Year 11 GCSE exam support thread 3 - the exam weeks

[HSMMaCM]

New thread for those of us starting the exams.

Keep calm everyone.

B 2+3 here the verdict were it was 'rubbish' B3 is all about bio gases and the heart and neither came up in sufficient detail - just something to do with the cow's heart valve, DD said the trouble with Biology was working out what they wanted you to say - ambiguous questions apparently.

Anyway she's now home starting on Chemistry revision ready for Thursday as she's decided not to bother for 2nd RE tomorrow.

Mine back too - big mark questions on mosquitos apparently (sporotizes/metorites or something I dunno!). His feet are up on the sofa with some kind of sofa-picnic going on ... uh sorry son - chemistry next!

my dd said igcse French this morning was good . Biology this afternoon- B 2 was a bit hard and B3 was ok. Last night she felt confident she has done enough revision for B2 so bit concerned she found it tricky. Will wait for her to get home to pick over the day.

Verdict here was that B3 was OK but B2 was awful - didn't ask about stuff they'd learned, was badly worded and had a lot about interpreting graphs. Completely different from previous past papers, apparently. The whole class found it difficult.

DS1 is home. Said Biology was 'ok apart from one question' but not revealed too much more. I have the Yearbook, and I will be having a bit of a cry over that later.....

I love how parents of girls know what the questions were , the marks etc

whereas my DS when questioned, said was Biology, couldn't remember questions and it was all right!

currently raiding cupboards and complaining tea is not for another hour.

YY Eve-Ds now upstairs eating Randoms and drinking Lucozade.

No french here either MissClemency, ds has spanish on Friday so he just had biology today. Said he thinks he answered everything ok.

No exam tomorrow so he's having a bit of a chill out. I will nudge him towards his chemistry books in half an hour or so.

Did they all do AQA Biology? I daren't ask DD!

Yes AQA here Tilly. But that's as much as I know.

My DD did AQA.

DD said B2 much worse than B3 which she felt was a bit of a bugger for those doing double.

DS did IGCSE biology so different. Thought it fine. The things he'd spent most time on came up.

French was tough but fine said both ( though one girls stomach was rumbling so badly at DDs school that they could hardly hear the tape ).

A McDonalds tea was requested and politely declined by management.

So - for the dreaded AQA Biology, dd3's reaction was it was fine. She likes graphs and interpretation. Was ok with the valve question. However she finished early, twiddled her fingers and then 1 minute to the end turned over the page to find another 4 marker. Oh my God! Wrote an answer ferociously quickly, but it could cost her a grade boundary.

I shall go quite grey. She seems fairly chilled out.

DD has just called. Said French one French was easy the other rather hard, although she thinks it went OK but not amazingly so.

Biology (IGCSE) said it went well - everything she had revised for thoroughly apparently!

I am glad she had a good first day.

I think its Chemistry next on Thursday for DD.

It was AQA B2 (double science). However, on discussion it seemed to be that she was complaining about the ambiguity of the wording of some of the questions. Some of them were fine and she did them quite happily and she said she had a go at all the questions. So all in all, probably not as bad as her initial text seemed to imply, but it is in the hands of the markers now (or will be soon) and there is no point dwelling on things that can't be changed.

Leavers assembly tomorrow and then Chemistry on Thursday.

AQA and apparently it was OK but she says she messed up the first question on the second paper but didn't volunteer what that question was - anybody?

She's now gone to the Spa shop to buy a ready meal of stew with dumplings a lovely healthy dinner with no preservatives or other junk.

Eve my DD hasn't told me anything like that!

Yes, dd says was AQA Biology - apparently AQA for all her sciences
Might ask her about the graph interpretation later but she's having a rest now

Busy day today - her only day with two subjects and one of them her favourite and therefore one of her most important subjects

wooley DD said B2 was very vague.
She just had a stab at what she thought they were getting at.

B3 apparently much more straightforward.

Dd had her first exam with her 25% extra time (SEN)... ONLY THEY DIDN'T GIVE HER THE EXTRA TIME!!! [ANGRY]

It was Biology .. dd was still busy writing when the invigilator took her paper away. She'd left out at least one question and put 'silly' answers in a few others. She finished the paper and had gone back to answer the one she left out. She was then going to re-do her silly answer questions.

I've spoken to her head of year and the school's exams officer (seo) - seo said to dd "you're 15, you must speak up if things aren't right"
I said don't dare try to make this dd fault, she in sn group for a reason, it was all VERY formal, strange external man taking her paper, quiet room etc etc. Dd wasn't comfortable enough to 'speak up'! So all school can do is get in touch with exam board and let them know school messed up and didn't allow dd her extra time. He thinks they'll mark her paper then allow an average grade. BUT, my thinking is, they'll see a paper with all questions answered and not know which answers dd was going to change. Whereas if she'd left out the silly answers and left the questions completely blank then they'd be able to get a better picture of what extra to award.

I'm furious and don't really know what to do. School have assured me this WILL NOT happen again ... but they messed up her mock exam papers .. and I was assure then that this WILL NOT/CANNOT happen in real GCSE's

Ds did Edexcel biology and had just told me about a " stupid" 6 mark question about mutualism so he used ox and ox peckera and another about men with cf being infertile. He's happy with what he wrote and v grateful for the scribe as they had about 2 mins to answer the latter question and she writes neat and fast. He's just drunk a pint of milK and is eyeing up the cheese in the Friday. No exams tomorrow so next one is Thursdays Edexcel chemistry 1.

Hope everyone's happy tonight and fridges don't get emptied due to the stress levels. I've made chocolate moussee for afters as a treat for him obviously! !!

Sounds like the B2 grade boundary might be lower than usual? Hopefully....?

My DS back from Biology exam as well. His only comment was "It was okay." Then he went straight up to his room.

So far, he's complained bitterly when a paper was harder than expected and told me all the questions and his answers in great detail for his best subject. So I'm guessing "It was okay" might mean it was okay?

I am taking the 'ok' fun. I am not probing to give him any opportunity to elaborate.

frazzled I would be evil about that too. What a monumental cock up.

DD is in a bad mood. Biology her favourite subject, but the exam was weird she said.