GCSEs 2018 (4 already)

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Following on from www.mumsnet.com/Talk/secondary/3152060-GCSEs-2018-3

alexander hope your dd is better today and good luck for audition.

Been having trouble with dgd last few days
She's turned into an alien! Actually she upset me badly by being nasty, but I know its just stress and so not her. I did get a heartfelt apology afterwards. But I tried to tell her words once said can never be took back no matter how genuine the apology. Words tend to resound in your mind a million times over for a very long time. Words have always hurt me most.

Thank you. She was up & out way before me this morning. She didn’t want to talk, she was in the zone.

Sostenueto that's not nice for you. Sometimes people say things just to hurt, because they know to so well they know how to hurt rather than because they believe the words to be largely truthful.
You devote yourself to your DGD though, so you really don't deserve that.

That's great that she's better, AH. It must be a relief

Maisy I'm trying to push my FE class to aim higher but they're easily scared so don't write enough! I will be relieved if they all pass and delighted if anyone gets a 6!
Sostenueto that's very upsetting. She's taking out the stress on those she loves but that doesn't make it ok. I'm sure she realises how lucky she is to have you.
Alexander glad dd is better and best of luck for today!

She's never been nasty before so its worrying me. I know she didn't mean it. I should be an adult and shrug it off but it bought me to tears. ( not in front of her)Don't know why. I've always been strong but lately............well that's enough selfpity but thanks for feel better for getting off my chest but sorry to burden you all with my woes, so sorry.

Alexander glad she is better and dd will do great today!

I don’t don’t think you can underestimate the stresstgese kids are under sostenuto. Over the years Ds has said sonecawful things to me but it’s anxiety/stress related & I’ve had to learn to not take it personally.

It's as though they have an adults ability to throw a good verbal punch, but not the adult's maturity to know how lasting the damage it can do is.
You know that you need to make her aware that she must try to control the impulse if it comes over her again, and then forget it yourself. But it's not always easy, is it? Just be kind to yourself and take a long, hard objective look at your relationship with her. I bet you'll find that it is exceptionally good. My DC would be lucky if either of their grandmothers were a tenth as interested and knew then a hundredth as well as you do.

Sostenueto

I was reading some tips from a WHICH report and one of the tips was to read the Examiners report from the last exam quote - What baffles me is that, year upon year, the exam boards make public a document that is, wait for it, written by the people who are going to mark your papers. And in it, they tell you what they like to read. They also give you examples of what not to do

These reports seem to be locked for June 17 because the exams are used for Mocks - Do the teachers (Loose/Maisypops) have any idea when they are unlocked?

Thanks mmzz, teenmum, Alexander think I'm hormonal though I had a hysterectomy 35 years ago

Alexander Hope all goes well.

Sost It's a hormonal blip being taken out on those they love most.

There is a very sombre mood in school today as they have been given some very sad, unexpected news. As Prof Hawkins said " Remember to look up at the stars, not down at your feet."

Teenmum I'm sure one of the teachers will be asking soon to give a better answer but I'm sure that I saw a may 2018 date for unlocking those papers.

I use post exam reports a lot in my role and they are a fantastic source of information on does & don'ts. it never ceases to amaze me that my own students ignore them.

I did read somewhere else that it was 9 months after the exam - so should be this month....maybe?

There seem to be differing views of effective revision ...I'm looking at Easter holidays and wondering whether 2 hours am and pm and 1hr evening would work. We have some treats lined up in the run-up to exams starting with Hamilton, Phantom (Birthday treat), Dreamgirls, and the Lion King *The latter two are dependent on DD's revision effort levels.

DD also has two weeks of exam leave (which she would normally have 5 x 1hr lessons). Just wondering whether asking DD to revise 1hr for each of those subjects during exam leave would be effective (she tends to like to blitz a topic from start to finish) or whether to just spend one week on weak subjects and the next week on the exams that fall week commencing 15/5?

DD's first week of exams is pretty awful with French/Biology on the same day and Chemistry and Computer Science on the same day but at least she would have completed French and Computer Science exams by the end of the first week.

They release them for public use pretty close to the next round, I'm afraid. I think AQA's website suggests beginning of May.
Teen your Easter revision plan sounds right to me! It's better to divide up revision with proper breaks in between.

Thanks, Loose - how would you plan the 2 weeks exam leave - DD has a pretty full on first week of exams - but two of the six exams are French - where she has a tutor so she is having 121 1hr per week which is becoming very effective revision (DD's confidence is really coming along now). Two of the other exams are Computer Science (Dd did well in mock but she stated it was lacking in content - so expect the real exam to be much harder). Then she has two of the science exams - one of these subjects she is planning to take at A Level.

Sciences - I thought I had read somewhere that paper 1 was not necessarily easier than the paper 2 and looking at previous papers there are twice the marks on paper 1 than paper 2 (first paper 2 hours and second paper 1hr) But I guess this may be different to GCSEs.

Sad but so inspirational.

DD has 24 papers over the 4 weeks, with Further Maths tucked on the end as an extra. She has a grand total of 2 exam free days, 12 days with one exam and the remaining six days with two exams. At least I can drop her off at school each day knowing she is probably doing something!

DD's timetable appears OK - 17 papers and 6 of those within the first week (6 exam free days)....and it's only the first week where she has two exams in any one day. HT falls quite nicely before both History exams where she will need to revise heavily - weakest subject.

Study leave is a bit tricky - if you've got the time off school before exams or free days between exams I'd do the same as your Easter plan but only where possible. Some downtime has to be factored in! During exams I remember doing one and just cramming for the next!
Thanks for the tip off regarding science - the paper 1s are quite early so if they carry more marks that is a big thing to take into account.
It doesn't look too awful now we've got this far but DS needs to spend a lot of time on science revision, I think.

Ha! Just worked out DS starts May 14 and finishes June 19 (OCR additional maths). Then freedom!

Loose Snap! DD is going to ignore the add maths paper until the weekend before then blitz it.

We are same dates too...although the last exam is DT (Graphics) on 19th.