GCSEs 2018 (11) Big week coming up

[mmzz]

old thread

Haven't seen DD yet as she had gone to dance before I got home, but I texted her at lunch to ask how English went, and she replied "Pretty Decent" which after all the "ok"s and "not too bads" I'm going to take as a huge positive! (And following on from Mmzz's advice I shall leave it there and probe no further!)

I've been wondering what they might do about old Ozymandias too - DD was another who hadn't actually ever done a mock or practice on that question, so in theory no advantage, but it was one of her favourite poems so she'd done a fair bit of revision on it. I do think though that something should be done to level the playing field a bit, but no idea what is the fairest way.

Sost I love your furniture design! I immediately thought of Gaudi when I saw the pic before I even read your post - Barcelona is one of my favourite places, it's a fabulous idea for a sunny garden.

I'm so glad I mentioned that DD2 hadn't seen the sample paper - makes me feel so much better that she's not the only one.

Hi, wondering if someone can help re marking for English AQA Section B. DD is crying as she ran out of time and only wrote a page and a half. She has convinced herself that she has failed. Can anyone tell me if there is a minimum number of words required. Many thanks!

"Have joined this thread very late! My DS took his 13th and 14th exam today and surprise surprise they went alright as did the previous 12! It's like getting blood from a stone!"

Welcome Parky - I think it is better not to know!

Deni as far as I know there is no minimum word requirement.
I've checked the mark scheme as best I can and there doesn't seem to be any mention of word count at all.
filestore.aqa.org.uk/resources/english/AQA-87001-SMS.PDF

I also read an article recently that said the students who write pages and pages aren't necessarily the ones who get top grades, and that a short, succinct answer (as long as it contains the necessary info/examples of skill) is much more likely to be high scoring. I'll try to find it and link.
So tell your DD not to worry, all is not lost!

DS3 hadn't seen the previous Ozymandias paper either. I hope they don't mark it harder.

Music tomorrow. It's an afternoon exam so DS3 will have to time it to catch the bus. A little worried...

I'm not an expert by the way!
Hoping Loose will be along in a minute - she's our resident English guru!

Cripes! Hope they dont mark AQA English lit down for those who did oly! Dgd came out of exam really happy! They have enough time to damn well sort question papers out 2 years for goodness sake! Its bad enough with dcs breaking down and completely knackered with stupid amount of revision for Ill thought out exams now this added stress! Wrong papers being handed out, books not deleted from list and schools mucking up over it. Is this a game to those in charge playing with our dcs future?

All I know is dgd did not write a lot for description of face. Words aren't enough for what I think and copious tears when she got home over it did not help my mood a bit! No good crying deed is done. Hoping paper 2 will be better for her but I'm really mean cos my patience is running out with this ' thing' dgd has about English.

Thank goodness after Friday we don't have to mention that word any more!

Just two Spanish exams in morning for dgd. Maths Thursday and English paper 2 Friday. Then final push ' the end is nigh!'

Glad that most DC got through today ok

After yesterday, at least they got the right paper today :) DD's only response re English is 'yeah, ok' - no idea what that means. To be fair it's normally one of three responses.
We get either "so hard," "fine" or "okay."
If we push we might get the odd comment about a question but not much.

Can't wait til Friday when it's all over for dd - 4 to go: Spanish, Maths, English and History.

Then she is done. Infact, she goes away for a few days to visit great grandparents and great aunt/uncle in Scotland, and then on to my sister and nephew after that for a few more days, with her nana from Saturday. No doubt to be spoilt somewhat by them all!

Sostenueto I'd be willing to bet a lot of money that they are not game-playing, it's just incompetence from AQA.

mmzz DS's unexpected ending was for the protagonist rather than the reader as well!

farang is she doing CIE Music? Is anyone sitting CIE Music tomorrow morning? I've heard Bach's Brandenburg's Concert 1 so much recently I have started to hear it as the soundtrack to all my dreams...

jufus I hope she has seen "The Red Balloon", one of my favourite films ever...

Brainmelt you will get marks deducted for repetition

HesMyLobster, thanks so much for checking. It is so frustrating when you spend hours getting them to practice and drumming into them exam technique and then they just don’t think! I know I’m being harsh! but I also think that it’s better not to ask too many questions cause in my case it only gets even more worrying........😂

Ok - spoken to Dd (who incidentally has failed to take either her music textbook or revision book with her (for those new to the thread Dd is living in a caravan close to school with dh during her GCSE’s as it’s a long journey on a temperamental motorway)

She thinks English went well. Edexel gad the unseen prose analysis today. It was Dostoevsky Crime & Punishment & it was good to write about BUT she thinks there was an error as it was written in the third person but the questions asked about the narrator (so she says)

Also DD’s best friend was ill before the exam & didn’t manage to complete the exam. She had to leave half way through.

AlexanderHamilton that's such bad luck for your daughter's friend. There is no way to dress it up, is there? Feeling really ill for half an exam and not even being there for the next half is bad.

Just asked DS3 about music and his set works are Eine Kleine Nachtmusik by Mozart and, amazingly, Since You've Been Gone by Rainbow! DS3 is cringing at my rendition!

Hello, phone conked out so just catching up!
This is one of the reasons why I don't want to mark literature papers! As I see it, they can't penalise people for answering the Ozymandias question - it will have been good for some students but others would have decided it wouldn't be used again so didn't revise it or hadn't even seen that sample paper. And actually AQA repeated the same character for Merchant of Venice but used a different extract. Not good if you decided they wouldn't ask about Portia again!
Possibly they will just be more lenient when marking Singh Song and that will be reflected in the exemplars given to markers?

Sorry, Alexander I only read the first half of your post. I hope she gets some sort of special consideration.