GCSEs 2018

[DoNotBringLulu]

Hi all, I am sure many of us with dc going into year 11 this year are trepidatious about teachers and pupils thrown in at the deep end due to the new GCSEs.

There is one thing I can do which I hope will help my ds (even though he thinks I'm mad!), which is to get hold of this year's GCSE English Language and English Literature papers, read the books and work through the paper myself - I studied English Lit at university over 20 years ago. I will know for myself after I've done this how difficult the exam papers are at least - I'm not sure who I can ask to mark it for me though!

Can anybody tell me how challenging the Maths and English papers were for their dc? I understand these were the two subjects introduced with the new format.

DS1 used Tassomai for 6 weeks before his exams. I think it probably raised his Sciences by 1 grade.

If anyone’s looking for maths revision books that aren’t CGP, the Collins AQA practice book has loads of practice examples. I got a Letts revision and practice as well. That should last a while.
DS was panicking that he can’t remember everything in maths exams. I’m convinced this is just because he needs to practise maths more, hence the books. It went ok today, DH has been tasked with helping where needed. DH is now revising...

We have leavers assembly first, then prom a week later. I'm terrified I'll show DD up at the leavers assembly as she will have to give a speech. There's only space for 1 guest, so I hope I'm allowed to go. We've booked a hair slot for prom, as my chum will be inundated on that date. I also looked into the cost of transport for it & keeled over when I discovered that VW campers and limos cost around £100 per head. I'm going to start trawling eBay now!

No prom for us - they do everything at the end of Year 13.

Hints are being dropped that 'Everybody' is going to Reading Festival, though... You know, that 'everybody' who have the new iphone and are allowed to stay over at friends without saying which friends or when they'll be home.

Oh yes Reading, DD went after exams seems a lot do, not sure 'Everybody' was there

A lot of DS1's friends (and the 16 year old children of my friends) did go to Reading after they got their GCSEs. It seems to be a bit of a rite of passage here.

I've heard a lot of them go to Reading.

Well last year a 17 year old boy died gound with a plastic bag over his head and an 18 year old was stabbed. DS is supposed to be playing music at the Edinburgh Fringe and hopefully it will clash.

Found not gound. And I was talking about Reading.

Checking in. Have quite lazy DS seemingly not doing any work for next summer’s GCSEs!

Shortsaint does your ds's school run revision sessions? My ds seems to have responded to my suggestion of taking revision in bite sized chunks and does a little bit then has a break.

School emailed me the mock timetable. We have a few weeks. Can’t for the life of me see why they are bothering with a 5 hour mock art exam when they’re all trying to finish the coursework! Sigh.

5 hours! that's an awful long time if your just not feeling creative that day.....DS said in one of his mocks which was only an hour and a half a couple of people feel asleep!

Bluebell I know - they prepare for the real one so not quite as grim and it’s before the main exams start! This is sort of shoved in with all the other mocks.
Falling asleep seems a bit extreme, though!

Dd says she is very behind in Biology. The teacher they had in years 9 & 10 taught the same topics multiple times & topics they were supposed to cover last year they still havnt.

That teacher left the school in the summer & the new teacher is holding early morning catch up sessions to try & cover the mssing work. It's dd's lowest predicted grade by far.

That’s a nightmare for biology. We’ve had this with maths as only about 70% of Y10 work was covered. Change of teacher seems to have repaired the gaps but quite stressful but it’s not so easy to catch up and revise science topics in Y11, I would imagine!

We got DS1's first report this week - they send them out every half term.

So far he seems to either be on target or just below for everything, but we have parents evening next week so that will hopefully be informative.

Helpfully, this time in the comments boxes some of the teachers have mentioned revision and downloading past papers. DS1 made all the right noises when we sat and talked through the report last night, but I'm not holding my breath.

We will print out the papers that we can and hopefully plan in some sessions with him.

He is also one of a group of boys from his year that are going on a trip to a workshop about applying to "good" universities. Hopefully this will help him make some decisions regarding A level topics.

He is looking forward to the trip this time, but only because its at Old Trafford Cricket Club!

No obvious signs of revision at home, though his school are running maths and history sessions after school.

He has already said he won't attend the weekend sessions that will start in February next year - he plays football on a Sunday and referees on a Saturday (he gets well paid for refereeing).

I'm considering stocking up on the wine, starting now!

That's bad about the Biology.

DS1's Maths Teacher has been off since the 2nd week of term - the schools Deputy Head has been taking his classes. DS says he is a maths teacher, but normally when teaching works with the foundation set.

No word on when his proper maths teacher will be back.

Are there papers available? If our DC do past papers from the old curriculum, will it miss out a decent chunk of the new curriculum and also give them a false impression of how easy it is to get marks?

Are there papers available? If our DC do past papers from the old curriculum, will it miss out a decent chunk of the new curriculum and also give them a false impression of how easy it is to get marks?

Dd knew that they weren't covering bough stuff last year so she did get her finger out & self studied various topics with the help of CGP books. But the lack of a good teacher has shown.

The positive this year is that following a change around her science teachers are all teaching their specialism (Dd is doing triple). She's currently working at Grade 8 physics level, Grade 7 chemistry & Grade 5/6 biology. She wants at least a Grade 7.

DS science teachers have told them to give the papers a go - and to do it timed too, to give them more experience of the format

He knows there will be chunks missing so the teachers seem to be managing their expectations - it's still a shot in the dark, but the teachers feel they need to do some i think.

DD had a double science paper as a mock today. Hopefully they will get the proper triple papers next term to get them used to the format. So dar the mocks have 5aught her that she can't wing a Spanish speaking & listening exam if she hasn't learnt much vocab!

Ds doing mocks too, he said he's not finishing the papers (even though he has extra time) and the only one he feels OK about so far is the Maths.

Stickerrocks I would assume at least for Maths and English there will be last year's papers available for mocks. I would hope the exam boards will help with practice papers by the spring for Science.

At a year 11 evening I attend a couple of weeks ago we were given some information sheets by AQA for English and Maths with some helpful information, such as where students had shortcomings in their answers and where the highest marks were awarded (ie for Macbeth, big ideas such as excessive ambition linked to themes in the play etc) so at least that's something!

My ds will need a lot of practice on past papers. I am wondering how much different these new GCSEs are compared to the old O'Levels.

In my head, the exam boards had the invigilators gather up the maths and English papers at the end of the exam last June, rather than allow the students to take them home. I can't think why they would do that though so maybe I just made that up??