Parents of Year 11s - the end is in sight

[228agreenend]

Hello everyone, new thread for the final push.

My ds was moaning about the long English exam today as well. After a week off, he had some pre-exam nerves.

Maths coursework for GCSE need?

Sorry, syllabus would have been a better choice of words, neither subject has any coursework

For reasons best known to himself DS decided that today's AQA english needed cake. He found a recipe and made a spiced coffee cake with a chocolate ganache. I suppose that this is another displacement activity to avoid revision. His exam is first thing so that's going to make an interesting addition to the stuff sitting at the side of the hall.

I'm looking past the exams now and thinking about taking up the summer special at the local gym for both me and DS. It would add a bit of structure to his week and stop him spending every waking hour slumped in front of his computer. It's a four month deal so would take us nicely over the summer.

DS has just sent me a text letting me know that English was "quite good".

This is an improvement on "fine" and "OK"

DD sent me a text after her AQA English saying that it had or really well. Best one so far! Good to have a positive as she has 3 exams tomorrow and this is her busiest week

• gone really well

DD pleased with English. Apparently there was a question that allowed them to let rip about the inadequacies of the current education
system in preparing children for the real world. That should make fun reading for the examiners.

I only hear from DS if the exam was made of woe and failure. I shall wait for the arrival of the school bus and the proclamation of "fine".

dd really worried about history yesterday. She chose the question that noone else chose...I suspect she got over cocky. One of the questions sounded very easy and one sounded much harder...she chose the 'harder' one. Even her history teacher sucked her teeth when dd said she'd done that one! Oh well!

Lol - I wonder what dd (currently at stiflingly small girls private and desperate to get to big state 6th form) put for that Exit!! I dread to think.

Exit and Hewl - I mark English exam papers - I can assure you the examiners will sympathise! And that the topic will have been chosen deliberately because they know that it's one that 16-year-olds will have strong feelings on!

My dd did OCR English and got to write something critical of parents, so that was good.

What's the difference between add maths and further maths. DD is doing the latter in two weeks time. She said that it was like A levels Maths but said the boundaries were very low and therefore was easy to get an A.

Ds also thought English exam was good, but then added that he wasn't sur e whether one question should be answered in a magazine or esssay style. Let's hope he gets points for content, if the style was wrong!

Please send me over some cake. Sounds delicious.

Ds1 woke up today feeling unwell. We dosed him up and sent him off to school where they arranged for him to sit in a class away from everyone with a bucket. Fortunately it wasn't needed! Imodium worked well.

He thinks the exam went well writing so all is ok. He now has to crack on with German, computing and geography tomorrow.

Did someone say cake?!

DD is our resident baker but she hasn't had time to do any since exams started. She seems to prefer spending her down-time on YouTube etc which means we're missing homemade cakes.

DD is home now. She only went in for her history lesson and then she walked into town with her friend for cake and a drink.

She said in the history exam on Monday she answered a question about Nazi policies towards women and young people. Is that the one you mean hewl?

swingofthings I think additional Maths is harder than Further Maths, and carries UCAS points.

DD is also doing Further Maths.

She is not happy with English this mornung

Glad to hear lots of positives about English language DD did AQA and thinks it went well, although she could have done with an extra 5 minutes for the last question.
Their paper was all about tourism so not the most exciting subject matter, but DD drew on her experiences of soggy campsites and caravans for the final question!

Sorry raspberry, crossed post. Sorry to hear your DD not happy with English, which board was she?

Add Maths is a level 3 (gains ucas points) exam that follows about 60 hours of guided work. There is one exam at the end. Further Maths is level 2 - same as gcse that is a full length course. There are 2 papers at the end. They cover broadly the same topiscs but FM has matrices.

I wouldn't especially say that add maths is harder than FM.

Actually, I think I'm wrong about the above statement

Please get your kids to check their calculators before Thursdays exam. dds died today!

Just catching up - not only has the thread moved on, but there's a whole new thread! Half term spent DS revising, DD socialising and DH, DDog and I working in the garden! Prom suit sorted though, and DS very happy with it. Phew! Seems as chilled as ever. I'm worried he's not spent enough time on Geography paper 2 (tomorrow) - but it is what it is. After this week (she says glossing over maths and chem paper 1) only 5 to go!