Year 11 GCSE Exam Support Thread

[Littleham]

Is anyone else fed up with GCSE's and the stress they create? Thought I would start a support thread for the following few months. Mocks start next week at my dd3's school.

Thanks sugarplum. I'm speaking to someone this evening, I was reckoning on £30. ( AS level)

Maths tutor £20 an hour plus travel here dingit.
Very impressed Auntpetunia with your mocks papers,I find that with DD initially she is awful when assisted but after a few days sees the good results and is far more compliant.
But she won't have this sort of support through uni so I wonder how helpful it is long term.

AuntP - completely in your corner on past-papers. There is SO MUCH online that can help them practise their techniques, and spending time at the weekend with them helps you inform yourself how they are doing and gives them the security of knowing they are not doing this alone (as in, the family is behind them, encouraging and engaged with them)

Stayathome, I think you are right in wondering how much support they should get used to having seeing as Uni will be independent of any family involvement - but don't you think these days its so much harder than when we were young to succeed in your chosen subjects? The competition for good Uni places is intense, and the fact that GCSE grades are now assessed along with the A'level grades means youngsters have to start motoring academically much younger than 20 years ago ... any support is surely good support ...?

Just my opinion ...

I reckon at this stage it's about establishing good working methods - if they can already do that for themselves, great, but if they need our help that's fine too.

There's still 6th form to go; that's when they really need to crack the independent working thing. For one thing, at GCSEs they're doing a lot of subjects, some of which they'd really rather not be doing (my DD gleefully tore up her History notes at the end of year 9, I think her German and Eng Lit will have a similar fate in a few months!). Hopefully at A level and certainly beyond that, the subjects should all be ones they really want to be doing and so their motivation should be better.

This is where I worry about DS1 - he's been coaxed, mollycoddled and cossetted all the way through his A levels by DH. I know for a fact if he gets to uni, no work will be done. I can see it all falling down around him.

DD is very resistant to us helping which doesn't help. I figure I can't force her to do this but can try and facilitate things wherever possible. She has brought home her Maths papers from the Mocks and seems to want us to look through them with her which is progress. Guess for some it is like learning to walk, a lot need to lean on you until they master it themselves. Others insist on the process of falling down and picking themselves up on their own . Eventually they all manage to do it

Sadly Maths cupcakes are not to be as her friend who was telling her about the other friend's tutor got muddled up with her old babysitter. We're at her Japanese tutor right now for second lesson as school let me take her out. Much better experience than last night as far as I can hear from the other room.

One more day of mocks to go! Ds2 had 4.5 hrs of exams today. Eek!

Having had so many exams crammed into 7 school days for mocks, hopefully the real timetable will be a breeze in comparison. His real exams are spread over six WEEKS.

Just shoving this thread back onto the first page - keep in touch people!

Well to cheer you all up here are some extracts of DD'S Maths mock.

What she was asked to do - draw a 10 cm straight line. What she did - draw a 10.5cm line. When I asked her why she lost the mark she claimed it was because she had done it in pen and not pencil and was adamant the line was not longer than 10 cm until faced with the evidence when I finally found a ruler.

Asked to draw a rectangle with 14 cm perimeter. What she did - draw a square.

Asked to work out how much change someone was given if he paid with 3 x £20 notes . Had a list of what people ate which was a fair few items. Her answer was £53.65 or something like that. I'd like to eat there, lovely and cheap.

Now we've both stopped laughing I need to address her panicking when faced with this and Anyone any suggestions for a hypnotherapy download?

I feel for her. Panic is a terrible thing.

Don't know about hypnotherapy (although that might help mothers even more) but how about rescue remedy and taking deep breaths (& reading the question at least three times).

She won't try hypnotherapy, says it is a load of rubbish. She is receptive to Rescue Remedy so will get some of that. We'll practice deep breathing and I'll reinforce reading the question several times, good idea.

Guess it is a good thing it happened in the Mocks as we have time. They are having further Mocks in March for Core subjects I think so that gives us a short term goal to focus on.

I'm feeling a sense of the time going by quite fast at the moment - anyone else ?

I know you don't want her to fall asleep, but it is calming! [[http://www.byrdie.com/how-to-fall-asleep-fast]]

Great to see this come up in active convos tonight and some friendly familiar folks also with DC in Y11. Am going to need some hand-holding along with dd I can see by May (yikes!)
Mocks not too bad though some time management lessons to learn about attempting all the questions. Teachers encouraging at parents eve about how they'll be practicing papers to improve on this. Probably need to take on board idea of doing more of this and other exam technique study at home too?
Got mostly B's but targets still hopefully mainly A's
Has just applied to stay on in 6th form doing Biology, Geog, Eng Lit and Maths, though wobbling a bit on whether to do Art instead of Maths.
Any thoughts on any of this very welcome - what do yours want to do in 6th form? What do you think on the Maths/Art dilemma ?

