GCSEs 2018 (12) Are we nearly there yet?!

[mmzz]

Bluebelle - I think I will once the exam season is over. The problem was (is) confidence DD had one teacher in Yr9 who she would describe has teaching in a monochrome style...then she got a really good lively teacher in Yr 10 so results improved...then they changed back to the teacher she had in yr9....so DD had virtually turned off again when Yr 11 started (I did complain because I knew what would happen after Yr9 experience. I guess DD has to learn to apply herself in the subject no matter what the teaching style).

See it this way, Kick, it's just an opportunity to teach your DD a new lesson about how to make good decisions. You'd have to either be desperate or lacking in self-respect to keep going back after that.

Teen what will the A level teacher be like? DS gets 2 one is excellent the other is his current teacher who is lovely but just not very good although he has only recently qualified so he might improve with age

Yes mmzz I said that yesterday. There are times in life unfortunately when you have to put up with horrible bosses and being shouted at but this isn't one of them.

I must admit I thought she was being a bit precious until she actually broke down and told me how bad it was. I don't want her going back in there ever again.

I think it might be a good thing for her to wait until she's settled at sixth form before looking for something else. It's a long commute and a big change for her.

Bluebelle - DD will also have two teachers for each of the science subjects ...Biology and Physics will both be great (current teachers plus one other who DD believes are very good). Chemistry - I am not sure but hoping that the HOD is one of the A Level teachers who is a male teacher and very good...the problem with Chemistry is that two of the teaching staff have PHD's so they are intellects rather than natural teachers.

Kick its a shame we all live all over the country otherwise you could pm us the name of the establishment and we could all go in and be the customers from hell ...........

Kick - Its important that DC's have a good experience in the work place...so I think you are making the right decision. I had a really creepy boss in my 20;'s and it wasn't very pleasant ..he would have been disciplined now for some of the things he used to say to female staff.

Wow Kick, completely unacceptable language, especially to a 16 year old girl!
I think I'd be encouraging her to quit now, today, so she never has to worry about going back.

DD2 spent most of yesterday on biology. And I spent the entire evening with her flash cards testing her. Yep, A lot of information to learn, definitely more than paper 1 (AQA)

Will be doing the same with Chemistry and Physics today then back to Biology again. Then I have to squeeze in DD1 as she wants me to test her too - History ALevel on Wednesday.

MMZZ the football shirt sounds like a winner for your DS. We've bought both DDs tickets to a musical they love and will pay for hotel so they can stay in London, but we won't be giving them that until DD1's ALevel exams are finished, so I need to think of something to give DD2 this Friday.
She is having a party on Saturday to celebrate end of exams, so perhaps a new outfit for that.

Back to GCSEs - does anyone know anything about Edexcel maths?

DD sat a mock in March and found paper 3 to be an absolute stinker. She got level 9s in the first two papers but only 56% on paper 2 and just missed out on the 9 overall.

Is that likely this time around? She is good at maths and a bit of a coaster. She hasn't really done any revision for it.

She thinks it's likely to be a stinker again because she managed to finish both papers so far and didn't think they were hard enough to separate out the L9s.

Do others with maths-brained DC agree with this? (sincere apologies to those who struggled and I say this as an English grad who doesn't even know what the hell a SURD is!)

Any tips on how to revise on Monday night to pick up those last few marks? She can't identify an area of weakness but she does struggle with the most complex questions.

Sorry if this has already been discussed. I have missed loads of these threads because they move so fast when I'm at work.

Hesmylobster which sciences exam board for your DC? DS is doing edexcel triple (Mon, Wed & Fri)

Kick DS2 was called a fucking idiot by the guy who owned the cafe my lot worked in. They still get on with the guy really well. Lots of people swear especially under pressure and it's no bad thing to get used to employers' different styles. But to be fair DS2 did put an order of apple cake and ice cream into the microwave to heat up the cake, so that was probably fair comment :) I find the second thing the owner said to your DD just plain weird. She's clearly upset by the comments so I'd call it a day too.

mmzz I too reward the effort and not the results so next Monday my DS and I are going shopping to get some clothes for college and some more formal clothes he needs now he is older.

