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 :)

dds school option blocks very similar to nickname but swaps RS for Citizenship. Triple Science is timetabled as 3 subjects: Physics, Chemistry and Biology.
I don't know why they can't sit unit 1 at the end of year 10 with the others.
The reason they cannot take units at the end of Y11 is that new government rules (thanks Mr. Gove) mean that all GCSEs are linear so all exams have to be taken in the same sitting.
So for AQA Core Science is units B1, C1 and P1 plus controlled assessment all taken in Y10 = 1complete GCSE.
For Triple Science Biology = B1 + B2 + B3 + controlled assessment = Biology GCSE. All these units are taken in Y11.
Similar for Chemistry and Physics.

nickname - I think that is the issue at DS's school. They don't allocate any extra time to teaching triple science compared with the double. They only let the more able students do the triple and say that this is OK because they will be able to go faster so cover the whole syllubus. Only they then don't teach them any faster and fail to cover the whole syllabus. I'm not sure you can really blame the exam boards or government for this particular issue as the syllabus appears to have been unchanged for the last 4 years, so I can't see why the teachers haven't learned to pace the course properly. To be fair, the biology teacher did appear to manage it. But neither chemistry nor physics did.

On the plus side DS says that he doesn't need to revise the triple science content because he's learned it all so recently

My comments probably should have been on the AS / year 12 thread, fair enough.

hewl pleased for you and your DD.

At DD school, Triple Science is the equivalent of one option, so they get to pick 4 more, however, they also all do Further Maths with it (although can opt out). DD was also granted to take one extra GCSE in addition to the above.

To be fair, the biology teacher did appear to manage it. But neither chemistry nor physics did.
Same here, biology all covered, but not Chemistry and Physics, with DD saying Chemistry is hardest to prepare for. She says they are going over it now though, so hopefully just in time! The school won't let pupils go until third week of June.

Edexcel maths was "hard" that's all I have thus far.

She has 2 mates round, they thought it OK but didn't answer the last few questions.

Student room via twitter has the answers if anyone would like to know

My dd dropped from triple to double science as she just couldn't cope with the work load. I was fine about it, I think they have too much on their plates the poor b**stards.
I dont remember doing so much at this age (aus educated though)

The last question needed them to apply their knowledge of both geometry & surds. The last question on last year's paper (Hannah's sweets) needed them to apply their knowledge of both probability & algebra. These mixed-topic problems flummox a lot of students (including DS1).

DD said AQA maths was not too bad. She answered all the questions at least! Phew!

dds school do triple as a single option. Somehow they have covered all the syllabus - I think by starting in Year 9. Not sure...

She answered all the questions, even the last one, although she did admit she basically put a 'load of random angles'

DD is cockahoop that she has 'smashed' the Latin paper, which cheered her up considerably after the Maths debacle. She said the first few questions are normally pretty straightforward but she found the whole thing confusing. The only girl who seems to think it was fine is the daughter of a maths teacher.

DD is also unreasonably delighted that she thinks she may have beaten one of her very clever and conscientious mates in DT. Lots of them went to see the teacher yesterday to discuss the paper, (DD had an exam so couldn't go) and from feedback it seems that DD 'guessed' at the correct answers where others did not.

Nothing like a good bit of guesswork!

Hewl, I just read all of today's posts, I'm so made up for you and your DD that she found it ok!
I was a bit of a maths-phobe too, managed to scrape a C somehow but the thought of doing a maths exam now still makes me go cold!

Fantasy your poor DD, hopefully she did better than she thinks. Must be so hard for you when she's away too.
Is she travelling home tomorrow?

With regards to triple science - at dd's school it's done in one option slot, only by top set, and they don't get a choice! DD would have preferred not to I think (no plans to do sciences at A level or further) but never got asked.
And no, they didn't finish the course in chemistry - DD has 3 or 4 'revision' sessions booked in which she says are for the material they haven't covered yet.

My ds took higher maths this morning (Edexcel) and concurred that it was harder than past papers and had different style questions. He is an A* maths student so hopefully will do well anyway.

Currently he is in his room playing his Nintendo ds while listening to videos on the English lit anthology for tomorrow. Apparently this is ok as it uses different parts of the brain!

DS has got over his maths edexcel woefest. I asked him whether he thought he'd got a third of the marks and he thought he'd done better than that so it's not the disaster that it appeared to be this morning. One of his two mathsey friends thought it was straightforward, the other thought it was hard. Onwards and upwards, literature tomorrow (AQA, poetry anthology and the appreciation of the unseen poem).

He also didn't get a choice of double/triple science - they were told what they were doing. The idea was that the triple would take no more time than the double because the top sets would be working through the syllabus that much faster. I think that assumption has now been blown out of the water.

Maths 'wasn't too bad, better than January'
He's retaking his maths igcse, because he got an A in the January paper and felt he should have done better.
He is a lot more positive about maths since he changed medication for migraine prevention so hopefully this can do attitude will have helped. He also said all the work he's been doing for further maths has really helped him with the harder questions.

Spanish reading & writing at the moment

derek
I've told DD that and it was comforting for her.
DD was just poorly prepared as she still had physics in her head.
She's looked over her work and it seems she hasn't done as bad as she thought she had
Which is positive

DD had EdExcel Maths this morning - her first response was that it wasn't too bad but reckons everyone came out looking like this ---> about the last question.

She's just looked up the answers via a twitter link and thinks she's done alright - she seemed pleasantly surprised so it may be that she's done quite well

Dd1 said she didn't finish the last question but is hoping for partial credit on it.

"The idea was that the triple would take no more time than the double because the top sets would be working through the syllabus that much faster. I think that assumption has now been blown out of the water."

I don't know why schools think that triple science can be done with the same number of lessons as double science. Fortunately DD's school are fully aware of this and timetable accordingly. (see my post of 14.01)

One happy dd with the edexcel maths. The questions suited her.

On to English tomorrow and the last official day at school. You guys had better be here to say soothing things to me tomorrow. I'm way sentimental about this sort of stuff.

DD said Twitter feels the same way about her exam so it's helped her. Hopefully paper 2 will make a difference

Last Latin paper today. DS thought it went "fine" which is change from OK. He now wants to burn his Latin books in the garden. I don't think the neighbours will appreciate a fire.

Maths was "alright". He said the last two questions threw him a bit but he answered them and is hoping he got some marks...!

He hasn't anything tomorrow so is hoping to sleep in and then work later into the day.

We've just been to see his art work at school which was quite impressive as a whole as I've only ever seen bits of things. Am very proud and the art teacher had put one of his pictures on the front of the invitation.

Good luck to all your DC's who have exams tomorrow.

Travelled I definitely will fret if DS has German tomorrow. So will he, he's timetabled for after half term

English (poetry) in on the cards tomorrow, and leavers assembly.

I'm glad folk's DC seem to be reflecting on their Maths and thinking that they might not have done so badly. They will change the boundaries anyway if required, and there's another paper to come.

I looked on Student Room, DS got the answer right he says, for the last question.