GCSEs 2018 (9) Will we get to half term, for never was a story of more woe than this of Juliet and who is Banquo

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Thread 8

Feedback maths Edexcel igcse: easy.

BlueBelle123 thank you so much. He has 2hrs with his maths tutor last night, still can't grasp percentages and spent the rest of the night worrying about that. He was visibly nervous this morning. I really hope tonight he feels it went ok, my heart just goes out to him, I've tried to tell him not to worry, he can just do it again but he has put so much work in since January he deserves to pass.

Parents don't attend at dd's school. We attend the whole school prize day instead (which is the day before) with a Year 11 Parent's Lunch afterwards.

slinky sorry she found it hard. DS said it was easier than mock. Maybe his mock was really hard?

DH has a new found respeck for teenagers

Light lets hope so - what does he want to do next and what grades will he need?

Brainmelt possibly. Oh well what will be. Frustrating thing is she knew the answers just was pressed for time to get it all down.

Sost dd hs scheduled lessons all through exam period, and was trying to skip some so as to revise in the library etc (they get occasional passes for this or just no issue with late attendance etc) But as I explained to her, imagine if everyone was coming in whenever they felt like it, and going half way through afternoon, with 200 students doing GSCEs it is actually quite disruptive to have all those girls milling around even if it is just to leave and go home or turn up at 11. the point of the scheduled lessons is that they are in one place, and the school can run more smoothly in the meantime. So I suppose that is thinking behind not letting them into the library ad hoc before and after. You have to police those not in the library, going to the loo, sitting on the grass, standing the corridor chatting, and there will be always some "randoms" that are not quite in the mood to behave seriously, when other people are trying to concentrate on an exam or IN an exam nearby.

Ds2's best friend just rang up (he is home schooled) to tell me/ds2 (ds2 of course not here) that the Edexcel IGSE Maths Higher was really scarily unlike what he had practised, much harder, and the last question was just impossible. He is aiming for a 9, so he was shaken by it all. Ds2 is only on Foundation so would be sooo happy with a 5, as I've said before o here he is! AQA; he said he understood nearly all of them. He said he wrote the right answer on one and then crossed it out and subsequently learnt it was right ....urrrgh..but seems phlegmatic about this. Soo Mum, I'm having a rest now and then the next 10 hours is going to be spent revising poetry. Such a contradiction...flights of fancy reduced to a slog

Anybody want to hazard a guess about the igcse edexel maths grade boundaries?

light I feel that way about percentages. I have to laboriously remember the "trick" because I just cannot "see" the logic of it in my mind. Unless I reduce it to 1 percent and then multiply but that is very laborious. And the other way round, well, it's like that lurch in Star Trek when all the alarms start going off and the screen starts tilting..

Interesting split on the easiness or not of Edexcel IGCSE! brainmelt is your DS doing ad maths?

DS thought it was OK and thinks it could have been a lot worse. Definitely didn't find it easy but like Brainmelt's DS, his mock was very hard. (Brainmelt I'm starting to wonder if our DSs are at the same school-there seem to be a lot of parallels!)

was it someone on here who said that last year it was 68 percent for a 9?? Because no-one is going to get all the challenging questions right and they don't expect that?

Message from DD2:
"Mum we probably need to spend the weekend looking into FE colleges, because I've definitely failed maths"

AQA higher, so I'm hoping from what you all say it was a tough exam and grade boundaries will be low.

Yikes to all those who had a mission to get there in time this morning, that's an additional stress that nobody needs.
Makes me feel very lucky to be less than a mile from school so DD's can walk.
to everybody, or if it's too early!

mmzz ds2 always liked the RL trains better. Ds1 much more interested in "themes" and showed no interest in any physical manifestation of engineering.

if you catch me back before Friday on here, send me away, I need to do some work now!!!

