Yr 11 support thread - the scaffolding is holding up well

[pointythings]

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

DD1 says Physics was weird in places but doable and Biology went OK.
Maths tomorrow - you either know it or you don't and they have another revision session beforehand.

IGCSE's are still A* -U though. Even maths and English. At least DS' are. Still waiting to see how Edexcel IGCSE physics went for him. He has completely gone to ground which either means he's sobbing in a corner somewhere or off messing about with his mates. 😬

Dd thought there was a lot of drawing in physics and she's no good at itotherwise ok. Lorry with curved roof here.

She'll be pretty lonely tomorrow am while most do maths then she has english and history revision sessions.

I started talking about maths half way through.

DD says AQA physics was 'alright'- some difficult calculations and questions about pizza and charging your phone too! She is very very worried for maths tomorrow - wants a 7 but no confidence whatsoever. Panicking about English Lit as well as she wants an 8....roll on half term

IGCSE EdExcel Physics was ok here although she felt they were trying to trick her with a few of the questions. Echo everyone elses thoughts re maths tomorrow. My confident y9 has turned into a y11 hoping for a reasonable pass. Add the trickier Latin paper into the mix tomorrow and it could be a trying day.

oh dd completely messed up the phone charging calculation - inexplicable brain fart moment - which illustrates nicely the maths issues. If only it was a matter of either knowing it or not!

DD found Physics ok, but I'm so worried about Maths tomorrow. DD is pretty cool at the moment, but I've arranged to work from home so I can collect and bring her home if I get a "help, it was awful and I want to cry" text as she needs to focus on English on Friday. (A-level choice)

My y11 in the art room at present, finishing up bits of his portfolio. Now he says the Edexel physics 'went really well.' To which I was duly congratulatory. He has been getting good marks throughout the year, and his teacher wants him to do A level. So maybe it did actually go well. Or maybe he knows so little that he has no insight into how badly it went. Or maybe - most likely - he's keeping me at bay. He is very adept at this now. Anyway, rang husband to share, and said I was surprised and pleased 'cos Mumsnet were saying that it was hard. He told me to stay off Mumsnet. Think he has a point...

DD unhappy about her physics. Says it's the least happy she's been in all of her exams AND the least prepared she's felt. She is outraged that while they were taught about falling items from a stationary point, the question she had to answer was about an object falling from a moving plane. With no resistance. She hasn't missed a day of work and has worked her absolute socks off, so there's no possibility of the teacher covering it and her missing it.

She doesn't rate the teacher much though, I'm afraid.

I'm just hoping his physics teaching is better than his grammar was at parents' evening because that was shocking!

IGCSE EdExel Physics here. DS thought it went well, but might get an A instead of the A* he needs. Oh well.

dd said it was curved because that meant a smaller surface area to volume ratio & better heat retention

Ds was discussing the edexcel paper with his sister who said some of it was A level physics ( she is doing Al)

DS is a little worried as he wrote a couple of sentences which carried on outside the boxes today in biology. His friends have told him anything outside the box wont be "scanned" so the marker can't see it.
Any idea if that's true?
I've told him to ask for additional paper next time.
Other than that biology was "alright" same as the others 🙄

Why does he need an A*?

quad you've got me worried about the Physics paper now. Dd said it went ok, what do you mean by trick questions?

I spoke to a Biology marker last year and she said it was a shame when students wrote elsewhere on the paper as she was only sent certain questions to mark (a scanned section without the rest of the page). I'm not sure if this is standard in most GCSE's.

Some for their destination University choices need a decent handful of A* . Some don't. It is a good thing to remember , even if aiming high , that you don't need all top grades. DS ( who went to what would be considered generally as an aspirational university) did not get all top marks ( neither yr 11 nor 13) He got what he needed - they were excellent marks but not perfect) All good. So that is one example. Other 6th form / universities will have other criteria. I do agree that good enough is good enough. You just need to understand what the "good enough" is - it will vary .

You only need a "handful of A*s" if you're aiming for Oxford.............

Exexcel Physics here, apparently ok...so now I'm worried as I expected it to be the worst paper. Sounds like I'm not the only one whose child had a better than anticipated exam though

I suppose if you had your sights set on Natural Sciences at Cambridge you might really want an A in Physics now. But I suspect if you didn't find an A in Physics very, very easy at GCSE, you wouldn't be a particularly strong candidate for NatSci.

Disclaimer: Both DSs hate(d) Physics most of all and I have no idea about Natural Sciences as we are most definitely (and defiantly) a 'liberal arts' sort of family. Nature or nurture or a bit of both, who knows?

You only need a "handful of A*s" if you're aiming for Oxford.............

Touche - fair point, Bertrand - I was just trying to say that you need what you need. Sorry if badly worded. But I did say "you need what you need" and understand " what is good enough"

I think I was trying to agree with you , but OK if it didnt come over like that.

FWIW I always said to DS ( GCSEs nearly 4yrs ago now) aim for the best you can and then you might catch something on the way down - you don't need a perfect set.

Handful of A stars for Oxford maybe, for Cambridge maybe now that they won't have AS's to look at, and also for medicine (especially sciences I expect!). Also some 6th forms might have higher requirements than others.

Ds seemed happy with biology today. Maths and his second Comp Sci tomorrow, plus lots of revising for Friday's eng lit.

He told me today that he realised after his computing theory paper which is no calculators allowed that he still had his calculator in his pencil case. I'm still not sure I fully impressed the seriousness of potential consequences on him.