Finishing (not starting) Year 13 support thread (number 5!)

[Littleham]

Exam season starts....

Oh dear, ds just called to say C3 (AQA) was the worst exam he's ever done, the paper was totally different to previous papers. On his way home now.

Thankyou Molio will do so later.

Sorry, not AQA, was OCR

Anatares, I read your DS's verdict on C3 to my DD and her boyfriend, who have just arrivedhom,e and they completely agree. Guess that's another one where we'll have to hope for low grade boundaries.

Edexcel C3 here. Not heard from DD, but Student Room postings say how awful it was and how much harder than previous papers. Oh dear

Littleham would you be able to check DD's course please?

Oh no Anta was that a maths one?

Happy to check GypsyFloss (just bear in mind that it might be different this year). What is the course name, course code and university. PM me if you don't want to post it on here.

Sorry to hear about the Maths exam.

I think that since the 2013 Edexcel C3 paper, there seems to have been an attempt to make maths papers less formulaic and more testing of understanding. They were becoming a test of whether students could learn methods, not of whether they actually knew what was going on.

Unfortunately I'm not sure whether maths teachers have caught up with that!

DS did OCR C3 and he said it was "evil" he thinks did ok though. Just C4 left now on Tuesday.

DD's text verdict on C3.....'Ermmm I'm not really sure...'

Not good news about the C3 Maths. Thank goodness DS did AQA - he has already done C3 & C4 and only has mechanics left to do for Maths. He thought both papers went ok - they weren't easy but "do-able", I think his words were.

I really think it's about time they scrapped all these different exam boards and just have one, so that everyone is doing the same exam and are on a level playing field. The current system seems so unfair.

I completely agree about the different exam boards bigbluebus - it seems such a ridiculous system, the new 2017 maths GCSE being a case in point. Edexel and OCR were deemed to be too hard, leaving the maths departments in limbo as to how to teach the new curriculum - an utter mess. I have a DS in Year 9 who will be a guinea pig for the Kim Jong-Gove GCSEs. I am not looking forward to it.

Oh well, time for our DCs to forget C3 and move on.....
DD has exams on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday next week! chemistry, C4 and biology ....and then finished!
Next week's exams were what DD was originally dreading but after the papers so far, I'm sure they can't be worse

Yes definitely - there's an empty nest thread going there, but mine is not going to be anywhere near empty, so I'd not really been wanting to join that one. But I would like to hear how everyone gets on

Dd1 was happy with C3 (happier after she went through the answers on TSR!), and is currently revising for C4 on Tuesday. She has her second classics paper on Tuesday too - because they clash in the afternoon, she is doing her maths first thing (there must be something else sitting that morning?) and then has to spend three hours in isolation! There are 4 of them, so it should be reasonably pleasant, and at least she'll have to do some last minute revision

Sounds good mumslife! It may also help us with DD2's ucas application as at the moment she doesn't know what to apply for or where .
I just hope DD1 gets the grades she needs.....otherwise I might not have anything to post on the new thread .
DD1 has just arrived home with her friend and they both said Edexcel C3 was pretty odd. There was 1 proof type question which apparently only 1 girl in the class got right. But they have been to a biology revision session this afternoon and are doing biology now so are not dwelling on C3.

Yes please Mumslife! Count me in!
Hellsbells, same subjects and grade worries here too! It's so hard, after all the worries of applying, then getting offers (or not!), and now it's all hanging on these next few days!

Yes, please from me too, mumslife.

As things stand at the moment, if dd doesn't get the grades for her first choice she is refusing to go anywhere, so this could get interesting. I keep hoping that she is her own worst critic and hopefully things have gone better than she thinks. Anyway, she has blagged her way through general studies using much knowledge gained from watching The Newsroom!

Sorry for those dc who had horrible maths papers today.

Late to the C3 post mortem due to internet difficulties, but DS said it was tricky in parts. He went through it with DH afterwards who said he hasn't done too badly, so that's good.

He's now revising more maths for next week.

DS's insurance offer is the same as his firm. I'm feeling twitchy about that, but can do nothing now. Some unis offer them a Foundation Course for their degree subject if they don't make their offer thus extending their course by a year. I'm hoping either of DS's choices would do that (fingers crossed very tightly here).

YY to a follow on thread Mumslife, really want to know how everyone gets on after Results Day!

We thought briefly about making dd's insurance the same as her firm but that would have been 2 A*AA offers and it seemed like a risky strategy. Her insurance is AAA. Having said that given that she says she is not going to go there anyway, we may as well have taken the gamble that someone would have let her in if she missed the grades.

Dd is having a night off of revision. I will be very glad to have my daughter back once the exams are done and she doesn't have to revise any more