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

[mmzz]

New thread for GCSEs 2018

DS's are iGCSEs. First exam on May 2nd and last on June 15th. So early start, not particularly early finish!

Ouch for the 3 weeks. I thoht DD was hard done by with 24 papers in the 2 weeks on each side of half term, topped and tailed with MFL next week and further maths on 19 June to bring it up to 26.

Yes first iGCSE on 2 May (history). The bulk are before half term with a few afterwards.

Last exam is 19 June - Ad Maths. That's not a GCSE though - FSMQ.

DS3 has got all the second papers for science after half term and English Lang and history. Most boards have their exams for a particular subject timetabled at the same time, to avoid clashes.

The very best of luck to those DC taking GCSEs who have ASD. DS2 was lucky to take his 2 years ago before the changes. He did minimal revision. As always with ASD, our DC can be similar or completely different with their difficulties. Often too much or too little with everything, though!

DS2 is just completing a level 3 BTEC. No sign of any work done at home, but he's scraping by.

DS3 plans on A levels in maths, FM, computing and chemistry to the PP who asked. Just got to get his grades...

Wow! Congratulations on the coursework and mock results, Brilliant marks!

DD has her exams spread over exactly a month - 15th May to 15th June!
Not including French speaking which is tomorrow morning
Or the drama practical exams (60% of final grade) which DD found out she got a 9 for overall - the only one in her year.
She's hoping to get her grade for RM coursework next week.
Today they finished the course in biology and chemistry - Phew!

DS2 did his Further Maths mock last week. He messed up two questions but still managed 86% which he thinks is on the border between A* and A^

Tomorrow, while the rest of the class are doing a Maths GCSE practice paper, DS2 and his friend have asked the teacher if they can do a C1 paper instead (for fun).

I was tempted to suggest that perhaps he could focus on making fewer careless errors in GCSE Maths papers before attempting an A-level paper.

TheSecond please don't take this the wrong way, but how does it happen that your DS2 gets a merit at the Olympiad, but messes up GCSE questions?
I'm really not being cheeky. DS drops a mark or two every paper too, and I'm puzzled why because both boys have successfully done much more taxing maths.

HesMyLobster - Well done to your DD...

And there's the answer! Cross-posted!

how does it happen that your DS2 gets a merit at the Olympiad, but messes up GCSE questions?

This is an extremely good point. I wish I knew. He has a tendency to overthink and overcomplicate his solutions.

Possible reasons (this is me speculating):

Transcription errors when copying down values from the question.
Rounding too soon in the working.
Converting from fraction to decimal too early in the working.
Rushing ahead and trying to combine steps, which increases the risk of error.

HesMyLobster that's a great result for the drama practical. Is it something she's interested in doing at A-level?

DS continuing to be swamped with revision work by his teachers. Just as he gets to the end of a huge batch of past papers, and it looks like he can actually have time to revise something before doing the past paper, he gets another slew of them to do.
One of them seems especially unreasonable: its Geography paper 3. He's not due to sit it until the last week of the exams, and has 20+ papers to sit first, all of which need revising for, but the teacher wants him to do a past paper so that he can fill in his assessment matrix.

A 9 for drama, he's mylobster? That's really impressive.
Teenmum your DD's results are amazing too!
It looks like everyone is doing well. Except DS. Maths aside, he just seems to be swamped.

DD got an offer for her first choice of Sixth Form finally!! Last school to send out offers!! Got one of the 30 places from over 70 applicants. Best SF in the area. Needs an average of a 5 in all subjects and a 6 in English Language. Going to be nervous until 23 August now!

JufusMum that's great news!

Jufus that's great news. After the experience of the current school it must be a major relief that your DD is going somewhere good next. Which A levels does she plan to do?

Evening - fell off this thread again and finally found you all again! I cant believe we were chatting on about GCSEs and they are nearly here! DD has done her French speaking which went well, and now working towards 14th May for RE.

@whatsforteaaa - my DD is doing same English Lit as your DC - she hates Christmas Carol as its sooo booring, not fused about Macbeth but loves Inspector Calls. She doesn't mind the poetry and is planning to do Eng Lit at A level. She is consistently working at Grade 8 but school are looking what she needs to do to achieve a 9. I keep reminding her that a 7 or 8 is more than expected so could do with school backing off!

@hesmylobster - a couple of meltdowns here, but seems resigned to the exams now. No strong revision going on, usually averages 2 hours a night and 2-3 each day of weekend - really hoping it is quality over quantity.

@mmzz - DD school only covered the English Language stuff just before Easter and up to last few weeks - having not touched it at all since year 9. I hope they know what they are doing. A bit late now I suppose.

@sost - the patio looks fab - great effort. Hope DGD is on the mend.

Tassomai being done here but I think she is only on 11%! She is on target for each subject though according to the app, so I am leaving her to that. She likes doing it and it is easy to do little and often. School are incentivising them to use it with chocolate bars. She had done the most in the last week so got a Twirl.

Study leave here is apparently after half term, with intervention classes being run most days. DD said she will go to those she feels she needs - I would prefer her to go to school each day at least for some part of the day, just to get her out of the house. I also work full time and with her anxiety issues, I am not sure how she will cope. It would only be for the 2.5 weeks until her exams finish and I think she has an exam most days, so probably not something to worry about. I am more concerned about the 4 weeks before the school hols finish - what will she do??!! Needs a little job!

Prom dress collected last weekend as well - shoes and bag bought, just ticket to pay for - £48!

Congrats jufusmum. That's great news

Dd is planning maths, computer science and geography at A Level. She's still considering FM too but she's not sure. I think she'll be more likely to do it if she gets a 9. She missed it by 5 marks in the March mocks but hopefully she's improved in a few weaker areas since then.

Mind you she also needs to pass English language. Otherwise she'll be retaking that.

It’s probably been asked before but I’m still not sure if posters talking about Add Maths and Further Maths (in Y11) are the same thing. I know what DS is doing is an FSMQ - are Add Maths and Further Maths different names for the same thing?

I also know that the FSMQ has letter grades - but I thought A was the highest but TheSecond is posting about her DS thinking he was on A* / A^ border....

#confused

Jufusmum so pleased to hear she got an offer, that should be the motivation she needs to knuckle down for the last few weeks at her current school!!

Lobster your DD is clearly a drama queen........great result!

DS still has a heavy cold but he said he would rather go to school as its more relaxing than staying at home and revising He really is very unimpressed with the revision lessons.......how are your DC finding them?

I'm interested to see that other very able mathematicians are prone to losing marks for sit reasons. DD1 has the same problem - she's forecast a grade 9 and is certainly capable of it, but always loses marks for things like missing a decimal point or writng the wrong number down early in the problem. I have no idea how you fix that and would be interested in any hints.

Her Add Maths is an FSMQ.

I think DD is quite enjoying the revision sessions and they seem to be structured to weaknesses (class sit past paper one lesson - teacher goes through answers slowly within class). Looks like Computer Science finally finished (apart from one bit of homework) and exam questions are now being covered in class sessions too :-).

DD struggling with really bad leg cramps (which come with her period) so not sleeping great...was hoping that this would coincide with HT during the exams but looks like she will end up suffering through Physics/Maths and Eng Lit exams - so not great timing.