Have you been to the national computer museum? It's right next door to Bletchley Park and my DS loved it there. Another idea is the escape rooms. They are in most big cities now. Young Driver? driving lessons for 14-17 year olds on circuits etc.

Kick - do you want me to email over the two prediction papers DD's school put together for iGCSE maths...(Edexcel). The paper B was challenging ...paper A was a lot easier so they are good practice papers from the same board but the same exam?

Kick it should be employer having tantrum is removed from cafe

mmzz - agree with @spababe about Escape rooms they are good fun and great for a family (if you dont end up arguing) - although not an individual reward just for DS1.

Teenmum that would be great!

I saw your post but assumed iGCSE would be different.

I'll PM you my email address now.

Its the same board ...maths exams tend to be of similar content. DD has used resources from various boards when we could not find the right resource for her own board - especially History.

Ha ha Bluebelle!

I bottled it and got the post removed. Suffice to say they haven't got the best reputation around town.

Thanks Teenmum. Email has come through.

Kick Anything can happen this time (on paper3 edexcel higher maths) but I just did a bit of analysis on a data set of 30 results, and it does look like there is a high correlation between scores in paper 1 and 2 and a very low one between 1 and 3.

Looking further, it seems like, if you can make any broad statements, then paper 1 is where students are most likely to have their best paper, their scores on paper 2 are generally a bit lower, but not much, but paper3 tends to get the poorest scores on average and who does well in it, has very little to do with who does well on paper 1.

Ps a surd is just a square root that you can easily simplify eg sqrt(9)=3 so not a surd, but sqrt(2) can't be made simpler, so it is a surd. (I know you didn't really want to know but I thought you could freak your DD out with it!)

put an order of apple cake and ice cream into the microwave to heat up the cake This is definitely something my DD would do!

kick what a thoroughly unpleasant boss, your DD certainly does not need that, no wonder she was upset. I thin I would get her to phone in sick next Saturday and let them get on with it.

Everyone asleep here including the dog .... so I should be able to enjoy the Archers in peace!

I will wake DD in an hour, she is just so tired at the moment and has to be up very early during the week. This isn't going to be a good week and I want her to be as rested and positive as possible.

If the Science paper 3s are really hard I know it will knock her rather fragile confidence. Her brain is totally wired to the Arts and she just doesn't 'get' anything mathematical, its strange even when she has worked out an answer correctly, she doesn't know how she has done it!!

Good luck to all the scientists and mathematicians this week, and I hope they all get the high grades they deserve in readiness for A Levels

MMZZ DD is AQA triple, also on Monday, Wednesday and Friday.

Just went to wake her up at the pre-agreed 9:30 and she's already been up 2 hours and completed 2 past papers. She's feeling completely unprepared for these last science papers. Like others have said , they were put very much on the back burner as they seemed so far in the future. . . But here they are!

DS2 felt that Edexcel Maths papers 1 and 2 did not have enough questions at the harder end to differentiate between the most able / skilled pupils. So as a previous poster has pointed out, it might come down to which candidates have made the fewest careless mistakes. It would benefit him if paper 3 has a few more challenging questions.

Another football pressie ida. World Cup starts Thursday so how about a World Cup Wallchart and one of the Guide to the World Cup Teams.

I am a massive fan and I was 14 in the 1978 WC and remember avidly completing it.

Came across this as a bit of light relief. I can relate to the not shaving part (DS now supporting almost a full beard!!!) but at least he showers!

www.facebook.com/acapellascience/videos/1705533459491358/UzpfSTgyNjg4NDk4NzoxMDE1ODY1NjI0MTA1NDk4OA/