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 :)

still not on study leave here yet and not home for a while.

my sister is an exam marker. I am really surprised that school don't drum it into children that they can only write in the box. this is all that is scanned and that she sees when she marks them as they are done on line.

also when she logs on to mark she gets just one question - ie q4 part b and she will mark hundreds of the same question. then when she logs out and goes back in again she might get q2 c. this is randomised so that no one marker marks the whole paper. this is why it is so important to answer the question even if you think you have already written the same info somewhere else.

RE yesterday, DD said her favourite topics came up so was very pleased. French and Biology today. Said French was fine, said Biology wasn't hard, but some of the questions were unexpected, as in not studied in class and never came across in previous papers, something to do with independent groups or something!

Ds1 was concerned about the last question in his paper but although his friends were also unsure they had all put the same answer. BBC bitesize also uses it as an example when we googled it so it looks ok.

Second - yes Ds says that about the biology - oh look a geography question!

DS reports that Biology wasn't hard, but that some of the questions were a 'bit weird'. I haven't had chance to chat with him yet, this is via text.

What exam board need igcse aqa?
Anyone else's kids igcse aqa double award higher tier?

Yes to the iGCSE Biology exam being a bit random - DD said there were some really odd questions.

What exam board norbert

According to dd French listening and reading was "really good". This was GCSE and OCR.
Next exam is RS unit 8 tomorrow afternoon.

Yes, fantasy, AQA. I'll interrogate and report further!

Double award, higher tier? Sorry for the questions there's just so much online about aqa unit1 biology and Igcse edexcel biology. DD didn't like Q2 in her biology paper

Just wondering what 'structured revision' in school means? Are they being supervised while revising independently, silently, or are they in a class situation and still being 'taught' - which could work really well, but as everyone has a different combination of exams could also be really difficult. If you've got French tomorrow and biology, the last thing you want to do today is spend the day in extra maths classes? Just asking because this is us in a year....thanks

Erm, not sure! He's doing triple science, definitely AQA. I've sort of left him to it, he seems to have organised himself pretty well and been fairly chilled, so I've tried to be as low key as I possibly can, which seems to work best with DS.

I think they follow the curriculum in terms of which 'lesson' they are in, but can get on with their own choice of revision.

I see little point in stressing about the exam that has just been completed. Sights should be set firmly on the next one.

Thanks exit, that makes sense. Good luck to everyone, I've been following the thread knowing it will be us in just a year.

fantasy - DDs biology was EDEXCEL board (I'm not sure where the "i" bit came from - I thought DD called it iGCSE but it doesn't say that on her exam timetable print-out)

madcat - at DS's school it seems to mean a complete mixture. He had a two hour session where a courageous teacher attempted to run through the key content of the entire course, which DS saiid was really useful. And another session where they just got on with private revision and a teacher was available if they needed help. He says he spent that lesson on tassoumai on his phone.

mad, I've got years of it, DD next year, DS with AS, then A Levels the following 2 years. One school year between my DC and changing to linear courses!!!

one very cross dd about aqa biology. She says there really was no syllabus on it, just questions where you had to guess what the mark scheme might want. The maths was fine, the rest was rubbish.

French was good.

madcat it probably varies for different schools. At dds school they sign up for the sessions they would like to do before morning registration. If they don't have an exam there's a timetable of revision lessons run by subject teachers or alternatively they can opt for supervised revision where they revise independently in a classroom with a teacher supervising. So if they had French exam in the morning they could either go to a biology revision class or revise independently before the afternoon biology exam. There are also some other options on the timetable such as relaxation classes!

Ds1 did aqa unit1. I may have to see whats being said.

My ds is at a stTe school and in his third week,of study leave. Not sure whether it's better to study at home, or at school.

Year 9 ds2 has exams soon. This is a typical revision session for him.

Me "why don't you start revising at six?"
Ds "ok"
6pm me shouts up to ds " it's 6pm"
Ds "ok, I'll just finish this video, followed by coming downstairs to get his bag, then decides to eat an orange... .

Sound familiar to anyone?

Not sure whether I should be supervising him more, or letting him make his own mistakes.

Ds 1 has just rang and gave his standard answer of 'good' when asked about the exam. It did sound like a positive good, rather than a hesitate good.

Dd1 had French & biology, both AQA, found both quite easy, the bits I saw of the higher biology I could answer and I saw a few mathsy ones on the F paper but didn't see either properly.

catslife - relaxation sessions sound like a great idea as something students can chooses to do. That's the sort of thing DD would benefit from - a chance to have a guided relaxation/breathing/ calm the nerves time.

That all sounds really well planned and thoughtful. Im converted to the idea of supervised revision! I think it keeps them on track and focused and probably helps calm nerves too, cos they are spending less time alone. Scheduled breaks too and even relaxation sessions. I'm impressed!