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Secondary education

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Original poster

2015 Yr 12 support thread

837 replies

Needmoresleep · 08/01/2015 11:48

Mocks this week, and the reality of AS exams in a few months is starting to hit home. I don't think it will be an easy journey, so would welcome some company.

OP posts:
SecretSquirrels · 10/05/2015 15:43

EMPA went well here so a good dress rehearsal for the real exams.
DS kicks off with C1 on Wednesday.

LIZS · 10/05/2015 16:05

Latin tomorrow and Ds has a cold.

Leeds2 · 10/05/2015 16:06

DD's first exam is geography on Tuesday.

AtiaoftheJulii · 10/05/2015 16:23

A history paper for dd2 on Wednesday. Dh just set up a table and desktop pc in her room today as the revision materials were taking over the kitchen, no one could eat at the table and the younger ones couldn't do their homework! We have A3 mindmaps all over the house, but at least they're on the walls and don't take up space! History likely to be her worst subject so she's nervous.

Vitamins all round here, and I've stocked up on painkillers and cold remedies. Dd1 got tonsillitis during GCSEs; that was fun Hmm Hope your ds feels better tomorrow LIZ

GentlyBenevolent · 10/05/2015 17:08

DD1 has geography on Tuesday, history on Wednesday, then Geog and english on Friday. 4 out of 6 papers in the first week! Then she just has the second history next week, and music after half term (plus GS A2 after that).

She seems fine right now but DD2 has a terrible cough, looks and sounds really rough. Hoping Dd1 will not get it but...fearing the worst.

Marni23 · 10/05/2015 17:17

Latin here tomorrow too. Then History on Wednesday and Philosophy on Thursday. DS has a cold and have tried to make sure he stays well away from DD, and am dosing her up with Vitamin C and honey in a desperate attempt to keep her well!

MrsUltracrepidarian · 10/05/2015 19:26

Ooooh, same here...
DS seems relatively chilled, only one exam this week, Maths on Thursday...

LimeFizz · 10/05/2015 19:26

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MrsUltracrepidarian · 10/05/2015 19:27

( I mean, keeping ill younger sibling out of the way of exam child Grin)

AtiaoftheJulii · 10/05/2015 19:30

Blimey, tough week for your dc LimeFizz Hope it goes as well as it can do. Is that everything, or does it carry on the week after?

Not that anyone else's sound much better. Good luck all round Star Dd2's busy week isn't until next week.

Northernlurker · 10/05/2015 19:35

Signing in - we have history and maths on Wednesday. Chemistry EMPA was not a happy experience but Biology was ok. I feel completely churned up tbh. Only seems like 5 minutes since the poor kid did GCSE and now here we are again. The house is covered in post it notes for history essay plans. Her room is literally plastered in mind maths and she's been working so, so hard. She wants to do Medicine though so it has to be good. Can't bear to think about results day - and then we have to do it all again! Aaaargh!

LimeFizz · 10/05/2015 21:28

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hellsbells99 · 10/05/2015 21:32

Good luck all DCs with exams this week!
DD2 only has maths on Wednesday. She is much better but still coughing and has a cold. Her physics written EMPA was a disaster last week mainly due to the head cold I think, so she will be hoping to claw back marks in the main written papers. It is normally her favourite subject.
She has looked at open days and booked a couple today - still undecided on what she wants to do though. She has also booked a Cambridge masterclass (which has totally surprised me).
She is now insured on our car so we went for our first drive today (she has already had a few lessons).
DD1 (year 13) is very tired and I think may be coming down with DD2's bug.

LimeFizz · 10/05/2015 22:20

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Message withdrawn at poster's request.

AtiaoftheJulii · 10/05/2015 23:35

EMPAs are the science practical exams. So I have learnt here!

MorvahRising · 11/05/2015 00:06

Maths C1 is the first one here on Wednesday. DS feeling reasonably confident on topics but keeps running out of time when he does practice papers.

AtiaoftheJulii · 11/05/2015 07:12

(Sorry, went into maths tutor mode rather than mum mode!)

