Year 11 GCSE support thread 5 - finishing off the exams

[HSMMaCM]

Only another week to go for DD, but I know some of you have two weeks.

Philosophy this morning for DD - not one of her favourite subjects. Interesting to see what motherstongue said about it being a good subject for a person with strong opinions. My mum says that DD would argue with her own reflection if there was no one else about

My insomnia is no worse than usual at present. I actually enjoy the quiet time late at night when the house is still and I'm waiting to feel sleepy. I've been functioning on 5-6 hours sleep per night for about the last 5 years anyway. I may not be so blasé on the night of the 19th August.

Love it OddBoots

A 3D model of himself sounds fantastic. It's not lifesize is it?

Thanks for the support hully. Teachers of all out dcs have been amazing, giving up so much of their own time, they must be on their knees by now. Roll on end of term

No exams here today, so DC still in bed.

DD said she spoke to her maths teacher yesterday and he felt the Edexcel exams were very tough and will expect a big drop in A/A*s this year.

Told the girls not to worry, they've worked hard and what's done is done.

Oh, meant to say good luck today to anyone with exams. Ds has philosophy this morning and maths this afternoon.

General Studies for ds today. With RS and Philosophy happening today as well it looks like a day made for those who like to put forward an argument!
Line runner, good luck with the job hunting.

Yes, a big thank you to all the teachers, so many of them are going above and beyond to support the students through their GCSEs.

Ha, not lifesize Fairenuff, it says up to 7" and I know they make them in proportion so if a family were done they would look 'right' together so I am guessing 1" per foot of real height so I expect it to be just over 6" tall. They are made out of a porcelain type material so are nicknamed 'shelfies'

Thanks, bebumba.

I vaguely remember doing General Studies in sixth-form and waffling on about all manner of things. I daresay it's all different now. In fact DS mentioned there is a multiple choice element iirc.

OddBoots, that sounds great! I love the idea of having the family on a shelf.

Last one today!!!
Maths this afternoon.

Good luck for those with exams today. For once we have nothing. Physics tomorrow but not sure how much revision is being done as she seems to have collapsed in a tired heap.

Older dd (doing A levels) is building up to her worst week, which is next week. I know more about the male sex organ than I care to tell you (Biology A level testing).

Ashbeee - we have had mornings like that - sympathies!

Hullywully - lovely post and thanks for the information. All the adults involved in this process (parents and teachers) get really drained - we so deserve that weekend in Champneys. We all seem to have insomnia.

Hope you have a better day today Linerunner.

Either the smell has gone from my house or I have become accustomed to it. Back to normal & just have a ceiling to paint now.

Hully is it true that invigilators have been known to play games such as slow motion tag as they walk up and down the corridors of desks? I heard this once and it always makes me laugh thinking about it ... apparently they walk very slowly up to each other and whisper 'tag' in each others ears before setting off down another corridor of desks ... I really hope its true!

No exams today - physics and epic myth revision fest ... joy .... he spend most of yesterday afternoon asleep on the sofa and slept solidly all night, so I'm hoping for a fresh and motivated DS when he eventually turns up for breakfast!

Good luck to everyone taking exams today - hope its not too steamy! 24 degrees today hope everyone remembered deodorant how pleasant!

LineRunner it doesn't look as if General Studies has changed much. A large element of waffle supplemented with multiple guess questions. Ds wants to get the exam out of the way so that he can come home and concentrate on revising for Physics.
Hope all those dcs who have no exams today are able to get out and enjoy some sunshine.

We had a difficult evening last night too LineRunner (DH and I)
Fortunately I had a good thing to escape out to for an hour or so - an evening meeting at my Quaker Meeting House - Good to be with friends and have some and biscuits, all restoring some sense of perspective and calm - especially sitting in the beautiful garden there listening to a blackbird singing.

This exam thing is all mega stressy for everyone isn't it and not sure I've helped things by inviting my DP's up on Friday for a post exam family celebration. They're putting on a little art exhibition at dd's school though and it seemed a good idea at the time! Afterwards we're going out for a meal together. Have a feeling what we all really need is a good kip. Ah well!

dd has RS this morning so will maybe be interesting to talk through her answers afterwards, particularly her own POV on things - which is usually asked for amongst other aspects.

