Year 11 support thread

[pasanda]

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

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!!

For DD, both Bio and French were fine, although she didn't find Bio as easy as others are saying. She did find Latin literature very easy this morning though, as they have had similar questions before.

I don't let DD discuss the actual answers to questions with me, and tell her not to do it with friends, as it can only be negative I think. So she is widely skipping Tweets etc that cover specific answers. Post morteming exam questions is a recipe for worrying I think. All I care about is that she makes it to the exam on time, no illness, and preferably no visible 'disasters' like missing out a page of questions. We will only know how she has done on results day, so there is zero point speculating.

But obviously no judgement on those who do! Every family has its own way of 'surviving' the GCSEs, and people should do whatever works for them.

Sometimes I feel v guilty that, working full time with a long commute, I can't be there enough to ask lots of questions, but DD seems to be happy revising by herself. I expect the novelty may wear off soon though as she ploughs through the five long weeks.

My ds hasn't had an exam yet but after reading these comments I think I am going to take the lead from him. He either likes talking about things to me and we have great convo's but they are always on his terms. If this happens, I am happy to ask the questions. However, if he is a closed book (like most of the time) I won't say a word! (I think )!!

DS happy with today's Latin literature. He's got some grunt work to do for the Virgil paper, though.

Latin Literature was well received here too. Chemistry tomorrow...

My ds and his mates blather on about them all the time! Including, as I said last night on the football pitch!

RE today was apparently about fossil fuels so DD just wrote a load of stuff she'd just done in Chemistry....

I've been thinking about the Darwin question - in a way I think the problem is that it's only a one mark question! If it was an 8-marker, I think you could do it justice much better (and IMO it should be a 100 marker at least, but that's just me). I assume they will all have written 'because they didn't agree that man descended from apes as Darwin said', which I assume is the required answer, but it seems kind of lacking.

Also DD put 5000 for the biomass apparently.

DS got 5000 for the biomass question too. Have no idea whether it was correct.

I promised myself I wouldn't keep asking about the exams after reading this thread, then mentioned (in passing) the biomass question. DD put 2000.
Wish I hadn't asked.

My DS has since looked at the biomass question and believes the correct answer is 5000 (he put 2500 though and is now kicking himself)

DS did RE (or RS) today. He said it was much easier than the mocks. Defo an A* he says. Fingers, toes and everything else crossed. Three more weeks then it is OVER. Yay!

DD stayed at school until 5 this evening as the Head of English was running an additional revision session. So pleased she did, as she was the only student there!! So effectively had an hours private 1:1 tuition.
I am astonished that no-one else took advantage of his generosity in staying late and running this.
Great opportunity for DD though as this is one her A level choices

Not been on here for a while! DD has done biology (she liked the paper...and put 5000!), French (hard but not impossible) and Latin literature (fine). Chemistry tomorrow which she has apparently revised all afternoon...I have an awful feeling she means she's crammed it all but there's nothing I can do about that now except discourage cramming she has study leave off school and I think that works better for her

ds put 5000 and his teacher said that was correct but it was only 1 mark anyway.

Dd exhausted this evening and also has Chemistry tomorrow morning. She's not feeling 100%, I'm hoping a good night's sleep with sort her out.

raskol even if you're there you might not do much good anyway. I have a bloody DEGREE in Chemistry but I've forgotten it all and was useless at any questions dd threw at me

Chemistry revision furiously happening here too.

I asked DD what she'd thought of the Biology exam the other day and she'd said fine, but some of the questions were worded strangely. Not too difficult. Didn't mention biomass, but that could be down to the different exam boards.

Thanks Dancer!

Another DD frantically cramming for Chemistry.

Here too. Think she overcomplicates her answers and is missing out the obvious.

Tweenandteen please do not assume that i am some kind of orgre mum bullying my ds into going through the paper. He was leading the discussion all the way, and what about, oh i put this, etc. It was only when he realised that he had 2 incorrect answers in a row that he had a wobble, however the first thing he did tonight on getting into the car was to start grilling me on an RS question.
Biology was always going to be up for discussion, i teach it at a different school and he will do it for A level and he is very keen to get full UMS like 2 of his siblings. Of them, he is like one other who had to dissect everything, and the other 2 very much less so. It would be cruel to cut him short and refuse to engage with him over such things.
Similarly my tutor group this morning, apart from a considerable number absent with sudden awful colds, about a third of them were very keen to grill me on the biology paper and check their answers, and possible alternative acceptable options.
Wanting affirmation for ones decisions is not particularly unusual.

Btw the answer to the bionass question is 500, i have the paper in fromt of me.

5000 !

Rosie No assumptions of ogreness from me . I'm only gate-crashing anyway as my DD did GCSEs 2 years ago. Just keeping in touch ready for DD2. People know their own DCs and if it works for you both then who am I to complain. I just got a bit worried that some posters here were making themselves worried and potentially inadvertently passing it on, especially if it is their DC1 doing exams.

Dd doing WJEC sociology tomorrow. Does anybody have predictions for 10 mark and 20 mark questions?

Lots of chemistry cramming here also tonight, just went to tell DS to turn off and found him pretty stressed. I gave him a hug and reminded him what's REALLY important.

He very rarely, if ever, admits weaknesses and the fact that he did now made me almost want to cry. I came to bed and I can't sleep, I know it's stupid but I just feel so useless.

Good luck all tomorrow!

My ds has got his first English literature on Monday and Wednesday second core science Thursday maths non-calculator and Friday english literature 2. 4 exams next week.
I think they too cramped together.
He's stressed now I can see it in him.
He found the first exam of science in the middle not easy or hard but he said it's out of 90 marks core science part A.
Good luck to all the dc sitting an exam tomorrow