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

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

I thought, and was hoping, all course work had ceased in 9-1 GCSEs.

Another Westworld fan! I love game if thrones ( have box set of all seasons) and Westworld ( just ordered from HMV) am into SciFi and fantasy in a big way. Also have put in order to eldest dd for the complete ' house' collection another series I love for Xmas.
Peptalk done and dgd very upbeat, she knows her stuff, she's just got to keep those nerves at bay. Fingers crossed! I am so proud of her putting a brave face on. Courage and determination is the order of the day to succeed. I know his hard it is for her to be so brave as she is a worrier naturally and meek and mild by nature. Whatever her results I will be so proud of her.

Good luck to everyone’s DC. My DD has 2x French and Biology. School had a nightmare with French out of two French classes only about 8 doing higher paper, with remaining 50 ish children doing the Foundation (including my DD). Be interesting/stressful to see how it goes today.

She also has biology this afternoon.

She decided to tell me at about 9:30pm about Music and RS exams yesterday. In RS there was a question about compassion which she didn’t know how to answer, and some topics she had revised for didn’t come up. She felt that it went well though.

portico - No DD's done coursework for English IGCSE and I think there was also coursework for History on some IGCSE's.

portico not a scrap of coursework here with the all new GCSEs, but DD took history, geography & Spanish as her options. Those taking drama, art & graphics all had to do some, but I'm not sure whether they are given letter or number grades.

kickbishop that thanks for compliment. Think its because did single working parent and only has me to help her with dgd. I've been the absent parent in a way to dgd who, by the way, lives in same town and chooses to ignore her and has never paid a penny in maintenance which is fine by dd who is proud to have provided her dd ( with the help of the bank of mum) all she has ever needed!

Not sure what dd did last night. She didn’t do any Tassomai but she is on 100% for biology paper 1.

She finished school at 6pm then she & dh called to the supermarket for a few things. She was planning to go out on a bicycle ride after tea to get some fresh air.

In school 8am for biology early class.

DD simply said that the topics she thought would be 15 mark Qs actually turned out to be 8 marks, she answered everything and managed to string together discussions. She hadn't really enjoyed RS this year and had been getting 5s and 6s, despite being predicted much higher, so she found the whole course quite demotivating as she felt nobody had a clue what was needed. At least It's the first one to finish.

Portico - what do you mean by you were hoping that all coursework had ceased for 9-1 GCSEs? Do you not agree with coursework?

I remember from age if 3 months my dgd sitting on my lap avidly staring at flashcards I'd made with numbers and letters. I did 2 30 second sessions a day right through till she was about 2. You had to do it really fast and I thought no way would it work. But lo and behold when she went to nursery at 3 she could read simple words, write get name and knew and could write numbers up to 100 and do very simple adding. Ever since that time I have kept up with education changes and methods in a bid to help all my dgc to achieve the best they can. I was in a position to spend a lot if time with dgd but not with dgs so much. They are both different but both possess their own special gifts. Dgd very bright, but not the brightest in her cohort but will hopefully reach her full potential which is all you can ask for. Dgs not academic at all but brilliant at building things and he too with encouragement ( if eldest dd with permit) from me will also reach His full potential.
But I do not do stuff my dds don't want me to. I don't intefer in their lives or the way they bring up their DC. But they do turn to me for help with education issues which pleases me very much. Be.ung a grandparent is not easy I warn you all!

Good luck to all! Sostenueto - I like the PJ decision, very sensible! I'm sure dgd is going to do brilliantly but you are a star for buoying her up and giving her confidence.
Biology is one of DS's favourites. He says he finds paper 2 a bit easier so hoping today's goes well to boost his confidence.
Very happy birthday to young Beenrumbled

I lost you all! Thank goodness I've managed to find you again just in time!
Will catch up on thread later, but I know a lot of your DC had their first exams yesterday - hope they all went well and they've got off to a flying start!
First one for my DD today. French this morning then Biology this afternoon.
Good luck all 🍀🍀🍀

Sost you sound wonderful - every child should have a DGM like you in their life. Imagine how much nicer the world would be!
Your family is very lucky to have you, and sounds like your dgd is going to do brilliantly

Morning all,

Is it ONLY day 2?! Insomnia has struck here also, but more health worry than exam worry. Back to GP tomorrow for DD as pain increasing with minimal healing, despite high dose medication.

The frustration at not being able to make it better is something I’m really struggling with. Thankfully, she can have an easy morning, studying in bed if necessary before this afternoon’s biology exam.

Ended up going through the Seneca biology syllabus with her yesterday, while she was resting to save her having to sit at her desk. Brain overload for me and I’m not having to take the exam!

Best wishes to you all as we head into day 2 of what is, for some, an incredibly packed exam week.

My DS did have some coursework in History - an extended essay, which was done ages ago. It might be an iGCSE - he is doing a mixture and I've not bottomed out what is what.

Interesting that everyone seems to think 9pm is a good cut off time for revision - that was pretty much where DS got to yesterday and it feels right to me. He pottered around the house afterwards, mostly eating, and was reasonably chatty.

2 x French and Biology for us today as well: he gets 25% extra time, so its going to be a loooong day.

Happy bday minibeen
French and Bio here.
I keep waking up in the night. He looked tired this morning.
he revised nonstop till 8:30pm after returning from Latin.
How long is all this going to last... oh yes.

Good luck to all today.

Biology this afternoon for DD.

She said ICT went well yesterday.

At the docs at the right time and right day! Sleep? What's that?

DS2 also has the two French papers this morning and the AQA Biology this afternoon. He seemed fine last night but I think will start getting tired soon. Luckily he has tomorrow off.

Can anyone explain to me how GCSE Combined Sciene (Trilogy) is marked? So 2x Biology, 2x Physics and 2x Chem papers, how do they come out with two grades? Is it all added up and averaged out? Or is that too obvious?

Always - your dd is amazing for being able to revise at all. I hope the doc has some ideas tomorrow but in the meantime I'll be thinking of your dd this afternoon.
DS seems fine but I only really see him when he emerges for food or is leaving for school. He managed porridge again today!

Umm
Is there room on this thread for a parent whose main contribution so far has been to say ‘ Have you got some water and your pencil case?’

(Yes, and No, as it turned out, so fairly useful question.)

Poor old Third Child.

So all boards are doing Bio 1 today pm? Because DS is doing Edexcel igcse but everyone here on different boards seems to be sitting biology too... Interesting. I wonder if they coordinated and why.

Biology AQA this afternoon here. No idea why all boards are seemingly doing it at the same time - funny isn't it

Jufusmum - it might be a straight average of the two papers, or it could be that one paper is weighted more heavily than the other. You should be able to find out online by checking the curriculum

Same board for DS brainmelt. As far as I know the boards do try to coordinate the exams where possible, otherwise there'd be a million clashes with all the different permutations. So everyone seemed to have RS yesterday pm as well, even though there are a lot of different boards being sat. I'm not sure that CIE coordinate with the others though, given that we've already had 1 History paper and both English Lang papers. Then again, no one else seemed to have started then so no clashes possible.