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Year 10 GCSE Support Thread

1000 replies

OrangeCinnamon · 22/09/2018 09:56

Hi all,
Can we have a thread for Year 10 support please? Even though Dd started in Y9 I have already noticed a massive ramping up in pressure and her anxiety Sad I imagine it is a fine balance of being supportive but not a helicopter parent. How do you motivate but not nag? How do you encourage good study/revision skills without being overbearing? How can I help my Dd to be resilient....so many questions hoping for some hints, tips and support along the way.

Dd is Summer born so struggles sometimes. Her main loves are Music and the Humanities subjects. She bobs along with Maths and Science and despises French. Wants to be an international popstar, historian, writer, journo or judge! She sufffers terribly with low self esteem but hopefully this term will be able to get her on a course of cbt.

OP posts:
RedSkyLastNight · 07/05/2019 10:45

GCSEs 2020 do start on 11th May (1st exam is Computer Science at least for the board my DS is doing, but think the boards do roughly coincide?). My DS has a May birthday and wanted to know if it was before or after GCSEs started!

My DS I suspect intends to follow a course similar to Romany's DC. He wants to put most of his effort into the subjects he deems most important/is best at, while looking to scrape a Level 4 in the ones he's not worried about. Other than him making absolutely sure he scrapes the right side of the 4, I can't decide whether this is a good idea or not. He's not Oxbridge material and isn't interested in medicine or vet science, so is this really such a bad strategy? (In DS's case he is taking 11 GCSEs unless I can persuade the school to let him drop one, so he has some to "spare").

Alsoplayspiccolo · 07/05/2019 10:49

Does anyone else feel relieved when their DC goes back to school after the weekend?
Had a bit of a torrid time with DD over revision this weekend; if I don't actually sit with her and do it with her, it doesn't happen. I think this is mostly to do with her ADHD but she just doesn't seem to have any self motivation or sense of urgency. Her exams start at the end of next week, including an actual ICT GCSE, but I can't detect any drive whatsoever.
I'm already exhausted from trying to keep her going...god knows how I'm going to manage to motivate her over the next 12 months.

Comefromaway · 07/05/2019 11:16

Ds wants to go into m usic but more the tehcnology/composition side rather than composing so although he needs minimal grades to get onto the next level which will probably be Music Btec, to get into soe of the courses he is interested foe degree he will need good GCSE grades(especially as he is doing a btec rather than A levels). But he spends all his time watching yourtube videos about music theory and playing/composing at the piano or making backing tracks from his musical theatre scores!

Dd, despite not needing any grades apart from English & maths to pursue her career path, was highly motivated and aced her GCSE's so they really are all different. Having attended a specialist school since the age of 11 I think she was determined to showe she could achieve academically just the same as if she'd gone to the selective school she also was offered a place at.

RomanyQueen1 · 07/05/2019 15:00

That does seem sensible, thanks all. If I even say something atm it's counterproductive as she gets moody and makes her own interpretation of what I'm trying to say. She'll see it as mum doesn't think I can do it, but mums just being realistic. Grin
So, I'll leave it for now and see how she goes on with end of year exams.

Comefromaway · 07/05/2019 17:10

So it’s maths non calculator tomorrow.

He’s done around 7-8 minutes of revision and refuses to do any more. I apparently have an authority problem.

PaddingtonPaddington · 07/05/2019 20:45

RedSkyLastNight I didn’t realise the provisional dates were out for the 2020 exams, I’ve just been googling and making a list and they seem to all be done for DD by 12 June 2020. Thanks for the heads up.
comefromaway DD also thinking of the music BTEC extended diploma but the performance rather than tech instead of 3 A levels but her current school is so good for music A level in sixth form so it’s going to be a difficult decision.

Comefromaway · 07/05/2019 20:53

Ds’s school doesn’t offer music Alevel. In our area few schools have 6th forms and those that do offer a very limited range of subjects so almost everyone goes to a 6th form or FE college.

He’s thinking of the music performance btec (to keep options open) then tech or composition for degree.

AndwhenyougetthereFoffsomemore · 07/05/2019 21:54

Ds got his first exam results back today! An 8 in Computer Science (and close to a 9) and a 7 in one of his maths papers. He's VERY chuffed ... I'm slightly annoyed he did so well with so little revision (although maths and CS are definitely his strongest subjects!)

Tumbleton · 07/05/2019 22:19

Andwhenyougetthere
Those are great results!

PostNotInHaste · 08/05/2019 06:39

Excellent results Andwhenyougetthere though I get the slight annoyance at the results without much revision. I’ve to,d DSvthat might work for GCSE but I’ve seen a fair few do this for GCSE then crash and burn for A level.

He thinks they have been told when the year 10 exams are but can’t remember Hmm I’m a bit worried about physics and chemistry. Chemistry teacher uselrsss and Physics he said could teach when she wanted to but now saying she doesn’t seem to know the answers to half the questions she put up. He said she over complicates things and he doesn’t seem to understand what is required of him to get the marks so I’m thinking that Tassomai might be in order at this point. He does well and is predicted good grades but has been totally put off science for A level and I think he probably should do one so hoping it will give him his confidence back.