Hmm. Is he very short of time, or just not quite finishing the last question? If it's the latter, I'd imagine that the adrenalin of the exam situation will push him through a bit quicker. I'd hope that as a FM candidate (sounds like he is doing all of maths AS & A2 this year) that he is happy with the C1 topics (assume he'd be hoping to get near full marks), so maybe he just needs to feel a bit more sure of himself. Perhaps if he did a paper today trying very deliberately to do it as fast as possible? No double checking himself, no getting distracted.

MorvahRising · 11/05/2015 07:22

Thanks Atia, yes it tends to be that he ends up not quite finishing the last question. He's OK with the topics (except for one which he's looking at today, something about surds in fractions) but tends to rush because he's worried about running out of time, and then makes silly mistakes. I'll suggest that he does a very fast whizz through a paper today as you suggest!

I know what you mean about revision stuff everywhere. We were about to set DS up in the guestroom but now MIL is coming to stay in a couple of weeks just before the busiest exam week! Not ideal!

GentlyBenevolent · 11/05/2015 08:58

DD1 has now got DD2's lurgy. She is really sick. :( damn and blast and bloody hell. DS has it too but she's in Y10 so it doesn't matter (except he unlike them has asthma and because he had full blown WC a few years back any cough makes us a bit worried because it can come back...)

Marni23 · 11/05/2015 09:05

Oh that's such bad luck GentlyBenevolent. Are you going to let the school know? Not sure how bad they have to be before extenuating circumstances kick in and I'd imagine you need a doctor's note.

Really hope she's feeling better by tomorrow-I'm always worried that illness will strike during exams and there seems to be loads of bugs around at the moment.

AtiaoftheJulii · 11/05/2015 09:10

Oh no Gently :( Hope she's over the worst of it today xxx

GentlyBenevolent · 11/05/2015 09:18

Can't get a doctors note without going to the doctor. Can't go to the doctor if at school (she is at school, always goes in during study leave, it gives structure to the day). I might get DH to ring the school and see if they advise her to try and get an emergency appointment tonight...but we would be very lucky to get one I think...

MyVisionsComeFromSoup · 11/05/2015 09:40

first exam for DD2 today (Psychology), quite a bit of stress here (she has a medical condition which amongst many other things, causes brain fog, and it's pretty unpredictable if/when she'll be ill), but we got a lot of the uni stress out of the way in Feb half term with a massive 6 unis in three days road trip, which weeded out a lot of potentials. Trouble is, her first choice is now Cambridge, so i'm joining the rest of you in UMS calculations Smile.

Exam timetable is a bit rubbish - four exams this week, three next week, then just two after half term. We had the same thing for GCSEs - three quarters of the exams before half term.

And DD1 starts her finals today as well (or rather started half an hour ago), and although she's not at home, I'm getting daily de-stress phone calls to talk her down from "I don't know anything, it's all going to be dreadful". Up till now in her head each set of exams has always had the options of "I can make it up next semester", but this is now the next semester, and the last chance to get it right. NOt that there's any danger of messing up, because even if all she manages to do is turn up to each exam and write her name on the paper, she's done enough to get a 2:1, but she's so very close to a first, and anything less than that is naturally a fail Confused.

I'm very good at soothing and patting shoulders and "there there" ing Wink.

SecretSquirrels · 11/05/2015 11:49

EMPA - externally marked practical assignment. Same as practical course work but marked by exam board instead of teacher.
DS has Core 1 on Wednesday. He has done most of the past papers and is getting near full marks. I know it is by far the easiest paper but it's very good for his confidence. He is not doing Further Maths though. They do the AQA FM course at his college which involves doing all the Maths modules in Y12 and the FM in Y13.
Getting the maximum UMS in AS is always going to be useful but, having been down that route with DS1, I am very glad DS2 is not looking at Oxbridge.

Marni23 · 11/05/2015 18:57

One down here!

DD said it (Latin) was really difficult and much harder than any past paper she'd done (particularly one part of it). TSR seems to agree, as did the others in her class, so at least it wasn't just her! Ordinarily you'd expect that to be reflected in the grade boundaries but they always seem to stay consistently high in Latin. Am trying not to think about UMS...

Good luck to any DC with exams tomorrow. Next one's Wednesday for DD.