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Original poster

Year 11 support thread

999 replies

pasanda · 10/02/2017 09:37

I can't find a new thread, moving on from the old full one, so I thought I would create one (please tell me if I'm wrong!)

Last night ds stayed up till 4.30am doing his biology coursework Shock

This time the tsunami affect didn't work and he left it far too late to do a reasonable job. Which is a bloody shame because he wants to do biology A level and he has done so well in his other controlled assessments.

I wait with bated breath to find out his mark

Oh well, thank God for half term!!

OP posts:
TeenAndTween · 17/05/2017 08:24

Happy boundaries are set after the exams so no one will know.

Personally I think no good comes by detailed discussion with DCs after they've sat a paper. It's done and dusted. No point trying to second guess. Also if they realise they've messed something up it will only stress them more for later exams. A 'fine' 'great' or 'terrible' is sufficient.

Madhairday · 17/05/2017 08:29

I'm not sure Happy, have they changed from last year?.
RE today. DD said she was looking forward to it, strange child. She's not looking forward to chemistry tomorrow so much.

t875 · 17/05/2017 08:35

RE/RS today!! We're not till the afternoon she seems fairly calm. I'm nervous for her!! Grin
Good luck all!!

Cromwell1536 · 17/05/2017 08:43

TeenandTween - I couldn't agree with you more, and I truly wish I had followed this yesterday, when I couldn't stop asking about the biology paper my son was a bit thrown by (yes, fungus eating wood question - 6 marks apparently and not something he recognised, but I'm sure others will). It ended up with me sliding into lecturing mode about detailed revision and how GCSEs were good practice for later exams, and not the most important thing, blah, blah, when really he just needed a hug and a laugh. Neither of us have slept well and now he doesn't want to get out of bed. Biology was supposed to be a stronger science that was going to help pull his overall grade up, 'cos chemistry (tomorrow) certainly won't.

t875 · 17/05/2017 08:46

Sorry to hear this Cromwell. Dd had this when she done Core last year. Crazy questions. She passed though and she was unsure. Wishing him all the best.

Iwantacampervan · 17/05/2017 08:52

No GCSEs today but eldest has an AS this morning and tomorrow morning. at least then she'll be finished (apart from an internal exam in her third subject after half term). Chemistry tomorrow morning!

TeenAndTween · 17/05/2017 08:58

Cromwell DD1 did GCSEs 2 years ago. She thought her C1 was a disaster as she had to go to a lesson straight after and everyone was discussing it saying how easy it was etc. In the end her C1 grade was absolutely fine. A certain type of child can fixate on what they did wrong rather than what they did right.
My advice up-thread to parents also went to my DD. Don't discuss the paper afterwards in any detail. No good will come of it, either you or the other person will end up feeling bad.
I have a feeling that I stayed away from the y11 thread whilst DD was doing her exams, I didn't want to hear how other DCs had found a paper easy when DD didn't.

Fleurdelise · 17/05/2017 09:11

Luckily DH stopped me questioning DS too much, he told me it is the worst thing that used to happen to him during his exams, he'd come out confident and then start doubting himself when recounting the exam telling his mum and friends what he wrote down. He told me to be happy with "it was alright" and leave it as we won't really know either way till results day and while it may put my mind at rest if he says he's done well there's no guarantee.

New resolution: bite my tongue when I feel like drilling DS about the future exams.

Good luck to those sitting exams today, DS has chemistry tomorrow, nothing today.

t875 · 17/05/2017 09:15

Good luck to your dd for her AS exam today!!

Cromwell1536 · 17/05/2017 09:21

Thanks for the good advice, and I will certainly follow it. Feeling tearful and remorseful right now! I have been so involved in trying to support him over the last months (he was really on the verge of crashing out of a subject he desperately wants to do, because he got behind with coursework, so I was right to step in to help organise him on that) that I'm finding it hard to step back. And I truly do believe that GCSEs are only the start, not the peak, but day to day it's hard not to get drawn in.

Good luck to everyone sitting their exams, and here's wishing happy home lives to you all for the duration! Roll on the lovely long summer.

tiggytape · 17/05/2017 09:25

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

PossumInAPearTree · 17/05/2017 09:27

I'm really worried that Dd has missed half the paper or something because she is adament there was no fungi eating wood question on the edexcel biology. I feel a bit ill.

Quadratilla · 17/05/2017 09:29

Hatethegym yes indeed! I am drinking tea in Asda café whilst DD does her Latin Verse exam now!

Jungfraujoch · 17/05/2017 09:59

Teenandtween completely agree with you.

I'm going to avoid this thread from now on because when I see comments about exam questions I can't help then asking DS1!

What's done is done, no point in stressing over what can't be changed. So, onwards and upwards - Chemistry tomorrow!!

Fleurdelise · 17/05/2017 10:06

I've avoided this thread for a while due to all the revision discussions Jungfrau I felt it was damaging my relation with DS as everybody was heavily revising when DS didn't seem to do as much which made me say stuff like "other Dcs are doing more" to which he'd respond "you always told me not to compare myself with others and just measure my own progress".