AndwhenyougetthereFoffsomemore · 08/05/2019 12:13

Yes, I'm over the moon for him - although not looking forward to seeing how Spanish & English have landed ;-)

RedSkyLastNight · 08/05/2019 15:55

DS has had 3 exam results back. All are Level 3. 2 of the subjects it is not unexpected as he did little revision in the case of one subject and none in the case of the other (no one revises, I can just wing it). However the 3rd subject he had done a lot (by DS standards) of revision and has been getting 6s and 7s in tests this year so fully expected to do very well. He's now gone off in a strop because I dared to ask what he thought had gone wrong. Feeling a bit sick about his other results now (yes, I know they are not my exams and if he won't listen or take advice then what can I do, but it's very hard not to get even a little bit invested ...)

AndwhenyougetthereFoffsomemore · 08/05/2019 23:18

Oh Redsky - sorry to hear that (that's rather my expectation for English and Spanish, tbh) - g'ah, it's hideous isn't it balencing the tightrope of involving and letting them make their own failures? I have heard that they tend to make hard for these exams to scare them a bit for the proper ones - at least in exams where there's the option of being strict - could that be happening? I do think there's so much exam technique/getting just the right expression in some of the exams nowadays, it's bonkers...

PostNotInHaste · 09/05/2019 07:01

Redsky sorry to hear that. Think i’ve said before that although my DS on target to get good grades the situation with my DD was very different. She got 4 in the end and still doesn’t have maths so I know how stressful it is when things start going south. To give you hope after doing one year of sixth form and dropping out things have improved, she got herself on a creative degree and yesterday got an offer from a RG university to go directly onto year 2 of a modern languages degree in a language she learned off her own back.

He’s probably had a bit of a shock and maybe let the dust settle and him lick his wounds for a little bit, hopefully they have been marked harshly and there is still a year which is a long time , a lot can change, Once he’s more amenable to discussing it, see if you can get to the bottom of how he is revising and maybe he could look at changing strategies? Also as Andwhenyougetthere says, technique is key so if he could look at that.

Is it worth emailing the teacher in the subject he revised for, explaining he did revise a fair bit, that you’re a bit concerned and would welcome some feedback?

StrumpersPlunkett · 09/05/2019 07:15

Placematking for when I have time to come back.

AnneOfCleavage · 09/05/2019 10:10

Year 10 mocks still going on here. DD is shattered and she still has a couple more next week.
Is involved with a big dance show so rehearsals lots of times per week so looking forward to half term to rest a bit.

She's also been told she got the Deputy Head girl role for next year so starting a few duties already as year 11's are doing GCSEs now so she really is burning candle at both ends.

She found the maths paper really hard as it was a year 11 higher one so hadn't covered all topics and has another maths paper today and just couldn't bear to revise last night for it as been in dance rehearsal for hours.

Her grades really are hit or miss n assessments as sometimes she'll get a 4 in a subject she's really good at and a 7 in one she thought she'd bombed so hopefully they'll not string out the results too long. Assume there aren't more tests for year 10 at end of year but I wouldn't put it past them.

Silverhill · 09/05/2019 10:16

DD's exams have ranged from "better than I was expecting" to "a disaster".
She thinks and works quite slowly and in most subjects she is lucky if she manages to get through 2/3 of the paper before the time is up. Hopefully the speed will improve before this time next year.

Comefromaway · 09/05/2019 10:42

Has her speed of information processing been assessed at all?

FreeFreesia · 09/05/2019 10:43

Not into exams for another ten days. Managed to persuade DS to download the gojimo app which is free. I'm thinking revision on phone is better than no revision. Anyone else's DC using it? Did it help?

ChristopherTracy · 09/05/2019 10:48

Will check that app out and report back. Thanks.

Silverhill · 09/05/2019 18:49

Has her speed of information processing been assessed at all?

Yes; she used to get extra time, but was assessed again in Y9 and no longer meets the criteria. In some ways this is a positive thing, as it shows that the developmental gap is narrowing.

Tumbleton · 09/05/2019 18:51

Gojimo was recommended by DS's school at the Y10 information evening. He does use it a bit.

AndwhenyougetthereFoffsomemore · 09/05/2019 19:42

Will check out Gojimo - ds used Seneca and liked that (on laptop though)

RomanyQueen1 · 09/05/2019 20:07

It does sound like there are a lot of us with children who don't have a constant levelling across the board.
This is different for me as our other two weren't like this.
There was the slow plodder, got there in the end type, worked bloody hard and got about 14 C's. Then the other very bright, couldn't be bothered got a string of C's where at least 2 should have been A's.

I wish mine had the attitude of just trying for the best subjects and scraping the others. I'm sure she'll end up missing some good results concentrating too much on the 4' subjects.

RedSky
You have just described an episode with my dd, I think ours are quite alike. There's little you can do if they refuse to listen, it's so frustrating, I know.

FreeFreesia · 09/05/2019 22:32

Tumbleton great to know a school recommends the app. There hasn't been a year 10 info evening at DS school, just the usual parents evening.

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