GCSEs 2018 (11) Big week coming up

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old thread

Both relieved and sorry to hear your update, Alexander. Call in help from friends to get your children where they need to be - people genuinely like to help, and maybe your DH could travel with them to watch the dance if that works.

Sorry to hear about the mini stroke Hamilton. My mother had one five years ago and fully recovered. Keeping fingers crossed for your DH x

@AlexanderHamilton

Alexander - so sorry to hear your news...Can your DD stay overnight at school (assume boarding) on Sunday...or is there anyone that can help out?

Alexander. My best friend's husband had a mini-stroke some time ago and is fine now. Must be very worrying for you though.

He is planning at the moment to stay in the caravan as referrals and appointments are easier to get there than if he came home. He wants to keep things as calm and unpanicked for the kids as possible but he doesn't want to hide it from dd so she can be aware of any signs. I was due to go out tomorrow night for an overnight visit anyway.

Ds's school is within walking distance of my parents house so they can help out if need be.

And I don't know if anyone asked dd if she had remembered her calculator!!!!

ds2 came back and didn;t even mention the Maths, he brought a mate over instead and they played some badminton!
Dd says she made lots of silly mistakes but it was okay (she was doing Higher AQA) she is knackered and coming straight home. She needs to revise Geography for next week and she is liking the idea of revising for something that isn't tomorrow, feels v luxurious.

Kitties - if she's shown workings she will get marks even if the wrong answer was transferred across.

Alexander sending best wishes for quick recovery to your DH.
DS is doing AQA maths but won't have any idea how he did until I catch up with him later!

Sending my thoughts and best wishes for you all Alexander

Edexcel iGCSE here too. DS said it was really hard, and the top mathematician in their year didn't even manage to finish the paper. Why is iGCSE harder than GCSE? Is it just because there's no paper 3?

Sorry to hear news alexanderbut here's to a speedy recovery. A good lo g rest in order for dh

Dgd completed all questions on maths aqa (higher) paper 2 but level 8/9 questions were hard but attempted.

mina same here. Managed some working out for last two questions but couldn't find answers. He said they were completely out of their league.

Igcse here - feedback the paper happened (standard response) and she doesn't know how she has done. Nothing further. That means it must have been hard. Still at school for revision session so will get more later I imagine.

Gosh Alexander - as you suspected but a bit of shock nonetheless. I hope you are encouraged that two posters have said family members have had the same and completely recovered. I hope he recovers well and wish you all the best

alexander sending best wishes.

Probably Mina. If both first papers have been relatively ok then probably the 9 content will be in the final paper next week. Historically, IGCSEs have been thought to be slightly less challenging than the GCSE, where the GCSE was taken as linear. This is apparently shown by the fact that where schools swapped to IGCSE their results instantly improved. Not that many state schools opted for IGCSE but some did although they were mostly adopted by independent schools and marketed as more challenging, because they were linear as compulsory and have a coursework component. This surprised me initially until I was shown the stats by a leading HT (marketing can be impressive!) - but the IGCSE certainly shouldn't be harder now in this brave new world of reformed GCSEs, so I think the upshot will be a really tough third paper for edexcel next week.

Alexander. The fact that Your DH got to the hospital immediately is good. You can recover from this completely if get help within 24 hours I think. DM had a stroke a few years ago and has recovered well. Stay strong.

Same Alexander. No experience of mini strokes here so nothing to add - but hope this afternoon's consultant brings reassurance.

Dd is Edexcel higher iGCSE, so just the two papers (hurrah!)

She's your classic B student in maths - not brilliant at it but doesn't find it really tough either. She felt that the 'accessible' more straightforward questions were easier than paper 1 but that the harder questions were considerably harder. Overall she felt relaxed about it - but that's because she will be happy with a 6 (so the very hard questions at the end are of no consequence to her)

I've spent the morning having a swim, a coffee then a haircut. Got home, DS is already back and in his PJs again. Says AQA maths 2 was much easier than paper 1. Very chipper. Planning to do a spot of revision this afternoon for American West and Elizabethan England (Babington Plot at the OK Corrall?) exam tomorrow.

More for you Alexander (hope you don't get hay fever!!) Excellent recovery stats on strokes caught early; a close friend had one at age 47 and has made great recovery although says he thinks his short term memory isn't as good as it was. But he already takes a lot of meds for depression etc and some of his stroke meds conflicted with those so it took a while to settle into the new regime: I'm sure a healthier man will recover way more quickly!

Goodness me - the IGCSE didn't/ doesn't have a coursework component. Doing more than two things at once.

Meant to say Wonderwine - what a very sensible pep talk from your ds' Headmaster re GCSEs and their importance in the scheme of things

Still no news from DS but apparently a lot of schools are saying there is no solution to the last question (edexcel igcse) so either it was another error or it was v v hard - but I think that's probably ok if the earlier questions were accessible but with some very hard ones thrown in at the end to find the real grade 9 students. That's probably how it should be.