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?

Bimkom

From what you have written, I would go for the second choice. Less pressure, he will still do well and you have the option of the scholarships so there is still a lot to aim for. And if you are only going for sixth form, you only have two years to make the most of what is on offer - so it's good not to compete with too many people for the opportunities if you see what I mean.........

We just paid the deposit for my son's sixth form - he also had to choose between two schools but for him it was more straightforward as one is IB and the other is AL.

Good luck with your decision and do update what you have decided to do

Hi all. Hope those whose mocks are already done are breathing a sigh of relief and getting some good grades back.

DD's start Monday, and she has only just started revising . They have had so much new work to cover, and getting so much homework, that they really haven't had much time to revise. She also had her Drama Devised and Evaluation to do. Apparently only this week are they starting to do revision in lessons.

English has just confirmed the papers, and some of the revision that DD did manage to do, is now not included in the paper..... great. So no novel papers, but drama instead. So, intensive revision on Macbeth now required. Maths also a huge issue. Had massive breakdown this weekend as she just couldn't get started, so completely overwhelmed by the amount they have to cover. Older DD steps in, sets her a timetable, looks through all previous test papers, and checks and highlights where she is struggling and what she needs to focus on. Orders her a revision book with practice questions. I have been suggesting this for months, but as I am the mother, I obviously don't know what I am talking about

All I can say is thank goodness for older sisters .

Hi all, have you had your mock results yet? Ours are now in. DS has done very well in his weaker subjects but very disappointingly in his stronger ones. The difficulty is that he came away convinced that he had done well in most so he is quite bemused and very fed up by the mixed bag and where his failings were.

I have tried to reassure him that mocks help highlight the areas that need more revision or more detailed answers and he has time to do something about it. Hopefully, he's taken that on board.

From what you have written, I would go for the second choice. Less pressure, he will still do well and you have the option of the scholarships so there is still a lot to aim for

Yes hubby all makes sense, but DS really wants first choice, and I don't feel it is right to deny him the opportunity now he has made it this far. I guess I am kind of hoping that if he doesn't manage the grades for first choice maybe second choice won't be oversubscribed, and if he just misses out on first choice, maybe they might take him after all (maybe some those they have also offered won't make the grades). If he doesn't make the grade for first choice we do get our deposit back. Second choice is asking for 7s in the subjects he wants to do for A levels, and a total of 36 points. Given that he has an A and A* from last year (old system), he has 15 points already, so if he got the three sevens, he could theoretically get zero for his other six subjects and still meet their cut off (not completely I think they want 5 for English even if he doesn't do it for A level, maths is a given for A level, but you get the point). There is a huge gap between that and getting six 8s (or five more) to get into first choice.
But he wants first choice, he wants the prestige, he wants the opportunities, he is excited about them. What can I say. It just is going to make this year even more stressful than it is already (although maybe not, he has been aiming for this for ages, so some of this stress has already been built in, I think, would have been very depressing if he had not got an offer - even though I was trying to steal myself for it. Good friend (different school, but same primary school) who was the gifted and talented one at primary school where DS was not, didn't get in! Real shame, it would have been nice for them to be together again.

Mocks start today. I imagine we won't get any results until after Xmas.

Bimkom in this case he will regret not accepting first choice ............ if he has other options should he not make the grades but sounds as though he will

Sadly we don't have a crystal ball. Our personal case is we are uprooting our whole family, giving up half our income and fabulous life in the sun for our DC to be educated privately in UK - we are taking a gamble as they may be the same people had we remained here but we will never know

steel" not steal" (sigh, and I can't even spell)

Mocks started on Monday, results are after Xmas hols given in a mock results day with individual envelope collection! Story so far:
English Lang half good, half ok.
Maths non calc v hard
Maths calc 1 ok
PE 1 tomorrow... and that's where my knowledge runs out!

Well mocks not so great today. English language was apparently an awful topic, French listening he couldn't hear, as it was in the hall, which is really echo-ey. He spoke to his teacher afterwards who said she knows, and will see what she can do for the real thing, but the best way is to get parents to complain, that is the only thing that will have any effect. He says he had to guess a lot because he simply couldn't hear.
Then he says he was so exhausted by the time he got to maths (his best subject), that he knows he got two questions wrong. And made some silly mistakes, some of which he picked up, but some of which he didn't. He is really frustrated that out of the three maths papers, two of them are the third paper in a day (which won't happen in the real thing), and so he was so tired. Also he didn't have enough time to eat lunch between the French and the Maths, as they had timetabled it so tight, and everything ran slow because of the boys with extra time. Pretty frustrated and miserable tonight. Also said he didn't sleep well last night, which didn't help.

