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.

Irian - good solid set of mocks, and hopefully the science results will focus her mind.

dingit - that's great, so pleased it went well!

dingit, that's great

Well done to your DD Irian

DD is doing Of Mice and Men, An Inspector Calls and the dreaded anthology.

bTM - same here ... have you seen York Notes do revision aids for both those books (and many other texts) and conflict poetry anthology? Just got them this morning and very happy to add them to DS' armoury ...

Yes, thanks - I think we have them for both Mice and Men and An Inspector Calls. Not sure about the conflict poetry anthology though...

DD got some (CGP I think, not York, don't know what the difference may be) via her school. Not sure if she's actually looked at them yet...maybe I should read the 'conflict poetry' ...

Something free for those interested in languages...

www.futurelearn.com/courses/cultural-studies/details

So, mock results in for recently diagnosed dyspraxic DD.
Mixed bag to say the least.

Bs for maths, sciences and languages, Fs for essay based subjects.
hmmmm. Have requested a meeting with school on how to progress. (Luckily she's running on As for English CAs so not quite as dire as it sounds, but still).

Iranian, they are a very respectable set of results. Good that the science tutor is confident.

That's great the Maths tutor worked out well Dingit.

DD doing same set texts as above. She is asking to go down a set on English back to her old teacher who she found she understood well. I'm quite happy about that.

Definitely a mixed bag there TeenandTween and opposite of my dyspraxia DD who got F in Maths but B in English. Funny how it can affect people so differently. DD was diagnosed way back in Reception though as really struggled.

My Mother has Dementia and has taken a turn for the worse and I think I have some rather testing times ahead with both DD and her over the next few months.

DD enjoyed her 6th form taster day, but in the DT Systems and Control session she was the only one to say she definitely wanted to do it, with two 'maybes'. Today they have external applicants in, hoping that some of them want to do it.

DD got one of her mock papers back on Monday and found 11 marks the teacher hadn't counted, so she can add an A to her list of results now.

HSMMaCM - Same thing happens in the real GCSE's, which is a bit scary.

I guess that's one reason why it's a good idea for them to put some effort into mocks - if the real thing comes out lower then presumably a remark is more likely?

DD brought home her exam timetable yesterday. There are a fair few before they break up for May half term. She has three exams on one day (2 German papers and a Geography paper - not brilliant, she's not a linguist and Geography has been a chore). The rest are pretty well spaced out and her last exam is 17th June. The school usually give them exam leave from May half term but nothing definite has been announced yet.

Mocks start next week. Her recent report had her on or above target for all her grades so it will be interesting to see if that translates to mock results.

Woolly - that'd be Wed 3rd July, presumably - my DD has the 2 germans and geog but also computing so if your DD complains you can tell her it could be worse!

Oh, and good luck for her mocks.

Thanks Errol. She will complain - she's 15 after all

She's actually got a bit of a bottleneck around 2/3/4 June - but on the up side it does mean that she only has 2 more exams after those dates so can begin to see light at the end of the tunnel.

She has accepted her conditional place at a new school for 6th form - she can see the new school from her bedroom window so is strangely motivated to meet the entry requirements. Amazing what the prospect of an extra hour and a half in bed can do

Yes, that's a tough week, mine has one exam on each of 2nd, 4th and 5th too inc Eng Lang and Maths which obv are particularly important ones.

Good motivator there! Nice to have the place sorted.

Another set of mocks over with now wait to see how they gone . He's just totally exhausted , rest over weekend

Well, ds had a mini breakdown over the mocks....when he said he didn't write anything in English Lit, he really didn't ; his result was unclassified (he was predicted a B, his target was an A and he got an A in last summers exam) his English teacher has now suggested to him he doesn't take the exam (after asking if he would like to do English A'level at parents evening!). As parents we think he should still sit the exam....

The HT is furious with the whole year as generally results have been poor. He has threatened to exclude any Y11 for any tiny little thing (according to DS) and is considering not giving study leave after Easter, but nothing has been announced yet.

Meanwhile DS discovered his grades, while poor for him would be good enough to get into 6th form with out doing anything, so is one happy chappy.

Lynette - I hope the head teacher is furious with the teachers too! Try and find out why he wrote nothing and find out if the teachers are suggesting he doesn't take it to benefit the school or your DS.

Lynette - Sounds like a panic attack. Did he have any of these symptoms? If so, it might be an idea to talk to the school, as pressurising him might not be the answer (although it is probably only happening because the school is under tremendous pressure to get results).

www.york.ac.uk/students/support/health/problems/exam/

Thanks for the link Littleham.

I know DS responds very badly to pressure, and I think school are trying to get the kids to revise, which is having the opposite effect on DS.

I know during my A'levels I didn't panic, I had no nerves, I just felt numb. I froze and wrote very little with disasterous results. I think the same thing happened with DS.

Hopefully realising he should still be able to get into 6th form, even if he takes subjects he wasn't planning on, will calm him down. It's certainly been a relief to me!

Feeling distant and disconnected from what is going on around you - sounds like you both had this symptom. Horrible when that happens to you.

Lynette, your poor DS. What on earth do the school think they are doing suggesting he doesn't take English? They should be looking for ways to support him

DD is getting more and more stressed - a week to go before her mocks.

Really sorry to hear this Lynette, really tough for both of you right now Is there not a counsellor the school could refer him to rather than suggest he doesn't sit it ? amazingly unhelpful of the teacher.

DD very emotional today, she overheard me talking to my Brother about Mum's heart failure and Dementia after a massive downturn this week. I had to be honest and say to her I don't know what is going to happen as I honestly don't right now.