GCSEs 2018 (11) Big week coming up

[mmzz]

old thread

mocha Geography was Edexcel igcse yes. Only one paper but 3 hours long! I don't remember any 3 hour papers at O Level but other boards may have had them. Definitely 3 hours at A Level though.

Blue hope you're ok. DS2 off for the second time this week having been sick.
Good luck to everyone for English language and history today - and any other exams that get squeezed in!

Good Luck to all dc today for English and History. Ds has gone off quite cheerfully saying 'at least after today I won't have to analyse or write about anything ever again!"

8 papers left for us after today, Geog, 3x Science, Food and Further Maths x2 so not out of the woods yet.

As I said I a previous thread - schools predicting Level 9's across the board are being ridiculous! I can't remember the stats now but I think Level 9 goes only to the top 2% in any subject. And only a handful of students in the whole country will get a sweep of 9's. 8 is an A and 7 an A. If our dc feel failures for not getting 9's we have let them down. Ds school will not predict any level 9's, not even for ds and Maths (he is an Olympiad and has a Maths AS at A grade already - but like mmzz* ds prone to daft mistakes!)

Alexander good news about dh. I think men are notoriously bad at being unwell and try and pluogh on regardless. Make sure he gets some rest.

Blue - hope you have isolated yourself?!! That's another recurring worry, ds getting ill. He had a bike accident on Wednesday - I was completely freaked that he had hurt his writing hand...he is fine btw

Is anyone else getting blasé about the exams. DS has just left for the wake-up session for English Lang. After English he has the 2nd half of History.
He was reading the BBC sport website on his iPad before he left. I was reading MN. I wished him luck but he didn't seem bothered. It's as though having 2 exams today that he has been preparing for for two years is just normal now.
After today, he'll be 80% of the way there, and only 5 papers left.
Anyone else finding it hard to maintain the momentum?

No no no no no.
Woke DD at 5.30 so she could have a last read through,went back to bed for a minute and only just woken up. She has gone to school without a "good luck" and "it will all be fine".
Guilt has set in. She's worked really hard and I didn't even have the stamina to stay awake.

mmzz yep regarding momentum. In some ways I think it's a healthier attitude as the exams progress. And in any case, it's impossible to sustain the momentum over such a long period; DS had his first exam on May 2nd.

cubscout do you think the daft mistakes are due to not focusing? Recently, DS dropped 4 marks by not multiplying brackets out properly in the first line (didn't notice the -). He knows how to do this. There's nothing confusing or complicated in it for him, so what else can it be but not giving the work his full attention in the way a student who is a bit unsure would?

Mmzz posts crossed.
But as you can see I am finding it hard to maintain the momentum, and she most certainly is. She's had the majority of her exams so is on the mile of her marathon

DS was as nervous as its possible to be before the French oral ( just after the Easter holidays, I think). He revised French vocabulary like crazy all weekend before it and even though it only last 20 Minutes or something, I think he'll remember it for the rest of his life. Fast forward to tonight and I bet he won't remember anything about the History exam this afternoon by the time we are having dinner!

mmzz yes I think it's not focusing in ds case -or working too quickly, or dreaming about other maths stuff. I have been begging him to double check everything and he rolls his eyes at me. The irony is, that the more difficult the paper, the more likely he is to get a 9! High grade boundaries will mean silly mistakes matter and easier papers mean higher chance of silly mistakes.....I think I need to get a life and stop worrying!

With 13 exams to go, I have to keep momentum but really it’s just a smile and a wave and a treat for when he gets home 😋😋😋

Cblue good analogy! that's exactly what it feel like - the last mile of a marathon!
DS's underprepared for the papers next week. They got pushed to the back if the to do list. I'll need to find energy from somewhere to make him want to give it 100%.

cubscout that's it exactly! If the paper was more challenging, then DS would concentrate more. He's not being arrogant, it's just that some of the stuff is really easy for him, so he doesn't think to put in an intermediate step that the marking scheme requires. He does better on the questions that will award marks whether or not you show all your workings, or that are aimed at the level 9s.
I think it will improve next year when the maths exams aren't meant for everyone any more.

