GCSEs 2019 - support thread part 2

[AtiaoftheJulii]

Here we are again

To be fair I must have done some revision as I can still quote various Shakespeare - however not much from Julius Caesar which was our set one!

I actually can't remember revising much at all..... I must have done, as I "passed" all my exams, but in the heady days when B & C's were seen as acceptable, and we only did a total of 8 O'Levels. I was also made to do French CSE (got a grade 1) as I was so awful, and to give up Chemistry as I only got 20% in my mock .

Turned out all right though .

Study buddy has arrived BUT I've got flu so haven't even opened the packages yet :(

Looking forward to seeing the goods when I can get out of bed

67 let us know what you think.

I didn't really study at all (difficult childhood) and didn't feel any pressure from teachers either. Before the days of league tables.

There is still a bit going around from the Christmas bout. Hope you feel better soon, @67chevvyimpala

Although The Study Buddy can help fulfil your child's potential, it does nothing for scheduling a return to tip top health

Damn!!! 😁😷

I don't remember my parents ever asking about my gcses or a levels.

They were supportive but they left school at 14 and 15 respectively and probably felt they had nothing to offer.

Well I haven't been counting days to the end, but it did strike me that it is exactly three months today until DS finishes his GCSEs (14th June with Physics). And leaving aside Art and the French Oral, that means it is exactly two months until he starts (May 14th is a double whammy with French and Biology).

But only 19 days more of Art!

What a week..... LAMDA exam Monday, done. GCSE drama rehearsals, Tuesday/Wednesday/Thursday - Performance tomorrow. She is playing Agnes, in Agnes of God, a young nun who gives birth and believes the dead child was a virgin conception (actually a priest) . Gripping stuff. Wish us luck .

I’ve just told ds1 that binkom :)
His last gcse is physics too.
He seems quite chilled tbh...he’s revising for all his subjects now. His homework consists of past papers and questions.
He has done his oral poetry filming thing and PE filming this week.
His PE teachers have been beyond useless so it was done the day before it was due in!)
I’m out of bed!
I intend to look at the study buddy stuff this weekend.

Good luck sister!

@67chevvyimpala and @Bimkom DD starts with biology and finished with physics too. She has count down app on phone so is well aware of how soon it is. Yesterday I started creating the template for final revision schedule and the brought it home to me!
Seems very little after half term, English Lang, second science papers, maths 2 & 3 and geography 2 & 3. Thinking that apart from Geography 2 & 3, we can not focus so much on these until half term (as she's just done science paper 2s in these mocks and did exceptionally well in chemistry and physics although biology needs more effort).
Will sit with DD on Saturday so she can fill in all her non revision stuff (spray tan trial, hair trial, make up trial, etc!) and we can figure out what to put when.

Building in the non-revision stuff weekly is a great way to go, @flatmouse It keeps a focus on life outside of revision which is so important and stops everything feeling like it's all about revision!

I've found it best to breakdown the subjects into bite-sized chunks (which could be by taking the contents pages from textbooks as well as The Study Buddy) to fill in the blanks. The specifics of knowing that you're working on a topic at a certain time has proven to be really useful with the students (and parents) that I've talked to.

Hope it goes well!

Hope you're feeling better, @67chevvyimpala !

Hope it went well SilentSister, amazing that she is keeping up with LAMDA at the same time.

Yes DS is revising a lot - when he isn't doing Art, but there is an enormous amount of Art still happening. He is finally designing his exam piece now, the one to actually be painted in the exam, but he reckons he needs to do several tries at it before the actual exam. It is, or course, super complicated, I bet 99.9% of people doing Art are not doing anything nearly so complicated. I guess if he can pull it off it will pretty good, but the risk is, as with so many things, that he tries to do something too complicated, and does less well that being realistic and doing it well. We had exactly this comment from his English teacher - "go for the low lying fruit", and don't try and complicate things - and that he would have done better had he kept things more simple.

Hi.

Thank you. I have spent some of today vertical so 🙏

I've always thought ds2 will do art when the time comes....I'm not so sure I'll recommend it to him now hearing your stories!

Truth is 67chevvyimpala DS's art has really come on. He did a portrait of my father as part of the preparatory work for the exam piece, and it does somehow, really catch him. I suspect (hope) that when he looks back on it, he will be glad he did it (just so long as it doesn't impact too much on the grades in the other subjects). But I think a DC has to really want to do it, and be prepared for the way it can take over. I would not recommend it as a subject "just to do something different from the rest". Although, again to be fair, it might depend on what kind of grade the DC was aiming at. MY DS, of course, being who he is, is aiming high. And he is aiming high for his other subjects as well. It might well be that if one was not aiming so high it would be more manageable. I am sure most DC are not doing several portraits (including a couple of self portraits), and various objects and famous buildings, as part of their preparatory work!

So that's DD done now until the actual exams. Thanks for all your good wishes, all went well, no disasters or mishaps, and DD seems pretty happy. Very nice examiner too. Does anyone know if we get the results for the performance before the final exams?

So, this weekend we are having a pause, and then from Monday, revision can start in earnest. They seem to have finished everything now, apart from History, which will go to the wire. History dept are running some after school revision classes though, so that should help offset the last minute dash to finish. All other subjects/classes now just revision, which is great.

DD couldn't answer the question, but I am assuming the "past" papers they are doing must be mocked up to some extent as there aren't many out there since the change to the specs. I suppose we just have to leave it to the schools.

Happy weekend everyone

No exam timetable here yet (except for DD1's A levels ) but it'll get there. Not all mock results in yet but we did get back an 8 in History, which is a massive improvement on the 5 she got last time. She reckons she got her exam technique right this time.

It's all revision from here on in, but all in all this lot of mocks was much better than the first, and that one was pretty good.

Spent 2hrs with DD working out her final revision timetable. Hit a snag though... don't know when, if any, study leave they get? Presuming it would be from w/c 13 May? They'll surely not expect them to be in lessons around the actual exams? With DS (3 years ago), we could state whether happy for them to be in school or home but I know things changed following year.

Ds spent a few hours yesterday on a timetable. It looked good but seems very heavily weighted with English and science. He's really confident with history but I told him he might need to add a few more sessions a week. I don't thin k it's a good idea to cut out revision for subjects you already do well in.

67 glad you are feeling better. How was the study pack you purchased? I'm thinking of getting the history pack just so we know the breakdown per subject and sub-subject.

@Soursprout I think they should be allowed study leave once the exams start. Great to make resources at school available, particularly for those less focused/motivated, but for those with clear revision plans that are being followed I think it hinders, also doesn't allow for downtime if needed.

flat and others. Many schools don't do study leave anymore especially prior to half term, but provide structured revision sessions with their usual teachers. There was a thread recently on this.
www.mumsnet.com/Talk/secondary/3531172-GCSEs-year-11-and-study-after-Easter-Does-your-school-state-or-private-give-them-study-leave