Continuing Year 13: January 2016

[Needmoresleep]

Only two more terms at school. Let's support each other support our DC in getting through to the end.

My DS1 is exactly the same as yours EllenJane. He needs an A* from either the Maths or the Physics.

From what he says, although he's predicted A* for FM it's very unlikely to happen, but that's OK.

Ah, DS1 needs an A* in FM or a grade 1 in STEP for his 1st choice.

Snowy, I think most schools have opted to keep the applied modules free, so haven't 'banked' the AS level, so they can be shifted around to get the best possible result overall, maths takes priority, then FM etc. Some modules are AS only though if taking maths and FM, I think, so can be shifted between maths and FM, but maybe not between AS and A2.

If doing maths only I think you can have one AS module included in A2, eg S1 and D1 may be AS and M1 in A2.

DS's school has chosen not to do FP3 as a compulsory module. His FM will be FP2 and two optional modules. DS chose M2, M3 and S2, one will go with maths and 2 with FM.

This is all for OCR MEI, btw, so may differ for other boards, but I looked up the syllabus yesterday after getting confused myself between FP2 and FP3.

www.ocr.org.uk/images/82453-specification-from-june-2013-.pdf

Bedtime reading!

Atia if your Dad had made an app for that I reckon he would have made a fortune . . . .

EllenJane haven't quite had time to read it all yet but there are some useful bits on the first few pages!

Hope all exams go OK today. DS was incredibly nervous about the physics, much more so than for any of the others so far.

AQA physics B was apparently bad......according to DD

Hoping for very low grade boundaries as the top 2 in her class also thought the same.

Newbie to this thread - hello.

Just want to quietly weep with understanding parents. Ds has just come back from taking Physics utterly downhearted. He needs an A* and the paper just wasn't the style of questioning he excels at. He reckons he 'only' has an A. It's so hard, thinking this might be slipping away from him.

Oh dear, so sorry to hear about the Physics :( Hope that if everyone has found it tough then the grade boundaries will be forgiving.

Welcome Dumbledore - hope your son has done better than expected and grade boundaries are low. unfortunately DD thinks she will be lucky with a B on this paper. She says that even the calculations that are normally fine were bad and also not enough time. Told her to forget it now and move on - maths C3 tomorrow.

Spanish was ok, but a couple of questions in the listening section had a different format to the last several years, which was a bit odd, and could easily throw some people. E.g. there's a section which usually has 4 or 5 sentences and you have to listen to the piece, underline the mistake in the written sentence and then correct it - usually 2 marks per question (one for identifying the mistake, one for the correction). Today there were eight, but only 1 mark each! And then another where there are a few sentences and from listening to the recording say whether each sentence is true or false - usually (i.e. last 5 years of AS and A2, and also in last week's same board French paper) the sentences are in the order you hear them, but today they were jumbled up. DD doesn't seem too bothered fortunately.

I think they have changed the format and question style in a lot of the papers Atia. DD said the chemistry paper last week was very odd.

Ds "Ok" with his AQA drama but one question was worded unusually '"weirdly" he said. Format normal otherwise. Glad that one is out of the way. Fingers crossed for those of you with dcs who did Physics. Ds dropped Physics after a D at AS! Glad your dd's Spanish was okay Atia

Hallo hellsbells and welcome Dumbledoresgirl - fellow AQA physics parents!

DS was rather muted when he came home today. He couldn't put his finger on exactly what the problem was as he didn't run out of time and nothing was actually dreadful, but he keeps saying he's just not happy with it. He said the multiple choice was difficult and he was worried that too many of his answers were Bs and Ds which statistically he felt couldn't be right, and for three answers in a row he put A which again he says doesn't usually happen.

He said the electromagnetic braking question was not what he was expecting and it was an application of something he had revised but in a way he hadn't come across before, if that makes sense.

Apparently finding the value of 'g' was fine though!

He needs an A for this and isn't at all sure he's got it. It's so miserable when they've worked so hard. Hopefully it's better than they think and that the grade boundaries will be kind.

He should now be revising C3 for tomorrow but I just peered round his bedroom door and he's fast asleep!

