Year 11 support thread - keep on keeping on!

[AtiaoftheJulii]

Just getting this ready!

Following on from www.mumsnet.com/Talk/secondary/2936097-Yr-11-support-thread-the-scaffolding-is-holding-up-well

Good luck to those with exams today 🍀

My DS said he found Edexcel Biology quite hard today....

Anyway this time next week it will all be over.

Didn't quite get a clear answer, but I think OCR 21st Century went okay(ish).

DD said Edexcel Music was good for her and happy.

Eve - I know someone who went to Loughborough to do engineering (probably a different course to the one your son would wants to do) - it was his second choice (he didn't get the grades for his 1st choice) but he's been happy there and in the end he's glad he went there rather than 1st choice.

Not thinking ahead too much, but dread to think what Edexcel have got lined up for their Maths next week.

OCR Biology was apparently very easy. It's his best subject so phew.

This week was the worst week with at least one exam a day. 2 weeks to go!!

DS said there were a couple of tricky questions in one of the two Biology papers (but it's not his best or favourite subject!).

DS still has ten papers to do next week so all still to play for. I feel really sorry for him.

We've been amazed at how hard he's been working so let's just hope it pays off - it should do!

DS said there's been no 'trig' at all in the Maths papers so far - is that usual? Does that make it a dead cert for paper three?

The horrendous last question on Paper 1 was Trig but I would definitely expect it to appear on Paper 3 too. Lots of other certainties as well - many schools publish lists/information for students. I have created lists for higher and foundation as I taught both this year - not sure if I'm allowed to publish to everyone though!

Sorry last message re: Edexcel Maths

DS said AQA B2 and B3 were "alright". I asked him to expand on it and he said it was fine, not easy not hard. No idea what that means but he said he finished both papers and answered all the questions (hopefully as accurate as they can be).

Can somebody tell me what a music GCSEs entails? I have a 9 yo dd who's taking her grade 5 piano and grade 3 clarinet next Tuesday (yes, I do like to complicate my life further during GCSEs ) and the way she's going I would expect her to do music as a choice. Is it hard? What does she need to do, is it all exam, does it involve playing? (Excuse my ignorant questions, DS has no musical bone in him so never had to find out).

Current Y11 are doing old spec music, so might be best to post separately about 1-9 Music for the attention of parents of current y10s, who will be the first to do the new spec.

The old spec that DS has just done has 3 elements - performing (solo and in an ensemble); composing (2 pieces) and a 'listening and appraising' exam (done today) in which they have to listen to and answer questions about a number of set pieces, and write a short essay about one of them.

DS has loved it and wants to carry on to A level. Having a decent level of instrumental ability + some knowledge of music theory makes it easier, and if they already play in some kind of ensemble that can help for the performing (as it can be easier to play really well in an ensemble you play in often, rather than one put together just for the exam)

Thank you cantkeepaway! I'll ask when it is more relevant, I was just curious what it is now.

DS had two music questions repeated because of the poor sound quality!

I heard of two cases of cheating today - local grammar schools - I was a bit

DS apparently enjoyed the music exam today. Hoping for a good result based on exam confidence and successful course work.

His last one is dance on 21st June, this also happens to be his birthday so looking forward to a good celebration that evening!

Biology b2 & 3 aqa quite OK according to add.but at their school they all have this weird thing of hating easy exams and liking the difficult low grade boundary ones.

DS seems to be having a more positive reaction to the maths and science papers than to the arts/humanities ones that he's doing for A level! He says he thinks it might be because he's got lower expectations of the former and is very aware that his writing technique is affected negatively by exam conditions. It's so interesting as at ks2 and ks3 he was always best at maths and science - we were really quite worried about his writing when he was at primary. But English and humanities have been so much better taught at his secondary and seem now to be his natural bent. He would have thrived with coursework!
Oh well, just have to wait and see...

Woodlands01 please could you pm me this maths list (higher tier) if you do not mind. Many thanks!

ks2 and ks3 he was always best at maths and science

DS was the same at primary school - quite the 'Mathmo' but in a super-selective that specialises in Maths he has turned into a Humanities student - and all four of his A Level Options are the latter!

On the subject of cheating (presumably discovered?) what form did that take @Jungfraujoch? DS reckons that some of the boys in his year group have cheated their way through exams since Year 7 TBQH, so no reason to suspect it might not be going on for GCSEs too...

Puzzledmum - PM'd you

If it isn't too much trouble could I see the the Edexcel maths list too?

Thanks in advance but don't worry if it is a lot of trouble.

@woodlands01 would you mind Pming me that list top if that's OK?

For the higher paper that is. Thanks

that's terrible Jungfraujoch were they caught or 'just' the other kids knowing about it?

DD did three hours of history yesterday then we had pimms, burritos & an early night ... she was actually up before me this morning. Her plan this weekend is a few hours of maths & chemistry & lots & lots of history. She's dreading the next history exam (Wednesday has the potential to be awful with history & two chemistry papers).

I've ordered (we both hate shopping) loads of clothes for 6th form for her to try on, she needs something for the induction days & it is 'business smart' including a blazer and she has nothing even remotely appropriate. She's gone for skater dresses, DM shoes & a couple of mildly edgey blazers - bloody hope that's okay 'cos it is expensive!

@woodlands01 I'd love that list of Higher topics too.

Fleur, with regards to music GCSE, it's presently suggested they're around Grade 5 so that's already in your DD's favour. Ours composed three pieces and chose two to submit. The ensemble involves two instruments, your daughter playing one and the other person can be another music student or in my DD's case her violin teacher. I can't believe the new spec wouldn't involve some element of playing music. DD hasn't found the composing easy but your daughter is playing an instrument and will have some knowledge already which will help. The present Year 10s will already be on the new spec, so someone should be able to tell you.

@woodlands01, sorry another one here asking if you can PM the Higher list. Her school have gave them no suggestions as to what might come up in papers 2 or 3, which they said they would do - just gave them a paper to do at the revision session..

Fleur - here's the link to the music spec for next year onwards. It looks pretty similar to the current one except they have reduced the number of set works to 8. The key with the performance seems to be don't be overly ambitious. It only needs to be grade 5 level and has to satisfy a certain criteria. In DD's very musical school most of the students doing GCSE music are at a considerably higher level than that and they all did grade 4/5 pieces but played them beautifully and got full marks for the performance element.

qualifications.pearson.com/content/dam/pdf/GCSE/Music/2016/specification/Specification_GCSE_L1-L2_in_Music.pdf

I wish DD would consider looking at Woodlands list but she won't look at predicted questions because she thinks it misleads you into only revising what is predicted. She's still revising the lot.

Fleur - it's worth noting that the boards differ quite a lot with music. The WJEC spec taught at other local schools only have two set works and they are much shorter. From memory one of them is Rainbow "Since You've Been Gone" and the other is a 3 minute Mozart piece.