Y13 support thread, anyone?

[cardibach]

I remember our GCSE one 2 years ago. It was a haven! I hesitate to start this as I'm not totally confident of wanting to post DDs results in the end, but I'll cross that bridge when I come to it.
So, how's the revision going? What are the tricky subjects for anyone's DC?
DD is revising steadily, but then she always does and has had some disastrous module results, so not filled with massive confidence. Biology is her issue - she knows and understands it but can't seem to give the examiner what they are looking for. We've had papers back and her tutor says she hasn't answered anything incorrectly, just hasn't said precisely what the examiner wants. Seems so unfair.

I'm stressing. Anyone else?

Thanks FantaSea, He's doing OCR. English Language exam over with, just Chemistry and Biology to go.

My DD is pink from revising in the garden. I think keeping the motivation going is really tricky too. DD has only 5 exams and has only done 1. The rest are spread over the next fortnight and some of her friends have already finished. Luckily her boyfriend does further maths and their last ones aren't until after DD's ones.

Rosie DD does OCR chemistry too. She has stopped revising now as she can't do any more. Just hope it is ok, she is very worried about it.

isthiscorrect that poor girl, what a shame.

pretty I also think it is so hard to keep the motivation going. Some of DD's friends are nearly finished and she still has 9 to go.

Very best of luck to everyone for tomorrow

Good luck to everyone for the coming exams.
Fingers crossed they go well.
Chemistry OCR B tomorrow as well as physics.
Good night sleep needed by all.

Ds seems to be ignoring all suggestions of a little last minute revision this morning. he got a good A on the last paper he did yesterday evening, so wonder if it's best to leave him to it rather than him rush one this morning and do badly.

DD just called to say Classics A2 this morning was pants. Anyone else do this subject?

Hello everyone, just checking in here for some mutual support! DS has his first Govt & Politics exam this afternoon and the second on Friday. RS (Ethics) is on Wednesday, with Philosophy of Religion next week - we got History out of the way last week, with fingers crossed for an A grade. He just texted to say General Studies went OK this morning, so is hopefully in a reasonable frame of mind for this afternoon.

DS is currently borderline A/B for both Govt & Politics and RS, which is stressing him out hugely. His teachers seem to think it's very much in the lap of the Gods ATM and will ride on how his exam technique holds up rather than his (very good) knowlege and understanding of the subjects. He has Aspergers and his very literal interpretations of questions can sometimes let him down.

He is taking a year out to apply for uni after his results, and knows he will need at least AAB to study History at an RG uni. ABB will limit his choices considerably as he is hoping to go fairly local (Cardiff, Birmingham and Southampton are all on his list of possibles.) I am so proud of what he's achieved at school after enduring some awful bullying between years 9-11, and he has massively outperformed all predictions - his CAT scores at 11 were all below 100 and he was given a 50% chance of achieving 5 GCSE passes at Grade C.

DD just texted Chem 4 (edexcel) "horrific". People are waving goodbye to their uni places (according to DD) ouch.

Ds says gov pol was ok, 6/10 ish. He also says don't panic about Chem, if everybody feels the same the grade boundaries will go down. Fingers crossed

dS said physics was ok.

HPparent
a friends dd said the same about chemistry today. Sounds pretty awful

DS said the Chemistry this afternoon (OCR) went really well, he seems quite buoyant.

Just bloody Edexcel as usual then. Had a look on Student Room, consensus was that it was awful. Hope the grade boundaries are low.

petra DS1 doing Classivs, but exams not til back end of next week - OCR. Presume that must be different to Classics? or just different exam board timing?

Chem sounds like it was not the nicest experience, however if that is pretty much the general consensus grade boundaries should reflect that - hope any DCs affected do not get too disheartened by it.

Not just edexcel HP - DD did OCR Salters an dsaid it was very strange and the worst exam she's ever done. She wasn't the only one that thought so. And a friend at another school confirmed that edexcel was awful....

BeckAndCall, I can imagine the chief chemistry examiners from all the boards meeting in a darkened room in front of a bubbling cauldron, conspiring how to make the exams as horrifying an experience as possible!

Hi Secret, glad for your DS. Exactly the opposite in this house my DS also OCR chem but he's not happy, said it was horrible ! HP hope your DD is okay.

I must have been typing at the same time as you BeckAndCall, my DS agrees with your DD. HP that picture you painted sounds right! I'm not experienced with ALevels. Just keep telling DS to move forward. 3 exams left.

Sounds like a mixed day today for our young. DD is still ranting about Edexcel but has gone to revise biology which is WJEC. Why her school use a variety of boards I don't know..

She ate a Magnum and watched a couple of Orange is the new black episodes when she got home and seems to have calmed down. I hope chem 5 is easy after this!

Lol, that is EXACTLY how it works HP. Cauldrons bubbling away.

We went straight from school to retail therapy so that was distracting. But revising biology now - our top hope for the A* she needs!

They seem to do different boards for each subject at DS college.
Maths/ Further maths is AQA, Chemistry is OCR(salters) and physics is edexel.
DS seems to think that they have been told to toughen up all the A2 papers. Does everyone else's DC come straight home to look at TSR and micro analyse every answer? As I said before it's much easier to judge how well you have done on science or maths papers compared with English.

lapsedpacifist loved your post. Best of luck to your DS.

Physics resit today - had a nervous wobble yesterday. Today said it went pretty well.

1 and half hours Further Maths study then a break tonight - they need to recharge!! His sleep was affected last night.

More PHysics on Wednesday here.

Aw, thank you summerdip! Govt & Politics didn't seem to go too well for any of DS's group - apparently the questions were on topics they have scarcely covered in class. He just seems relieved to have got through the exam though.

We've just finished watching another episode of Game of Thrones (vicarious sex and gore = neutralised teen exam angst ) which always cheers us immensely schadenfreude stylee.

'Just think! You could be Tyrion! You could be THEON!!'

Rosie my DD did OCR chemistry and has been crying about it tonight, apparently it was awful. Many of her friends didn't finish, even though she did but she had to guess a bit at the end.

HP sorry your DD's chemistry was bad too, it is so hard isn't it? How is she tonight?

DD and I were talking earlier and she said that lots of her friends are struggling to finish in lots of different subjects, not just hers. Maybe they are all getting harder?

Hi FantaSea. I hope your DD is ok. It looks like quite a few have found it hard. I just want to help my DS more but nothing I can do. He needs a C as well. We'll just have to hope they've done enough.

Fantasea, sorry about your DD. Hope she feels a bit better today. My DD was more angry than upset. Some posters on Student Room think the A will be in the low sixties for edexcel. One of the long questions was something they had never seen before. I am going to email Edexcel and tell them I will press the school to stop using their services. A lot of girls had Oxbridge and medic places riding on that exam.