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!!!!!

[Abuelita]

Jellykat is right - there's too much change happening with exams too quickly. And now the Education Secretary in England, Michael Gove, wants the new GCSEs pegged to international league tables (PISA) because far Eastern countries do better.

But most countries do NOT have high stakes tests at age 16. That's not to say testing doesn't exist - but where it does it's restricted to a small number of subjects and is used to decide post 16 (upper secondary) progression.

UK pupils are among the most tested in the world. The OECD (which runs PISA tests) warned two years ago there was too much emphasis on raw exam results in England and this risked negative effects such as grade inflation, teaching to the test, gaming and the neglect of other important skills.

It's about time the UK moved away from these high stake tests at 16. It's not education; it's just testing.

[SupportManager]

It's nearly the Easter holidays, DD was exhausted last night, even had an early night - unheard of!! Revision sessions starting at 9am tomorrow ... so much pressure! We'd planned a weekend away over Easter but she says she has to finish some coursework with a group of 10 others (Performing Arts), and the only time they can all do is the Saturday we'd wanted to go away . I don't want to put any more pressure on her, so we might cancel.
I should add she's an A* student, so i can't imagine the pressure that students who are struggling are under.

[eatyourveg]

DustyDaisy re how much revision to do - school sent home a revision pack with a template timetable it runs as follows

10-11am
12-12.30pm
1-2pm
2-3pm
4-5pm
5-6pm

It suggests following one subject all day and using the different sessions for different topics. ds has been doing one subject in the morning and a different one in the afternoon though.

[SupportManager]

eatyourveg, that seems unrealistic to me! Tend to think focussed sessions are more help. You can sit in front of a text book for an hour, and learn sod all.
Dd has revision scheduled in but if she's alone in the house I don't know how much will actually get done. It's easy to write in a planner, it's another thing entirely to stick to it , without anyone nagging/encouraging you.

[yourlittlesecret]

eatyourveg are they seriously suggesting 7.5 hours a day revision??
That is so OTT it's ridiculous.

Those who are struggling to get going will see it as insurmountable and those who already push themselves will burn out.

I don't believe any of them need to do more than a couple of hours a day, in no more than 45 minute sessions. I'll be happy if DS does that.

We always used to go away Easter and Whit half term but that ended 2 years ago when DS1 did GCSEs. Last year he had AS and this year it's A2 / GCSEs in this house. I did ask them if they would like to go away but both said no because of exams. I will drag them out for the odd day trip.

[TeenAndTween]

yourlittlesecret Count again. 5.5 hours not 7.5 hours!

[TeenAndTween]

ps. Watching this with interest as DD1 is currently in y10 ...

[eatyourveg]

Well they won't get much chance to do the full 5.5hrs that school recommend as they are running holiday revision sessions almost every day. Today was Geography 1-3 Tuesday and Wednesday next week its 10-3 for English, Thursday its 1-3.30 and Friday 2-4 for Maths. Week after, its mainly Science subjects.

yourlittlesecret based on what school are putting on, that amounts to more than a couple of hours a day so that would give ds carte blanche to do nothing at all in addition at home. Surely he should be doing something? At the moment he seems to do about an hour and a half after school depending on how much homework is has to do and about 4-4.5hrs on Saturdays and Sundays. I would imagine he will step this up as the exams get nearer.

Is that overkill?

[Trojanhouse]

My friends dd studied for 5 hours a day her 11 plus exam.

[sausagedog12]

I'm a bit jealous of the way the schools being talked about on here are trying to help the kids so early. My son's school, a good grammar, has decided that they are not having revision lessons until the start of the GCSE's. They will not be allowed study leave and will have to go back to class after an exam to revise. Some might say that this is structured revision but I think it's a recipe for disaster. It will be hard to keep to concentration in a class of 25-30 kids. This is the first year they have done this and I feel the current year 11's are being used as a guinea pigs. Anyone have any views on this? Oh, he also has had no revision classes to date.

[eatyourveg]

I think schools are panicking (ours certainly is) the mocks were pretty dreadful and they don't want to fall foul of any grade boundary changes. Might an explanation for your school not doing so much be simply because as a grammar cohort, they may be a safer bet in terms of %A*-C and any league table position perhaps not compromised to the same extent?

[yourlittlesecret]

Good job I'm not doing Maths
eatyourveg as I said before how much revision depends on the child. I can only base it on my experience.
Ordinary comp. DS1 very able, got all A and As with far too little revision for my comfort. DS2 got all A in his mocks with not a huge amount of revision at home(no more than an hour a day). He has done lots of after school sessions though.

