Are we ready for a GCSE’s 2019 thread?

[KittyMcKitty]

If so I’m in.

DS (my pfb) will be going into year 11. Mocks after half term. Crossing my fingers for him - needs average point score of 6.5 (across all 10 subjects) to stay for 6th Form.

Anyone else?

Hello all,
Hope mocks are not too stressful for those in the midst. Dd does hers in January.
Can I ask a stupid question about sixth form? Are you/can you apply to more than one place? Dd is happy to stay on at current school - we had a sixth form open evening this week. She's fairly certain on her A level choices and relevant subject teachers didn't recoil in horror. As it is her existing school they don't offer places to existing students but have an entrance requirement (although I suspect there is some wriggle room with that if circumstances need) So, I've been tootling along not thinking about any other options but am now wondering if I/we should be applying elsewhere as insurance?

His consultant said his other eye should be sufficient for reading purposes. Only it's not because he's long sighted in that eye so everything gets v blurry. Apparently only a consultant letter can guarantee larger font because it means the school/ exam board have to open the exam paper early to enlarge the text. I'm going to ring the consultant again this week and see what he can do. Thank you all for asking.

How are your dc actually revising? Dd wants to work and revise but is having trouble finding effective techniques and things to do

Hi all. I've been dreading this year and have just found this post and spent over an hour reading all your stories. Good luck in all the mocks.
I have DD who's school thinks it's a good idea to have mocks starting the first day back after the Christmas hols! Mmm...

We have DS in first year of uni and they couldn't be more different. He is a self confessed nerd and worked really hard. The sort of child you had to plead with to take time off from studying. So I was very hands off with him - he just got on with it.
DD has had MH issues in the last couple of years and suffers with anxiety. She is bright, but not confident about her abilities and would rather stick her head in the sand. I am dreading the next few months with her as she can't even consider homework or revision unless her head is 'in the right place.' My natural instinct is to back right off with her, but just to make things more complicated she already has her future mapped out - also involving uni and needing decent grades, so somehow we'll have to keep going.
Looking forward to some sanity on here please...

I’m glad there mocks. DC totally kicked off saying I was a terrible parent for ‘making’ them revise 3 hours a day. (Yet gaming for 4 hours is perfectly ok it seems ).

Been really trying to mix up the revision so it doesn’t get boring.

Study guides
Mind maps
Revision cards
Specific revision websites given from school
Utube vids (good for when concentration is waining)
Phone apps (Gojimo and bbc Bitesize) , very useful for those 15 mins waiting around.

DC only started putting in effort this year, fingers crossed it’s not too late.

My Dd hasn't really started self directed revision (at home) the school are putting on various revision classes and she does have an online tutor for two subjects (originally it was to rebuild confidence which was badly hit but I guess it is now moving into more revision).

She is conscious however that her approach to revision is a bit "one size fits all" -start from the beginning and work through etc.
So she is working on a massive table - effectively for each subject she is listing all the sub topics and doing a self assessment - how well do I understand and how prepared am I at recall/application. So for Macbeth she'd probably say Green for understanding and Green for recall (she's done quote banks etc) whereas for Plains Indians in History it may be Green for understanding and Red for recall/application.

The idea hope is that this will give her a tool for devising a more productive revision schedule - she can spend more time on "reds" or "ambers" and her revision approach for a red may be different to a green. And then during revision the aim would be to have more and more greens... I think this should help her as otherwise she'd probably spend as long on revising a topic she's on top off as a topic she's not so au fait with... But who knows!

Annette is that 3 hours of revision a day on top of a full school day? Because at this stage of the proceedings I would agree that is too much. GCSEs are a marathon, not a sprint. A lot of homework will already be revision focused and the pace and intensity at school will increase after the new year and again after Easter. Pacing it is really important. My DD does about 2 hours a day on weekdays, but that includes all her homework.
When DD1 did her GCSEs, she never did more than the equivalent of an 8 hour work day. Rest is as important as study and yes, that does include some gaming.

How did you get on @Mrsr8?

Can't believe only a couple more weeks left of term already (DD finishes on 14/12) and starts mocks on her first day back after holidays - massive EEEEEEEEEKK

A couple of emotional episodes from her this week - had a bit of freak about all things GCSE related and convinced herself she's going to do appallingly but we managed to put that back in the box for now

On a more positive note, she seems fairly set on her A-level choices and would very much like to skip the next few months and crack on with 6th form!

Mrsr8 - thank you for the heads up.

I passed on that horror thought to DS earlier as he was plodding off to bed. He sort of stopped mid-plod and said sarcastically "Cheers for that mum". Underneath, though, I'm sure he is pleased I let him know.

90 school days! 😯

Have mocks starting on Monday. DS is being fairly good with revision, they just had a full week of revising in school but he's done extra every evening too. Today is an occasional day so we have three days to do focused revision.

I'm worried his revision isn't effective though as his practice maths papers are not improving but getting worse and he really needs to go up a grade at least in maths and English language to be able to get in A levels and btec he wants to do.

Do any of you help your children with revision? I know my son will not be happy but maths paper one is Monday English language on Tuesday and I'm hoping to help him at least find a structured way of revising.

When ever I try to suggest things I get a cold glare...

Just bought a load more revision books in hope it will help.

We are starting to get mocks results back. 8 in English lit, high 6 in the first maths paper that she thought she had bombed utterly. So far, good.

thats impressive pointy hope its reassuring her?

ginger we do help with revision I guess (see my post above for our approach to trying to ensure productive revision time -not saying it will work but it seems to chime with DD) - not so much on the detail but more to act as reassurance/sounding board type....

Sometimes when she is tired she'll misread/misunderstand a question and will be a bit stroppy and her default response is "no" or "well thats all good but thats not what the question says" Gentle "yes, but..." usually work after a while and she generally admits afterwards that it was tiredness/not right frame of mind... (hello, classics homework last night!)

Reading the actual question on the paper not the one you think you've read is a skill to retain under pressure I think!

ginger re maths, perhaps look at last practise paper and each topic he struggles with and go on YouTube and find Corbett maths who does good revision for each topic easily presented. Then try to find some maths questions on that topic to reinforce it?
DD has the revision cards for Corbett maths, each one has is separate topic and has qr codes to YouTube explanation, test questions and answers. She finds it really useful.