Mock exams

[homework]

Hi my child is going to be doing mock exams after the half term , they have been given loads of work to do , so basically there not going to have much time for anything else .
Good job we didn't book to go anywhere , my child is fully aware of the importance of these gcse exams and being a d/c grade type student is giving it there all .
Just feel sorry for them , anyone else in same predicament . Really just a bit of a moan . Although glad they see the importance of hard work, shame that future employers don't see how much graft that these type pupils put into trying to achieve pass grades with boundaries changing so much.

My kids are much younger, but I wish your dc all the best. I hope their hard work pays off!

My son is doing his mocks in November/December but appears to be doing no work for it. I have bought loads of revision books which are collecting dust even though he has great aspirations for Uni. 'Apparently' he does loads of revision in class and at lunch time (hmmm), wish I could get him to take them more seriously.

One good thing about having mocks this early is that they have time to do a rescue job on any disasters. DD's mocks weren't until February, she made a howling mess of the languages, and it was a major catchup job (especially since she decided she wanted to go on to A level in one of them!)

Good luck to your DCs.

Child has set a timetable out for week with times and pieces of work there going to cover , today he's started on history the origins of Cold War looking at bothyalta andpotsdam conferences . Then gone onto sciences , the kidneys / reproductive organs and vaccinations with looking at genes .

Don't remember it being so hard back in my day .

Star is your son naturally clever that they get though whether they work or not , some kids can and do get away with it at this level , but not necessary the next .

My dd has her (GCSE) mocks in December.
She's not working this holiday. Has been doing a lot over the last half term though, to be fair.

DD1 has a surprisingly light half term - I was expecting more work than she's got.
However her mocks will be the second week of January, which means she will only have a few days off 24-28th Dec, but will need to work most days of the Christmas holidays.

On the bright side, by the time she gets to exams in May she will have already done over 50% of her marks and will only have one subject (Maths) where she has nothing in the bag for it already.

We aren't quite there yet, but when dd gets to that stage I will build in meals out and the cinema and that sort of thing just to try and make it bearable.

Yes homework, DS is naturally bright but thinks he is cleverer than he actually is, a timetable sounds like a really old idea even just 2 x 1 hour slots a day so I might suggest this to him. The change to grade boundaries is worrying, hope all the hard work pays off for yr DC.

I really don't see the point of having Mocks so early; many subjects will be so far off finishing the course that it is not possible to set a full paper. If a full past paper is used then either the grade boundaries have to be drastically changed, or pupils get low grades because they haven't covered enough to answer the questions.
I would prefer mocks in February but most schools, including where I teach, have them before christmas; some as early as November.

Don't remember it being so hard back in my day

Yet when the kids get great results, you get plenty telling them it's because the exams have just got easier and easier.

Having mock exams before Christmas means that students have longer to sort out any issues, such as realising revision is needed, exam technique etc than leaving it until close to the real thing.

Indiogo - rather than just using a past paper as is, I put together a paper using questions that they have covered from a number if past papers

It was definitely this hard in my day (and I was only the second group to take GCSEs) I remember being sat at my desk for the entire Easter holidays before the exams, spending the Christmas completing the final Geography course work and the autumn half term reading several English texts and writing comparative essays. I was at boarding school we finished school at 4.10pm cup of tea biscuit, prep 4.30 to 5.30. Thn some spare time then prep again 7pm to 9pm every week night and then four hours on a Saturday morning.
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My DD has mocks after Christmas, she still has acres of work to do over half-term.

GCSE mocks? Yup here start of dec. not revising yet as far as I know.

I'm fairly chilled. She's a hard worker so if she should be working she would and I'm not micromanaging her- well if mocks as awful we will revisit that I guess..... But as she's number 3 it's easier to be chilled I guess.

I was still of the cohort that did the old o levels , no I didn't find them easy either , but I don't remember covering so much stuff .

Noble I have always been of the opinion that the reason results have improved is actually more to do with the standard of teaching , has improved , the only thing that I don't think that has improved is the standard of behaviour . Especially in the lower sets , the grief a child in these sets gets if they want to work is still terrible and hasn't improved since when I went to school over thirty five years .

Child is micro managing there own time , I though a timetable with rest periods in would help , but they keep over running on time when doing certain topics . Child has asd so has got fixated on doing well . Especially as there a particular course they like to do next , so need the results to get on it