Year 11 GCSE exam support thread 3 - the exam weeks

[HSMMaCM]

New thread for those of us starting the exams.

Keep calm everyone.

YY I am afraid i would be saying no to the sleepover too. Maybe the one friend, possibly if he didn't hang about too long on Sunday.

I wouldn't be hosting any sort of sleepover, be if for one or four, nor would I let DD go to one at someone else's house. Completely support the idea of time off from study, but not a sleepover.

My DD is the sleepover queen, but we have called a halt during the revision and exam period. That said, she is going out with a group to the cinema and for pizza tomorrow evening; she needs a bit of fun after a stressy week.

That's what I thought - I thought I was being mean, as they're very dull & geeky sensible boys, but will say they can all come over during half term.

I'm really trying to get a good balance between stress and focus.

DS wants to make plans for Sunday in the daytime and that's fine by me if he gets stuff done tomorrow and Saturday.

As I suspected - one of the boys DS invited is at his dads this weekend...his mum would never let him have a sleepover when they have English Lit first thing on Monday morning! I don't wan't to be the one she always blames if he doesn't get an A*
She's never mentioned to me her DS is G&T in English, oh no

DS1 has taken my explanation of why a sleepover on Saturday isn't going to happen very well.

OddBoots my DD is doing OCR 21st C for all her sciences too. She said Chemistry today was OK. How I interpret that I have no idea as so far they've all been OK

So far DD has done both RE papers- the first of which she thought was a hard slog and the second much easier. The iGCSE biology paper was bloody awful- loads of obscure suggest an experiment questions which everyone in her year thought was bizarre ( there were 14 pages of rants in student room about it) just hoping for low grade boundaries. She said the paper was totally different to any of the past papers she has done- why do they muck about with the exams? it's just not fair. She was really confident with Biology having done hours of revision. She is hoping for AA in double science but that seems unlikely now. she has to get a minimum of 4 As and 4Bs to get back into her school so stress levels are high.

ICT yesterday was very easy by all accounts and thankfully chemistry went well today despite being her weakest science( she thought biology was her strongest )

Spanish tomorrow ( her worst subject- hoping for a scrape C ) then the weekend before another full week next week.)

Took DD to the GP for some routine stuff today. GP asks "anything else?" DD replies "no". Tonight she needs an ice pack for a massive pain she has apparently had for a week, which is really uncomfortable if she sits for long! Unbelievable ! Chances of another GP appointment this century? Zero.

We got a total panic "I know nothing about Chemistry" this morning - which had me biting my tongue as if she'd asked for help before the drive in the car...I have a degree in the subject. But anyway she came out okay. Good thing was that Sociology looked more like she expected, and had a question on a topic she knows inside out and back to front.

Nearly at the end of what is week one for us (although I know the iGCSEs started earlier). One more week then half term, ds has a fairly light week next week with only 2x Eng lit exams but this week has been busy and it is really busy after half term.

There are some mumblings on my facebook about some schools (un-named) running breakfast revision classes having looked at the exam paper that morning. That's a bit worrying if it is happening as it's not exactly a level playing field. Does anyone know if that is possible or if the papers are kept sealed by an independent person until just before the exam?

Supposed to be sealed until 5 mins before.

DS2 has PE today and then he's completed a third of his exams, yaaaay!

Surely no school would be stupid enough to risk having the entire cohort disqualified?

I am pretty sure they are sealed until just before.

Thanks, I thought that was the case but it planted that seed of worry in my mind, there has been several scandals involving a local federation of schools in my town so I'm more suspicious than I otherwise would be.

Oh god that's outrageous even our year 6 SATs are kept locked in my safe until 9am and only opened infront of the kids to hand out. Id screen shot the rumblings and keep your eye out for anything else. It may just have been a pre planned b'fast revision DSs school have done them for every subject. If your in any doubt the Ofsted know.

If there is any sniff of cheating, you should report it immediately.

Spanish Reading and Listening here today. That'll have been 9 exams this week. Only 4 next week, so hopefully a bit less stressful, though they are Eng Lit (she needs an A to get into the Sixth form she would like) and Physics which she hates.

Presented the strawberry corner yoghurt requested for breakfast. DD very kindly informed me she didn't mean the ones with strawberry in the corner, she meant the ones with strawberry yoghurt and balls in the corner. Failed again . She was nice about it and not grumpy though.

Spanish here too for both mine.

DD got home last night in a very good mood, wolfed her tea then suddenly came to me crying.

She said she had spots in front of her eyes and felt sick.

I put her to bed at 8.15pm and she slept through, but woke up still feeling nauseous.

She's banked such good marks in her CA and oral that there's no pressure today, so I think it must be a bug.

it'd be a no from me for the sleepover, but we have been allowing/encouraging down time with mates, but boyf has been banned except for skype until after exam completion (mainly because he lives far-ish away and travel takes ages). After all if we were in their position we'd need it. and life is not all about exams, its for living too. isn't it?

Oh dear WordFactory. Hope it isn't a bug - fingers crossed. Hope Spanish goes well for everyone today.

Opposite here Tilly - likes Physics and dislikes English Lit, so am not looking forward to Monday. Family party last night which was a nice change and back to revision this weekend. The advantage of having a birthday at exam time is that you get lots of sympathy presents and cake at school.

Are all the schools doing after school revision and breakfast clubs? Nothing like that at dd's school which is a bit worrying. Hope there is no sneaky opening of exam papers at schools that do breakfast clubs.

Spanish this morning for mine too. Then it's an English language revision session in the afternoon.

The poor thing is so knackered, I don't know how she is going to get through another 3+ weeks of this.

This morning she was counting down - 9 exams done, 16 to go