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Secondary education

Connect with other parents whose children are starting secondary school on this forum.

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Original poster

Good or bad sign if they get back from an exam declaring it easy?!

18 replies

GrangeMill · 22/05/2017 17:41

DS1 is doing GCSEs. He was a very slow starter at school and generally did as little as he could get away with for years. He's also hypermobile which means he finds holding a pen tiring and painful because he has to hold it tight, but that's not by any means the only reason he didn't really fly at school.

Anyway the last 6 months or so we seem to have turned a corner and he has worked quite hard, here's hoping it's not too little to late.

Every exam so far has been declared "easy". DS1 has never found anything about school easy. is this a good sign?

OP posts:

mumsneedwine · 22/05/2017 17:43

Translation 'I really don't want to talk about it. Have no idea how it went but I'm very glad it's over'

7to25 · 22/05/2017 17:45

Bad

heymrtambourineman · 22/05/2017 17:46

I think it depends on the kid. I never would have said it was easy for fear of actually doing badly but my db had no problem saying exams were easy if that's what he genuinely thought. He's never failed/ done badly in an exam. Maybe he really did find it easy and has done well.

SexandDrugsandaNiceCuppa · 22/05/2017 17:51

I'd be a bit concerned - I'm PA for a family who's DD is doing hers at the moment. She's a very high achiever, predicted straight A*'s across the board. She came back today and declared them, "quite hard". Of course, she may have been doing completely different subjects to him! To be honest though, she hasn't come back declaring any of them 'easy' yet. He may just not want to talk about it though - hopefully he's done well

ShinyGirl · 22/05/2017 17:52

In my house its a very bad sign, but I suppose it depends on the child.

HopeYourCakeIsShit · 22/05/2017 17:55

Don't torture yourself by wondering.
It's done now, if he's had a tough time and worked hard that's all that matters today.

TeenAndTween · 22/05/2017 18:56

In my house it usually meant that DD had missed the crux of questions.

But for a DS used to finding things very hard maybe having got the hang of things 'easy' should be translated to 'doable'?

Scribblegirl · 22/05/2017 19:00

I found certain exams easy (and aced them). I didn't ever declare it - too worried about being cocky and it coming back to bite me - but I don't think the sentence of itself is necessarily worrying.

My favourite test of all time was my A level war pieces text, but I frigging loved it. Given a few weeks revision, I'd really happily take it again.

worries about sounding geeky

realises at 28 no one cares

Witchend · 23/05/2017 14:04

I had a friend who if she came out of an exam saying it was hard would be at the top by about 10% having scored 99%; if she said easy, she'd typically be mid class with about 60%.

However it does depend on the child. It can mean that what they revised came up. It can mean they totally missed the point. It can mean they expected it to be super hard and it was just hard. It can mean "get off my back mum, that's the answer you want to hear".

So no, you can't take anything by it.

Also my dd1's levels go from "not too bad" to "really bad", dd2's grades go from "easy" to "dunno", ds will be "I don't want to talk about it"

CrazedZombie · 23/05/2017 16:36

It depends on the child.
With ds1 - it went great means I got a B or more. There were no bad surprises.
With dd - it means I got A*.(tbh she rarely says stuff like this. She's more likely to say I know I lost a mark on the Carbon question. )

I take it to mean that it was a similar difficulty to last year's paper. Last year's paper is often the mock so ds sees it as something to exceed.

ifonly4 · 23/05/2017 16:57

Easier said than done, we're all doing it, but try not to analyse what he's said. It sounds like he's turning a corner and maybe he's learnt what he capable of the last six months through mocks, final coursework and revision.

DD says overall she's happy with how things are going. Despite dropping some marks in biology (which she wants to do at A level) and a hard Eng Lit paper, she feels she's still on course. Maybe just reiterate to use every minute answering questions, and then double checking questions and answers. Whatever the outcome, it doesn't sound like he could have done more.

Autumnsky · 24/05/2017 10:21

DS1 has been saying ' not too bad ' to me after every exam, I translate it as there are no surprise so far, so a good sign.

Scabetty · 27/05/2017 10:07

I am getting 'hard' and 'not too bad'. High achiever of few words 🙄. I am getting the hint she doesn't want to talk about them

MilkRunningOutAgain · 27/05/2017 11:27

DS says this when he wants peace and quiet and me to stop nagging. As to his performance in the exam, it means nothing, he may have found it easy genuinely, but may not want to talk as found it impossible. He is in the 'do as little as possible for an easy life' mentality too, he does fine at school but could do so much better with some hard work.

SaltySeaBird · 27/05/2017 11:32

I remember saying one exam was suspiciously easy and finished it with 45 minutes to spare - it was maths and I flew through it. I got an A* but mainly I'd say exams were okay or awful or a few I cried about for hours afterwards (my lowest mark was a B).

rosebud5678 · 27/05/2017 11:40

One of my daughter's friends came out of yesterday's Èng Lit exam and realised that she'd misread the question and written about completely the wrong character...she was understandably pretty upset.

corythatwas · 27/05/2017 16:26

mumsneedwine Mon 22-May-17 17:43:36
"Translation 'I really don't want to talk about it. Have no idea how it went but I'm very glad it's over'"

THIS

stonecircle · 29/05/2017 08:55

Who knows. One of my dcs always used to say exams were fine - even those he got bad marks in. Another, who works hard and tends to know the mark schemes inside out, always has a fairly accurate idea of how an exam has gone.

Even if he genuinely did find an exam easy / so will plenty others so the grade boundaries will be higher.

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