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Secondary education

Connect with other parents whose children are starting secondary school on this forum.

Y13 support thread, anyone?

700 replies

cardibach · 06/04/2014 19:20

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?

OP posts:
cardibach · 23/04/2014 18:48

I'll be well pleased with a C overall too, Fanta! She doesn't always reproduce this sort of performance in actual exams, sadly.

OP posts:
boys3 · 24/04/2014 21:59

Hello all,

DS1 finally deigned to share his A2 schedule - it's been "there in June...duh" up to now. His three subjects only have 4 exams in total, so seems much less than AS last year. He also has 2 Gen Studies exams, however they don't count towards his uni offers. I was struck though by how spread out they are ; kicks off 09:00 2nd June, but final exam not until June 20th.

Having them quite spread seemed a good thing until I realised overlap with football world cup. He is not completely football obsessed, but still I think a firm hand will be needed to keep him focused, although the occassional game might make a nice distraction I suppose.

FantaSea · 25/04/2014 09:53

boys3 what subjects is your DS doing?

My DD's exams are spread out too as she is resitting some AS modules as well so she starts on the 19th may and finishes on the 20th june - 5 weeks of stress!

boys3 · 25/04/2014 12:33

Hello Fantseas, he's doing History, English Lit and Classciv. Thankfully no AS resits, some of his friends have those and that really does seem a lot of pressure of stress. DS1 is obviously eldest, but I gather AS resits used to be in January but that has changed over the last few years - January would seem to be a lot more sensible. Don't know why it changed.

FantaSea · 25/04/2014 13:17

boys3 This is the first year that there have been no January resits, I believe. DD would have preferred to have got the resits over and done with in January but that wasn't an option. However, saying that, I have friends with older DC who say that resitting in January meant that then they were focussing on the AS and then getting behind with the A2 work. It's just all very hard isn't it?

cardibach · 26/04/2014 16:21

Well, DD has done lots of work today :)
She has now gone to a friends' for a bbq and then on into town for a night out. Hopefully it won't lead to the disaster last week's night out did...Especially as she has a lesson with her Bio tutor in the morning! She has done a load of exam questions for him to look at and advise on how to get more marks with the same knowledge!

OP posts:
bruffin · 26/04/2014 17:12

It's interesting Cardibach because we got DS report back yesterday from his physics revision course he was on at easter. They said he was very knowledgeable but he needs to translate that into answering the questions. He is consistently getting Bs and the odd A. He does seem quite focused since he came home, going into school for 7 and sometimes staying a bit later as well.

FantaSea · 26/04/2014 17:15

cardibach hope your DD has a good time Smile

Your tutor sounds very good. I have looked at mark schemes with DD and it is extremely precise. I did biology A level many years ago and I don't remember it being nearly as difficult as it is now. Also, I recall having a choice of long question whereas the exams DD do don't have any choice on the questions at all.

cardibach · 26/04/2014 21:11

WJEC gives a choice of one out of 2 essay questions, so that's good. The precision of the mark schemes makes me nervous though.

OP posts:
onadifferentplanet · 27/04/2014 08:25

May I join? Ds is doing Bio, Chemistry and English Lit . He has an unexpectedly low offer from his first choice and seems to have decided that means he can get through with minimal effort . I had hoped the couple of papers he did badly on last summer would have been the wake up call he needed but I am seeing little evidence of that right now . He has chosen to resit several science papers so has his first EMPA tomorrow ,has been on the calendar for weeks but don't think the realisation actually kicked in until yesterday!

BeckAndCall · 27/04/2014 09:08

Of course you can join in different planet! I think we almost need to start a separate scientist mums corner, there are so many people here with biology and chemistry DC!

What's an EMPA? Not a term I'm familiar with. Could be a course work or practical paper?

onadifferentplanet · 27/04/2014 09:14

It's an externally marked practical assignment, he is resitting the AS next week and doing the A2 the following week.

FantaSea · 27/04/2014 09:19

different planet welcome Smile

My DD is also doing Biology and Chemistry (and Maths) and is resitting several AS modules together with the A2. It's a nightmare - I think now that it is too large an undertaking as there is just so much to do. I also don't know what an EMPA is - DD has to do 3 practicals for each science but they just call it 'coursework' and it is worth 20% of the A2 for OCR. They seem very difficult though - but then it is all very difficult.

