Starting Y11 support thread

[AtiaoftheJulii]

(Yeah, I'm procrastinating ....)

For all those with one or two (or more?) offspring going into year 11: controlled assessments, coursework, practicals, performances, GCSE revision (or not ...), being guinea pigs for the Maths and English 1to9 exams, choosing what to do next - schools/sixth form colleges/college/apprenticeships/BTECs/A levels and more - and generally being 15!

It's a tough year academically - in some ways harder than sixth form I think because there are just so many subjects and exams - and a tough year emotionally - not always mature enough to organise themselves, too old to have organisation imposed upon them!

Ds still has an MFL CA, a couple of science practical CAs, and two assessed drama performances, plus coursework to do for History I think. I can't see there's going to be much let up and he's definitely feeling the pressure I think he'll probably end up staying at his school for 6th form (he's very mathsy and his school is a good fit) but we may well look at a couple of sixth form colleges as he's already talking about whether he can go somewhere that won't feel quite so pushy.

I'd like to think that badly performing schools want to know how well their kids are doing as much as good schools. With the PIXL papers last June there was probably a bias in the results because PIXL are a club you pay to join specifically to get ideas on how to improve results so their members are less likely to be high attaining schools (although my school is a member and is a very high attaining comp).

Edexcel students should all be sitting the same mock - there's a special secure mock paper that only Edexcel schools have access to so that kids can't google it.

So assuming the mock Edexcel paper covers all topics, then you would expect there to be questions that students couldn't answer at this point in the year. Have I got that correct?

Yes, assuming the school hasn't been ultra efficient and already finished the syllabus there should be some stuff on there that the kids haven't yet been taught. My lot couldn't do Venn diagrams, for example.

Ha! No I think they definitely still have new stuff to learn!
DD has her raw results from the 3 tests, I'm feeling they are respectable (though definitely not stellar) with a term of new learning still to go.

I don't doubt that all schools will want to know how their students are getting on, I meant that there might be a reluctance to put up the results to Edexcel if the school feels they are poor.
Also, it sounds a fairly lengthy job to correctly submit all the results and only some schools will prioritise the time needed to do that.

There will be no comeback from Edexcel if a school's results are poor, they will be kept securely.
The question level analysis will also be exceptionally useful.

However I'm not looking forward to typing my results in.

Thank you noble!

Last mock exam today, maths. Results mid December, I am dreading it as depending on it we may have a depressing Christmas, I'll try to keep it light though.

English = fine
Maths = very very bad (last very very bad one was 31/80).

Ho hum.

Results aren't until after Christmas so we can remain in denial over the holiday!

Why oh why is the social life trajectory on the same line as the revision line?
Time to knuckle down and revise yet an increase in everything going on outside. So much to do yet priorities are getting exhausted.
Or perhaps it's natures way of getting our nagging in prime condition, ready for May/June 2017??

Laniakea - I'm holding in to the fact there's still lots of time (really). A lot if schools don't hold their mocks until January, that's 2 months more learning, plus it's still 7 months until June. So a disappointing result now might reflect how much syllabus is still to be covered, & how much exam technique needs to be practised
(Hopes I'm not just clutching at straws here, because this is the advice I'm giving myself DD)

Blackdoglet - tell me about it. DS1 has just got his first girlfriend and although I'm pleased for him part of me is thinking 'bad timing', especially when they're Face timing for hours on end each night and she doesn't appear to be a big reviser.

Just found this thread again - lost it because initially things were just burbling along nicely, then mocks started and I got called away abroad because my dad was dying. I just got back yesterday.

DD says mocks results will be given out on the 30th - she's a bit worried about Chemistry and History. She knows she did pretty well in maths - mid 60s/80 in all three papers and she says she knows where she went wrong and what she can improve on. She's also been offered and has accepted a maths intervention - all Yr11s are being offered these to maximise their potential, the school would like an 8 out of DD so she's being given some coaching.

She says English went well, as did Physics, and she got her raw score for French back all but the last 8 mark question - she was on 31/32 marks so quite a lot out of 40.

She's been revising conscientiously ever since mocks finished and has no intention of stopping, end of half term report puts her on track or ahead for everything. And best of all - no panic attacks.

Had a parents evening. Dd is going to do the foundation maths paper which I'm happy about. Apparantly they've had two mock mocks, she got a 3 first time and then a 4. Eeek!

Anyway she's gone from no revising to me telling her to have a break! She's realised that Sam learning has a school league table and she wants to be top of the table. She's gone from 34 to 12 in three days!

pointythings. Sorry about your dad.

Btw, does anyone know how it works in the real exams for kids who need extra time?

If dd has an exam in the morning and one in the afternoon what happens if the afternoon one starts before she's finished her morning one?

With her mocks she won't have enough time to finish one and will have to finish itbthe next day. She's promised the teacher she won't come home and google the answers!

She needs to have a break. She should be able to start the am one early.

That's ok. Don't mind her starting early or finishing the school day late. Just don't want her to have to do a GCSE a day late. My brother had to do this and had to go home with a teacher and spend the night!

Possum - that won't happen. Enough time is scheduled between am and pm starts to allow those who have extra time to finish, have a break and then start pm exams. Exam officers are given leeway on start/finish times (an hour I think) to avoid this.

at having to spend the night at a teacher's!

Sorry about your Dad, Pointy.

Mocks underway here., started this morning. We seem to be calm....

Actually, I need to check that DS realises you have to revise the entire syllabus and not just this term's work, as in the termly tests. Eek! Today's exams were 'Ok, yeah, fine'.

Two sixth form applications submitted, one (for current school) still on the kitchen table.

Half way through mocks here;

maths p1 - really bad
English - fine
biology - fine
geography p1 - fine
maths p2 - slightly less bad than usual maybe
history p1 - fine

^As you can see she's very forthcoming with information.

The weekend was spent doing drama stuff - assessment is Dec 7th, which is really badly timed. Her calculator disappeared on Sunday night (thankfully Atia is well equipped with spares ) and the school bus was caught up in accident traffic this morning so she was over an hour late & had to do the exams late & in isolation.

Maths & chemistry tomorrow.

We did our sixth form application a couple of weeks ago - DD1 definitely wants to stay on at her current school, the 6th form is great and offers all the subjects she wants to do. She needs Bs/6 to get in, unless she has a disaster that should be perfectly doable for her. Mocks results tomorrow, she's dreading Chemistry which she feels went very badly, little bit worried about History but feels OK about the rest. We shall see.

Mocks results in - waaaaay better than expected. DD1 is whinging about her Physics grade (High B instead of A) and Chemistry (B instead of A but she admits she found the paper hard). Everything else is at or above predicted. It doesn't take the pressure off, but it does show that current levels of revision are doing the job (she does revise a lot). Very proud of her tonight.

That's very encouraging Pointythings - well done MiniPoint.

ah well done to her Pointythings ... great that her work paid off :)

It also give me free rein to put the brakes on her perfectionism and work to ensure she doesn't burn herself out. She has now agreed with me that downtime is part of getting results and she wasn't at all on board with that until now.

Overall she got 5 As, a 7, an 8 and two Bs. One of the As was History, which she was very pleased with as she found that a tough paper. I think this will be a good confidence boost for her. She knows marking for these mocks will have been draconian, the school makes a point of doing it that way.