I'm an idiot who never learns. DD just did a C3 paper and asked me to mark it. She dropped 6 marks on a trig question as she'd worked out the angle wrong at the beginning, hence no accuracy marks all the way through although her method otherwise was perfect (and she would otherwise have got over 90ums with loads of time to spare). And yes, of course it's all my fault because I MARKED IT! And there's no point working on that type of question because she always gets them wrong and I'm the world's worst mother for even offering to do any more questions with her. Strop, stamp, slam, bed. It's too early for alcohol, isn't it?

DS found AQA physics A hard, much harder than all the past papers. He nearly ran out of time and guessed the last multi choice question and didn't have time to check.

You can't win Atia. Ds doing his practice C3 papers at school this afternoon so thankfully not getting the stick you're getting. However I am dreading the practice C4 papers, not least because he hasn't really started on them yet and will be doing them non stop between tomorrow and Friday. At least he's finished then.

Welcome Dumbledoresgirl. Sorry meant to put it in my earlier post. How have the other exams gone for your ds?

Atia have an early .....sounds like you need it!
Morvah - DD2 was doing the AQA B syllabus which is sort of applied physics rather than physics, so no multiple choice as far as I know. It is always quite difficult and has low grade boundaries - last year was 66% on this paper for an A.....hoping this year is even lower!
Perhaps you had better wake your DS up to revise, although C3 is normally quite a good paper (last year being the exception I believe!)

Atia three and a quarter hours to here and counting! We can't win.

DS woke up, remembered he dropped some marks on the momentum question, declared he is completely stuffed and has no hope of getting his offer grades, stomped about a bit, raided the biscuit tin and is now actually doing a C3 paper.

I work from home and I must say having him around so much is very distracting what with constant stops to sympathise, bolster, nag, suggest and rush round shutting windows so the entire village doesn't hear him shouting!

I am working from home for a couple of days this week Morvah and it is distracting - normally DD is at school and out of the way!

Sorry AQA Physics was a hard one. DS did OCR Physics today & said it was ok although 'the wording of some of the questions was strange'. C3 tomorrow & needs to get 90% in that, think I'd feel a bit happier if he was doing some work for it.

Glad your DD's feeling a bit better about STEP 2 Snowy. Grade boundaries in previous years have sometimes been quite low which gives me a tiny glimmer of hope. Probably no-one comes out saying 'that was easy'.

Passed halfway point now - 7 down 6 to go.

Thanks for the welcome. It sort of helps to know that others didn't like the Physics paper either. Ds told me that all his friends thought it was fine, but maybe they are not aiming as high as ds. He is going to do Physics at uni (if he gets in ).

His others exams so far have been ok I think. It is hard to know. He hasn't come home as dejected as he was today. Ds only needs one A from his 3 subjects but when I said to him re today's Physics, 'never mind, maybe you are on course to get an A in one of the other subjects', he didn't seem that optimistic. So then you wonder just how well the others have gone.

But 66% boundary for grade A last year?! Any idea re the boundary last year for A*? That alone has given me a bit of hope.

Apparently OCR B physics had some oddly worded questions, but then so did the AS last year. DD did surprisingly well then, despite coming out of the exam a bit shell-shocked, so is hoping the same happens this.

But it's really difficult for those who need A*s.

Prep for maths tomorrow has been a Nandos lunch, followed by a trip to the large new Mango near us, which usefully had a sale on, and she is now baking. We are going to get through this week somehow. She says she will do a past paper this evening.

DS1 is AQA a too.he thinks just under 80% last year Dumbledore.

On the whole DS thought it could have been worse but struggled with the momentum question.

Oh ok, I tend to think of A* as being over 90% (as it was for the A level Maths which he did last year). So maybe he has a bit more wiggle room.

But then, I'm sure ds knows all this already, and he is used to doing practice papers and probably has some idea of what feels like an A* performance - he really isn't feeling it today.

Edexcel physics was a nice one today apparently.I don't think many schools do edexcel for a level physics? A teacher friend from another school said her school didn't like it because it is a newish syllabus and not many practice papers.