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 :)

Waiting for DD's response this end! Twitter not showing paper in positive light, so will prepare for DD's return armed with copious amounts of strong tea & Nutella on toast, before the poetry anthology has to be looked at for tomorrow's exam. Best of luck everyone!

Creeps into thread...

DS did Edexcel Maths. He found the paper easy, pretty straightforward. Put the context to this, DS really is incredibly good at Maths, there's a group consisting of himself and his other boffin friends that are all as good as each other.

Re the last question, they all got the same answer, but all had to think about it. The extra information that you needed to do the question was within the text of the question, without that, it didn't make sense. DS and all his friends, stared blankly for a few minutes, all thinking it didn't make sense, then read carefully, then all got the same answer, as it was reasonably simple once you got past that bit.... does that make sense?

Caveat is that DS and his boffin mates will all be doing Maths and FM, and all do FM at GCSE too.

You don't need to add a caveat

I am glad for him! He sounds amazing at maths

I am sure Maths is one of those subjects that folk have confidence issues with, I am sure it will be fine. As I said earlier, I got a C at GCSE, and use maths (practical, usable maths) every day in my job.

DS and his nerdy friends will all be doing the subject, or science related subjects at degree I suspect.

I will be weeping into your virtual shoulders after German...

DD has rang in tears and feels like she's failed everything. She doesn't need maths for anything. Told her paper 2 will bring her grade up and she will have gotten method marks

needsstronone do not fret over the German tomorrow I am sure it will be straightforward,
the MFL's have been much dumbed down since our day...
It's the listening exam they seem to find most difficult. I was invigilating French yesterday and it would have been possible to get a reasonable pass with minimum knowledge of the language.

I read for foundation maths (edexcel) and thought it was generally quite straightforward (questions not too wordy etc). Haven't heard on higher paper.

I've got radio silence too exit - am hoping that means they're both busy revising for tomorrow's exams, with maths having gone so smoothly it's not worth a comment....

I have silence from DD as well when ch is unusual

Aww fantasy, poor girl

She has Latin this pm - so I am hoping she is with her Latin teachers getting a bit of last minute support.

Either that or she is crying in the toilet

what was the last question on edexcel?

I think it was surds

cool :)

dd relieved that Edexcel Maths (Higher) is over. She didn't manage to finish the final 2 questions but attempted the rest. There was a question on crisps this year apparently.
WJEC English Lit tomorrow an Inspector Calls and Heroes.

DD has looked at some of her questions and she's got the first section right she thinks dropped a lot of marks for being nervous and not checking.
Can anyone help if your DC do igcse maths? Will paper2 make an impact or not?

Interesting to read from other posters about the issues faced by schools to cover the whole triple science curriculum and reassuring that it is not just DD's school.

Texted DD about Maths and got 'It went quite well thanks' but Maths is her strongest subject, so more focused on doing well with Further Maths.

Received a one word text from DD

'failed'

That went well then!

Of course the second exam will have an impact. If she does well it will raise her score, regardless of which exam board it is.

I think the national 'scandal' in education isn't 'falling standards' at all, it's the inability of schools and colleges to be able to teach the full and changing syllabus in the available time, and the examination boards' seeming intransigence over setting papers that match the syllabus the cohort were actually taught and that is in their expensive textbooks.

Loving Twitter over exams. Although I didn't understand some of the maths topics they talked about And I did maths A level

Dd1 is year 10 but is doing early entry maths, Edexcel higher. Have had a quick scroll through twitter, mainly negative

Envisaging a stressful evening!

"Interesting to read from other posters about the issues faced by schools to cover the whole triple science curriculum and reassuring that it is not just DD's school."

At DD's school triple science takes up two options not one. Most of the students take 10 GCSEs, and the double science students get to choose 4 options, whereas the triple science ones choose 3. So the triple science students get sufficient timetable time for science lessons. I don't understand why some schools fail to understand this.

Example of triple science student options:
Triple science
Maths
English literature
English language
Citizenship
Plus 3 others

Double science options:
Double science
Maths
English literature
English language
Citizenship
Plus 4 others

Simple really

Also, double science students take core science at the end of year 10 and additional science at the end of year 11. Triple science students take all 9 science exams at the end of year 11. I don't know why they can't sit unit 1 at the end of year 10 with the others.

At my dds school triple science takes up 3 options. Physics, chemistry, biology.

Science has just changed to take up another option block like nickname. Dd1 did it plus 4 options. Dd2 will do it plus 3.

SHE SAID IT WASNT TOO BAD

collapses