Parents of Year 11's - in the midst of exams!

[OhYouBadBadKitten]

roll up roll up, for our new support thread for all parents of year 11 kids. Whether your kids work hard or not, what ever their goals (or not!) this is our place to de-stress :)

Something about it being used internationally and being recognised as being a bit harder?

But if it's harder why do schools enter for that when they are rated on number of GCSE's grade A to C. Surely it would be more beneficial to make students take the easier ones?

Norbert - I'm surprised by textiles too. So much to learn for the exam, all the design prep for that question in the paper and don't even get me started on the amount of hours she put in for the course work. I'll be so pleased when today's exam is out the way, for DD's sake and mine. Good luck to your DD today.

evacuation proceedure for exams in the unlikely situation that yesterdays disruption is repeated.

That's basically the same as our basic fire procedure. I do small rooms generally so I take papers. We had a couple of alarms during the mocks so quite a few kids are practiced!

hewl - igcses are supposed to be the same standard overall as GCSEs. They were designed for international schools, but some UK schools prefer them because the government has done less messing around with the content on them. State schools don't often use them because the results can't be included in league tables, but that's not a problem for private schools.

I have DC/DSC doing each - broadly they're very similar in content and standard, but the IGCSEs sometimes cover a bit more content, but have easier questions styles - including a bit of multiple choice for some subjects - less marks to be lost for failing to figure out a oddly worded question.

IGCSE MFL tend to be terminal exams with no controlled assessment.

We live in China so my son is taking all iGCSES - and the main difference is there are no controlled assessments and very few course work options. DS had coursework for English language and there is a portfolio for Art but everything else at his school has been exam based.
Navylily is correct about the question style too - supposed to be clearer as a lot of the students taking the exams (outside the UK ) are not native speakers. There are also some multiple choice questions - but DS said this year's ICT theory, which previously had several tick the box questions, had changed quite a bit in style.

Should have said all of the above relates to Cambridge board which is the one my ds's school uses for iGCSES.

Hope everything went well for everyone today.
DS said Geography alternative to fieldwork paper was easy - I think the paper with case studies is the tricky one.
Physics and AS Maths C1 and C2 tomorrow - and they need to be in isolation between exams so a tough day.

Ds1 said that Latin prose (OCR higher) went really well and he is happy.
AQA geography this afternoon.

His state school has been known to be at the bottom of league tables because they use iGCSE for some subjects.
It's nice knowing they put the dc first.

My DS's state school uses some iGCSEs. For some subjects/syllabuses they are seen as easier to get a C than the equivalent GCSE, but harder to get an A* so borderline DC take them, for others vice versa.

This year many iGCSEs do count in the league tables, there's a list on the DofE website. DS's school wouldn't use them if they didn't count.

Also, for the new Progress/Attainment 8 school measures, English is double weighted if pupils take both language and literature. The higher result is doubled, even if they get a U for Lit. Hence many pupils of all abilities taking English Lit. This is for the school's benefit often, rather than for many low ability DC who otherwise might have concentrated their time on English Language alone.

DS is just back from AQA Electronics. He said it was hard, the hardest exam so far, and harder than any of the past papers that he has practised. He's already dropped 10 marks for his project not working (otherwise he would have got full marks for it!), so thinks an A rather than the A* he was really pushing for. He's a bit pissed, as he wanted to do this at A Level.

need, the hope is always with a truly difficult paper that everyone found it hard and hence the grade boundaries will be lower. At least, that's how I comfort my DSs.

I don't want to alarm anyone, but have just read a really awful story in the local paper about a 16 year old that was so busy working for her exams and keeping going despite feeling ill because her exams were "so important for her future" that it wasn't noticed that her symptoms were meningitis and she has sadly died. Feel somewhat traumatized even reading this story (I don't know the girl) - it certainly puts our worries in perspective and that our dcs well being is far more important than exams can ever be.
(I think most of us have posted that our dcs have been vaccinated by the way).
I hope need that the exam being hard means that the grade boundaries will be lower this year.

Agree with Ellen ref grade boundaries.

When DS has done past papers I've looked at the grade boundaries and when he thinks it's hard the boundary is lower - just a couple of marks - but sometimes that's all you need.

I'm worried about systems now! Especially as dd said there wasn't much to revise.

Interesting. Our school uses only one IGCSE and that's english. I'm assuming that some pupils have more likelihood of getting a C by that route than with the regular (AQA) GCSE english.

catslife - what a tragic story.

The pressure on the kids at exam time is considerable and we rarely stop to consider that an exam can be retaken and a disappointing grade (in terms of what your child expected) is not the end of the world.

Thanks guys, I have suggested this to DS. He's going to see how Chemistry goes in terms of overall grade, before he decides which would be best to do at A Level. They all found it hard, and they looked up some answers from the revision guide afterwards, which DS got wrong!!

I'm very pleased we sent dd to a school within walking distance. Our corner of SE London has been gridlocked by the Blackwall Tunnel closure. Drama for dd this morning which was ok. Two people arrived halfway through but were given their full time. Others didn't get there at all.

oh catslife what a truly awful story

Agree Cats, perspective is a good thing, and worthwhile reminding ourselves and our DC's sometimes.

This thread moves quickly! DS has AQA Geography this afternoon, OCR Biology 1 tomorrow afternoon and Edexcel Maths (non-calc) Thursday am. Hopefully not too bad a week - DS general comment has been "I've not done too terribly". Let's hope!

12:01 is lunchtime right?

Not at DDs school bit lunch is 1-2pm