Doing some every day of the school holidays seems enough to me.
It has to be quality revision though. Not just holding a book open while watching Youtube. Some schools are good at teaching revision techniques.

[Nocomet]

I haven't heard any mention of revision at school in the holidays, I'd have been very angry if there was.

DD1 needs time to sort out her own revision time table, not spend time in the car going to and from school.

[SupportManager]

DD's gone off to first revision session this morning, 9am. it goes on till 12. Then i hope she'll lounge about and do nothing. She's worn out , poor girl.

[Nocomet]

First Sat of the holidays!
No way, the mummy taxi does not operate that early on Saturdays.

Occasionally, and very grumpily, on Sundays as DD1 sings in the church choir.

[TeaAndALemonTart]

Nocomet, I'm not angry I'm really pleased! I like DS revising with the teacher at special sessions. I find it very reassuring that they are on it too.

[SupportManager]

DD gets the bus to school, no mummy taxi required where we are. Session was 'excellent' apparently :) they learnt a lot. And having got up early she's had a whole afternoon to herself. So it's all going well - on Day 1 anyway!
They get a day off tomorrow, then it's back in to school again on Monday at 9am.
It is good that they have the support from the school, I have no objection to it at all.

[Nocomet]

Personally I hated organised revision, I either already knew it or the teacher just gave again the lesson (lecture at university) that made no sense the first time.

I accept with modern formulaic exams, learning what the examiner is looking for off pat is useful, but so is some sodding sleep.

DD hasn't had much of that due to art and drama exams.

DD1 is dyslexic she revises by drawing big multicoloured mind maps and scribbling on record cards. She then proceeds to stick these all over her bedroom walls. Not enough room for this on your average class room desk.

Revision is a very personal thing and because of being very bright, but totally unable to spell or keep two sentences in the same tense, what DD1 needs to concentrate on has a nasty habit of being out of sink with the rest of the class.

She probably can't spell periodic table, but if she has to listen to another explanation of what all the numbers mean and how they change with radio active decay, she'll probably explode (mind you so will her teacher if he's asked to go over it again, he'll probably go into melt down too!)

[Phaedra11]

My DS had had similar complaints about school revision classes. He says that the kids tend to ask for the teacher to go over things done recently and which they didn't fully understand. DS has generally understood and wants to revise topics completed a long time ago that he may have forgotten. I'm still happy with the school providing optional classes in the holidays and after-school though where he can make his own decisions about which will be useful. Though to honest, the pull of going-home-right-now has also been a factor in his attendance of the after-school sessions.

What is really annoying me is the Year 11s having to go in after the holidays and between the exams, for the times that used to be study leave. Once they are that close to an exam, he would be better off revising how he wants. The directed sessions might not be directed where he would find helpful and he hates the non-directed sessions, as unless they're in the classes that are streamed (Maths,English & Sciences), there are too many kids messing around for him to concentrate.

[Nocomet]

It's the fact that study leave doesn't start until well into DDs exams, if they get any at all.

No one actually seems to know for certain what is going on, which is totally ridiculous.

[Phaedra11]

I haven't heard anything official about study leave but DS has apparently been told by a teacher that there will be absolutely no study leave this year. Another parent, however, has a theory that they will be allowed study leave later on but the school is not going to announce that in advance, in case feckless parents book family holidays in Majorca or something!

[totallyuseless]

Thank you Jellykat, you didn't sound patronising at all.

Good luck to all the year 11s (and Mums)

[yourlittlesecret]

DS2 said that yesterday was a "day of prevarication, to get it out of my system". He moved all his books around, made piles of all the revision sheets, colour coded some post its, sharpened his pencils........

DS1 has stepped in and set him some physics past papers to do today . DS1 is ruthlessly focussed on his A levels, quite different to two years ago when he was doing GCSEs.

[Nocomet]

As for doing one subject all day , surely you'd doze off 1/2 way through session two.

I certainly couldn't cope with more than an hours history a day.

30 minutes English lit (15 minutes on the bus going to school, 15 minutes coming home. BF and me loathed it so much we refused to waste a revision time table slot on it. We both got A's. All those 15 minutes added up!)

[Best1sWest]

Thank God Art is over. DS had been getting to school an hour early, working through lunch, staying after school, not to mention hours at home. He seems to have picked subjects that involved a lot of extra hours. Music and Media Studies too.

Taking up time that he really needs to be using to practise his Maths ( he got an E in November).