Year 11 GCSE Exam Support Thread 2

[HSMMaCM]

New thread ..... (DD not sure about the prom dress she has bought!!!!)

I think it helps to just focus on what they need to get to the next stage. They don't need to excel at everthing, they don't even need to pass everything, as long as they meet requirements for 6th form/college/apprenticeship/whatever they want to do next.

Is Additional Science different to Triple Science? Maybe they are different papers but they seem to all be sitting them at the same time.

That's what I keep saying to DD and I do hide my annoyance from school from her as don't think it will do her any good so you are all getting the brunt of my annoyance, apologies. I think I probably say in my sleep'You have the JLPT which counts as one, with English, English, Photography and Japanese you are sorted and in 6th form, you'll be fine'

Additional Science is different to Triple. I think friend's DSs did them last year and did 9 papers in total. As I understand it Core is 3 (one in each), then Additional is 3 more. So you could do Core amd Additional in Year 11 and have 6 papers, or split the, over two years as DD has done. What the school did with current year 12s was the ones that failed Core in year 10 resat it in Year 11 . This time round they didn't bother and made them go on to cover the work for Additonal instead.

I'm off out with Friend I was at school with next Friday, we have both moved away from Home to same place. This time last year we were drunkenly trying to count to 5 GCSE's for her DS after a few too many gins. Did tell her at the time we would be repeating it for my DD this year !

Have a good evening, it's good to let it all out. We are like swans, gliding serenely on the surface and paddling like mad underneath

Hoping to get our final timetable when DD goes back this week. She has been working hard on the maths today and stressing about the French speaking. She has been told her semi finals for British arts dance might be on the 8th may, which might clash with her drama exam, so she'll probably have to miss the dance. I'm just trying to send positive vibes.

I think the aqa sciences its unit 1 in each subject is core, U2 is additional. These are done on the same day for each of the three subjects and that makes "double science". Then U3 makes it triple.

What's the dance thing? Seems odd to schedule a competition for this sort of age in exam season.

Tell me about it Errol. They schedule the year 11s on a weeknight and the year 6s on Sunday night before SATs week! Fortunately I don't have a year 6 any more.

DD has just told me she has lost one of her revision books :(.

That HSM is a very bad piece of scheduling., how annoying. Fingers crossed her book turns up.

A swan is exactly how I have been Fairenuff ! I've just been through the AQA timetable on line and think I do have the right dates for Science and Geography so have now got a complete timetable for her. She'll be finishing 11 June.

Dd has had a provisional timetable for a while. I'm not sure what provisional means, one would assume they will not change now.
However it's about as clear as mud. It's not individual, so has every exam, and all the revision sessions too. However dd seems to have deciphered it, and has also used it to do a revision timetable using the app someone mentioned up thread, thanks to whoever that was.

DD has also had a provisional timetable, which I am not expecting to change as she has no clashes. It's a bit confusing because some of the higher / lower / science etc papers just have codes, so I'm not 100% sure which are which. We'll get a final one next week.

DD has been given 3 individualised formal timetables so far. One in about Feb, one soon after she dropped a subject, and another just before Easter. She has been asked to check each time

• is her name correct (must be legal name as on birth certificate, not a 'known as')
• are the exams as she is expecting
• are the Higher/Foundation tiers correct.
• special considerations listed correctly

dingit The main thing that can still change is the tiers. I know DD's school did initial entering prior to mocks, so would expect some tier changing after mocks. We're still pondering regarding tier for DD's physics papers, she's entered for Higher, but is finding P2 very hard.

We cancelled revision at 11am this morning and she's gone into town instead. She's in danger of burn out, and a day out seemed a better idea than looking at stuff that won't be examined until after half term.

Sounds like DD's school were doing pretty well to get the individual timetables out months ago - provisional ones then the real thing! Shame I can't say the same about the ICT teachers marking

DD went off to school at 9.30 with a bulging bag and plans to do a long list of stuff. If she does half of it, that would be great! I am particularly pleased that she didn't seem to be completely blown over by the ICT debarcle yesterday and is ploughing on. For the moment

T&T, you are right to give her some time off - there has to be a balance.

I know what you mean about burn out teen, dd is shattered this week, and has a big maths week next week ( tutoring and then mock)
I think we are fairly ok with the timetable, she has had letters saying she will do full course PE and RE.
I have a science nerd who has already sat double science, so just the triple papers for her. It sounds a lot of work doing both!

Tilly I'm not sure what it is about ICT, but it was a mess at dds school too, and they are only doing a half course, even though they were all capable of doing full.

Dingit, that science sounds like it works differently (and possibly better!) than the way DD's (AQA?) works - they do each science separately for triple, although combined for double

Yes agree about burn out. DD has two massive ulcers on the back of her throat.

Thank you T&T for mentioning legal names. I've just said to DD that every thing exam related is going in with legal name and not known name.

She said she submitted something for English recently and asked teacher which name and teacher said the one which is the one she uses as it is in the register. On her list of things to sort on Monday.

It's probably OK for CAs as they just have to be traceable back to the child (and will have candidate number on them anyway). But certificates need to be in legal name for evidence in later life that the person actually took them so need to correspond. (I had to show some certificates when we adopted to prove I had the qualifications I was claiming).

We've got:

Art 1 21/4
Art 2 22/4
Biology 12/5 x2
Chemistry 14/5 x2
RE 18/5
Engineering 19/5
Geography 19/5
English Lit 22/5
English 2/6
RE 2/6
Maths 4/6
Biology 5/6
Maths 8/6
Chemistry 9/6
Physics 12/6

I'm missing the date for the other AQA Physics exams - anybody?

Dds is edexcel. I think it only gets split into the 3 subjects at triple.
It's very confusing. The one thing I don't know is if she can get in to her selective academy with her double science A*, or if she needs her triple grades. I think probably the latter.

Good point about full name as well, my dd never uses her legal full name on anything!

I think the other physics is 20th may, according to DD's provisional timetable.

Thanks HSM

Here we go for another week. Let's hope it is as calm as it can be for everyone at this point in the proceedings.

DS has decided his week starts on a Sunday, he has a timetable of his subjects with a total of 14h of revision a week on it (probably not as much as some are doing but it is the right level for him to cope with and keep sane) and he chooses when in the week to do what and ticks them off as he goes. He spent most of yesterday doing nearly half of his revision - I think he is eyeing up a completely free Saturday.

He's gone into school today though telling me exactly home many more lessons of French and RS he has to do before he is free of them forever.

There is very much a 'countdown' mentality happening in this house.

Oddboots, your ds sounds very sensible. A whole day off is a good idea, but I'd have problems persuading dd, although she would have time if she added up all the time she wastes on social media.

DD is away on DofE expedition.

I was, as you guys know, really pissed off about the timing of this, but now it's happening I'm more sanguine. She has done a truckload of revision already and still has another three weeks until her first exam, two weeks until her French oral. She was really happy to go.

DS has gone into school today for a mixture of revision sessions and sports. Despite an early start he was super cheerful. Probably glad to break the monotony that's taken over his days recently too.

His first exam is in two weeks .