Year 11 GCSE Exam Support Thread 2

[HSMMaCM]

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

Fairenuff I think Soton would be quite a nice place to be at university. Quite a lot of green spaces, reasonable transport, not massively expensive. I get confused these days as to which buildings are Southampton and which are 'Southampton Solent' but they all look quite nice from the outside.

Fairenuff apologies, didn't see your post. Thank you for the suggestion, I don't think her school generally does EPQ's. I tried searching their website and nothing comes up. To be honest I wouldn't trust them not to mess it up. My poor friend has two children who last week found out they haven't yet done 2 of the modules needed for AS exam in one subject. Then in Maths Mechanics they haven't sat a core mock and in the mechanics mock all but 2 of the class got a U. It's all a bit if a mess and in an ideal world she would be going to one of the Hampshire 6th form colleges with much better reputations but she won't so it is what it is.

I don't know Southampton very well as am closer to Poole and Bournemouth so don't really go and I'm afraid so don't know the areas to live. But also think it would be a good place to be a student - not huge, plenty of outdoors stuff including water sports on doorstep plus beaches to escape and as T&T says not too expensive.

SugarPlum, brilliant plans for your DD re damage limitation - she is very lucky to have you so on the ball. And her trip to Japan to look forward to

DD was a bit when she realised she has her Art practical W/T/F this week - time seems to be flying by thank God but at least her first exam isn't till 11th May!

I thought she was pretty organised having chosen her potential A'levels!

Re the EPQ, do they "think up" a project or do the teachers suggest one?

Gosh SugarPlum it sounds like they got in a right mess there. So unfair on the students

BTM they can choose their own subject. Dd did hers in relation to languages as that is where her interest lies. She had to think of a research idea and write a 5,000 word essay showing the reason for her research, the results and her conclusions, quoting all the relevant studies that she referred to.

If anyone is considering it, I would suggest that they ask at the beginning of sixth form/college to see what kind of support/guidance is availabe (if any).

OK, so it is a research project that they do, as opposed to say an Art project?

Another here with one doing A Levels and one doing GCSEs this summer. No real advice except to say if you can squeeze a couple of uni visits in this year, then do!

We started looking last year when DS1 was coming to the end of L6 and I found it a bit hectic.

We're going to a couple of Open Days in Sept/Oct; more because he's quite undecided career wise, so want to give him some options.

I think so but dd isn't in the least bit arty so didn't even ask about that. Best to check with the school/college.

DD has gone to visit her cousins today and taken revision books on the train. She didn't do too well in a chemistry test last week, so is a bit stressed I think. She's not at all happy with her drama group, because 2 members show no interest in rehearsing at all and the person doing the lighting hasn't even seen their piece.

Thanks, Fairenuff.

HSM, group-work is so tricky - hope it all sorts itself out.

DD has gone off to the library with her mates to revise.

Horsemad, I will take your advice on board and look up some unis that she could visit!

Hmm, ds (y8) is undecided between drama and geography as a third choice GCSE HSM (few options, most decided for them) Also planning on art and music, so possibly should do a humanity even though essays not his strong point ATM?
Must be annoying when you're relying on others in a group and they don't step up to the challenge. So maybe something for us to consider regarding the drama option? I hope he'll get involved in some school plays though as they've put on some great productions in recent years - I'd love to see him get involved in something like that

DD had problems ith her Drama group amd persuaded school to let her drop it at end of year 10 and sit Japanese instead. There seemed to be those who couldn't be arsed and then the other lot with clash of egos.

Juggling. DD says she wishes she'd done geography instead of one of her other subjects ... And she's not even that keen on geography.

Anyway ... I don't need to do uni visits. I've got it planned. DD can study psychology in Southampton and live with sugar plum, who can advise on course work. That'll be ok won't it ?

absolutely fine HSM

I can return the favour if your DD wants to do childcare in Reading.

She might pass on that thanks HSM having done her work experiemce in a nursery. Think the point of no return was when they started banging each over the head with the toy frying pans. She has told me after that if I want grandchildren to look at DS !

Been AWOL for a few weeks doing other things but ds has been working for 2 hrs each night after school and bits and pieces of revision at home . But today a huge spanner has been thrown into our nicely laid plans, he fell at climbing and has possibly fractured fingers in his right hand, he has horrific rope burns from the base of his thumb across his palm to his little fingat and around his ring and second fingers. He has almost debrided the skin off his pinky ! His hand is black blue and swollen and is now wrapped up in layers upon layers of burns bandage!!! No writing for at least a month!!! OMG timing couldn't be worse .....and breath

Oh no, auntp your poor ds

What will happen about his exams? Hope he recovers soon x

petunia No!

My DD is accident prone. I've banned her from doing anything even slightly dangerous between now and the end of exams.

You'll need to speak to the exams officer on Monday regarding options for extra time and/or a scribe I guess.

Oh no. That's definitely a case for extra help for the exams! What awful timing.

Oh no Aunt Petunia I guess he won't be the first or last to do it so School will be able to put things in place, but how stressful for you all.

I cant believe the timing ! Fortunately he is entitled to a scribe anyway and has one for every subject except maths as he found it easier to do his own working out etc am going to email head of year now and arrange to meet her and senco and whoever else we need in the morning. He's just said he'll need to do loads of practice with a maths scribe to make sure they know how he works.

But he's fine, he fell 7 metres so really we are very lucky it's just a load of rope burns could have been so much worse.

AuntP Oh No! I agree with SugarPlum, I bet he's not the first to have done something to their hand. At least it's not the day before the exam

That sounds very painful Aunt P, was that on his scout trip?

Oh no! Your poor ds AuntPetunia. for you as well.

I hope it works out ok with the scribe.

Oh no! Painkillers at the ready .