GCSE 2018 no. 6: stress, struggles and success (hopefully) *Title Edited by MNHQ*

[mmzz]

New thread for GCSEs 2018

One of them turned up on BBC Glasgow a few years later doing the light-relief news reports. Lorna something.

mmzz They are the ones who will be on the front page of the local paper on 23 August leaping in the air clutching their results slips. Meanwhile, ours won't be seeking the limelight, but will be quietly relieved that they did enough to get exactly what they wanted.

DD will never be in those shots. She doesn't have the regulation long straight hair the photographer looks for!

It never occurred to me that those shots were something to want to be in! How stupid am I?!

But yes, I am 100% certain that if the local paper is there, then DS will be making sure that he's not in camera rage. (I hope he'll be calling me as I'll be desperate to find out what he got!)

MMZZ and all those whos' children have just signed up to Tassomai, did they give you a different programme as there is so little time now or did you just buy the standard package for the relevant subject?

Best to everyone doing Art and Geography today!!

I bought the standard package - £45 for triple science - but I called them when he started and they set the target at 30% (rather than 100%). Then he made so much progress that I called them again and they changed it to 50%.

It is the same questions and the same requirement to be deemed to have learned something - you have to get each question right 3 times in a row - but the algorithm works out how much you have to do per day to reach your target, and nags you when you aren't on track by first glowing orange, and then later, red.
It seems to prioritise the papers which will be sat sooner. however, i paused the paper 2 questions a couple of days ago to help DS make as much progress as he can on the paper 1 questions. he can start the paper 2 ones as soon as he has sat paper 1.

There was a couple of things that DS just couldn't seem to get his head around really since he did it in school months ago. He just had a mental block about them. Tassomai sorted the mental block out, when none of the previous attempts to learn those topics seemed to be sticking.

DS does so much tassomai now that he even does a couple of quizzes whilst eating breakfast. Then he does a few more in between each revision session.
There are about 1200 questions per subject and you have to answer each right 3 times = 3600 questions x 3 subjects = c. 11k questions (if you get them all right first time)

DDs favoured sixth form has announced today that they are going to 3 subjects in Y12 and very few subjects will now offer AS. She is going to be soooo upset. She found it hard enough to choose 4.

Hi - I have briefly contributed to earlier threads but you haven't seen much of me to date on these threads

DD did her IGCSE in history yesterday and despite revising long and hard ballsed it up. As a dyslexic she sometimes forgets the names of treaties and specific dates - although she knows all the big themes and lots of detail. She answered a 10 mark question on the Munich conference thinking it referred to the League of Nations Disarmament conference, so she will have got 0/10 for that!

Gutted for her as she does understand the Munich conference and if the Q had said " The Munich conference re Czechoslovakia" it would have triggered recognition and she would have given a detailed and correct answer

hmcAsWas I remember you from earlier threads.

I am really sorry about the History paper. Sometimes students say they have done badly, when they haven't really, but that does sound like things have gone badly.

It is harsh to have had that experience on the first paper but there's nothing that can be done about it now, and i'm sure you are doing all you can to stop your DD from dwelling on it.

Are her other subjects less essay-based?

hmcAsWas how many more history papers does she have to do and what are the marks can you try to put the error into perspective my saying it was only 10 marks out of ..... whatever all the marks for all the papers come to?

I wish your DD the best of luck for the rest of her exams.

Back. Yes plenty of drama queens in dgds sets. Dgd just trying to shut it all out if she can. Just paid for prom ticket, leavers sweatshirt and yearbook. £100. Expensive leaving school when she's actually going back into 6th form dgd will be home late today as she is doing the background for her exam piece as it will be printed and has to dry before exam. Another holiday Monday ridiculous!

Thank you mmzz and Bluebelle for being interested – yes I have been trying to make her feel better and say constructive things. She still has paper 2 on sources where she hopes to do better, and she also did very well in her course work (27% of the total grade); she can write excellent essays when she doesn’t have to memorise zillions of random treaty names and dates, German names and terminology but can refer to them in her textbook. I have gone forensically through her answers for the history paper (probably shouldn't have, but it is my subject) and I reckon she will have scored 50-55%. It was marked out of 60 so she lost 10 marks with that question from the get go

It sometimes feels that GCSEs are designed to trip up dyslexic students. She feels particularly cheated because she did know all about the Munich conference and its significance – if only she had made the right connection. It pulls at my heart strings when she tells me that she has worked as hard if not harder than many of her classmates but they will outperform her. Still – that’s life I suppose

No more dwelling on it – looking ahead to the next paper which is English next Wednesday.

How is revision going in your households?

Gosh try not to worry hmcthatwas if points are lost it can be made up on the next paper. Think positive!

Yes you are right Sostenueto - both dd and I can be terrible catastrophisers

She will smash Paper 2 !!

I avoid asking about revision now as I get a cold stone stare and a flouncing off with mutterings of what do you think I'm doing in my bedroom all this time! ( cos I have x- ray vision as if!)

That's the way to think hmv!

If it helps hmc my ds said lots of his friends made mistakes on the paper and his best mate who is an A * student messed up a 10 marker too.

hmcAsWas your right to put it behind you as the last thing you want is for it to effect future exams.......I always try and look for the positive and by making this mistake now hopefully she will be super vigilant in the rest of her exams about reading the question.......it's also why I warned up thread about the student room posting the unofficial mark scheme pupils can look at this and become distraught as there answers aren't the same!!

hmcAsWas my DS did that paper yesterday and is dyslexic. He could easily have made a mistake like that so I feel your pain.

You probably know all this, but just in case...
Yesterday's paper was out of 60. The other 2 papers (or course-work) are out of 50 and 40. So the whole igcse is out of 150. If she did drop all 10 marks that's only about 6% overall.

The grade boundaries tend to be quite low, presumably because there is so much content and the papers can be very tricky. Last year I think it was around 72% for an A*.

So although it's a real shame, and she must have felt awful when she realised what she'd done, it's really not the end of the world.

All the best to her for the rest of the exams.

Thanks CeeCeeMacFay - yes that does help (not that I want to sound happy that other students had issues too, but you know what I mean)

What a lovely thread this is - I should have come back earlier!

Aagghh, cross-posted! You clearly didn't need my explanation! Apologies!

Yep no point worrying all is not lost. My dgd should have done history as she was a level 8-9 as with geography and the history teacher was gutted. Trouble was dgd was bored and would have preferred studying ancient history which interests her more so she chose art, which she now loathes with a passion and is not really putting much effort in but still getting 6-7.

Cherryburn - 6% of the total mark - thank you for that. I will point that out to dd. Also, I hadn't realised that last year 72% was A equivalent - good to know. Presumably an A started from the low 60's then. I had (wrongly) assumed that a grade 7 (A) would be 70%, a grade 8 (A) would be 80% and a grade 9 (A**) - hmm - who knows?

DD would like to hope that she still has a shot at a grade 7 - and based on what you have told me and think she still might