Sorry, the link doesn't seem to want to work, but if you put in the birdie bit, it has breathing techniques!

Thanks BTM, calming is definitely the order of the day, I'll get her to try it.

Juggling, has she got any idea what she would like to do ? Also how is her Maths, is she a dead cert for at least an A or ideally A* - it has one of the biggest jumps between GCSE and A Level I have heard.

DD looking at doing Art as that's far more her thing. Big workload I believe.

DD is now worried as she has to take her Y11 report to one of the sixthform interviews. The teachers comments are very positive, but she has a poor grade (well below her predicted grade) for English Lang and she is worried it will put them off - very oversubscribed school

Juggling, DD is wobbling between Eng Lit (see above!) and Art. And possibly Philosophy/RE.
If your DC is good at maths and finds it relatively easy, I would say take it - no essays, no big time-consuming projects

Could she ask the English teacher to write her a letter saying what her predicted grade is and that the grade on report is a blip/hard marking and they expect her to meet her target of X?

Thanks Tilly and SugarPlum - I think dd is interested in doing Biology or related environmental sciences at Uni and then maybe some kind of animal research or at present rather vague "work with animals" (she enjoyed some voluntary work in an animal refuge recently) So we're both thinking Maths could be a good support to that. Has been really enjoying her Art recently but again both thinking could continue this interest through other avenues as life unfolds, without the pressure of A level? (But then we both think maybe it would just be nice/good to do after all - it's so important to enjoy things in life as well isn't it?) We've talked about it quite a bit and definitely her decision though I've tried to be both honest and encouraging about how I see things, and any possible implications for the future. I'm sure too that there must be some differences in exactly how we see things even though I've talked in terms of "we think" - for one thing dd thinks Maths will be seen as helpful more than actually being so. I'm not so sure about that - I think developing skills and confidence in maths is always going to be really useful.
But am glad for her in how her choices are coming together, I think she'll enjoy them!

Juggling: it depends how good your dd is at Maths. Some pupils find it a real struggle and a big step up. But for others it is "light relief" - the homework is mainly just practice and more practice - not the all-consuming nature of extended reading/essay-based subjects, or a practical portfolio-based subject like art.

ds1 says that Maths is genuinely a big help/support/overlap with any of the sciences.

Do have a look at uni course requirements. A lot of biology/environmental-type courses actually specify that you must have chemistry or it is very desirable; often that is the specified subject at A level, rather than biology, which is an optional extra.

She's in the top set roisin but not the top of that IYSWIM but dd and I joke that that's because there are some maths geeks in it, who've chosen Maths, Further Maths and Physics, or just those annoying people who are super good at everything, including sport, art, and music as well.
We've had some good chats recently - I've enjoyed talking it through with her Although she's put in her choices she can refine them if she changes her mind, including after GCSE results or for any other reason
Good luck to Tilly's dd for her interview

dd is pretty set on not doing chemistry or physics for A level. She knows this will rule out some things, such as being a vet - but then that is so competitive anyway and dd thinks she would worry too much about the animals which is fair enough and I can see, though she's bright and likes animals, it's probably not for her. Am hoping there are enough biology/environmental courses you can do without chemistry, but perhaps maths would help? (thanks for your helpful comments everyone)

Thanks SugarPlum. The teacher they had in Y9/10 is at least part of the reason the grade is so low - thankfully they have a really strong teacher now who is covering what the other teacher didn't and getting them up-to-speed. We hope! The interview isn't till after half-term, but it gives her something else to worry about

Juggling - really don't just 'hope' that the sort if courses your DD may want to do don't need chemistry and/or maths - check websites now, also you can email admissions tutors (my DD did that over xmas to check her possible A-level combinations for engineering and got helpful responses - probably best if the email comes from the student not the parent though obv you can help her with the wording). If there are suitable courses then your DD can choose her subjects as she wishes - if there aren't, then much better find out now than later.

IME any sort of science benefits from maths - in the case of biology/environmental with the stats options rather than mechanics.

Anyway, parents' evening last night, though it was more like teacher/pupil discussions with parents listening in (which is fine). Mostly positive, except that DD misunderstood something on her Biology ISA (reckons her teacher hadn't prepared them for it as well as some of the other classes had been) and got a disappointing mark - she'd been thinking she would redo it but the teacher was very stressy about it and may have put her off trying which may well cost her a grade (whereas for the physics ISA she got a (low) A* but thinks she can do better and the teacher was very relaxed and happy for her to have another shot at it if she wants!).

Daughter 3 now has her predicted grades. All very good.

Lets hope they translate into 'reality' grades. Or will they be like some sort of cruel mirage held up to taunt me, until I drag my weary body towards the vanishing oasis in August?

She has also ordered three revision books, so she might actually do some revision instead of you tube videos on 'how to knit'.