Thanks for your encouragement hully - spa break sounds a great idea!

Littleham, if it's any comfort, our kitchen ceiling needs painting too and has done so for almost 3 years and we have a hole in the bathroom ceiling where the roof has been leaking since February 2013

Gin, I never played silent tag, but we did try to sneak up on each other occasionally, and tried to answer the exam questions.
We also took bets on how many rulers, pencilcases and pens would fall off the tables per row, each of us having one row to bet on.

Yes, big thanks to all the teachers who have put on revision sessions and supported the DC through the exams

Oh you are all lovely, keeping me sane and all

DS just came home for early lunch between exams. He said he prepared for the 'wrong' General Studies paper. Can there be a wrong General Studies paper??

Anyway he is quite sanguine about it, gave me a hug and is having a kip on the sofa before Maths.

I thought sod the cv writing and just picked and froze some coriander from my garden. Maybe I should blog shit like that for a living. You can all be guest posters so I never have do any actual work.

So DD only told me last night that on Tuesday some poor girl vomited mid exam. She didn't want to leave and despite teachers trying to quietly clean up most of it got left and she said it was stinking!

I do wonder how much of that tale is embellished (DDs best subjects are English and drama ) but if it's true, I feel for them all!

No exams today and despite glorious sunshine and breezes she is still in bed, albeit awake. I try and tempt her with drinks and snacks but she seems to have totally lost her appetite. Hurry up June 19th...

The RS (Philosophy) exam was hideous apparently

I heard that as well from DS about OCRs RS philosophy paper. He said that Paper 2 was better than Paper 1.

What did they ask in Paper 1?.

Hello All,

I haven't checked in for a while.

Mrs Bennet your DS is amazing to cope with everything that life has thrown at him over the last few weeks. I hope his exams continue to go well.

Littleham sorry to hear about your domestic disasters, hope everything is smelling sweet again now.

To be honest I haven't posted for a while as DS was really unhappy with Chemistry 2 and I kind of didn't want to think about it too much. Like others his confidence was shot after Edexcel iGCSE maths so he's been really nervous about all the other exams since. I don't think Chemistry was necessarily that hard. He said he just made lots of silly mistakes. I suspect a lot of it was sheer exhaustion.

I tried to say encouraging things but it was clear that he didn't want to talk about it. He just chilled for the rest of the day and had a long (and unintentional) lie-in yesterday.

I've just picked up from Religious Studies (Philosophy). Fortunately this is one of his better subjects and though he says the paper was pretty tough with some Godawful questions, he managed to do enough. So, he's now in a better place than before, which given that he's got Physics tomorrow (weak subject for him) has got to be a good thing.

My DS finishes tomorrow, though lots of his friends have Further Maths or extra language exams next week, so he's not quite sure what he'll do afterwards. He won't have his phone on him so I'll be left in suspense until he makes it home.

Best of luck to all those who have Physics or other exams tomorrow. Roll on the weekend.

Atilla, there was a high mark question on Khalifa and DS swears they didn't cover that in class

Ds said religious studies was bad but not as bad as the first ones physics tomorrow pm then one of each science on alternate mornings next week.

There's a party tomorrow night (again). I said he'd still have 3 exams left but apparently that's irrelevant. I said I hoped he wasn't planning on partying every weekend as he needs to start looking for some work. He said 'I've been at school or 12 years so yes, this summer is parties'.

Errrrrmmmm. Methinks he has a bit of a shock looming when real life kicks in.

We had a miserable night with DD crying about not being able to sleep and being bound to fail Philosophy because she couldn't sleep etc etc. She looked terrible this morning and the hayfever season is really taking its toll too. Fortunately she called me after the exam to say they were allowed to come home if they wanted to so I picked her up and took her to McDonalds for comfort food. She looks a lot better now :) Physics revision underway.

Yes, I think the pollen count must be pretty high as I'm rarely affected by hay fever but have had really itchy eyes today. On reflection going for a walk round the park before picking up DS1 from his exam probably wasn't the best plan.

DS2 (year 9) has done well in his end of year exams so looks likely to take some early GCSEs next year. Anyone else up for another GCSE support thread next year?