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.

OK, fair enough Errol - thanks for those thoughts, I'll have a look on Uni websites (admissions) for starters, just to clarify future possibilities with different A level options

DD has totally thrown herself into maths since getting a B in her mock. I think she's aiming high .

We went to parents evening last night. Dd is predicted A* for history, and got a C in her mock. Reading the teachers list upside down ( as you do), she was top of her class. The other class apparently had a few As. Does that mean he is a bad teacher, or marks really harshly? Dh thinks the latter, so they all come out better in the real thing.

Well - DS has his mock results back,

A grade for Maths and Biology
B grade for English Lit&Lang, History, Physics, Chemistry, German
C grade for RS (whatever...)

Geog and Classics taking an eternity to get their marks back to the kids - but whatever, the general result is a relief that he's in the 6th Form for defo, and many of his teachers confident they can get the B up to an A in the real thing ... yay!

Dilemma now is whether to (push) encourage him to do AS Maths along with his A2s (Economics, History and Politics). As he has matured, so has his ability in maths ... so an A grade at GCSE would allow him to take the A'level (in our school there's a minimum expectation of A/A* at GCSE before starting the A'level). But I've heard the step up from yr 11 to yr 12 is massive and what if he tanks? Not sure ...

What are your DCs planning to take at A'level on the basis of their mocks?

You must be pleased with that, G&T!

I'd say do encourage him to do the maths - seems like it would go well with the economics (esp the stats options I'd have thought). He's obviously an able student, so surely starting with 4 on the understanding that if he finds it too much he can drop one - not necessarily the maths - keeps his options open?

My DD still hasn't done her mocks, they start in the week after halfterm. They've got a 'taster day' tomorrow where they get sessions in 6 subjects plus time with the current 6th formers. She's hopefully done her German speaking CA by now (she totally dried on her previous 2 attempts) - DH and I were chucked out of the house yesterday so that she could practice it without any possibility of us overhearing. Neither of us speak German, we wouldn't know if it was right or not but as the weather was OK and the dog wanted walking we complied.

Dingit we ha e this with Philosophy and Ethics. She sent a sheet home saying what people got in their mocks v actual grades as I guess she didn't want parents to flip at low grades in Mocks. She scars DD to death and she gags in the morning she has her, great on Monday morning but DD says I am not allowed to intervene.

GandT, good results. I would be inclined to get him to do Maths as well and see how it pans out. What are the plans for after school ? If it is University and he wants a Russell Group type one I would be just having a look at entry requirements. We sat through a talk on facilitating subjects and they suggest two. I'm not entirely sure that Economics or Politics were on the list at the time though it was back in Year 9 and I may be totally wrong about that.

Fingers crossed that it had gone well today for her Errol. I have that issue of not understanding any of the language DD speaks. German is the one I could have helped with but not many of the schools here do it and she wasn't into doing it anyway which is sad as we have German family.

Errol, fingers crossed for your DD - mine struggles massively with the speaking CA's and still has to do them for both French and Spanish.

Dingit, DD got a C in her Eng Lang exam despite being predicted A*. She had a shit teacher last year and the good one she has this year was focusing on the Lit first. Just hope she does better in her mocks.

Just done another sixth form interview - thankfully I didn't have to go in this time. Very competitive, but she sounded quite upbeat afterwards. Just need to keep her positive till half-term and the mocks (for which she has so far done very little) are over.

g & t I'm really worried about dd doing A level maths too. She got an A, albeit taken in year 9. She's struggling with additional maths ( although last year they were self taught due to staff shortage). she is starting with a maths tutor tonight, fingers crossed this will give her a boost, more in confidence if anything, than grade.

dingit, if she is self-teaching she must be pretty good. I bet the tutor will be able to give you a good idea of where she's at - on the first meeting,my DD's tutor asked her if she was planning to take A'level maths, as she should be as he felt she is capable. She was scraping a C grade at that point, but her confidence was boosted loads by him just telling her that!

dingit - she must be good if she got an A in yr9. How the heck was she supposed to teach herself Additional Maths? My DD's maths has improved enormously since then - no way would she have been able to do the GCSE back then, but now her teacher is confident she can do both maths and Further maths for A level. I'm sure the tutor will be able to reassure your DD (and you) as to her ability.