BackforGood · 27/04/2014 17:27

No! Don't start a sep Science Mums corner - us Mums of humanities / Arts / Essay type subjects are too few to have our own clique! Wink

ds hasn't done much revision this last week - he's done some hours in his PT job, he's done some hours just 'hanging' with a mate, but doesn't seem to have squeezed in much revision Sad.

BeckAndCall · 27/04/2014 17:36

Only joking, backforgood. We"re all in this together!

One advantage the science DC do have over the humanities and arts students is they generally know if they're right or not. Not so easy to figure out how they've done for the humanities and arts subjects. Which all adds to the stress, I recall, from the expereince of my older DC.

BackforGood · 27/04/2014 17:39
Smile Absolutely - give me a maths or science paper any day of the week.
FantaSea · 27/04/2014 17:45

DD seems to still be getting homework - I have said to just do the minimum and concentrate on her revision as after all, she is leaving in 3 weeks. Are others still getting homework? DD is finding that some of it is for her exams which are at the end, whereas she is concentrating on the stuff which is first.

backforgood it is so hard when they are not doing as much as you want them to isn't it? At 18yo you have to step back, but it is really hard. DD and I are in disagreement as to whether she should listen to loud music while she revises - I think she shouldn't but she says it helps her. This is something I have had to back off on.

BeckAndCall how many times have you lived the horrors of A levels already? I will only have to do it once...

BeckAndCall · 27/04/2014 19:00

This is number 3! So I've actually had 8 straight years of exams including plenty of years of doubling up GCSEs and A2s ( Eldest sat a few GCSEs a year early so we got a head start on the whole exam thing!).

At least when they're at uni, you can only fret and support remotely......

FantaSea · 27/04/2014 19:01

8 years! Wine

BeckAndCall · 27/04/2014 21:08

Thank you. I know. I'm a martyr to the cause.

bruffin · 27/04/2014 23:03

I thought it was stressful with a yr 11 and 13,

FantaSea · 28/04/2014 10:55

I thought it was stressful when I just had DD doing gcse!

yourlittlesecret · 28/04/2014 13:56

BeckAndCall Number 3 ! Did you find, as in most things, that each one was different in their approach to study and exams?

I have a Y11 and a Y13 at the moment. It's hard to believe that two boys who look almost like twins could be so different.
DS1 did about 4 past papers yesterday, one of them being a 3 hour exam (with loud music).
DS2 tends to prefer re- reading text books and revision guides (with quieter music).

BeckAndCall · 28/04/2014 17:01

Definitely, secret. - very different.

Eldest is a DS and he tended to put it off and put it off and then work really late into the evening and didn't have an exam timetable and thought there was more time than there really was! He did well though and by the time he was in his final year at uni he really knew how to structure his time and work to a timetable. He became a man with a life in lists - sequential activities to be done to achieve the end result. A boy after my own heart, I can tell you!

Second was DD now in her final year at uni and such a hard and consistent worker. Always with her Filofax open and with individual pieces of work listed and sub divided for action! But only likes working in the lounge with the family around her whilst watching TV. And the most artistic revision timetables you can imagine , starting at three months out. No last minute rushes for her - if it's on the timetable for Sunday morning, she got up and did it.........

And last is another DD who likewise loves nothing more than a coloured timetable with section by section entries for each subject. Then she ignores it ( the earlier up thread biology comments refer!). But needs her own space to work in - likes to be at her desk behind a closed door!but with ear phones in and Facebook open on screen. But will also work til the small hours if she hasn't done what she wants to do on any particular day.

What amazes me about them all is the need, not just ability, but the need to work with other activities going on - the Facebook, the iPod, the TV. I just can't do that and I suspect it's a generational thing.

But for them, it all seems to work so far! Keeping everything crossed whilst I'm saying that, just in case I'm tempting the exam gods......,

yourlittlesecret · 28/04/2014 17:14

I just can't do that and I suspect it's a generational thing I think it might be an age thing Wink. My best present last Christmas was a set of noise cancelling headphones so that I can read while others watch TV.

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