GCSE Revision - how much are your dc doing?

[Aftershock15]

What the title says really - how much if any revision are your dc doing at the moment or what is their plan.
Dc1 insists no one is doing anything yet, but not sure I believe him! He is fairly bright but not the sort that can get away with not doing any.

My DD got 6A and 4A's at GCSE last year. She did night after night , weekend after weekend from about now until the whit half term holidays and then did very little (sickened herself) but she does regret not keeping it up for a little longer and perhaps would have got more A*

Sorry about bold - not sure how that happened

Dreamgirls - I agree - DD hasn't finished all of hers either. It is tough when they hear of students doing 2-3 hours per night. I tell her to keep the faith, she's on course, follow the plan (largely laid down by school 'til Easter) and then support her during Easter hols. And hit the gin bottle (me, not her). x

So how did you get your children motivated to revise then?

There is still plenty of time left, mine needs to start revising now because he won't put a lot of time in to it in a week.

I let him do as much revision as he thought necessary for his mocks, the result was an embarrassing result in history and just about everything else was a grade less than he's capable of. In every subject he's got the message that with a tiny bit more work he could move across the grade boundary. Left to his own devices he would probably be looking to do the extra work the week before the exam but the leading light of his friendship group is a young lady who is looking for A* across the board. There's no doubt in my mind that he's starting revising now because she is (I suspect that she never stopped revising once the mocks were out of the way)

He's doing nowhere near the amount of work that I did at his age but then I was the perfectionist overachiever and I've tried hard not to pass that on to the next generation. There's no way he'll put in 2 hours a night every night but if he starts now he shouldn't need to. What he actually needs is 5 Cs and then Bs in the subjects he wants to take at A level and he managed that in his mocks with the minimal revision he thought was needed. I would like him to aim a little higher than that so that there's room for him to mess up on the day.

My DD has just suffered her first ever panic attack at school! All due to an impending French Test that makes up 15% of her final exam marks. She's put that much pressure on herself, has been revising as much as she can for that test and now she's missed it due to the panic attack just before it started. Any advice on what I can do to help her as she's now afraid it will happen again?

Bs in the subjects he wants to take at A level
many 6th form colleges require A to allow students to anrol for academic subjects A-levels

my dd got only one B, it was in German and there's no way she would get anywhere near B in that subject if she took it for A levels

re:panic attacks, is there's school counseling service she could access? they have lots of experience in that area and lots of tips to share

My twins are boarding but I am told they're doing 1-1.5 ish hours of revision a day outside of school work (most of that is done in study periods). They're being tested regularly so the reality of what grade they will get is driven home which I think it great, past papers are really useful.

many 6th form colleges require A to allow students to anrol for academic subjects A-levels

That is ridiculous, way to limit peoples options for the future . Many kids do much better once they're focused on exactly what subjects they want and get rid of the surplus ones. My DS got all B's and C's at GCSE and then thrived at A-level, same for many other kids I know.

In all the 6th form colleges and private school 6th forms I've visited over the last 6 months or so, they have all asked for B or above in the corresponding GCSE. Not come across any that want A's specifically, that does seem a bit harsh.

Ds's school want an A in the subject, but its a selective private and tbh if you don't get an A at his school, you really would struggle at A level. The state 6th form ask for a B which I think is reasonable considering the schools it takes the students from are not selective. The state sixth form gets great results and sends quite a few to Oxbridge every year.

The 6th form at DD's school is in the top 10% and they only ask for Bs in the subjects the students want to take at A level.

your poor dd Jay :( Id ask your dd about the specific aspects that made her feel stressed then talk to her teacher or HOD about how some of the stresses could be alleviated.

selective state and private in our area are require A in the subject that student is choosing (or very similar like History for Classics)

DD managed an hour of uninterrupted revision tonight. I switched the router off just before 8 with a promise that it would go on again at 9. I will suggest to her that we do this every evening.

It s not the quantity but quality of revision that counts. Short, sharp bursts are best. And mixing it up - watch some videos, read over notes, past papers test yourself.If children spend too long revising I think they can get stale and maybe cant see the wood for the tress when it comes to an exam question being a bit different.

For those people whose children don't seem to be revising as much as they would want. regular attendance at school is known to add a grade to GCSE results.

Bun re motivation.

I think removing distractions is very useful. Some kids do not have the maturity at 15/16 to not be distracted.

The other things our school suggested was for groups of friends to agree amongst themselves what times they would take a break. So they could break together and all chat online, but then go back to work knowing the others were too. Guess that only works if friendship group are equally hardworking though.

probably a daft question, but do revision classes take the place of self revision in terms of effectiveness?

Helped DS do revision timetable which he has followed for a week. Each subject no more than 40 mins (unless doing a past paper in maths, sciences can be split to modules). However school has started giving them homework (some revision for tests, other for MFL exam, etc), so it's been a struggle.

We will review this weekend so that he has time allocated to "school work" which if he doesn't get can get switched to a subject or two.
Was concerned he was doing too much too soon (based on long haul), but he'd like to be confident at Easter that he has a good handle on it.
Trying not to nag, whilst ensuring he has a nice space with few distractions (ie working in quiet front room downstairs as opposed to cluttered bedroom with all his devices!).

Whatever happens - he's prepared more than I ever did!!

Add to that making sure we factored in fun down time as well as just chilling down time. (Going to rugby match/driving range/etc).

I would like to know how to get DD motivated to revise, because nothing I have tried will work.

I have one who won't revise & one who won't stop revising (yes, honestly, sigh).

Won't-revise: he does make good effort in class, at least. Below comments he doesn't argue with. We long ago stopped his pocket money, btw.

People will think you're thick if you don't do A-levels, or go straight into the military. Be prepared for that... and work harder if you don't want people to think you're stupid.

If these are the ONLY qualifications you ever get, then make them good ones.

You MUST get >= C in English & math for almost any future career choice.

If you aim for Cs you might get Ds. Aim for As hoping the worst you'll get is C/B.

The path you say you want requires X results. If you don't get X, then I don't believe you ever really wanted that path. So what other future options do you want to talk about? What's your Plan B?

Aren't you jealous of your friends going off to get jobs & university & doing stuff?

So, What are you going to do with your life?

We talked about how DD wanted to feel on results day.
Either "I know I did my best" or "I wish I had worked harder"

And yes to pulling out the stops to reach the Cs in Maths and English if at all possible.

Also - if doing A levels, now no ASs, the GCSE results will be more important for uni applications.

And if not doing A levels, then GCSEs will be the last full set of 'exam results' which may be needed for longer on CVs.

"I think removing distractions is very useful. Some kids do not have the maturity at 15/16 to not be distracted."

Unfortunately OH isn't supporting me on this so DD is getting mixed messages. We have just been to a GCSE family survival night at school and the first thing we were told was to make sure the students weren't on their mobiles all the time. We have world war three and the sulks all evening when I switch the router off or remove the phone, but I need OH's support on this.

He says I have no faith in DD and am getting too uptight about it. Yes I am because DD isn't doing enough. I would leave DD to it if she showed a little more maturity regarding revision, but she just sulks and says she is too tired to revise most of the time.