either novel it is refreshingly original for the examiner after the repetitive dreariness of OMAM.

vaguely remember hearing about the author of a poem being used as a set text who was contacted by a student asking about her intentions behind using a particular phrase - their teacher was insistent it was for some obscure reason and symbolised something or other. Author was very puzzled and explained that she'd used that phrase because "it sounded good", and didn't actually mean anything

DD is worrying about tomorrows english paper and she is very, very post virally & weepy

Poetry for ds tomorrow.

He's cool, I'm worried.

Exactly the same here JamJimJam, DS apparently put in a couple of hours revision in the library after school, came home, had dinner, did some more revision but is on FB now. At this stage, he is old enough to know that if he isn't actually revising the only person he is hurting is himself.

I keep repeating 'FLIRT' to my ds.

Form
Language
Imagery
Rhythm
Theme

But, he's on his iPad .

Just mentioned 'FLIRT' to DS1. Thank you. The little git said, 'Never heard of it!' What, never heard any of those words? 'Joking!' apparently. [grrr]

My sense of humour has vanished.