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.

I walk the dog behind DD's school so still going over daily. Assistant Head was out there today and we got talking. Her son is also doing GCSE's and she was saying how sorry she feels with them with the large number of exams and how the goalposts keep moving. Her other son's dong finals and she said this has been a lot worse than it was when he sat them and seems to have dragged on forever.

She had I thought the look of a woman who will be very glad when lunchtime has arrived and it's all over !

Just had a phone call from dd in tears over the history paper. I suspect it wasn't as bad as she said, she's just stressed out and tired now. Did not really know what to say to her, just to stop worrying, go and concentrate on her chemistry, then come home and have lunch ands relax in the garden for a while.

Sorry about your DD, dingit. They are just so unbelievably exhausted now. My DD has gone to Chemistry revision this morning. The exam is tomorrow morning and then there's just physics to come on Friday.

Thanks tranquility, that's exactly the same as my dd. I'm going to try and persuade her to sleep for an hour this afternoon!

dingit My DS hasn't done well in history paper - his mistake, he says. He had a mind blank. This hasn't happened before.

I think he's run out of adrenaline, motivation, energy. He has, if you count up things like 'physics 2 & 3' as two separate papers, sat 31 papers out of 32, since early May. On top of coursework, ISAs and mocks.

Another one bites the dust.

Yes complete exhaustion here too. Physical and mental exhaustion coupled with stress and worry about results. At least it's last week.....

Oh LineRunner and Dingit sorry to hear that. It is a long time for them to stay motivated. They are lucky to have you both supporting them. Just a few days to go and our dcs can relax xx

DS has left his phone at home, so no word yet about History. Just off to drop DS1 for A level Maths and collect DS2 to go for lunch. Hope it's gone OK. Sorry dingit & LineRunner that your DC are dejected. Just hug them, it's all you can do really.

Sorry about the history not going well linerunner and dingit. Seems like a bad subject to have at the end - it must be the one above all others where you really do have to know facts, can't dig yourself out with logic.

DD is I think doing 'nothing' at the moment as she planned. That's fine by me, though I wish she'd do it outside for a while.

I had a call from school this morning whilst pushing a trolley around sainsburys. Seems ds didn't have a free day at all. He was supposed to go in for chemistry revision. Not good. He's adamant he didn't know about it

Thanks all for the kind words. DS is in his room.

poppy are the revision sessions not optional? Well, clearly not, but it seems a bit harsh to call the parents at this stage of the game.

This has been a bad week, and it's only Tuesday. Sending everyone good vibes.

Oh goodness, know it is early still but virtual for Linerunner, Dingit and Poppy.

32 exams is just ridiculous. I feel that we should be saying loudly now, enough, stop messing around with things from one cohort to another , wait to see the effect of one change before bringing in another. And why are so many children doing exams now needing CAHMs referrals ? Sorry to go on, I think I might have PMT.

I'm panicking that DS who does history claimed not to have an exam today and loads on here do

dingit and linerunner, so sorry to hear your DC feel they haven't done well. Was it the Surgery paper for History? DD did that one this morning, but I haven't heard from her.

And at 32 papers. I thought DD had a lot at 23 plus 3 days Art and the 5 papers she did last year.

The AQA history was last week and the week before, AG. Looking at DD's timetable (which includes all the exams done at her school), I get the impression that AQA has done most of the common subjects by now - the only one which wasn't an 'extra' is the product design next week, apart from that just FM, latin, Polish and Italian.

32 is a helluva lot - mine had 22 too, and that's 12 subjects.

I think we probably had just as many papers, but we sat more than one paper at a time. I don't recall sitting any 1hr papers on their own, it would be maybe 1hr multi-choice and then 1hr something else.

We also often had one am and one pm exam, so the whole period was more condensed. Pros and cons to both, but either way I'm glad it's not me!

I've just been snappy at DS because I am having a rotten day.

Errol - DD is in bed with the door and window shut. I know she deserves a rest, but it's a beautiful day.

Mine too Errol! She will end up like one of those pale creatures that live in caves.

So sorry to hear about the history exam. No wonder they are fed up.

DD says history was awful but that she refuses to let it spoil her mood!

I did refer to DD as a troglodyte the other day!

I've just started a thread in teens, a dd problem that's just reared it's head, and is causing her angst. If any of you lovely people have time, could you offer any words of wisdom? Thanks

I was quite surprised to receive a phone call about the revision session tbtc, especially as some pupils have now finished. Maybe the chemistry teacher went in especially for ds and was disappointed he stayed in bed. doubt it very much.

He seems quite chipper today so although a revision session may have been helpful, right now I'm far more concerned about his health and wellbeing than whether he could squeeze an extra mark or two tomorrow.