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 :)

Morning all,
sorry, life is pretty busy here, so I'm not having too much time to keep up. Good luck today to all the Physicists! Our prediction for a question on today's AQA paper was for a drunk driver on a telephone, with screaming children in the back crashing into a small clown on the road - describe the forces on the brain as it moves in the skull.

Maths tomorrow and English on Friday. Last day of being in school proper for dd. Thank goodness, she seems worn out. She has a good group of friends who are cheering each other on and supporting each other to keep going. It might have been a good idea to suggest a fictitious doctors appt, but she would find the idea stressful I think.

Thanks Shanghai!

Fantasy - that's good news :)
DS not bothered either, sadly not because he knows the texts so well but because he thinks english literature is a waste of time! The philistine!

TheSecond - your poor dd. I hope she finds her blazer soon :(

This is the third year of exams in this household. DS1 repeated year 12 with a change in emphasis which has been good. So today we have DS3 doing Business Studies and Physics while DS1 and DS2 have AS maths C2 paper.

DD is in year 9 so we have another 4 years of GCSE, AS, A levels to go. I enjoy crossing the exams off the timetables as soon as the boys drive off for school.

Most will be done by half term so we are having a long weekend with no revision, then they can get back to work.

You do know AS levels are being decoupled from A levels? Some sixth forms are dropping them altogether, others allowing one AS to be decided at the start of sixth form along with 3 A levels. Others again don't seem to have decided what they'll do about AS levels.

The course content won't necessarily be the same as the first year of sixth form of A levels, either.

Kitten, I'm not sure your question was vague enough. It will need to include something along the lines of how long did it take the clown to travel and from where?

From memory, dd's Inspector Calls question was about how the changes in stage direction were reflected in the character development through the play...

Good luck to all today. Heavy couple of days here. Physics this afternoon, maths and Latin verse tomorrow and then English lit on Friday. Think she will be on her knees by then. After half term still have 11 papers to do and younger DD doing end of year exams. Good job I am grey already! Have a good day everyone.

Yes I do know, but they have done them this year and I don't know quite how it will pan out for the next few years. Such a period of change and our kids are bang in the middle of it.

second and navy interesting what you both said about Yr7 siblings and their end of year exams feeling a little bit put out and overshadowed by the Yr11s and their GCSEs - we've got that going on here.

I think there's so much time and effort spent talking to DD about her GCSEs/nagging encouraging revision/checking times of exams/talking about how exam has gone and what questions come up etc that poor DS is probably feeling a bit put out.

As for this week it's Physics this afternoon, Maths tomorrow and English Friday so pretty full on.

We are going away for 2 days/1 night over half term though but I think it's much needed for DDs sanity (and mine if I'm honest )

DD doesn't have As exams next year slightly relieved at that, DD has texted to say she thinks she needs a filling as she has really bad toothache told her it will have to wait till holidays as she has exams tomorrow and Friday

This is our 4th straight year of exams (although there was only 1 paper in that first year). Next year DS may be doing 1 or more ASs it isn't clear yet. The year after he will have A levels. Then, DD2 will have her GCSEs. So altogether we will have had 7consecutive years of public exams before we get a fallow year. Unless the college DS is going to changes its mind about ASs. Sigh.

i have just realised that if AS levels stay on the curriculum then I am at the beginning of 9 years of public exams

Is it too early for wine??

trewnes -never too early - it's 5pm where I am so drink away!

DS has biology 1 (OCR B) this pm. He seems a bit worried about it (first one i've had that impression for), as he wants to do it at A level, but he's well prepared.

DD (y8) was told at the start of the year that this year was "all about her brother". She's benefited in many ways, and has coped quite well with it. Not sure she's looking forward to being the focus of my attention next year

Dd has been brilliant throughout all exams so far but maths is on thursday. She is maths-phobic (not diagnosed! but she panics so much over maths ).

She did a test paper last night and got a D so now she is totally stressing out. I really wish she was doing foundation. In fact, I wish you had the option to do both foundation AND higher (foundation as a backstop).

To be honest I'm way more concerned about DS's GCSEs than DD1's A levels because at the end of the day even though DD1 is gunning for stellar results, she only needs 2Es or equivalent. And she already has that. This year was definitely not supposed to be about DD2 but all years end up being about her - she has a big part in a show coming up and rehearsals dominate everything. The Autumn term was all about Dd1's auditions but since then...we barely even noticed her grade 8 theory, for example

DS was pretty stressed about physics last night. There was a new dr who audio out and he didn't even want to listen...and it's a series he is obsessed with. He only needs a B in physics and it's his strongest subject and he should get an A or even an A* but he isn't good at exams. :(

DD weakest subject is a C pass mark is about 15/16 out of 60 in igcse that sounds low but there's harder topics
DD is panicking she got a C in the mock with 20, with 23 being a B

Heh Heh
DD said of Eng lit exam "I ran out of time on the mice and men paper but I think it was just because I knew more than was actually necessary"
A* for confidence if nothing else!
This is the gal who in setting exam at yr 7 insisted ... "the maths answer was 376 but there were only 2 boxes for the answer"
me..."what did you do?""
DD..."I drew another box"... gotta love that gal.

Anyone else have GCSE's and A's at home? Just finished Sats for DS3
-this is fun!!!NOT

Morning all!

Yes its a lovely grey day in London readying ourselves for Physics AQA this afternoon. Let DD sleep in and just went up with food and drink and she had laptop open and was watching physics vids . she is worried as its not her best (along with chem) but has been told she needs a B for all 3 if she wants to study Biology at A levels - I guess there may be leeway - anyone else been told that?

Thanks for the advice re her Geography course work, she is staying in the same school for A levels and I have mentally prepared an email to head of KS4. She hadn't done well in mocks previously so we needed the coursework to bump her up a bit.

On the issue of staying at home to study I have done it a couple of times now and have just let the school know she is at home studying, I haven't had any calls back . My dd attends a proper all inclusive comp and I imagine they are really trying to get the strugglers in and ready!

i woke with an awful headache today - the stress is getting to me too. i dont even want to drink or do anything to unsettle the calm we have at home. Just went to Lidl and stocked up on essentials - OJ, biscuits, strawberries etc and a ton of chocolate (for me )

Good luck today all those examining, maths tomorrow, eng lit 2 friday.....roll on holidays!

Cody - we had sats the other week - I was a wreck!!!

hewl OH's DD has the maths phobia thing, too. She's in Year 12 and retaking foundation maths tomorrow. I'm not personally a fan of foundation maths because the 'pass mark' (for C grade) is so high, and there's a lot of questions, and kids with anxiety do struggle with that.