The thing that hits him with a shock is that for those who excel at English, they find those exams as unchallenging as he finds the maths exam. It makes him feel hopelessly inadequate at English.

Welcome edwinaI can certainly relate to having a very bright DC who suffers from exam nerves and may not not do as well as her potential. Having yo hold sickbag this morning is proof of that!

stickerocks dgds geography teacher also peeved about scheduling of geography exams (AQA). And yes mmzz amount of writing in geography is almost on a par to history. Dgd (who wrote 10+ pages in the lit exam before the geography one) actually had to write more for geography ( in order to get that high grade) in a lot less time! In fact she almost ran out of time! Geography more demanding now than before.

cblue we had a bit of a morning yesterday. Alarm didn't go off. DS appeared in our bedroom at 7:10 in PJ's - he needs to leave the house at 7:03 to get the school bus! So jumped out of bed shouted to DD (year 13) to get up. She had a level biology but only needs to leave at 7:50 for her school bus. DD has something in her eye causing lots of pain. I'm trying to get dressed so I can drive DS to school whilst getting eye updates - not good. Left telling DD not to miss the bus and wondering how she'd manage the exam. All turned out ok, but woke up every hour or so last night for fear of alarm not going off again!

DS is now down to 5 papers left

History this afternoon.

Geography Monday.
Chemistry Wednesday
German x 2 the following Monday.

The end is in sight.
We spent yesterday evening laughing at all the memes trending on Twitter for Edexcel Igcse Maths Paper 2 whilst watching the English match. it certainly made him feel happier as he saw what seems like the entire cohort predicting tumbling grades

twitter.com/search?f=tweets&vertical=default&q=edexcel%20igcse%20maths&src=tyah

I'm not saying that there isn't lots of writing in Geography (there is and DS nearly ran out of time too), it's just that I think History still has more. How can anyone compare unless they have experience of both?

I think the geography timetabling has been mean too (have said so to DD - glad she doesn't do it).

On the answering the end question first, DD told me at the start of the exam session that that's how she does all the non maths and science papers. I absolutely couldn't do that myself (no exam discipline whatsoever) but over the years a few teachers have said to my DC that it's good to do it that way.

Yes, it's going to be a long old day for the English and history brigade.

On the plus side, no raven :)

*mmzz dgd usually nails most of hard questions on maths papers but makes pathetic mistakes on easier ones simply by over thinking them I.e not believing obvious because that's too easy touch. Or just not remembering her timetables

goodbyestranger we had a bird pecking at the window for a while. I have a huge phobia of birds, so it was actually terrifying rather than just annoying! I think it was attacking its reflection. It came back day after day though.
I stopped it by printing out a picture if a cat baring its teeth and sticking it on the window.

Dgd ( who was top of year in history as well as geography) chose not to do history because a) she prefers ancient history b) because she knew there would be masses of writing which she felt she might not cope with under timed conditions.

Sorry you have been feeling crap Bluebelle - hopefully more chipper now

Glad you have come out of the shadows to post Edwina - best of luck to your dc for the remainder of the exams

Sticker - I am sorry to hear that there is unsettling news about your mother - and her health? Was this out of the blue? I hope that you are okay

Oratory - I am pretty sure that reducing the number of papers was a consideration in GCSE Board selection for dd's school. Her school is registered with CReSTeD, which is one of the reasons we selected it. A slightly higher than average proportion of children with spLD go there - and its get similar results to the selective grammar. DD has just 15 papers for 9 subjects (one of which was Art hence no exams obv) spread between 2/5 - 15/6

*meant to add in order to get a level 9

No raven sounds like a good omen, goodbye!

Dropped DS3 at his bus stop. Apparently yesterday the usual bus had broken down and a mini bus turned up that didn't have a till, so the travel was free. Weird. But I'm glad they didn't just cancel the service like they did a couple of months ago. That would have been tricky on an exam morning.

'Hand drop off' day today. Will be glad to get English and history over. Next week 4 exams that DS3 is more confident with, maths and 3 x science then it'll all be over for this year.

Stickerrocks my mum had a serious health scare a couple of weeks ago (thankfully all fine). We also made the decision not to tell the children. DS2 would have been fine but DS1 would have fallen apart.