That sound encouraging Tilly. That's exactly what I want him to tell me, if she's capable of A level. She wants to do engineering, so everything hinges on her being able to do it.

Dingit, she sounds more than capable if she got an A in Y9

I thought she was too, but she's really lost her confidence, and doesn't enjoy maths like she did at GCSE level.
Poor girl, they are all under so much pressure, I don't remember it being that hard in our day.

dingit - hope the tutor can repair some of the damage that the school appears to have done. I just checked back some of your earlier posts, I've also got a 5'1" would-be engineer so I deeply sympathise. Actually I'm feeling quite angry on your DD's behalf! Mine is lucky enough not to have been messed about by the school, none of this early GCSE business, and good teacher this year. She saw some of the Additional Maths past papers (before they decided to do igcse FM instead, which she says should be much easier) and said it looked really hard - and she's had another good teacher for this twilight class. But she's been assured that she'll be fine with the maths A levels.

What other subjects is she planning on?

She had a fantastic teacher for GCSE, then he left
She's planning Maths Physics Chemistry, and Graphic Design.
she wants to do aeronautical engineering, and is obsessed with air crash investigations ( so bagsy I don't sit next to her on the plane when we go on holiday )

Meant to ask, what is your dd doing at A level Errol, and has she any Universities in mind? My dd was looking at apprenticeships, where they pay for you to do a degree. Sound like a win win to me.

dingit - she's planning on Maths, FM, Physics and DT Systems and Control. But if they don't run the latter course (not sure what the minimum number of students is), she'll do Computing. She wants to do Electronics, though DH seems to think she might like Mechatronics whatever the heck that is. She's starting to think a bit about universities but it's still early in the process. The apprenticeship with degree pathway sounds like a particularly good idea for aeronautical eng.

Whew, well after all that, the German speaking CA is done and according to the teacher might be an A. I think part of DD's problem was worrying too much if she got something wrong - whereas (as I understand it) that doesn't matter too much, they assess what they get right.

Errol & Dingit - your girls would make Jenny Murray (R4 Womans' Hour) weep with pride ...

G&T - was there somethig particular on Woman's hour today/recently?

Draylon - that's good. My DD sounds rather similar - she's not lazy but frankly doesn't see the point of Eng. Lit, and hasn't sufficiently mastered the art of getting her thoughts down on paper in an orderly way under time constraints for the 'writey' subjects. She had her first 'English intervention' session last week - actually found it really helpful, possibly because its a different teacher. Though if anyone can give me a convincing rationale as to why she needs to be able to analyse An Inspector Calls, some 'relationships' poems and (inevitably) Of Mice and Men, I'd be most grateful, it's beyond my powers!

I wish DD was doing Woman in Black (they did it in yr8 or 9) as we saw the play in London a few years ago, it was really good!

Yes, agree it's nice for them to show some different abilities - that's why we were pleased DD chose Drama as one of her options. She'd have preferred not to do a language but it was compulsory, and (now she's finally managed to do the Speaking!) should be OK with that. (her English intervention is A/B borderline, the school likes good A/A* stats!)

Finally! We got DD's results. They kept them until parents evening last week. DD had to reschedule her interview at college because she didn't have her mock results and the school wouldn't give them to her early!

Anyway....A* in geog and history, A in maths, B in English and Spanish, C in core and additional science (ouch!) and B in art. She will need at least a B in the two science exams to do physics and biology at A level - her targets are B and the teacher seems confident but she still has lots of work to do. Highest marks in her tutor group!!

The maths tutoring was a revelation. Dd says she learnt more from him in an hour, than she does in a week at school.( not difficult, as they had no teacher again today) He seemed quite please with her work and gave her homework. He was quite positive about her doing A level, and said he could tell she enjoyed maths.