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

[Stickerrocks]

Thread 8

Its not that unclear:
There would be one or two asterisks beside the name if it was included in June 2018

It's unclear because it looks like the ones with no asterisks will be used every year. In fact, you have to spot they can only be used in 2017 (why not 1 asterisk for 2017, 2 for 2018 and 3 for 2019 say?).

You'd sort of expect English teachers to be able to handle that level of reading comprehension.

I'd be fuming, tbh.

superdoodle and waiting. That is appalling. I actually woke up at 5am to check that animal farm was on the aqa syllabus out of fears dds school would do this. Not sure what I'd have done in the final 4 hours if it wasn't!

and to your dc.

Don't get how no-one spotted this - I've been on the AQA website non-stop looking at past papers and printing them off for dd. Surely numerous staff at the school must have been reading the spec/website?

pretendingtobechilled that's what I'm wondering too. You'd think someone would have read it and noticed the mistake, even if it was only a parent during the easter holidays when all the revision really got going.

I suppose parents assume the school knows what it's doing!

But a teacher should have picked this up.

Past papers would have had questions on An Inspector Calls, because it was examined until last year. However, it's quite something that the school got this wrong.

If I were head of an English department, I think I would ring the exam board to check that all the planned texts were actually on the syllabus before I started to teach them! My Year 12 dd's teacher changed her mind about one of their two A levels novels in December and secured an email from the exam board (shared with students) confirming that the new combination of texts was fine.

I expect it was on the past papers as it was on the spec on 2017. Also because it's on the aqa and edexcel paper there would be lots of resources around so it wouldn't be questioned. Appalling on the part of the school though. Do we know if it was more than one school?

That is appalling! The set texts on CIE are a bit confusing at first, but once you get your head round the asterisk system it's really straightforward. I can't believe out of an entire English department nobody spotted this in 2 years of teaching the texts. I'd be beyond fuming.

I simply cannot believe that an entire English department, whose job it is to prepare pupils for exams, did not check what was on the syllabus!

It's certainly given us a bit of a shock! I was pretty cross about it earlier, but I suppose being angry isn't really going to help or change anything. I just feel really sorry for them putting all that work in for nothing. Email from schools confirms they have been in touch with the exam board and submitted relevant forms, but no guarantee that they will take the circumstances into consideration.

I’ve just exchanged private messages with waitingforthesunshine and our DC are at different schools! Not sure if this makes it better or worse really.

I'm gobsmacked that 2 different English departments could make the same mistake! Was sure that it would turn out you were at the same school. I would have thought it's highly likely CIE would look on this sympathetically for the DC 's sake-it's not their fault they were taught the wrong text. Had they studied a different Shakespeare play or did they have to tackle the Macbeth extract completely cold?

So sorry to hear this Waiting/Superdoodle.. your DC's must have been totally shocked. I assume that both schools are private schools given its a CIE exam. I would be very annoyed and the DC should not be penalised in any way due to the incompetence of staff. I assume the exam board can disregard this element of the exam which looks to be 25 marks (so mark out of 115 instead of 140) - that would be the fair thing to do.

pretendingtobechilled : I suppose parents assume the school knows what it's doing!

Well yes, parents would assume that, but then after reading that table they might wonder, and maybe just confirm with the school, couching it in sorry to bother you, but just a little confused about this type terms. Or at least I would and I'm not unique.

I certainly wouldn't have thought to check that the school is teaching the correct text - who would, really

It wouldn’t even have occurred to me to check if the school had the correct text for the current syllabus. I’m pretty hand set off when it comes to revision. He works far better when left to it.

Dd is back, tired out after two exams. She seemed to have struggled moderately successfully through both English and Textiles, very annoyed by Singh Song (apparently the whole exam hall let out a [very soft] sigh of irritation when the paper was opened) but knew Sonnet 29 so well that she was able to find plenty to say. She choose same comparison as her brother, unwittingly. Pidgin English - she managed to write quite a lot and could at least answer the question (unlike with Jekyll previously) Textiles she said she spent a long time trying to remember the magic words "risk assessment" (instead of "quality control")in a answer about health and safety. We are eating Apple Strudel, Eclairs, Cheesecake now, which I bought from a local Polish patisserie to cheer us all up!!

feeling very free now, very much looking forward to next week and especially this weekend (probably by Monday everyone will be "stressing" again)

Well dgd proudly sporting spare blouse covered with friends messages! She is sad but the friendship group will keep in touch and they are going to prom together!

I'd look at the spec, not looking for mistakes, just trying to find out marks or something. (I have done this).
Then i'd notice that the exam board appear to be phasing out certain books.
Then i'd notice AIC was on the list (its not a long list) and remember my Dc was doing it.
Then I'd read it again, a bit more wide-eyed this time.
then i'd ask my Dc again if they were really doing it.
Then i'd ask someone else to read it, in case my eyes were deceiving me.
Then I'd worry.
Then I'd email the teacher saying I'd just noticed this and was just a bit confused.

Am i that weird?

DD1 has her leavers' yearbook in which she is nominated "most likely to become Prime Minister". She is not 100% certain whether this is a compliment in the current political climate, but I may currently be the proudest mother in the universe .

Not madly weird, mmzz dd quizzed her drama teacher on the exact spec more than once but in amongst 10 subjects for different exam boards, and checking times and dates for clashes, you'd have to be very on the ball to spot every possible teaching deviation from the syllabus.

I only had a vague idea of what boards dc were doing , at least until the revison guides came home and/or the timetable for the exams which states the board. Seriously I do not consider myself a neglectful parent but the technicalities of the exam boards would not be something I would be checking ,I do assume the school have that it right .

Sorry Waitingforthesunshine, I didn't mean you should have checked. I just meant I am surprised that no one noticed.