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

[mmzz]

So proud of all DC's carrying on with health problems. Our DC are a resilient bunch x

Just got an email from school to say

"We have been informed that the Exam Board for Science, AQA have issued a statement requiring all students to bring a protractor in addition to their normal exam equipment (pen, pencil, ruler and calculator) to their Physics Exams on 15th June 2018."

Posted just in case you don't receive that message. Pass it on 😀

I got the same email Terf.

Not going well for my dc this week.
Had history this afternoon but had to wait 10 minutes for them to give her the questions as they were missing from her booklet.
Also didn't receive notification about a change in anthologies for the English exam. (Distance learning , home edded)
Lots of wine being consumed this week.
By me not dc obviously

DS3 had the protractor message read out at the end of his English exam today.

English 'went well' and Elizabeth went better than Medicine in history. 15 down 4 to go.

I'm glad your DD wasn't a crying mess during her exam, Alexander. She's obviously got a fair amount of resilience. Well done to her.

I had DS2's (18yo) Disabled Student Allowance assessment today. Gosh, there are so many hoops to jump through to get adequate support. Now I need a serious chat with the college's learning support dept.

Takeaway night tonight, I think.

Wow - thanks for that Terrible (sorry - couldn't resist after yesterday ), not heard anything from dd's school yet! Will be interesting to see when I am officially informed.

HadEnough and AlwaysHiding - your dc are amazing. If I could will them 9's in everything I would (as I am sure would everyone else on this thread), although I realise that is not the important thing here. So impressed that they soldier on in the circumstances - hoping for better health for them

Can anyone whose dcs did AQA History today tell me what topics came up for Health and Society and Elizabeth? dd won't tell me except that Mary Queen of Scots did come up - bugging me as I suggested topics based on the sample materials and spec and want to know if I was right.

Yes, I am massively over-invested - excuse that it was my degree subject!

Felt so sorry for some of my kids today - shattered after English, then straight into History revision and the exam. One lad did say he thought his hand would literally fall off at 3.15pm

Now just think of the poor sods like me who will spend the next month marking the buggers....

Re:protractor message - any decent school would make sure there was a supply of them at the start of the exam following that. Our amazing, now retired, exams officer used to put pen, pencil and ruler on every single desk for every exam 'just in case'!

DS said the Language paper was ok.

History was ok apart from one 8 marker on the American Revolution which he says he never studied.

He isn't bothered and said he made a guess and waffled.

Science and maths revision will be the order of the day for this weekend (apart from Cricket)

Aw bless - went to ask DS if he wanted a cup of tea and found him curled up with the cat on the sofa, both fast asleep!

This week has really taken it out of him. Thank goodness, just 4 short exams left now...

I'm home, and DD would appear to be 'revising in the bath'.

She says (muffledly) that 'it's fine, it's only curling up slightly at the edges.

Well, thats DD finished. Much early than most people, including most f her friends. The benefit of not doing iGCSE Triple Science and iGCSE Maths.

Today's responses were as brief as ever.

Eng Lang: okay
History: hard but okay

So, for all of them I am none the wiser!

She and her friend, who has also finished, are upstairs making a lot of noise with music and chat. We are off to the pub for dinner later - and I shall be having a large drink to recover, lol!

Good luck to all the DC with another week or two to go.

AQA Health and the People was difference between Galen and Hypocrates.
Long question was something like has individual efforts been the single biggest factor in the evolution of medicine?

i can't remember the rest of health and DS didn't do the Elizabethans. Sorry.

DD has emerged from the bubbles singing 'Aeneas had a son one day whose name it was Ascanius...' to the tune of A Modern Major General. I think she may have lost the plot.

DS said Elizabethan topics were about religion and Armada and explorers. Nothing about the 'plots' which we had gone through last night! He's gone out to dinner with DH but I'll ask him tomorrow for more detail if you like

Phew! DD reasonably happy with English, and pleased with History... Considering we had major meltdowns over the history this week I am relieved... Just hoping she meets the grade to do it at a level...

Goodness, lots to catch up on!

Just one exam today, Edexcel English Lang and according to DD it was really weird! As AlexanderHamilton has said it was an obituary for a blues singer, DD said she tried to find some unusual angles and wrote about how being rich and famous doesn't mean you can live forever .......not sure what the examiners will make of that

She was much happier writing her review of a Justin Bieber concert!!

I agree with so many of the comments about the scheduling of the 'heavy writing' papers with English and Geography falling on the same day twice. DD is complaining about a her hand which is really really sore, she is currently soaking it in the shower.

Just six more to go now, with the three sciences, and Paper 3 for maths, classics and geography.

I hope all the DC can relax this evening, we're on the final leg now and we can do it

Doing a happy dance here as DD (has dyslexia and ADHD) came out of history (Russia) saying

“I answered all 3 questions. I even put sort of conclusions in. I paid attention to the question. I’ve never finished a history paper before.”

She does not have extra time but she has a hard fought for prompter and rest breaks.

Hooray. Hooray.

I didn’t probe the content of her answers because it doesn’t matter. She answered every question!

Good on her Peggy

peggy - yes, that's how I judge DS's feedback too (he also has dyslexia and slow processing)

"I understood all the questions and wrote stuff and divided my time properly" = the best I can hope for!

Thanks hmc I know I sound deranged but not answering all questions has really held back her results (of course).

DD2 was had 41% attendance in year 9 due to illness and it was rough in every way.

For anyone dealing with ill kids or ill relatives.

Thanks Wonder.

Excellent stuff Peggy DD upbeat despite awful sports question in English. She said she wrote something about footballers being paid more than fire fighters. 8 more to go!

Peggy that's brilliant! Well done to your dd!