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!!!!!

[ToFollowJulie]

We've drawn up a revision timetable together based on 4 hours/day - 3 in the morning and one late afternoon. Like others DD1 has A* targets and seems to have built herself into a state of considerable stress, so much so that she has been struggling to cope with school at all for the last 6 weeks or so. This week Dd2 is on a school trip and DH is away as well, so we are going to spend the mornings working and I have planned distraction activities for the afternoon to ensure she has a bit of a break. I feel so sorry for the pressure they are under, knowing that the whole thing is subject to so much political pressure and manipulation. I feel they're being set up to fail in some ways. Still, all I feel I can do is be supportive and positive, but the stress is affecting all of us.

[bruffin]

Ds is making himself a revision time table on getrevising.co.uk
You click the exams you are taking and it sorts a time table. From what i can gather it has all the exam boards and dates already entered.

[Best1sWest]

Thanks Bruffin, I will have a look at that.

[Dunlurking]

Thank goodness for this thread. I am not alone!

I've been quietly panicking while ds dithers. Finally, today, he's drawn up a revision schedule.

As others on here have posted, it's been the Drama and Art that have sabotaged my efforts to get him to start on revision. Can't believe the amount of Art coursework that was being set right up until this week. Completely agree with the poster who said Art should count as 2-3 GCSEs - that's a fair assessment of how much time ds spends on it. I have a worrying dislike of the Art teacher now, and really she's lovely and gets fantastic results from her students. This last week was devoted to drama practical so lots of other lessons were missed

[pigsinmud]

bruffin - have you signed up to getrevising? Just had a look at the site and think it'll catch ds1's interest. Is it good? Quite happy to pay the money, but just wondered if it's worth it.

[bruffin]

No sorry i havent.
Ds seem to think it is just beta at the moment. He was a building a revision timetable when i was reading the thread.

[SupportManager]

Revision timetable for the week drawn up, including revision sessions at school and working alone at home. All seems very organised.
She's scheduled in time off as well, made arrangments with friends. I'm very impressed!
And with that done, the rest of today is a well earned day off :)

[Nocomet]

And what has my lovely DD choose to do for A levels.
Three sciences and Art - for light relief!

Light sodding relief, it may keep her sane (which I accept maths wouldn't), but what about the rest of us.

GCSE has had me chasing to hobby craft for this that and the other and DH ordering felting needles at midnight. Every craft box, pile of old magazines and photo archive on the PC has been ransacked. Half my needlework box is missing. Day trips get diverted to take pictures of trees and not one item of uniform doesn't have acrylic paint on it. There are big yellow sploges on her shoes.

[bruffin]

Dd has just finished her photography and drama. I had a last minute dash to the Range for matt boards and jars. Then thursday night we had to sit through 3 hours of their own productions. It was far too long when dh had to go straight from long. Even the teacher said next time they are splitting it over two night.

[SupportManager]

Nocomet GCSE has had me chasing to hobby craft for this that and the other and DH ordering felting needles at midnight. Day trips get diverted to take pictures of trees
that sounds awful. What if you didn't have a car/ hobby craft/go on day trips? There's no way we could do all that!
thank goodness our kids aren't arty or crafty (at least not in that way!)

[RaspberryLemonPavlova]

DS cut down his revision after his meeting with the school progress coach. And has been told to have a completely free day on Sundays. I think though, now all the CAs are in it is easier to concentrate solely on revision.

He too has been staying late to complete his Music composition. And has had twilight sessions for Geography since September and they still haven't completed the syllabus!. We live 10 miles from school with no bus after the bus I've paid for leaves after school too. School breaks up tomorrow and I don't think there are any revision sessions planned.

DS got Maths and Eng Lit done last summer, but it hasn't eased his work load as he is doing Further Maths, plus school is entering them for both iGCSE and regular GCSE English Lang.

[Nocomet]

Actually I don't mind the arty stuff. It's all the after school sessions that get on my nerves.

There is no public transport, if they go on after hours (missing the bus) I have to go and get her. A couple of nights a week she goes out again and it makes tea a real rush.

I lived in a similar rural area and our school would never have expected parents to collect DCs after school. Almost nothing ever went on after school.

Seems very poor planning needing all this extra time.

[MorvahRising]

Totally agree about the practical subjects getting in the way. DS has spent hours and hours on his ResMat project which has meantime he can't go to the maths revision sessions. The week it was due to be finished he was up til midnight one night completing things, and it's not because he's been slacking. It's his only non-academic subject and it's taken far more time than anything else! (It's an extremely quirky coffee table, God knows where we're going to put it!!)

