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 :)

Business was good this morning. That's the most positive response so far!
Physics this afternoon.

DS back from the Day of Death!
Physics was fine - 4 questions he had to guess on the multiple choice but I think that's pretty normal for him. Extended theory was ok as there was an 8 mark chemistry question.
AS Maths (C1 and C2) went well and he finished with one hour spare.
Day off tomorrow thankfully.
Hope today went well for everyone :)

Grrr.

DD has just left for her Physics exam having not had lunch and refusing to have any or take anything apart from a cereal bar for lunch.

Why??

I wouldn't perform as well as I could if I had to do 1.5 hours of intense writing in a difficult subject on an empty stomach. DH even went to the baker's and bought her a fresh hot panini for breakfast and/or lunch. She's not touched it, let alone taken it with her.

This is her first afternoon exam - when it's a morning exam it's no big deal, as she never eats breakfast normally on school days so I don't expect her to suddenly start now. A cereal bar is as much as she wants. But after lunch...? I hope she doesn't completely run out of energy after 5 minutes.

cody - we have two doing GCSEs (DS and DSD) and one doing A level maths (L6). All three have exams today.

It's no wonder that DD's Y8 exams are getting overlooked!

fedelix - I'm like that and have no appetite at all when I'm stressed or nervous. Get some little cartons of fruit juice for her - that'll give her some energy and is easier on a stomach full of butterflies

French was 'tellement dur'...

So, Physics is underway.

I wish I had no appetite when I'm stressed

Good luck to all our lovely examinees

DD didn't go in till 11. She slept in till nearly 10 which I was very happy about. She is worn out!

DD had a toasted large hot cross bun, then a three rasher bacon sandwich before I took her in at 12. She likes her food that one.

I've been eating rather a lot today. Piles of tomato sandwiches for some reason.

5 minutes & AQA Physics is over - agh! Kitten if she comes home & says it was about a clown I shall laugh my head off! After last night's physics revision session & chocolate fix, had to hit gym & laps round the park for both waistline & sanity!

It's an exam day so DS had a sausage sandwich for breakfast. I suspect that he was at the front of the lunch queue because he's found that if he can get the attention of the staff member supervising the queue he is able to play the "afternoon exam" card and get swooshed to the front.

Love how this thread is now about food ......

Just taken my mates dog for a walk its keeping me sane just about and the mahoosive block of choc

whats for dinner?

DS takes in a packed lunch. Literally nothing ever puts him off his food. Death, disaster...nothing. I'm going with to pick him up from school when it ends (they will have a maths revision session after physics) and then DH and him are dropping me at the airport (this weeks work trip is to one of the very few places I can fly to from our local joke of an airport. It's more of an aerodrome really - or a Nissan hut). I don't imagine he will have anything useful to say about the exam though. It'll just be mum I read the test, I did the test. I'm getting used to the mantra now.

I love the idea of Kitten's crashing clown.

Do you get extra marks if you say that all the car doors fell off?

Ah no! this talk of food. As exam day, DS had bacon and egg sarnie for breakfast, but was planning on school lunch - and i've just realised i forgot to top up parentpay (seem to have to top it up weekly at the moment!). Hopefully he'll have had what he wanted anyway.

I have chosen GCSE season to go on a diet and give up booze. Yeah. I know

I am also on a diet with added exercise. It gives me something else to focus on other than exams. I shall sleep tonight although I may not be able to lift my arms up in the morning.

DS's school have the most stupidly timed lunch break (1.30pm) , which means that on exam days he has to take a packed lunch or he gets no lunch at all!

Meanwhile DSD's school charge us by the term for lunches, almost none of which she's eating right now. Her brother is keen enough on school lunches (or possibly feels wronged by this set up) that he'll go in specially for lunches on study leave days, but DSD won't go in to school unless she has to.

I usually chuck £60 a time on Parentpay for lunch and then forget all about it for a while but as he's down to his last eleven lunches and will be elsewhere next year I'm trying to not end up with a balance.

I'm waiting for the school bus now - I predict "it was fine mum, really" for physics. There goes the first bus past the living room window - time to shut the computer and look busy.

Today's breakfast was sausages in a muffin. Beginning to run out of ideas. French toast tomorrow.
Dinner is a kale and spelt thing to try and be a little healthy and use up all of our ignored veggies.

Absolutely extra marks if the car doors fly off -momentum stuff you know...

Wonder how it went and if any clowns were involved....

So biology paper 1 (OCR B) was "fine" and he was "Happy with it" - phew! He had a slice of pizza for lunch because he didn't want the hassle of dealing with going negative on the thumb (feel v guilty).

DD says physics was ok with more leaning to "i've failed"
She's very nervous about her result and no amount of reassuring will do her any good. She says she wanted to do well and feels she hasnt done well at all. She's rang in floods of tears.

Just back from invigilating GCSE Physics (Edexcel) and no questions about cars or clowns.
Just checked parentpay and confirmed that dd has used up all her credit. Although on study leave she has been attending revision classes at school in the morning and coming home for lunch on days with no exams.
Edexcel (Higher) Maths tomorrow. Need to make sure she doesn't take her calculator this time!

That's hard fantasy - and must be very hard if she's not with you but clearly upset. I do think they can get things out of proportion sometimes. She may well be wrong about how badly it's gone, but if she's not, life will nevertheless go on. She can even resit it if she badly needs to.

If DSD is getting too stressed and tearful I don't find reassurance works that well either. What works better is starting some conversations about completely different things so she forgets all about GCSEs for a bit. She'll pick up on a discussion about Game of Thrones or celebrity gossip, or various things my DD is quite good at chatting on about for ages with her. Once she's taken her mind of GCSEs for a bit her mood picks up and when she thinks about them again she's not so miserable. She also seems to find putting large quantities of revision notes into the recycling bin to be very theraputic