Year 11 GCSE support thread 4 - more exams

[HSMMaCM]

Anyone got English tomorrow ?

Maths early followed by further or additional maths sounds fine, its the idea of having a year off from a subject before doing it for A level that seems like it might be unhelpful.

Do the kids who do a lot of subjects early still do 9 or 10 in their 'normal' GCSE year? There's a school near us where kids commonly get 15 or 16 GCSEs in total.

Yep. DD did 2 last year, was supposed to be doing 13 (12 plus an extra)this year but dropped 2 so doing 11 this year. This is normal in her comp.

Way too many.

DS is Y9. He is down for 13 ATM, I think, but if he does double Science, that will be 12. Still too many, but he can always drop one or two.

I wish ds's school offered maths early followed by further/additional maths - they don't have enough able students to do that sadly. I tried to ask the school to put ds in for additional maths and we would do the work at home but they were anxious that it would reflect badly on them if he didn't get a good grade so they agreed to him doing the edexcel level 3 cert in algebra instead as that is pass/fail not graded so could be ignored if he failed.

He is doing 10 GCSEs this year so 11 in total with last year's physics. We have had a quick look at the physics he would be doing next year for A/AS level and surprisingly a fair bit of the things he has done this year in chemistry is a good lead in as there is a fair bit of particle stuff.

That's a lot of GCSEs. I did 8 O levels at once (and an extra in lower sixth) and sons are doing 9 at once this year and my older children did 9 or 10 all at once.

DS1 did 3 GCSEs early (one in Y9, two in Y10). Consequently, he's only doing 8 GCSEs this year. He could have done 9, but we opted for "private study" as one of his choices, as he chose Art which we knew was a very time-consuming subject. So actually he only has written exams in 7 subjects this year, as Art is obviously not examined in the same way.

For him, it's worked well. He doesn't have a massive amount of exams to revise for now and the exams are reasonably spread out. He's been extremely anxious and difficult to manage at home, so I'm glad that he hasn't had even more pressure on him by having to contend with more subjects.

For DS2 it's all changing, as he will be in the first year doing the new-style GCSEs. He would have expected to do Maths early (top set) and then Additional Maths in Y11, but the school has decided to put them in for both Maths and Add Maths in Y11 to give them the chance of getting a grade 9 which apparently will be higher than an A*, so will look better on their university applications. So DS2 will only do 1 GCSE early (RS in Y10 - no choice) and then all the others in Y11. Like his brother, we have also chosen to do one fewer GCSE than the school's average, so he will end up with 11 GCSEs in total rather than 12, which seems enough to me! I'd rather he got 10-11 good grades, than more lower grades!

Halfway through the half term and DD is alarmingly laid back. Slowly picking through bits and bobs, no urgency whatsoever. I'm trying to emulate her calmness, but she's not doing A levels, so she really needs a decent set of results.

How's everyone else's DC?

Asleep/dozing last time I looked in spud!
But maybe the odd teenage lie-in isn't such a bad thing during half-term?

Thinking of ds (Y8) what year are they bringing in the new style GCSE's and different grading system - that will take a bit of getting used to?

Trying to get some energy and plans together so we can all have a positive and productive day. Maybe we're flagging a bit!

Spud, DD seems pretty laid-back too - no real sense of urgency, despite these exams being mainly the ones she needs for sixth form!

Unsurprisingly DD has lost her impetus. Taking her to the park soon to revise Geography in the sunshine with her friend while my friend and I catch up and our DS's run round and burn some energy off. I'm supposed to be making our picnic and putting dinner in the slow cooker right now.

Relieved to check on here and see that everyone else's dc is 'laid back' about revision. Dd got up about 9.30, watched Jeremy Kyle, faffed about in her room, putting on makeup and lord knows what else.
She did about 4.5 hours revision yesterday. We are going swimming later, so I told her to get her finger out, and got shouted at for nagging.

My 2 sons were making very large eggs/bacon/sausage and I think meat ball too breakfasts in the last hour. The music revision guides they just ordered arrived. I don't think anyone (except me who has been working since 6.30am) has done any work yet but they tend to do more in the afternoons.

They did some revision together yesterday evening which is fairly rare for them even though they are twins. I think it was history which will also be one of their A levels.

dd and I are going on a little pens and stationary expedition in a bit so maybe that will kick start some action! She did also tell me her revision plan for this week and went over which exams she has in each of the two remaining weeks - so beginning to think about what's needed I hope. Yesterday included some room decoration but that was nice to see too!

DS is giving DD a maths tutorial on the trampoline!

I'm not sure how effective this will prove. But at least the will is there.

I made the point yesterday that tea and sympathy will only be doled out to those working hard. Those laying around sighing theatrically can fend for themselves.

Love the trampoline revision.

I can confirm that DD will get an A* in the following -

• applying make-up
• procrastination
• turning day into night
• making vast piles of unnecessary mess / confetti

Mine will get all of those Littleham, plus an A** in social networking.

Mine will get an A* in clothes on the floor.

HSM mine will get a higher grade than yours in that, just you wait and see. She's also going to get an A** with 100% in winding up her little sister.

My word Tilly that is a lot - does the school do it to get higher up the league tables?

Glad to hear that all of your DC are just as good as mine at procrastination, messiness, make - up and Jeremy Kyle watching. Why do they watch that? I hate it - too close to what I do for a living

Some of the schools mentioned seem to really pile the pressure on. DS and DD's school said they could do exams early if they wanted to, it was recommended but neither wanted to. Likewise, when it was options evening the head said only to do a language if you wanted to, don't do it just because it's part of the EB because making the school look good doesn't matter.

Sodium, our school said not to pick subjects to make the school look good too.

Unless I am missing something about the way the league tables work I'm not sure students taking lots of subjects helps the school with the way things presently work, it is the % A*-C inc Eng and Maths that is the main figure used at the moment isn't it? I know that is moving to progress 8 in a few years.

I have an alarmingly laid back DD as well. She wrote tons of stuff down today and I kept myself away, only to find out that this was stuff for her new story.
I wish there was a GCSE in creative science fiction writing.
Or a GCSE in on-hand-and-up-the-arm-doodling with pen.

Mellifera we had hand doodles and face sharpies the day before a dance exam !!!!