Hopefully tomorrow, which is only two papers, and which is his birthday, will be better.

This is a bit of a promotion but genuinely well intended. I'm happy to remove if it looks like I'm being salesy!! But I wanted to share an approach to revision.

My DS did his GCSEs in 2017, and it's fair to say that he found it hard to focus on revision. The mocks are brilliant for finding out what needs to be worked on for the real thing. The problem is that how to make those changes isn't always clear! Although we'd hear: "leave it to me" and "I've got in under control" it was fairly obvious that he didn't have a handle on it.

In a bid to help him structure his time I devised a method that would mean he had more control, knew exactly what had to be done and had a comprehensive list of topics to cover to be exam ready. In essence I went through each of his subjects' syllabus and broke it down into units of work, which he (with my support) then allocated over the coming week. One week at a time. I can honestly say it brought about a real transformation.

At the time I wrote it up and shared it on a Mumsnet forum post. Recently I started up a venture to promote the free to use method and (the salesy bit) sell the underlying products to save time in set up.

As a parent who's been through it and who's only concern was that my child fulfilled their potential, I hope that there will be something in The Study Buddy approach that could help you. thestudybuddy.com

And good luck!

Our mock mocks and now some real mocks have been going on since Oct! Ds hasn't done a lot of revising and he's had some good results and some terrible ones. He's still not in full revision move but getting there v slowly. He has further mocks in Feb. He's currently struggling to choose a levels as he has to fill in a form by next week. He likes and hates all subjects equally and has zero clue about what the wants to do in the future.

I've tried helping him with revision bit more by helping him with a schedule, ordering some books, making a list of topics for him to tick off, cooking his fave foods to eat.... apart from the food bit he's not interested in any of the other stuff and hasn't even looked at all the revision prep!

He's predicted a 8 in English and got a 5 in his mock but still hasn't connected his total lack of prep to his result. It did upset him though so that's a good sign. Said he thought others in class were starting to up their game as I looked on v expectantly! It's hard to bite my tongue and walk on eggshells but he has to learn himself that he has to engage in solid revision.

Good luck to all applying to sixth forms and to those with mocks before Xmas.

Happy birthday to your DS @Bimkom hope today has been better exam wise.
DD has been emailing unis to check that all potential BTEC are suitable for the course she wants to do.
Had one reply where they had completely missed the point/obviously only skim read.
Still no further on persuading her to apply for A levels and make final decision in August.

Well, mocks results are in - all but Drama. Lowest is a 4 in Physics, which DD2 struggle with, highest a 9 in English Lang (she got an 8 in Lit).

The rest a range of 5 and 6, the 5s at the high end. She's not happy with History, French and Geography but didn't revise all that effectively and she knows she got one of the French questions majorly wrong. It's not unusual to go up a couple of grades from mocks so it's a pretty good start. And she got a 6 in Chemistry, which is amazing.

DD's school has told them they can go up two grades with hard work.

Yes, ours says that too. I think that's possibly a bit optimistic, but DD2 can definitely do better with more targeted work. The feedback DD1 got from her first set of mocks was very, very detailed - she found out exactly where her strengths and weaknesses were. The school also put on high intensity revision sessions in the runup to the exams focusing on exam technique and that really worked.

@flatmouseThanks for the birthday wishes. English was apparently "awful" today, but biology sounded better. Although it apparently had his two worst topics on it, he still thinks he got some marks on those questions, and the rest were OK. At least there were only two exams, and he was so exhausted after yesterday that he slept. We had a very brief present opening this morning before school, and then a special dessert (which we don't normally have dessert except on special occasions). Not sure all the sugar was good for him, but one only has one 16th birthday.

Oh and apparently the head of modern foreign languages has promised that they won't have the French listening exam in the hall for the real GCSE! I think being able to actually hear the recording will make it possible that his grade might go up even by more than 2 levels, at least in that section (and I believe the listening is worth 25%, so it is not insignificant).

Oh and I dropped off the forms to the dreaded sixth form, and paid the deposit. Now I just need to tell second choice No, and I suppose fill in forms for a third choice if he doesn't get the 8s he needs.

In the hell of mocks here too. Dd has had 10 exams this week - 2 days with 3 exams - which has nearly killed her. Next week is the same... She hasn't done nearly enough revision, and I think it's finally sinking in that she needs to do a lot more work.
Maths and English language have been the trickiest so far. French and German apparently ok and biology surprisingly straightforward. Chemistry and history tomorrow... I'm not expecting great results from these exams tbh, I suspect we'll be doing a lot of putting dd back together and motivating her to keep going.
Dreading the real thing now, 2 weeks feels never ending - what will most of may and June feel like?