Yr 11 support thread - the scaffolding is holding up well

[pointythings]

Because we need a new thread now that things are really hotting up!

Dd was upset last night and told me she cried in the Maths exam She's always found Maths hard but has worked really hard and got a B in the mock in January and an A in a recent mock they did in class. I know she'll be disappointed now with anything lower than an A.

Eng Lit this morning. Jekyll and Hyde and poetry for DS. Head full of quotes and hoping there arent any curve balls. The Romeo and Juliet threw him a little last week but I think he'll be ok as long as he keeps his SPAG under control (weak point). Looking forward to half term for a bit of a breather. But with a good balance of revision. Also have a DS doing A levels so we're all in a bit of a bubble in this house.

Nobel - if they are using KS2 data to assist in setting grade boundaries for GCSE - what are they using to set the grade boundaries for KS2 Sats?

Poetry and inspector calls this morning. She feels fairly confident on inspector calls but not so much on the poetry. Will be good to have a week away from exams though still a lot of revision. Are many of your school's doing revision sessions over half term? Ours are doing some but have been rubbish at telling us when.

Good luck to them all today esp in the heat.

45 min English Lit exam this morning.

45 minutes on merchant of Venice and an hour of unseen poetry. Not DS' favourite subjects (some understatement) so they could set him up for a good start to half term 😔

Dancergirl, sorry to hear about your daughter, it's so hard on them.

Here of the ones we know who coped well with the maths exams, two none of it threw them and another thinks she's got the last question wrong (not worried about anything else though) are the high 8s/9 candidates. DD really needs a 7, and I'm not sure where that leaves her as she didn't do much with the last five questions.#

DD has told me she's not really prepared for three of the poems if the come up, so please let us know if you hear which poem was selected for comparison.

Snowchaser, the same here, except that English is one of DS's favourite subjects and he is (in my opinion) far too unconcerned about this exam. Still, alea iacta est or whatever they say in Asterix.

DS's English Lit exam is 2 and a half hours today. Anybody else?

Fleur the AQA English exam is 2 hours 15 mins (I think.....) I don't know about other exam boards. DS had a cold shower this morning because that sports hall is going to be hot......

Yes DS's is 2hrs 15mins I think (AQA). He tells me you don't actually need to know the poems in full, just be able to talk about them. Not sure I care too much, English lit is probably the most pointless of them all for him.

DS is with WJEC for English.

dd didn't find the AQA easy at all, she was comparing it to papers where she's literally been unable to answer anything! I really hope that the fact that she's been doing an extra 5-10 hours of maths every week since last July is reflected in her grade. But tbh I'm just feeling very angry about the whole thing - it is one subject that is completely dominating everything else.

I barely saw her this morning, I hope she's okay - she doesn't mind the unseen poetry & hopefully know J&K well enough but the extract/compare one is always her weakest. She & her girlfriend are going out for lunch after the exam but then she has to start thinking about history, human geog, all the 2 & 3 sciences & the other two maths papers. Joy.

English lit here and poems etc. she was sooo not looking forward to that!! Fingers crossed!!

Good luck for all today

Is ds the only one who needs a 7/8 for English but only a 4 for Maths? Obviously he wants to do better in Maths, but that's what he needs......

dd's the other way around - just needs 4s for English (predicted 8s) but 6 for maths (7 ideally).

(I only put her prediction in because I think it is mental that she's refusing to do the subject that seems to come easiest to her at A level)

Yes, lots that way round-my ds seems to be the only one who needs a high grade for English but was able to be (almost) relaxed in Maths!

most of dd's friends want to do humanities for A levels (I think a couple need 5 in maths for biology the rest just need 4s) - she's the only one 'relaxed' about English but worrying about maths.

DD has been told she needs a 6 for English Lit in sixth form but that there is discretion based on teacher assessment in case of exam disaster. She needs Bs for everything else she wants to do and should be on course.

AQA here as well, then leavers' party. Exam has to be done in uniform, party is non uniform so DD has an outfit to change into.

Ontopofthesunset, I am dreading picking DS up for half term later today. Just hoping there are no parrots mentioned in the unseen poem and the merchant question is fairly mainstream. If he calls within 10 minutes of the exam finishing it will not have gone well. Good luck to your DS and indeed all the DC today. Roll on half term.

DD1 was happy with maths edexcel exam. She did it all, and was fairly confident with all except part of the last question. She reckoned from going through the questions that she lost 4 marks on the last question, and is reasonably happy (barring silly mistakes) for the rest.
Interestingly out of her group only one lad got the last question, but when they were going through it (why! I hated doing that, she seems to love it!) together he'd made loads of silly mistakes.
She really wants a 9 though, so it was one I thought she might come out and burst into tears if it had been bad, whereas most of the others she's more relaxed.

English today which she hates. As long as she gets her 5 then we'll be pleased. She doesn't really get picking apart poems/literature. I spent some time last night talking about identity in the Charge of the Light Brigade as she asked, so it would be great if that came up. She hates the fact that there isn't a right/wrong answer.

Their last day of school today. I'm not sure if she'll come out rejoicing or in tears. No more school uniform!

AQA 2hr 15mins here.

DD needs to do better in maths as they want a high maths grade to do A level science, and yes, she's likely to do better at English. I won't have contact with DD until later on, so I'll be watching this thread to see how others got on, particularly with regards to poetry.

2 hrs 15 here for the english lit exam. Will find out how she got in a minute! Thank god for a week off!!