Year 11 GCSE exam support thread 3 - the exam weeks

[HSMMaCM]

New thread for those of us starting the exams.

Keep calm everyone.

So Skype revision is a thing apparently. Much re being discussed !

My dd was looking wiped so I suggested she rest and she is fast asleep. At 8.30pm - unknown!

Littleham, that was DD last night! Tonight she is learning ICT vocab

Frazzled

Same happened at DD's school but the candidates were allowed back in after argueing with teachers outside!

Whole year found paper two hard but paper one ok.
Some students who were only recently swapped to foundation papers were frustrated to hear how ok paper three was.

Slightly reassured to find that other people's kids found the B2 paper hard and the questions vaguely worded. If this is replicated throughout the country surely they will lower the grade boundaries?

Daren't ask DD if she remembered to turn over the paper.

Blimey - I was away for the weekend and didn't check MN yesterday and here's a whole new thread with hundreds of posts!

DD just had the AQA biol 2 and 3 today, seemed quite happy with it. She's at home tomorrow, chemistry (igcse 2hr paper) on Thursday. She had DH test her on biology on monday and they went through the whole of u2/3 in the revision guide. He hadn't done O level biology so he learned quite a lot!

One of my sons said his biology which I think is iGCSE was an easy paper this year so the grade boundaries will be higher so he's not sure if they will really be helped by an easier paper. He did also say it's the first time he's worked for a science exam and that meant he knew the answer so I laughed and said yes - there does tend to be a correlation between hard work and doing well.

frazzled

I was invigilating the biology exam today (different room to ds1) and I saw that the first question was one he had revised last night and he tells me he did a last minute revision "session" at lunchtime and one of those questions was in the paper as well

He is quite positive about it all, so that's either really good...or really bad

A 1 hour revision lesson tomorrow and two exams on Thursday. Quite a straightforward week for him...it all goes pear shaped in week 3!!

Hi everyone, I'm not a parent buy actually a 16 year old currntly sitting GCSEs (sorry if you feel I am intruding) but I was wondering if anyone's children sat the OCR 21st century biology today and what they thought of it? That's my exam board and I had a huge panic beforehand (predicted A*s and need to do well as I'm an aspiring vet) but afterwards I talked it through with my biology teacher and she seems to think the only question I definitely did wrong was a percentage question ('20 to 160 what is the percentage increase' I misread the question and wrote 800. It should have been 700) and I'm panicking now

Today 22:25 RainBearr

I'm sure you were fine. As long as you haven't just decided that 10:30 is the time to wash your hair like my DD

Rainbearr panic not because, frankly, there's bugger all you can of about it now Hang in there and focus on the rest of the exams and do the best you can. You sound clever and ambitious and obviously got something about you, otherwise you wouldnt be mad enough brave enough to come on here with us lot.

Chin up. And can I bring my cat to see you as she just keeps farting (no really) and I just don't know how to stop her?

Thanks and good luck!

I think I just need to get that exam out of my mind (still 8 more science to go). I have 19 in total left and I really don't want to do spanish on Friday. I love it and don't want to drop it (My school want me to do it as a 5th A level).
I also did OCR RE and my longer answer question was 5 pages long so I hope I didnt waffle. I included 14 bible quotes. Everyone else's was only a page. But it was pretty easy so I'm guessing the grade boundaries will be low.
Lots of people are angry about the biology 123 today because you had to use and apply the area of a circle and theyre claiming the exam was 90% maths. I think it was mostly ethics. I have no exams tomorrow, thankfully.

DS thought Biology 2+3 were not too bad today so that's hopefully a good sign. He has an AS maths exam tomorrow as he sat the gcse for that last year and if it goes well it'll lessen the load next year

DD did AQA Biology - and I think it was okay - if we get a nice examiner she might even get the mark for the question she answered correctly but then put a line through it - or if everyone else found it hard, she might have done okay anyway...
No exams tomorrow!

Rainbearr, you remind me of my dh(we met during our chemistry degree) who would pull apart what he'd done after exams but invariably had done way better than anyone else. I hope you aren't still up tonight but if you are, try to relax and put the exams you've already done behind you. (If you can't switch off, doing something which occupies your mind in a different way eg crosswords or sudoku might help)

Can't sleep, been up since 4.15am flippin' birds singing woke me. Grrrr!

No exams here today, all sleeping soundly - except me if course!

DH mentioned that DS said Biology 2 was the best paper he's ever done. I have no idea if that is good or bad!

Well, DS1 felt quite confident yesterday. He said French reading was harder than usual, but he coped. French listening (guessing) was apparently quite straightforward.

His Biology paper in the afternoon was normal(!). This means a question about something they've never covered, the effect of cystic fibrosis on male infertility; a question where they had to calculate a percentage but the units of the numbers J or KJ were unclear and some badly worded woolly questions.

Final RS paper today. He was still awake at midnight so he will probably fall asleep in it. Chemistry 1 tomorrow and then he is finished for the week.

Hope all goes smoothly today for everyone.

My DD also struggled with that Biology question TheCheeseAlarm. The other one she said they hadn't covered was 3 mutualistic relationships - she could only think of two.

I am now worried that DS doesn't seem worried enough.

I think from May 5 to June 24 everything is worrying!

Was not impressed to see on my FB feed this morning something again about lengthening school day and shortening holidays. They are knackered enough as it is and think that would be final straw for a lot of teachers. This does crop up every so often, it is unlikely to happen isn't it?

Nothing today for DD. I want to see some English lit and Geography revision for next week.

Best news of the day in the Sugar household, DS came into kitchen triumphantly holding his tooth, thank goodness. Poor child is ravenous as hasn't eaten properly for 2 days and flung open food cupboard doors so fiercely I feared for their hinges. He has two SATS papers today amd at least now will be ble to concentrate and eat lunch.

ICT here this morning.
I have to drop them even earlier for a pre-exam revision session, but I don't feel nearly as stressed as I did yesterday

SoupDragon, that's my constant worry

Good luck to everyone with exams today.

BTM I have joined you on vivid dream front.

ICT and RS for ds today. He is o.k. with both apparently. Good luck to all.

Yes Good Luck to everyone with exams! DD is predictably running late...