Gcse 2018 (10) The one with half term

[Stickerrocks]

www.mumsnet.com/Talk/secondary/3256691-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

Oops. Can't remember how to link nicely, so this will have to do.

DS found history really tough - just not enough time to get things down. Frustrating as he loves it but on the other hand it will have the least impact on his future so if one has to go badly then this or RS were the ones.

mmzz AQA History: Germany Democracy and Dictatorship 1890-1945 & Conflict and Tension the Inter-war Years 1918-1939

hmcAsWas - My DS said exactly the same thing! He said there was barely any revision needed for the paper and I also gave him the same response that you gave to your daughter.

Edexcel history (medicine though, not crime and punishment) was fine according to DD but I think generally people at school found timing was tight and DD was pushed herself.

So for DD it's still French and Physics which are the meh exams - I don't remember any of mine not having meh (or worse) papers, ever. It's just not natural to find everything good.

DS said history ( crime and punishment) was "ok", but then put his headphones back on, so no details! I bit later I asked him if he was relieved it was done, and he very grumpily said "how can I be when there are 3 topics left!" Have decided not to say anything for a while now!

DS3 said history was 'good' but he nearly ran out of time, which at least means he wrote a lot. I asked if 'good' was better than 'it went well' and he said 'probably!' So I have no idea, really. Anyway, halfway through at last.

DS is saying the same thing about there being lots to write, and barely enough time to get it all down. Its the main theme on Twitter too

Classical Civilisations was apparently easy!

GCSE 2018 (11) Paper 2s await...

would be my suggestion.

or GCSE 2018 (11) Eng Lang - what could possibly go wrong?!

DD just called to say she is not going to dance again tonight - she must be very, very serious! She had a competition yesterday so very little revision but two nice big trophies haha!
English and Geography tomorrow, hoping for good things with the English having spent a small fortune on (rather good) tutor. Hope everyone's DC are doing well.

Congrats Jufus DD! There are an awful lot of very talented people on this thread.

*stringmealong" - yes, DS was very happy with the Classical Civilisations paper too! All the question areas we predicted would come up DID, and he wrote his essay on the Circus Maximus & Colesseum which are his favourite topics!

I just had an interesting chat with DS1 (doing A levels) about how ridiculous the GCSE testing/exam system is, and he said why could GCSEs not be more like the DVLA Theory Test? His proposal was:

• a big bank of questions for a subject which can be randomly arranged into an exam, with each exam attempt being different
• ability to visit a 'GCSE centre' using passport/biometric identity data and sit (or resist) an exam whenever you are ready for it
• little private booths and computer screen (all entries made via computer)
• no mass panic over summer exam periods - students could 'collect' their GCSEs over a period of 2-3 years (or longer if necessary).

It all sounded v.v. sensible!

Thanks Sticker. No more competitions until 8th July now which DD has a bit of a face on about. She has missed so much class in the past few weeks, I didn't think she would but she has made the decision, I'm surprised as all of her friends are at dancing rather than school. Glad I let her do the competition yesterday though, walked away with a 1st place and a 2nd place so she is boosted by that and hopefully her good mood will last all week!

Well Done on the Dance trophies Mini Jufus! But don't tell DD - I vetoed all comps during the exam period. Mostly because rehearsals for the summer show are ramping up and she couldn't possibly commit to both on top of exams.

And well done to the historians, sounds like all did well.
DD said psychology2 was quite nice but she didn't enjoy it as much as paper 1 (I didn't point out that the exams weren't necessarily designed for her enjoyment. . .)

Well done Jufus DD. I think you're right - success in one area and the confidence it brings can really boost performance elsewhere.

@JufusMum - wonderful news! I think it's really important to keep some balance in the DCs lives. I have to say not everyone I know IRL has the same attitude 😬 and there have been absolute bans on extra curricular stuff for their DC for a couple of months. I think it's overkill personally but each to their own.

Stringmealong - the consensus at DS's school was that igcse edexcel history this morning was an easy paper so grade boundaries are likely to be high.

DD had AQA History today - Germany and Conflict & Tension. Though AQA had sent them the American history paper! School discovered on opening the papers just as the exam was about to start. Mean a delay of 45 minutes whilst school contact AQA (it was the board's error) who apologised and emailed through the proper paper, had them printed and copied for them to start the real paper. DD said it made for a fairly stressful start to the day. Though she seemed to think the paper ' wasn't too bad" whatever that means.

Dogs - don't tell me that, she really wanted top marks for history!

stringmealong my dc did the same history paper but said the opposite. Liked the Germany bit, but wasn't much to say on America

Aragog that happened to me only it was an A Level paper! In our case the papers were handed out as normal and we were told to begin. When we opened the paper none of the questions made sense and it took a few seconds for us to realise that we had the wrong paper. Cue a load of hands going up and panicked invigilators! We had to file out of the exam hall and wait in a classroom while the exam board faxed through the correct paper (this was pre-email) and then the papers copied. It took an age! I still have an exam dream about that all these years later. That few seconds of thinking I'd revised all the wrong stuff was awful.

Glad to hear that exams today have broadly gone ok.

In our case the papers were handed out as normal and we were told to begin. When we opened the paper none of the questions made sense and it took a few seconds for us to realise that we had the wrong paper.

Simple thing - was being handed out, just before they were about to start, when a teacher noticed a few girls looking puzzled - who then told the invigilator it was the wrong paper.
They weren't allowed to leave the exam hall. Just had to sit and wait, though they were given some bottles of water. As they were in the halls it was exam conditions so had to just sit quietly.
Luckily DD takes most things in her stride though I imagine fr a particularly anxious child it would cause a real flap and potential issues too.

I think its difficult to see how they will change the History grade boundaries ..I think they have been around 90% for an A* the last few years ...movement maybe just the odd %.

Oh my goodness - the tension Aragog. Glad it was spotted before they started but very unsettling.

Well done Jufus's dd!

Aragog I'm pleased they didn't make us wait in the exam hall, the delay was a couple of hours if I recall. And it was a 3 hour paper so we'd have been sat there for 5 hours! Good on your DD for keeping her cool. It's far from ideal though.