Yr 11 support thread - the scaffolding is holding up well

[pointythings]

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

It just goes to show indeed Piggy - my DS was happy/relieved with the AQA Macbeth question. And with the LotF one for that matter (have noted your name ).... I saw on Twitter that quite a few of the descriptive bus essays involved terrorism - a sad - but all-too-real - sign of the times...

DS thought the first part of the AQA English was good but panicked in the creative writing when he started the bus journey piece, couldn't think of anything more to write after 10 mins, deleted it all ( he word processes because of dyspraxia) and did the other question instead, giving him no time to check through. Such a shame as creative writing is a real strength of his, but spelling is not! He said he wrote about two soldiers from different sides meeting in a trench - it sounded quite good - but he said it didn't flow and I think it was quite a shock to him as he aced the mock and all the practise pieces. I secretly think he should have stuck to the bus journey as his descriptive writing is much better than his narrative, but hey-ho. He said ' all I could think of was 'hydraulic hiss' to describe the bus!

Mine completely switched off to a worrying extent during half term & only switched back on at the w/e. It is very much his nature to leave things to the last minute though.
Don't really know what to advise since mine doesn't take advice anyway, except to remind him about the long summer ahead, reward effort, support, treat, beg
I think I'm being really nice, cutting him lots of slack etc. At worst I can look back safe in the knowledge that I did all I could to help him through it. Nearly there now

Also in a half term slump here. DS seems to have lost the motivation and is difficult to get working in the same way as the few weeks before half term.

It's not using the connection though Bertrand is it? It is about getting the issues of social class more quickly and empathetically and understanding better why the Rosabel character may have disliked 'red haired girl'. There was actually a lot of subtlety in the passage for 15 and 16 year olds....anyone who had done Inspector Calls ought to have thought 'ah yes , I see. A shop girl is lower in social status ' It was almost like t could have been an extract from Eva's diary!

If nothing else, the board were unimaginative...

café - I thought the Macbeth question was fine, too. My DS thought an ambition question would have a passage by Macbeth himself he's not very quick on the uptake sometimes so got a bit thrown.

Yes, my name is indeed a Flies reference! The line 'the fall through the air of a true wise friend named Piggy' makes me weep...

I used to have an Of Mice and Men user name - due for a change to Animal Farm themed name soon!

readyforsunshine The inspector calls was a different board. It wasn't in the Wjec paper.

Three exams and isolation today! Not sure if they get to eat something or can take a packed lunch in isolation.

Draylon that's really interesting stuff about BTECs. I've been told by others that RS Unis are more interested in maths A Levels with A/A* grades for CS courses rather than a CS A Level. For my DS, computer science is the only science he's really interested in and doesn't want to take it any further than A Level. His other loves are history, music and a MFL. The only maths he's interested in is the CS component. Ho hum. He's sitting the paper now. Calmed himself down this morning by watching a couple of Will & Grace episodes....

Agree with others whose DCs have found it hard to get motivated again after half-term. Mine seemed to run out of steam completely... Thankfully, DS's school is running revision classes for the remaining exam subjects. Very few people have been turning up, which suits my DS fine - small groups on specific topics have been a bonus and at least I know that some quality revision is taking place (rather than listening to on-line revision videos whilst playing FIFA 17 )

Piggy - another reason why I (like my DS) never liked LotF. Poor Piggy - they were so awful to him, the little shits.... I shall keep an eye out for Snowball and Napoleon in future. And yes, with Macbeth, the extract could have been from almost anywhere in the play as far as my DS was concerned - he was just relieved to see the word 'ambition' in the question!

It's taken me two hours to get dd out of bed. She's shut in her room with a maths paper, I can guarantee that she's not doing in though. The combination of being tired, half term, & general boredom with the whole revision/exam thing is not good. Think she's got to the point where she just wants them over & doesn't really care how she does.

Definitely a half term slump here.

Before half term he had a fab routine but he's really not motivated now. He really would have been better off with our system if fewer but longer exams (or exams over half term so it's all over quicker)

It's the same here. DS is really lacking lustre now and bored by revision. He has a lot to learn for his second history paper next week, and there is clearly stuff he could be doing for Maths tomorrow and the three 'triple' science papers. But it's all a bit slow and half hearted.

Just picked up DS from school after OCR Computing.
He is very upset. Question on databases which was way beyond what they had been taught. Seems it was partially covered at the end of Year 10, but their teacher left and the new one assumed the topic was finished. He has done plenty of revision, so not sure why this didn't get picked up.
He wants to do Computing at college. This is the first exam he has not been positive about.

I have to agree with Piggy that the extract advantaged pupils who had studied AIC. My very weak bottom set commented on the similarities and it probably did help them.

Thanks Draylon.
My son is hoping to do the Computer science BTEC that you DS is doing. Is he enjoying it?

I have been struggling to get DS motivated after half term. But today I worked from home, kicked his lazy arse out of bed and told him to start revising. There are loads of predicted questions/topics for maths papers 2 and 3 on the internet and his school was very good at recommending some. So I printed a load off and he is spending all day doing practice papers with an hour break every 2 hours. This is working well and we have a good rhythm going. I am marking them for him from the answer sheets (I have no idea what it all means) and he is getting lots of correct answers (and wrong ones). I am feeling positive, for now. I have promised him a McDonalds on his next break.

Anyone do Edexcel German this morning? DS seems quite happy with it, I am happy because I brought him and some friends back here for the remainder of the day as they have nothing until Maths revision at 3.30 and when they were comparing answers in the car his seemed to agree with the others. They have done some reasonable revision since getting back but after a break for pizza it all seems to have gone to pot so have been glaring and clearing my throat meaningfully while counting down to getting them back to school in an hour.

ready, i had a chuckle about the cat poo. Hopefully he'll at least pick up some marks for making the examiner laugh.

My DD ended up by crashing her bus yesterday.

hedwig, tell your son to hang in there. He's done his revision so that's a positive, also the fact it's something he wants to continue with will mean he's tried to get a really grasp of the subject.

Anyone got a DC doing AQA RE this afternoon. DD has enjoyed this subject (more than I thought she would) and I think she'll enjoy this exam.

No maths revision done at all here, not sure she's going to either. She's had six exams this week after a good break and I think she can only take in so much. Friday she's got biology and music, both of which she wants to do at A level, so I think they'll be her focus for the rest of the week.

Yes German here too. Better than French a few weeks back.

AQA IGCSE German here. All good.

Dd has come home after RS exam feeling ill and very upset.

Bad headache, tinnitus, chest pain, feels cold and now vomiting.

She says exam went awful as all the words were jumping about in the paper and she felt terrible. She has maths tomorrow! I've given her ibuprofen. She's just sobbing.

Can you get her a dr's appointment first thing tomorrow?

Write down everything that's happened and make sure the school knows about it asap.