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

[mmzz]

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

Floot When DD did her exams I told her to ensure each invigilator knew she got extra time and could also 'stand and stretch'. Your DD might like to do similar. Easier to achieve if not in the big hall.

DS after his physics practical mishap last week was in tears after his RS edexcel igcse today. (So just one 2 hour 30 minute paper only). There was another longer exam going on in the room and he read rhe wrong end time. Subsequently just bullet pointed his answers for one of the the 10 pointers and one 5 pointer. I have said he will probably pick up points still. He is at a super selective and has put pressure on himself to get all 9/8/A*. So with 2 if his first 3 not going to plan he is upset and angry at the same time. I have explained he has to try to forget and move on. Its ao hard to see him like this.

Floot - are you sure she wasn't prompted? We have some that we have to tap the desk for if it looks like they are drifting away and some we just walk by. If they look like they are working then we are not supposed to break their concentration. We are not allowed to tell them how much time has passed or is left at all though. As regards stretch anyone who needs to do this is allowed to when they want but again it is not something we are allowed to actually suggest or prompt them to do.

I think with RS there are so many permutations it’s confusing.

That's really unlucky Allthebest, your poor DS. He will lose some for structure but I'm sure he'll get some marks if he got all the info down.DS did the same exam and I am far too familiar with the mark scheme!

Is DS the only one doing OCR short course (one 2 1/2 hour exam today). Said it was tough with a few questions they hadn't covered and some vague ones he seems to have put his own unique interpretation on !! But thinks he did better that the mock and was writing for the full time so hopefully picked up enough marks. Got a three in the mock so if he gets a 4/5 he will be happy.

CS this morning was easier but everyone seems to have found it easy.

Bonus is he managed an hour of biology revision before collapsing :)

Good luck all for tomorrow. With so many exams there will be some that seem easy and some tough and even then sometimes it is the tough ones they do unexpectedly well in - but commiserations to those who had a rough day today.

TeenTimesTwo, Allthebest, we'd have a long discussion with SENCo team after her mock and it was decided that she would have half hourly spoken prompts which would double up as prompts to get her out of the hall and resting/moving. She had an allocated invigilator for the purpose, but he only told her that she had 30 minutes remaining today. She had been allocated the same invigilator for the mock and he forgot to prompt her at all for that.
DD struggles with time issues (common with ADHD) and she says the digital clock in the exam hall stopped working today too, so she has no idea where she was, time wise. That said, it doesn't sound like she ran out of time (she gets 25% extra anyway) but I'm pretty 😯 that the access arrangements seem to have been so shambolic. Thank God we have another 2 years to sort this out before the rest of her GCSEs.

Allthebestnamesareused, could your DS use his watch? Put it on the desk in front of him and take his timings from that?

Further feedback from Dd.

She said the questions (Edexcel Christianity) were phrased oddly so she had to spend time working out what was wanted. They were different to the practice papers they’d been doing. Onecwuestiin asked for 3 examples rather than the usual two.

Fortunately it was just a 5 mark question she didn’t finish.

Onecwuestiin? Love the phonetic spelling!

AlexanderHamilton RS is one of the ones your DD wants to take forward to A level, isn't it?
I am sure she has done well. The oddly worded questions might have thrown some students, but someone who is as well prepared as your DD would be able to overcome that (and she did!)

mmzz Yes he hasn't used a watch before even though I offered one.

He will be also writing the start and end times on the front of his paper. I am an invigilator and had made a number of helpful suggestions beforehand but now I think he realises some of my suggestions may be helpful after all.

Slightly off topic, AlexanderHamilton, I can only read your name if I sing it. :)

There’s a million things I havnt done but just you wait.

It will probably be Philosophy &Ethics she does fit A level as that’s the spec school have offered.

She had issues with writing her answers down in the time allocated for all essay subjects so she now uses a laptop (hypermobile & asd)

I’m sure she will have done well. She’d been secretly hoping for a 9 but 7/8 will be just fine.

So tomorrow is French & Biology. Apparently early biology revision class starts at 8am instead of 8.30am. I’m wondering whether whether that’s going to be counter productive on such a heavy going day exam wise.

jufus my dgd doing aqa Christianity Judaism a d ethics papers. Christianity paper today, Judaism paper Wednesday and ethics paper next week.

Just biology paper 1 tomorrow afternoon for DVD.

What do schools that run early sessions cover in the time? Is it just exam technique? It can't be specific problem areas surely, as everyone will have different weaknesses? I'm curious because DS's school ran no revision classes at all, and neither did DD's, so I can't imagine how they're structured?

Think its a bit much Alexander to do revision 8 am on day if 2 exams. If they dont know it now its a bit late really to worry about it. Dgd is just revising tonight bits if biology she's not confident about, pointless revising stuff she already knows thoroughly. Trying to keep dgds nerves at bay. Easy to say but hard to do

Yes DS is upstairs going over the last 4 Biology past papers he did (with mark schemes) to try and plug any gaps

Dd was in at 8 this morning for last minute CS.

Apparently they could test each other or ask teachers any last minute questions.

I think it was an excuse to get them in on time, give them some breakfast and calm them down.

Well done to everyone who got through today The first day's the worst and I vividly remember DD1's. My first day was bad - English Lit in the morning and French papers in the afternoon!

DD2 went off quite happily, managed her usual breakfast, having told me not to prepare anything special, as it would make her feel more anxious - she wanted normality. Hmmm, not sure anything could be classed as normal in our house . At 2 minutes before 9, I closed my eye and tried to send positive vibes to her - good job no-one saw me . I felt physically sick.

She told me that her Latin went well and that it was easier than the mock, so she's happy. She's worked so hard for everything during the last five years and I hope she gets the grades she deserves.

Tomorrow's full-on, with two French exams and Biology. Like many DC's on here, she finds the mark scheme positively frustrating on Biology. She really does know her stuff but this is the only one I'm really worried about for her.

French x 2 and Biology for DD tomorrow too...A tale of two subjects - one (French) that I did not think she would be sitting 5 months ago and Biology which she has developed a passion for in the last 5 months and will be one of her A Level subjects. In both, she has worked incredibly hard even finishing the whole Tassomai course in 40 days ... a lovely message from her French tutor tonight saying that she has really enjoyed tutoring DD - and indeed the teacher has secured a promotion to teach ages 11-16 at a brand new school - win-win situation. Hope DD Aces tomorrow exams - together with all the other DC's sitting exams.

Sostenueto are you sure that's not edexcel RS? The dates are exactly the same as edexcel

Another one here with a happy DD after the RE exam. She said that there was one iffy question where she wasn't sure about the question - Christianity and islam were her topics

Tomorrow, like others, she has French and biology. About 1 hour revision tonight and early to bed - she went up about 9.15pm. Rest of week is just one exam per day.

Lets hope the positivity from today lasts all week!

My feedback was that there was a very odd question on the Islam section in the RS paper. DS said that a boy doing it with him who is a practising Muslim wasn’t sure about it either.

We have the two French papers and Biology tomorrow, like many others. French is definitely a low point for DS: he said last week after his speaking exam that he will never utter another word of French in his life and if he ever goes to France or a French-speaking country on holiday he will communicate through the medium of mime...

Tomorrow is the only day he has exams in 2 different subjects, so good to get it out the way.