Year 11 GCSE Exam Support Thread 2

[HSMMaCM]

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

hope all the artists did ok today, my dd year 8 wants to do art I'm seriously now hoping she changes her mind. She is Mrs stressy to DS'S laid back.

And on the good news front DS has had his dressings removed at Alder Hey this morning. I am amazed at how good everything looks, he has a cracking scar around the back of his hand which has 2 small deep wounds only mm wide. His palm is completely healed again great scar but no open wounds. His little finger tip is black and blue where the blood vessels have all burst, he's got no feeling in the finger tip but dr didn't think that was a problem, nothing is broken definitely which is brilliant news. While he's got no bandages he still can't write as the bruising is extensive he can hardly move his fingers. still practising with his scribe for maths as holding a pen for any length of time is near impossible. not stopping him playing on games again, first thing he did at the hospital was see if he could use a mouse!

AuntP, DD is a stress-head, but she finds Art relaxing, which is just as well! Plus she had a hyper-organised teacher who ensured everything was done in time

Glad to see your DS can still play games!

First day of art for dd seems to have gone fine. I think second day on Tuesday should be OK now too as long as she copes with timing and gets it finished OK. Has done most of foreground and "only" the background to do now - so I'm thinking should be OK even if that's slightly less detailed. Hope she manages to put all her interesting details in though as she's chosen the "fantasy landscape" brief - so putting the little strange details in will make a difference I feel
dh has been finding first day stressful too in his own way - I think he was less prepared for any change in our routine than I was

Really glad to hear that your ds's hand is so much better AuntP

• Sounds like it's healing wonderfully well

Good news on hand-gate!

Reasonably good day here. Both DC went in to school and had some useful sessions.

DS starts exams proper on Tuesday. English Lang. I think mini ding it is also on for that? IGCSE right?

DD's first exam is called Preparation for Working Life. Have not come across this one before with my older dc's.

So if you fail it you must enter 'working life' sooner and if you pass it you must delay working life.

Good news AuntP. Glad the cast is off.

Yes indeed word.
I have to say I find the mixing up of exam boards and qualifications quite confusing. Apparently, according to dd, IGCSE english is easier?
Back in the olden days we just used to do O level and the same exam board, if I remember correctly?

Word, DD is doing Eng IGCSE, but obviously not the same board as her Eng Lang isn't till after half-term!

dingit IGCSE is easier to get a C/B.

No controlled assessments and the exam is rather straightforward. But the grade boundaries for an A* are higher so trickier at that end.

I have twins so see it from both sides; one doing IGCSE, one doing GCSE.

Miss clever clogs is predicted an A*, so that will be interesting!
I wonder if it will all change again for ds in two years.
I'm sure she also did a CA, but I could be wrong, I know she did speaking / listening, me or her form tutor won't forget that meltdown in a hurry.

Oh dear, DD is predicted A/A She was predicted A for Chemistry, but got a B.

There again, she was predicted B for RE and got A*

DD did CA's for it. Definitely Speaking - big issues here too.

Dingit, there were different exam boards for O levels too!

Yeah I know Tilly, but I thought mine were all the same. It was a long time ago though!

I know I did different exam boards for different subjects - JMN and Nuffield ring a bell!

JMB

Maybe it's a bit like childbirth, you erase certain details from your memory.

Ha dingit in my case it's coz it's sooooooo long ago!

IIRC all my O-levels were Cambridge and so were A-levels except for Nuffield chemistry which was quite a new thing then.

DD has mostly AQA with I think one OCR and one excedel , and I think the chemistry and the FM are some sort of igcse. The mix of boards may explain one of the badly clashing days.

I looked at my O level certificate a couple of year's ago and can't properly remember, think they were Cambridge and no idea what A level was.

DS will be doing the new style number graded GCSE's when it's his turn in 5 years time. I was one of the last years to do O level and my Brother who is 5 years younger did GCSE's.

I'm so old I took O levels. The board was JMB I think.

My view on predictions is that they are just that. A best case guess made by a teacher.

The o level thing makes us all a similar age. Dds 16 year old boyfriends dm is 10 years younger than me! I haven't met her yet, and I'm not sure I want to!

So if the boards are mixed do they get various certificates?

I'm presuming DSs BTEC sport will be on a different certificate. So does he which is why he could care less about it....

I was first year of GCSEs - my teachers didn't have a clue what they were doing - so glad its very different for DS.

Yes, they will be on different certificates. It is worth noting that they all have to be declared to UCAS if applying to university, even BTECs.

Even BTECs...which would explain why so many people have dropped out of DS's BTEC sports class because they were getting low grades. DS will scrape a pass, because he really can't stand the teacher, but I've been encouraging him to keep on with it. He still has something else to do on it a "first attempt" as though the teacher presumes a second attempt will be necessary . Not sure what it is though; communication is not the teachers strong point, which I find really strange.

DD has her final exam timetable. All the days on the draft timetable were correct, but a couple of times have changed slightly. Her 'special arrangements' have all been taken into account, which is a weight off her mind.

Just found out that dd's best mate has chicken pox she doesn't go to the same school, so dd hasn't seen her for a couple of weeks thank goodness. Not sure what the poor girl will do about her exams.