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

[mmzz]

New thread for GCSEs 2018

Cherryburn thanks, that's really useful and encouraging).
I did some back of the envelope calculations:
25 mins per day for 60 days = 1500 mins (or 25 hours)
If that's across 2 sciences, then its 750 mins per science to do 70% of the course.
750mins /0.7 = approx 18 hours per subject to do 100%
So, for 3 subjects that would be 54 hours between now and the last paper in mid-June.

That's more than DS had planned for, but maybe it will let him focus on the topics that he's weakest at or hasn't covered some other way yet?

Teenmum60 thank you, again. (You always seem to be coming to my rescue!)

Can't shift parents to HT because DS has four exams after that. Also they're coming for my birthday and they are nonrefundable tickets etc. It will be fine he just has to shut himself in his room and I havento breath deep.
we have cancelled Tassomai. DS wasn't doing it and prefers old style notes and revising. He just doesn't have the time for it.
ellen happy birthday fellow Taurus. teen that's an amazing mark!

Teen that's a fantastic result! Particularly sweet in relation to QB, I imagine!
Happy birthday for the big day, Brainmelt!
I don't think I can face derailing DS from his existing revision method with Tassomai but will bear it in mind for DS2.

mmzz that also doesn't take into account the starting point IYSWIM. It could be that at this stage your DS is further ahead in what he knows than my DS was when he started, so he may whizz through it quicker. And as I said, DS's dyslexia means it takes longer for stuff to embed so the coverage of the course may be quicker in your case.
Interestingly, I have never felt remotely tempted to sign up for Physics-DS has always just 'got' that from the off and did extremely well in his mock on next to no revision.
As an aside, having a child with dyslexia has been a real eye-opener. DD and I are about as far away from dyslexic as you can get. It's pretty obvious now that DH is an undiagnosed dyslexic. In terms of how DS and he learn/strengths & weaknesses it's just totally different from DD and I. It's fascinating but also very frustrating that the educational system just isn't geared up to reflect their strengths. I'm full of admiration for DS that he is navigating it with one hand tied behind his back. Which is not to say that it's not tough for all the DC-it is, as I know from going through it with DD. It's just different. And in my experience GCSE's are the worst bit-it gets better from here!

Cherryburn - I have had several people say that the GCSE exams are the worst bit given the amount of information they need to learn on a wide range of subjects. I am an undiagnosed dyslexic - its only when I use a grammar correction app - I realize just how bad my dyslexia is. I often speak in halting phrases, leaves sentences incomplete...my spelling was awful at school but in those day's nothing was diagnosed.

Happy Birthday to Brainmelt too....April is such a busy birthday month!

Because we were conceived at the start of August... holidays...sun...beach 😂

Teenmum I think more than any other exams GCSEs (and O Levels before them) favour the excellent crammers amongst us. DD aced hers but if anything DS has a 'deeper' understanding of the subjects but will find it harder to hit the (often very prescriptive) mark schemes. A Levels are better in that respect I think, obviously there just isn't the breadth of subjects to be learned and hopefully they've chosen subjects in which they're naturally interested/strong. GCSEs are just a slog and I can't wait for them to be over!

Cherryburn I recognise what you say about the mark schemes. They are highly prescriptive. DS is dsygraphic (from my side, unfortunately). Memory and spelling are unaffected but his processing speeds, and his ability to manipulate his answer into the length and type of delivery that the examiner wants to see are real problems.
English is worst. It is hard enough for him to be creative, but to have to write persuasively, pulling in various techniques too is a huge struggle.

I hope GCSEs are the low point and that after this all our DCs will be able to play to their strengths better.

brainmelt sympathies with having to contend with a parental visit right now. Did you once write previously that you grew up abroad? So, your parents still live abroad now?? In that case, its very understandable how the wouldn't "get" the importance of GCSEs, and if they don't see their DGS very often, then its easy to see why they would want to make the most of their visit.

Happy birthday though to you and Ellenjane.

That's right mmzz
Agree GCSEs are a slog!

We just redrafted revision planner ahead knowing what we know now. Feel like this is match half-time, sort of.

Thanks for the birthday wishes. April is a great month for it!

