GCSE 2018 (7) [wine][wine][wine][wine]

[mmzz]

A new thread to take us through the exams
Link to old thread

Stickerrocks sounds like we have very similar houses!!
Hello to newcomers and all, good luck to everyone now we're finally off!
DS is fine - quite relaxed but admitted school was making him feel like not getting 8s would be failure. We have reassured him that we've seen the effort he's put in and that's success as far as we're concerned. DH has promised him fruit pastilles if he gets a 9! I upped the stakes to a Starburst - DS was suitably amused!
I've had butterflies and strange dreams for a week and would almost rather take the wretched exams myself!

RS tomorrow is intense - 4 20-Mark questions and 2 25-Mark questions in 2 and a half hours - so important to get the timing right and not run out of steam for the last question.

All my Year 6 Class have to worry about is remembering what a fronted adverbial is and how to spell coarse!

DH and I wander around saying things like "as long as you go into that exam room not regretting watching cats & cucumbers on YouTube when you could have been learning Spanish, you can be very proud of yourself".

Loose I up your Starbursts for an opened packet of Haribo Farmshapes (tangy) which DD has forgotten about and may not rediscover until 23 August.

Good luck tomorrow everyone.

I'm trying to persuade DS3 that an early night is a good idea. I'm certainly tired and want to go to bed. If he goes after me I've no idea what time it will be.

DD in bed but not asleep as yet...I was having a few worries that she seemed to be permanently attached to her CGP Computer Science revision book and there may have been a few issues tomorrow at 9am if anyone tried to separate the two! I would offer to sit the exams too but I dont think DD would like the results ..

I'm not looking forward to dropping her off tomorrow morning knowing farewell I will not see her until Wednesday morning

Kingscote - good luck to your Yr6's this week.

I'm looking over at DS1. He's lounging on the sofa, headphones on, smiling at something on his iPad and I'm fretting at the other side of the room
"Will he remember to leave his phone?"
"Does he know his exam timings?"
"Shouldn't he be going to bed soon?"
"Has he learned enough?"
Etc., Etc.

Then I look back at DS and he doesn't appear to have a care in the world!

How can he and I be related??!

I know there's quite a few on here doing CS tomorrow, do you know if they should take a calculator?

mmzz same here!

He just turned off his computer at 10pm (usually it's closer to 11) and has gone up to bed, so maybe my lecture about early nights and getting enough sleep did actually sink in.

Good luck to everyone's DCs tomorrow for Computer Science, Latin and RS (and any others I've forgotten).

DS2 finishes at 12 tomorrow but wants to stay around for after-school orchestra (he has a friend who lives next to the school so will either go there or go to the library) so I won't see him until after 5pm.

He is not one to indulge in post-exam analysis so I'll probably get "It was OK" or similar.

Bluebelle my dd said she's not allowed her calculator for tomorrow's exam. She's taken it out of her pencil case in case she forgets tomorrow.

You might need to check for different exam boards though.

Thanks Kick DS has packed it in his pencil case and he's in bed so I better remember tomorrow

BlueBelle123
Is it the OCR Computer Science?
For paper 2 (Computational Thinking...) the practice paper says no calculators are allowed. Not sure about paper 1.

BlueBelle123 - That has been my worry (no calculator in CS), so DD has her pencil case with just pens/pencils NO calculator but she has put her calculator in her backpack because she will need this for Biology on Tuesday (backpack in locker during exam) she's with her DF tomorrow night - she assures me that if she forgets the calculator on Tuesday that the exam room have 35 back ups! Nice to know we worry about the same things

the second its AQA but there was confusion with his teacher on whether a calculator was allowed or not!

Evening! Found you all again and WOW tomorrow is the big day in this house - SATS for yr6 DS and obviously GCSE's!

RE tomorrow - first of 7 exams this week.

As far as I can see, DD has a normal English lesson tomorrow and then two periods of RE revision, lunch and then the exam.

Free breakfasts in the morning for them from 8am - surely a good idea to get them into school early! Pre-revision sessions in the morning before exams as well - just noticed there are after school prep sessions for the next days exam as well - not sure if they are compulsory or not!

Its definitely real now and DD seems calm and collected, which is good considering her mental health anxiety issues. Its gonna be a loooonnngggg week.

DS2 has just found OCR paper 1 and it clearly says on the front that no calculators are allowed. I'm guessing that he won't need a calculator for Latin language either 😂 so he's taken it out of his pencil case to avoid confusion tomorrow.

Thank you for raising this BlueBelle123 as I hadn't realised.

Just checked the specimen paper 1 it says you must not use a calculator that is for AQA........now I must remember to tell DS tomorrow!!!

Good luck everyone!!!

Yes dd is in at 8.00 for last minute CS revision then staying after school for biology revision with pizza.

Apparently that lasts until 6.00 but she's not staying for all of it. She wants to do some revision on her own. I think she's right. She doesn't want to burn out on day one.

Good luck everyone.

Flip. DD has cross referenced her personal timetable to the main timetable and is missing the third RS paper on Thursday week. Does anyone know if this one is for the full GCSE only (which she is meant to be taking). I will go loopy if they have only entered her for the half paper by mistake. Now she has an emergency trip to the exam office planned for first thing.

Checking into the new thread. RE tomorrow and DD has done five hours of solid RE revision today. This is the biggie as she's doing it for A-Level eeek

@Stickerrocks..My DD is not doing RS but could this have anything to do with the unforeseen issues the school have dealt with recently.

I've been lurking on these threads for a while, thank you all for the advice and support. It starts tomorrow with RE for us. DD had a proper cry earlier, nerves have hit. Wishing all of our children the best of luck.

Good idea Teen but that's tomorrow's paper. I've found a timetable online which says It's being sat by year 11 (full GCSE) and year 10 (half GCSE) so I'm assuming they've skipped a line by mistake. Either that or the database hasn't updated the timetable for her real name. The possibilities are endless. (Keep calm, deep breaths, don't let on the DD that I'm fretting!)

Hello Theimpossible.

It's not easy for parents...my DD keeps on stating that she has been sitting these exams for years and therefore doesn't need reminding about calculators etc (which is true - the school always sit their exams in proper exam conditions with a timetable) BUT this is for real...and the results matter which in my eyes is a significant change..from sitting exams in year 8.

The full paper for Edexcel RS, stickerrocks? Yes there are 3 papers. Yes I think the 3rd on is Thursday week.
Can you phone/ email the exam coordinator, rather than your DD need to even know there may be an issue?