Parents of Year 11DC support thread. The final term.

[OhYouBadBadKitten]

Eep.

dd is getting plenty of homework too. She's counting it as revision.
One of them last night was to do a biology past paper. So I did it as well. I got an A

Yay raspberryripple! That must be a relief!

That's impressive kitten - i'm not sure I could get an A on a GCSE science paper today - it's a long time since I've learned that stuff! DS now has bits he got wrong on Tasoumai stuck onto cards all over his wall and there's a lot there I don't know.

DS and I went the the theatre last night - first time I've ever taken DS - but they were showing Of Mice and Men, which is one of his GCSE texts, so that seemed a good way to revise, and I enjoyed it too. I've never seen so many teenagers at the theatre though

He's not doing much revision in the week either, as he's still getting a lot of homework set and finishinig off coursework. Just been told he needs to redo his music performance as it wasn't very good, which he's cross about. DSD's school seem to have finished the syllabus more and so she does in theory have time to revise, but prefers sitting in the kitchen with DD whilst DD does her homework and chatting to friends online. So not much happening there either.

DS stopped being taught anything new weeks ago, it's all past papers and exam technique now. RE is the exception but he spent two afternoons with the revision guides during the holidays so he's covered the parts of the syllabus that they don't seem to be bothered with (some parts are "too hard" apparently). I think he's done with CA now, the German one before the holidays was the last. The gaping hole in his revision so far has been German but now I've read the syllabus I'm going to accept that he is right and he might as well not bother. It's 60% CA with listening and writing papers still to come. I've looked at past papers and I think I could guess my way to a B even though I don't speak a word of the language. You read the passage, then say whether the answer is a/b/c/d (in english). The thing he has struggled with is sentence structure although he can understand someone else's sentences well enough ("I know all the words mum but I don't put them in the right order"). I will now stop worrying about German and promote history to the top of the "needs most work" list.

OhYouBadKitten I bought a copy of my O level biology textbook when I got sick of sharing, I've kept it through multiple house moves and I've had it out for DS to look at. I doubt I could get an A now, I can remember the plot but not the names of the characters if you know what I mean.

Poor DS1 did not have a good day. In his strongest subject (and the one he most wants to do for A-level) he found out that he just scraped a C in the controlled assessment he did last November. His friends all got A and A*. It's only 25% of the total marks but he is feeling v.demoralised.

TheSecondOfHerName Oh that's a shame, it's not a good time of year for them to be having a knock to their confidence like that. Why on earth did school not tell them earlier in the year? I know that recently DS has been told the cumulative marks from the CA but I'm pretty sure that he's known the individual results as he's gone along.

second - DS has had some very unpredictable marks on courswork. They don't always seem to be final marks though, even at this point in the year. He's had many pieces back to improve them, including some that he's been working on this week. Maybe worth checking whether this is possible for your DS? I think what you need to do to get good marks in coursework is often quite hard to figure out - DS has been marked down for not showing what he's done as an exploration and instead jumping straight to what he sees as the "right" answer. He very much prefers exams.

You might also want to look at what the number of points he got mean he needs to get in the exams - ie if it's only 25% he may still be able to get an A* if he did well enough in the exam.

busy first week back can't quite believe how quickly it has gone. Ds2 finally had his men jab at the start of the week, no adverse reactions which is good, very positive result on coursework / controlled assessment - not quite sure which exactly , and came back mightily enthused after a day at the RSC. However needs to stay focused for the final push.

I had a look at the grade boundaries from 2015. He would need to get 100% in both papers to get an A* overall, but an A or B is still possible.

DD's dropped her DT piece and broke it. Lots of glueing today.

Exit at least she dropped it herself rather than you knocking it. Is it fixed now?

Goodness knows. I've never seen the bloody thing.

Great multitasking Dreams!

Having just tried a physics paper as someone whose career used to involve a huge amount of physics, can I suggest that the best way to revise science seems to be to do past papers and then carefully look at the mark scheme. You can put in an awful lot of real science and not actually get a mark if you don't put down what they actually expect as a gcse answer.
I suspect it penalises many kids with a decent instinct for science.

Chemistry tomorrow. I suspect that will be my nemesis, but dd is having a lot of fun marking my answers and having someone to sympathise with about the awfulness of the papers.

DS did a chemistry past paper yesterday. Not good apparently. Hopefully he'll gain some insight into what he needs to learn when he marks it.

Exit I haven't seen dds DT model either (apart from a few photos on her phone).
Dream am pleased to hear that your dd has found a dress she likes.

It has been a real shock getting up so early this week and it was good to have a lie-i this morning. I need a new battery for the alarm clock which has lost an hour in time overnight (relieved this didn't happen on a school day). Revision has been more focused this week as the teachers are setting revision task including past papers.

Kitten It's a while ago, but I have marked GCSE science papers. Yes many pupils lose marks because they just write down some random facts they have revised about electricity (for example) regardless of whether they answer the question (or not). So correct Science that doesn't answer the question obtains either zero or fewer marks. BUT alternative answers that are correct can still score marks. Mark schemes would be far too long and complicated if they included every possible correct (or incorrect) answer so they just tend to publish the most common answers that give the best indication of what examiners are looking for. Hope that's helpful.

My dc has been a little stroppy at times. I worry because a lot of his revision seems to be just reading and nothing else. I can tell that he stressed though, and he's counting down the days.

Dh has been ill for the last week or so with a sore throat/tiredness/headache bug. I've had a mild form. Stressing myself that ds will get it (rushed out and bought berrocca yesterday).

Dc played football this morning and they had a good win, so hopefully that will boost his confidence.

catslife I'd forgotten that on the last Y11 presentation at school they had a maths examiner give a talk. He showed two answers to the same question and the mark scheme and we all had a go at marking them. The "right" answer produced the correct answer out of thin air and scored fewer marks than the answer that showed all steps of the workings but fell at the last hurdle and got the wrong answer. I've spent years trying to get DS to show his workings rather than pulling figures out of his head (figures often including little gems such as six sixes are forty two) and he had to sit next to me and listen to someone else telling him the same thing.

DS had three tests/part papers marked at school this week, it all seems to be going well.

catslife - what a relief, yes, that is reassuring :) And of course the kids are taught exam technique, I couldnt fit all I knew on a couple of the questions and I had no idea which bits of knowledge were needed for the paper.

dd has told me I am doing an English language paper You might be able to tell that I know nothing about grammar and stuff like that. She says it will be amusing. If it helps her do ok, then I am prepared to become an object of her amusement for the time being.

This mornings lie in was amazing!

Icouldbeknitting Yes that can happen with Maths. On GCSE Science papers, a fully correct answer with no working still obtains full marks, but it's better to show working, so that if they make a small mathematical error they can still have 1 or 2 marks out of 3.
Another Example: mark-scheme says answer is "temperature increases". Alternative correct answers are temperature goes up, gets higher, gets bigger/larger/greater OR becomes hotter or warmer or more hot. So even for an answer that looks comparatively simple there may be lots of possibilities.

DS1 did 2 hours of Tassomai this morning and has gone to Wembley to see the rugby.

DS has worked very hard this week - told him proud of him, and pleased at his maturity. He goes back to school on Tues, so have said recommend taking tomorrow off completely and on Mon only looking at Spanish & German which will be the first two exams happening soon (orals).
It seems to be under control, so want him to eat and sleep sensibly, follow school guidance and remain clam and positive...