Active discussions

Meet the Other Phone. Protection built in.

Meet the Other Phone.
Protection built in.

Buy now

Please or to access all these features

Talk
Secondary education

Connect with other parents whose children are starting secondary school on this forum.

Original poster

GCSEs 2018 (11) Big week coming up

999 replies

mmzz · 04/06/2018 20:31

old thread

OP posts:
Thread gallery
5
Original poster
mmzz · 07/06/2018 11:11

DS1 said edexcel maths 2 was easy. He finished with 40 mins to go. Maybe paper 3 will be the most challenging??

OP posts:
goodbyestranger · 07/06/2018 11:15

DD also says edexcel was straightforward, surprisingly. Surely they've got to throw them some curve balls next week?

brainmelt · 07/06/2018 11:17

Glad to hear everyone feels OK te Maths. Haven't heard from DS yet. mmzz DS doesn't have a paper 3 in Maths... Maybe because it's igcse? I'll better check when I get home!

slinkyme · 07/06/2018 11:18

Brain we too are doing igcse and no 3rd paper. No news yet from DD

LooseAtTheSeams · 07/06/2018 11:18

goodbye no offence taken , I assure you! I see both sides of the marking fence! I'm meticulous because I know how much these results matter but I don't know how typical I am. I'm shocked that such a bad mistake wasn't picked up, though.
At my college we put in for remarks if the student is 1 or 2 marks off the next boundary - we probably win 2 of them a year!
I really like the fact that Edexcel makes their papers available online so teachers can see the marking. There is no excuse for other boards not doing this and charging just to see the paper has been marked properly.
Just to clarify, remarks don't technically exist anymore but you can ask for the paper to be reviewed and if a question has been wrongly marked the mark will be adjusted and the grade may be changed. However in English, for example, if the marker got the correct band but maybe put 1 mark less than the 2nd examiner might have done, it won't change. (That's usually ok unless you were counting on that 1 mark, I suppose!)
That said, I would challenge any weird results.

Hadenoughtoday · 07/06/2018 11:21

My daughter is taking the maths paper at home as we speak!! Eeek / the house is so quite it's spooky.

Hadenoughtoday · 07/06/2018 11:22

Damn autocorrect - QUIET

brainmelt · 07/06/2018 11:24

slinky a bit late response re music but I second everything that has been said even though the boards seem to differ massively in terms of content and syllabus etc. DS was already g8 in his instruments and wants to study music at uni so not the best person to ask but as I understand those students with less experience have enjoyed it very much, there was a huge range in the group and most importantly i can assure you IT IS LESS WORK THAN ART!!!

Sostenueto · 07/06/2018 11:25

Any feedback from other aqa maths takers?

brainmelt · 07/06/2018 11:25

Ah thanks re maths clarification slinky

JugglingMummyof2 · 07/06/2018 11:26

DD thought the AQA maths was hard - much harder than Paper 1. Anyone else have a DC doing AQA? She normally doesn't struggle with maths so wonder if there was a few extra tricky questions in there.

Sostenueto · 07/06/2018 11:27

Oh i know about amount of work for art brainmelt ridiculous amount!

AlexanderHamilton · 07/06/2018 11:31

Dd is doing AQA but I won’t hear from her until after 6pm

Teenmum60 · 07/06/2018 11:32

DD said second Maths paper was slightly better than first (IGCSE), apart from last question which she said no one could answer.

Hadenoughtoday · 07/06/2018 11:34

juggling my daughter is doing AQA - said the first paper was easy - just doing paper 2 as we speak, so not good to hear it's that much harder Sad

Wonderwine · 07/06/2018 11:35

Ha! I was panicking when I saw you all talking about Edexcel Paper 3 Shock then remembered Ds is also doing iGCSE, so phew!
Haven't heard from him and he is staying at school as he has Classics this afternoon.

TheThirdOfHerName · 07/06/2018 11:37

DS2 also found Edexcel paper 1 and paper 2 very straightforward. As goodbyestranger says, maybe they're saving the tricky questions for paper 3.

JufusMum · 07/06/2018 11:52

Saw DD briefly after I finished invigilating. She said Edexcel maths paper two was "awful". Made a hasty retreat to the car and left her to German revision at school.

Cherryburn · 07/06/2018 11:52

Glad it went well for her Teenmum and that it wasn't significantly harder than Paper 1! No word from DS yet...

Oratory1 · 07/06/2018 12:02

DS (igcse) staying in school for History revision and CCF (should he be doing that the night before an exam ?) so no news and I didn't ask him to text. For those saying edexcel was easy I guess we have to remember a lot of your DCs are Olympiad standard so in the top few % in the country so others may have found it harder.

Glad it went well. Sost from what you're saying your DGD is building a good resilient attitude to these exams - if she's learn that for these GCSEs it will be as or more valuable than her grades.

brainmelt · 07/06/2018 12:05

Edecel Maths igcse was hard apparently. Last two questions very challenging.

Oratory1 · 07/06/2018 12:06

ooh twittersphere suggesting igcse maths was tough.

goodbyestranger · 07/06/2018 12:08

Straightforward rather than easy on DD's part Oratory. She isn't doing maths for A level and I think she means really that she had a clue for all of the questions, unlike physics where she didn't have the foggiest clue for at least one of the questions. I don't think any of my DC have ever declared an exam actually easy - we're a superstitious bunch apart from anything else :)

KittiesInsane · 07/06/2018 12:11

Edexcel here too. DD started by saying it was fine, then paused and said, 'Oh no - I was really pleased with knowing that the x squared plus y squared one would be a circle but I forgot to square root it so it will be wrong and now I won't have got Any Marks because the next bit depended on the first bit.'

Suspect she's right about that. Hey ho.

AlexanderHamilton · 07/06/2018 12:13

OK - deep breath

He's had a mini stroke. Hes a bit young (44) but he's physically fit and may never have one again.

He can't drive until he's seen a stroke specialist (sprry can't remember the exact name) this afternoon. He's getting a taxi back to school and his colleague will take him. he doesn't want me to come yet until he knows more. His parents were due to visit tonight anyway so they could take dd to school tomorrow.

Next week we do have the situation on Monday that dd has a biology exam there on the morning and ds has a dance exam here in the afternoon.

He repeatedly told me not to panic.