DS3 is still cracking on with Tassomai. He's doing about 1/2 hour on it a day on top of the rest of his revision and says it's particularly useful with improving his knowledge, but obviously not so good at helping with exam technique. His teachers are concentrating on this more in lessons, going through exam style questions and what sample papers there are available. It seems like a reasonable balance, (hopefully.)

It's interesting how many of us on this thread have DC with some specific learning difficulties, dysgraphia, dyslexia etc. DS3 doesn't have anything diagnosed but with DS2 having ASD I recognise his quirkiness. He certainly struggles with writing at any length but verbally he has lots of good ideas that he's willing to share in class.

His first exam isn't until 14th May, computer science, so still a few weeks to go.

Another fan of Tassomai here. Dd is feeling it’s really helping her. She started in February & is on 71.7%.

DD hasn't been given a personalised timetable yet or date for her MFL speaking exam. I've taken the dates from the generic timetable on the school's website, but I'm being ridiculously paranoid that I've missed something! She has a grand total of 2 free days in the first fortnight, then no free days until the day before further maths on 19 June, then It's all over.

Dd started tassomai 18 days ago. She's on 23%. She really likes how it's weighted to focus on the first papers which are before half term. I've just emailed them to ask them to change her targets because it's almost impossible to keep up but in a way it is keeping her focused.

She isn't doing much other science revision now though. I wanted her to do it as well as traditional revision but she doesn't see the point.

Can I get a quick feel for how many hours your dc are doing now outside of school? No study leave here so i know revision is happening all day at school. It's still all a bit reluctant here and i really thought by now the fear would have kicked in.

Dd has a timetable which has her doing 2-3 hrs a night after school and 4 hours on Sunday. Nothing on Saturday because she's at work all day. I'd say she's scraping towards that but never goes over. Also if I go out and leave her to it she doesn't do anything.

I know this is generally quite a high achieving thread but I just wanted to compare. I might not like the answers

Outside of school in the week, I’d say it’s an hour to two hours a day but this depends on what else is going on. It could be less than an hour some evenings. However, he does more on Saturday and Sunday. We don’t have study leave either.

Kick Don't despair - there is a real mix on here. DD is probably very similar to yours. She has a revision class after school on 3 evenings. She goes to work for an hour on Monday's and all day on Saturdays. She should be doing 2-3 hours each evening, but DH & I are not allowed to discuss it with her. She should do a full day on Sundays, but spends most of the morning faffing before she leaps into action. I'm a professional exams tutor at post grad level, so I can't know a thing about revision & I'm not allowed to get involved, except to buy her post it's & revision cards & Ben & Jerry ice cream.

Kick DS is doing 2-3 hours after school and around 6 hours on Saturdays and Sundays. But it does take him longer than 'normal' to work through material and he has accepted that, while the next few weeks are going to be tough revision-wise, he's going to have an absolute blast in the long summer holiday!

Kick DS's study leave doesn't start till after the half term - which he's mightily unimpressed with!!
He does between 2-3hours of an evening and 6 at a weekend, he's not overly impressed with school revision on the whole feels not a lot gets done but he's someone that likes to do things his way.

So your DD may be doing a lot of effective revision at school which will make a huge difference, plus I think its more about the quality of revision rather than the hours spent, tassomai sounds good quality as its interactive, if she is doing lots of questions and then marking and identifying weaknesses and working on those, you don't want her just revising her strengths!!

I'd say DD1 is now up to around 3 hours most days. That includes weekends, when she is also getting out of the house to take decent breaks. What I don't know is how productive those 3 hours are, but she seems a lot more focused and motivated now that the exams are in sight.

And on Sunday she managed to memorize a big chunk of German which she can use at her speaking exam. I'm a bit concerned at just how nervous she is about the speaking exam, given that she's opted to continue German at A level, but we'll worry about that later!

DS is doing the same as Cherryburn's DS, but, maybe, more like 2 hours after school, than 3.
No study leave here either, until after half-term.
He has a 3 pre-school/ after-school revisions sessions per week. It could be more, but they aren't covering what he doesn't know.

As other posters have said previously, its not the quantity that counts, but the quality.

And the fear only kicked in 46 hours before his first paper.

Study leave begins on 4th May for DS. No before/after school revision sessions at his school but they are only doing revision in lessons now as all courses are complete.
Absolutely agree that it's quality not quantity that counts.