GCSEs 2018 (13) Untwisting our knickers, lucky for some!

[Stickerrocks]

Thread 12 Link to the thread with our potted histories. Now the end is in sight.

Erhmmm Am I thinking of foundation grades?

Yes, I think you are. There are foundation and higher tiers in combined science as well as in the single sciences.

Of course you can get 9.

In fact you can get 99!

We got a letter from school saying those doing triple science should consider dropping extra curricular activities as workload of homework, a lot of self study vital. Also if your grades in mocks, assessments drop to a 6 then you may be put down to double science.

Thanks for new thread Stickerrocks!
DS seems to have given up with chemistry revision and is now on the computer.

Thanks sticker

Late on the last thread I said my brightest DC has the worst GCSEs.

Terf asked if DC had been able to get on. Well she’s getting there. She secured a place on a very competitive apprenticeship. Lots of people had A levels. Some had been to uni.

We get glimpses of her ability.
At an engineering apprenticeship assessment centre “Wow. 100% in visuospatial skills. I haven’t seen that before.”
The director of the diploma course, “She’s obviously a very, very, very bright girl.”
Top of cohort in skills assessments, all distinctions in coursework and achievement award.

She sometimes talks about going to uni after all but for some courses she wouldn’t meet the gcse requirement, although I suppose they might give her some credit for taking a nonstandard route.

Lots of stuff happened - ill in year 9 (41% attendance), changed schools, her personality, dyslexic, spikey profile, I wasn’t as organised as this year.

Yup chemistry abandoned here too. Triple is an option block at DS school too so needs to use up one if your other gcse options rather than being faster paced and extra homework

Thanks Peggy - I think ds plans to go down the apprenticeship route. Not suited to lecture style teaching and not that interested in the ‘uni experience’ and also cs and tech fields that he’s interested in seem to have options for apprenticeship type roles

See what happens next year tho

Oratory there are some fantastic computing and cyber security apprenticeships some at diploma level and some degree.

We started at the Skills Show at the NEC

www.worldskillsuk.org/directions/our-events/worldskills-uk-live

I'm a great believer in apprenticeships. I think they are just as worthwhile as going to uni, in fact I'd say better in a lot of cases.

mmzz just thinking aloud but if the boundaries are set from sats then if more able children do combined then surely it will raise the number getting the higher grade, as they are not mutually exclusive.

DH (GP) thinks I have mild viral labyrinthitis. The good news is that I'm not getting the nausea & vomiting that people often get with it. I don't suffer from motion sickness, so perhaps that has helped.

I can only cope with looking at a phone or computer screen for a few minutes at a time, so may not fully keep up with thread.

Third you need to rest. Get well soon!

The point I am trying to make (badly) if all able scientist took combined the percentages getting each grade would change to reflect that.

That is what I had thirdofhername but I had sickness and felt I was in a force 10 game in a tiny boat in the middle of ocean with 30 foot waves! I couldn't walk without a serious list a d could not take dog out. Worse when I laid down. It was like going out. Getting g wrecked, but without the alcohol.

Yes it would Bluebelle. Also if your not intending to do sciences at A level why put yourself through the extreme pressure of triple science? its such a lot of work really.

YeS! It's like the worst bits of being horribly drunk, without any of the fun.

At dds school the top two sets do triple and get one extra hour per week than the combined classes. The combined classes spend that extra hour doing a second hour of PE.

Dd worked her socks off for her end of y9 exam to avoid 2 hrs of PE a week

Oh and i posted earlier that dd had struggled with a question on time in today's maths exam. Apparently it wasn't on time. It was on tan. Also she got another one wrong too but on that one she'd made a careless mistake and then had the wrong number for calculating a triangle. She thinks she definitely dropped 7 or 8 marks at least. Other than that she thinks she got the others.

I'm not sure these unofficial mark schemes are a good idea. She's feeling pretty confident of at least an 8 but she doesn't know where the boundaries will be

Ahhh, ignore me and my trilogy science can't get nines!!!! (Thinking about foundation grades) Bloody confusing it all is!!!

Well done to your dd kick. Dgd thinks she may have scrapped an 8 too.

BlueBelle123 I don't think the boundaries are set from SATS. If I understood Noble correctly, they are set from last year's GCSE results.
e.g last year if 20% got A/A*, then this year 20% will get 7/8/9.

They do a miniscule adjustment if the SATS results indicate that this year are brighter / less able than last year, but I don't think the SATS results show any major difference.

Here are the SATS results for 2012, 2013 & 2014:

English Reading level 5
2012 - 48%

2013 - 45%
2014 - 50%

English SPAG level 5
2013 - 46%
2014 - 49%

Maths level 5
2012 - 36%

2013 - 35%
2014 - 33%

I don't think you could say that our DC's cohort are better performing than the years before or after.

DS3 and I are studiously avoiding any unofficial mark schemes. No point looking them, they won't change anything and he will never take that particular exam again, no matter what happens.

Have a callmeadoctor and rest assured we all get confused on this thread! Sometimes I dont know what day it is!

Here's the link btw, if anyone wants to look at the SATS results for themselves. www.gov.uk/government/statistics/national-curriculum-assessments-at-key-stage-2-2014-revised