Parents of Year 11s - the end is in sight

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Hello everyone, new thread for the final push.

Aww. Thank you for all your kind messages.

I got a text from DD while I was at yoga saying that she felt really ill, so I got in the car to come home. School rang me while I was driving home so I carried on to school to collect her. Ended up running with her into the GP and asking if someone could see her.

It seems like it was probably a bad anxiety attack.

However, this happened after the exams which DD said went really well.

I haven't heard from DS. :( despite the fact that he has credit on his phone. Dd1 felt that history A2 was 'good'. But who knows what that means. She reckons one of the questions was one they had in their mock (which she scored v highly on anyway, and she also reviewed and took on board they few comments made to help her get a perfect mark should the question ever crop up again). I do worry though. She does her exams on a computer and last year the exam board lost one of her answer papers and awarded her a guesstimate mark. Luckily it was then found when the school queried (because unlike written papers there are copies of the electronic ones) and her real mark was practically full UMS - rather more than they had awarded as a guesstimate (took her from one mark below an A overall to a comfortable 90+ UMS overall - so it's a good thing the school were proactive). It's scary to think that that sort of thing happens all the time - but apparently, it does.

It's Hewl but can't change back on my phone

Dd very pleased with biology so a happy weekend ahead

oh Nickname :( poor love. The pressure can be ridiculous. You probably need a bit of tlc too after that. A quick sneaky {{hug}} for you.

That is quite a salutary tale Uhtred. Shows it is important to keep an eye on stuff. Hopefully it was just a one off unlucky thing.

Welcome Jodee. :)

brownies all round! they are disgustingly sweet mind!

Do they give out the scores on the doors as well as the grades then? How long have they been doing that?

Seems a bit odd to me. An A is an A surely?

No, they give the scores these days and it helps you decide if you want a remark. A few marks away from an A etc might be worth getting remarked if the sixth form requires an A for that subject etc. It was very interesting when DS1 got his results 2 years ago. One A was scraped by one mark, one A was one mark below an A but wasn't worth remarking as the paper was max UMS but the CA was a low A. You can't get a CA remarked, I don't think.

DS reports that biology was way easier than he was expecting. All he could tell me about music was the Star Wars stuff. I do very hope that he wrote about the music not the film.

My DD had a bit of a nightmare with music this afternoon. The cd wouldn't work and they had to move rooms in the middle of the exam. Stressful. The invigilator recorded all of this and will put in a report so hopefully some allowance will be made.

Biology was good though!

thank you catslife and hello ohyoubadkitten :)

Lots of revising to do for History over this weekend, DS has lots of revision cards for the 3 different topics.

He is banned from going out this evening and tomorrow evening, due to stealing my bottle of prosecco!

Another DS here who said the Biology was really good.

oh no marmite! That's really not good.

Jodee at least he has class!

I have one happy dd who commented how her revision overlapped what was actually in the biology really well and music was great. They had a revision session before hand which echoed the paper very nicely and the essay question was a gift - one of the topics they had covered really well. Apparently silent dancing went on in the exam when people turned to the essay

So no work allowed tonight and compulsory lie ins tomorrow and Sunday. I'm a hard task master. She is celebrating in her usual style - on the PlayStation.

sorry, that might have come across a bit gloaty, it's just nice to see happy dd after mega stressed dd this morning. I feel like a weight has been lifted.

DS said Biology was - yes you've guessed it - "fine". Thinks he may have messed up one question on the Unit 3 paper as he just couldn't remember but is pretty sure he will still get some marks for it as he "filled the space", although with what is anyone's guess!

Not feeling too great though. Has a headache and bad stomach - he is, however, insisting that he will be fine to go to his goalkeeper training later on.

No exams now until Tuesday.

Not gloaty Kitten, it's lovely to hear about the dcs having positive experiences and success.

DD is another one who was pleasantly surprised by Biology 2 and 3. No daft questions and all about stuff they've actually been taught and revised. Phew!
(Am I the only one slightly disappointed that there was nothing crazy in it this time? I loved all the jokes on Twitter after the last one!)

DD liked the question about Quorn. None of her friends could do it, but as she doesn't eat meat and does eat Quorn from time to time she was interested in it anyway. It sounds like she would have got full marks for that one.

Ooh Nickname, that was the only one DD wasn't sure about! She doesn't remember being taught enough about it for a 4 mark question! What did your DD put?

DD reports a question on the biology paper about tights and bread mix. Admittedly I know nothing about science at all, so maybe it's not as funny as it sounds?

Kitten it's lovely to see them smile and experience a bit of normality isn't it.

When I got home from work DD was smiling and skipping around excitedly just looking forward to the weekend knowing that next week essentially is the last week (she's not counting General Studies the following week as a "real" exam).

I can visibly see her relaxing a bit more every day which is such a relief after the sobbing meltdown the day before her first exam when everything looked so bleak.

By the sounds of it DD's Chemistry wasn't too bad.

She has made me laugh. Her Maths paper yesterday had a question about Hamsters. She has drawn her two hamsters and is hoping for extra marks for cuteness. Hopefully she also answered the question.

I have bribed her to come to a church do with me tonight by offering to share my bottle of Prosecco.

It really is Norbert. :) a sign of less stressful times to come.

need to make a very important decision now - what we order from the Chinese!

Kebab delivery here! I was wondering if I should give DS2 a night off revision, he has 3 exams left, catering, chemistry and physics? On reflection, as he only does 2 X 20 mins a day, he doesn't need a night off. Chemistry it is...

I asked about the tights and bread mix - it was bread mixed with saliva and the tights were used to mimic the intestine.

According to DS science was hard. We are having a night off watching football and eating chocolate before a revision heavy weekend ahead of History next week.

Sorry, what does UMS stand for?

Uniform Mark Scale

The UMS balances out differences between exams and is a way of making sure people get the correct grade, no matter when they took a particular unit. UMS marks from all the units are then added together to give you an overall mark for your qualification.

^^ from the AQA website.