Now though I feel I need the support or at least to hear what others thought of how it went even though it is hard to bite my tongue and not ask for specific info.

So you guys are stuck with a nervous mum here. Grin

catslife · 17/05/2017 10:07

Have been lurking on this thread as a Y12 parent, but found that someone on here's dc is also taking AS Creative Writing so am joining in to give support and say they are not alone!
Possum try not to worry based on what other people post, on Twitter the feedback is that the GCSE Edexcel Biology was straightforward. In the stress of the moment some Y11 parents may not distinguish between iGCSE and GCSE which may be on the same day. Last year I remember there was confusion over OCR GCSE Science because there are 2 different specifications with exams on different days!

Laniakea · 17/05/2017 10:13

dd is in AS creative writing atm, I didn't see her this morning (I was up half the night with dc4 & still asleep) I hope she's okay.

She's only told me one of her answers from yesterday - one she thought she got wrong (& it was). I've come out of exams thinking I did well & I did, but equally have come out think it was a disaster & have done well. I don't think dd can reliably figure out a likely mark from yesterday - too many 4/5 mark questions where you can lose marks without getting the answer wrong. I've told dd that there's nothing you can do other than just carry on - she's still happy that she'll never have to do French again!

Merrylegs · 17/05/2017 10:29

Last week twitter was awash with parrot memes after the igcse Eng Lang exam appeared to be basically about a parrot called Beryl. There's even a Beryl the parrot twitter account now.

I asked DD ' how did it feel to write about a parrot for 2 hours?' She looked at me blankly and said 'huh? there wasn't THAT much about parrots'.

Doh.

But she felt the exam had gone well, so we can't second guess what they remember or interpret but just have to move on....

ifonly4 · 17/05/2017 10:31

DD likes to tell me whats she's doing for revision, but I know she likes to do it her own way on her own, so I've kept out of it. I've told her a couple of times this past week if she wants to go through anything with her or test her to ask. Not many on here seem to be doing the same exams boards, so I haven't had that worry yet of knowing what others have said.

She has OCR RE this afternoon and this'll be an interesting one to hear about. She enjoys it and is forecast A* and teacher reckons he's never had a pupil get below a C. They study six topics, there will be a question on each six topic in the paper, but they choose to only answer four topics. For this reason she's only revised five topics, so she has some sort of choice.

Laniakea · 17/05/2017 10:41

ah catslife my dd is doing creative writing today. She's done it as an extra (a lunchtime a week this year) & I know pretty much nothing about it. She said got a good mark for the portfolio I think that's 60% of the total? There are 5 of them doing it today - from years 11, 10 & 9 - she's enjoyed it far more than 'proper' English Grin

BertrandRussell · 17/05/2017 10:41

Can I suggest to the nervous people to remind themselves what their dc actually need for the next stage? A string of A*s is lovely to have, but practically nobody actually needs them. And if they get what they need that's absolutly fine. Better than fine. For example, my ds has set his heart on a very competitive 6th form. He needs good grades-but nothing like a string of As. And he has a fall back position if it goes wrong. I suspect most people are the same. And this time next year we probably wonMt remember what grades they got........

SeekEveryEveryKnownHidingPlace · 17/05/2017 10:45

My dd was in tears yesterday because on Monday she accidentally set a kitchen roll on fire when she put a ring on to boil the kettle, then yesterday spilt a cup of tea all over her desk and then knocked her glass over in front of the TV and got her drink everywhere.

She reckons it's not stress because she isn't stressed, and I think part of it is just that you notice things when they go in threes ... poor thing though, I suspect it's all getting to her more than she's necessarily aware.

Did anyone else's have biology yesterday? There was a 1 mark question about why a cartoon in the 1870s depicted Darwin as an ape, and apparently social media was alight with how unfair it was, must have been a misprint, why weren't we taught about Victorian memes.....

SeekEveryEveryKnownHidingPlace · 17/05/2017 10:47

Sorry, having looked back I can see that people did! Blush

Danglingmod · 17/05/2017 10:48

Indeed, Bertrand.

When you have a dc who is academically extremely able, but suffers from anxiety/perfectionism, you come to this conclusion even earlier. We've been trying to drum it in for two years that "you only need Bs for your A level subjects; you only need pass the rest" - and, if it's sunk in, I think this may result in him actually doing better than without that repeated mantra.

(I thought I was an involved/pushy parent to some degree, but it wouldn't occur to me to quiz him on what questions came up and what answers he gave. There's literally nothing you can do about it afterwards. Much better to chill out until August.)

catslife · 17/05/2017 12:01

Yes Laniakea it's 60% coursework. They can choose 2 different types of writing for the portfolio and this has been completed and sent off to AQA for moderation. There is quite a large group from her college taking the course but not many schools or sixth forms offer it as an option. Unfortunately this is the last year the AS is available as it's not being reformed as a new linear A level. dd intends to continue the subject to A2.