BlueBelle123 he doesn't know what he wants to do, he's so focused on passing Maths & English as he will see himself as a failure if he doesn't he can't seem to think ahead. There is an open day at the college on 9th June so we are going to go. I'm trying to gently encourage him and suggest different paths but I think he just feels he can't consider anything yet.

Nettleskeins I hear you, I tried to teach him the way I do it which is a "roundabout way" but I could see I was just causing more confusion.

He has basically been in a small group since Year 3 at Primary School and through high school. I feel that he has missed out being in a larger set and making more friends, although ne heeded the smaller groups to help him, in that class were always the children who just didn't want to learn. He has also I think felt quite embarrassed about being in a smaller set and been taking out of classes for extra help and I think this is partly which he wants to pass so much, in his eyes he wants to prove to everyone that he isn't in his words "daft". He also didn't get to do all the subjects at school such as cooking, arts, technology and wasn't allowed to pick History or Georgraphy as he had to concentrate more on maths, science and English which I understand.

My hope is that he gets the 5 GCSE's including his maths and English to go on and do a great course at college. In his words "i just want to be in a class the same level as everyone else", not be knows for being in the set that needs extra help.

I'm so hoping th

farangatang DS1 did Biology and Chemistry iGCSEs with CIE a couple of years ago.

I have a question about CIE exams: if everyone starts the paper at 9am in their respective countries (Singapore, India, UK etc) then how do they prevent the candidates in the East from discussing the exam online before the candidates in the West have gone into the exam room?

farangatang mentioned the time zone: does CIE create a different paper for each time zone sitting the exam?

I'm so hoping it all works out for him .

Best of luck to all the children.

lightattheendofthetunnel a few of DS1's friends were able to continue studying for Maths and/or English GCSE at college while starting other courses. Fingers crossed that your DS will get his grade 4s though.

Lobster hopefully your DD hasn't done as badly as she thinks, plus there are still 2 more papers - although your DD may not see this as a good thing

TheSecondOfHerName Thank you. I mentioned that to DS last weekend, I'm hoping when we go on 9th June to the open day they confirm that is the case. I really wish we didn't have to wait until the end of August for the results, the week leading up to results day will be hell!

Edexcel IGCSE was 'alrightish' for DS (aiming for a 6 or 7). He said there were 2 really tricky ones, one of which he got about a third of the way through, the other he couldn't even start.

Home now, working on Macbeth. Well, he was playing the piano when I phoned, but by now I am certain he's working hard.

68% to get a grade 9 seems bonkers to me. I had assumed that the 9 was for those students that are at or close to 100%

Can I ask - what is the difference between IGCSEs and GCSEs?

Yes cherry I have often wondered! He opted out of AdMaths, said he wanted to be able to just focus on the gcse.
DS says lots of his mates did struggle with the last question but miraculously he thinks he got that one right (thinks) and it may have something to do with his new strategy to start with it!

DS2 has finally expressed a preference about the poems (AQA Power & Conflict cluster).

He would quite like 'Tissue' to be the featured poem. He thinks that because it has many possible interpretations, he can write whatever he wants so long as he backs it up with evidence.

He also thinks he doesn't actually need to include any quotes from the poem he chooses for comparison.

He is very articulate and writes a cohesive essay, but when interpreting literature he sometimes misses the whole idea of what the writer is trying to say.

I'm relieved that his future plans (Physics) don't require a minimum grade in English Literature GCSE.

Thesecond yes, CIE produce different papers for the different time zones (there are 3 I think)

dogzdinner IGCSEs are produced for the international market (but including U.K.) A lot of private schools moved to them as the old GCSEs became increasingly modular and arguably open to abuse. They used to be seen as being more rigorous and I think by and large they were, and were judged to be a better preparation for A Level. Now that GCSEs have been reformed I think a lot will move back to them, but many have stayed with igcse for this year at least to avoid the teething troubles that often accompany new exams.

I'd be amazed if any of the boards have a boundary of 68% for a 9.