He is also targeted for As and A*s and is starting to get quite stressy at the amount he feels he has to do. Not helped by getting heaps of homework right up to the end of term and being expected to do revision on top of that which was quite ridiculous.

I have not chosen a good time to try and give up my evening glass of wine during the week. . . . .

[MorvahRising]

For 'meantime' read 'meant that' . . . . flipping iPad . . . .

[mydaughterandhergcses]

My daughter is struggling. I know she is very capable but she doesn't believe it, after doing in her eyes badly. (To be honest the U in biology was because of her panic attack the night before.) She got B's in everything else. but since then when ever she goes to revise she can't stop crying and breaking down and she doesn't think she is going to achieve anything and wants give up. She has only just fully started revising now I'm worried for her what can I do ?

[knitknack]

Wow, as a teacher it's so odd to read COMPLAINTS about after school/ holiday revision sessions! Especially as I've already given up three days of my (unpaid) holiday!

Blimey.

[mydaughterandhergcses]

I think also my daughter has only looked in to the future on what she wants to be so if she doesn't achieve her GCSES her life is over.

I also can see the peer pressure building up as she says NO to any revision sessiond with friends

"they are all doing bettwe then me and I've heard
them laughing at others who are in my situation I can't tell them they say its there fault they should have started revising earlier they are going to fail"

she says this a lot of the time I know the pressure must be getting on top of her now as well.

[Nocomet]

knitknack I'm incredibly grateful DDs music and drama teachers have put in so much unpaid overtime, they are absolute stars!

It's just so different to my experience of exams. You just left school at Easter and came back on the day of the Exams.

I'm just not sure how DD is supposed to find any time or energy to revise with all this running about. It's going to take longer to amalgamate all the letters about exams times and revision sessions than I spent revising for an A in history.

Also I do worry that all this handholding is a very poor model for the independent study needed for A level.

[yourlittlesecret]

DS has got a system . He chooses a subject each day. Yesterday was RE and today is History.
He has stuck A4 sheets all over the walls. His bedroom is wallpapered with revision.

[Nocomet]

DD1 mind maps and sticks them on her walls.
Trouble is she has a very cornery room with built in cupboards and book cases.

A4 would be OK, but she uses up old A3 art books and she doesn't have much A3 wide wall

[MorvahRising]

knitknack I am also very grateful for DS's teachers' input. The revision classes he has been to have been enormously helpful.

[bruffin]

Dd has borrowed ds whiteboard and writes notes all over it, then photographs it with her phone. Ds also does the same with his maths

[eatyourveg]

mydaughterandhergcses When you ask how can you help your dd when she is doubting her ability, would you consider revising with her?

Eg You could both write out french vocab on to post it stickers to put up around the house and test each other, if she is doing geography, you could record onto a cassette the case studies so that she can play them back, read the English anthology and if you get time, the set texts and maybe chat about them. All these things if you do them with her, might help her feel she's not on her own and it would boost her confidence if you took the approach of her helping you to learn rather than you helping her to revise.

I know this relies hugely on you having the time available and may not be possible but perhaps even if your bedtime reading this week is An Inspector Calls and you chat about it over dinner, it might go a little way towards boosting her self belief.

[hellsbells99]

DD2 has the concentration span of a gnat! She has been off school for Easter for 9 days already. She was away for 5 days and didn't do any revision at all - not even reading her English Lit books on her kindle but managed to read 2 other books.
Friday, she did chemistry for 4 hours - but only because I wouldn't let her go to the cinema unless she worked. Yesterday she did some geography and biology but spent 2 hours faffing around printing stuff off first. Today she wants to go shopping with a friend so I said she could if she spent the morning revising. So far she has played with the cat, faffed around sorting books out and is now playing Moon River one of my favourites on the piano. I am finding this very stressful! DD1 on the other hand is the total opposite and doing stacks for her AS revision.

[Kez100]

Back here, GCSEs again. Seems like five minutes my daughter was going through all of this in 2012.

My son is revising completely differently. I hear nothing from him until he needs a you tube video to explain something, then he texts me! I find one, send him a link, and all goes quiet again! He also has had some school revision lessons to attend.

He isn't actually sure of his sixth form choices as he hasn't got an interview until June! (He sent the application off in February!)