GCSEs 2019 - support thread part 2

[AtiaoftheJulii]

Here we are again

That does sound like a lot. I don't think schools do their students any favours by predicting loads of 9s. Our school doesn't- you get an 8 with a + to indicate 9 is possible but isn't the target. My DD is predicted a couple of 6s and the rest 7 and 8 or 8+. She does 3 hours a day on holidays/weekends but less on school days. This week we are away and she has taken a bit of work with her but will do no more than an hour a day with some days completely off. Downtime is really important. I would encourage your DD1 to schedule it and stick to it to avoid burning out. A mindfulness app might also be good for her.

Gosh, that does sound like a lot tommy.

Ds is doing no more than 3-4 hours a day in the holidays and has plenty of downtime - eg no work at all tomorrow as he's off to the football in the afternoon and then out with friends. Part of me worries that he's not doing enough but this thread has encouraged me that it's probably about right really.

A friend of his works all the hours though, and his mum is worried. She told me the other day that she found him up and studying at 5am - he'd set his alarm so he could start then!

I would definitely gently try and encourage your dd to take some time out; at least the odd afternoon off here and there. Overwork is likely to exacerbate anxiety and her revision may not even be productive if she's working too hard.

Gosh, yes, that sounds way too much, I would worry if DD was doing that much. She is doing about 5 hours a day, but also has had the odd morning/afternoon off. She sets each day up with what she wants to achieve that day, when it is done, she stops.

We had a morning bra shopping, lots of fun, as we both went in for fitting and treating ourselves. She has been to the cinema, and we have had this afternoon buying prom shoes, so pleased, found some, good price too, in Next. We also went for a walk.

So, really try to get her to have some quality down time. Suggesting a treat might help, like a bit of shopping, or tea and cake somewhere nice, or just a walk in the country. It helps so much with the anxiety as well, which DD can really relate to, she suffers terribly but feels great after a run, we live in the country, so she goes across fields, very good for the soul, if not for the hayfever .

Agree with my pp's too, 9's would be great, we would all love some 9's, but 8's are really good too, as are 7's. I understand a high performing DD, I have one, but our school too, thank god, does not give out 9's in reports, so getting a 9, any 9, would be out of this world for DD. She is hoping for straight 8's.

I'm sorry but I think this thread is quite off putting at times. There is too much talk of 8's and 9's. There are a lot of parents I am sure who would like to chat about their DC and exams but feel intimidated by all of these high grades. My DD works hard and is predicted average grades but I am proud of her work ethic.

marmite my DS is highly unlikely to get 8s or 9s for the vast majority of his subjects, if any at all.

He's done well with his course work in english and history but for other subjects eg maths and the sciences, we'll be happy with 5s and over the moon with 6s. They're not his subjects, he doesn't enjoy them and he just wants to get them out of the way tbh.

Don't be put off from posting. 8s and 9s across the board are not the norm, even on MN!

Dd is predicted 6s 7s and 8s and would secretly love a 9 but they are never predicted at her school.

soursprout DD1 is doing A-levels this year. In terms of hours per day she's doing about the same as DD2 for her GCSEs, the difference being that it's spread over only 3 subjects. Coursework and EPQ are done so the focus is now on exam revision. I don't want her doing more than she's doing either.

Its ok Soursprout. Caught me in a grumpy moment! Not just you. A lot of the thread has been about grades. Would like it to focus more on getting through the next few weeks.

Thanks for replies.
With regards to a time table DD does have one and tends to stick to it but it is pretty long.
In terms of asking her to stop or do something else she will but then makes up for it at some other point during the day. From what I gather she is mainly doing practice questions and watching science and maths videos at the moment. DDs group of friends are also hard workers so they've got together and studied a few times. DD says she teaches them maths and rather enjoys it.
WIth regards to grades i'm unfazed by what DD gets, whether they're passes, fails, Us or 9s, I would just like a happy child over the next few weeks- is certainly going to be hard, tough time for all involved. DD knows this especially regarding English where she's going to struggle to get 3s.
She's at school Monday - Thursday this week so may try and insist no revision over the weekend ready for beginning of term.

marmite fwiw the school is predicting DD2 a 6 in Physics. We'll be whooping for joy if it's a 5 and perfectly content with a 4. It's not her thing. She's very good at Biology, OK at Chemistry, good at maths but only through an enormous amount of very, very hard work to boost her confidence and her strengths are in humanities and languages.

DD/I have a very clear split in her GCSEs - there are some subjects (science, maths) that despite her best endeavours she doesn't enjoy and doesn't "get" and for those we see these exams as a means to an end... x days until she never has to look at a physics book ever again (apologies to all physicists!).

There are other subjects that she enjoys and will feed well into her A-levels and she wants to do as well as she can possibly do in those.

We've taken the view that as she is not an all rounder, it makes sense to "protect" the subjects she's good at and will benefit her a-level wise.

Thats not to say she won't work hard at the other half of her GCSEs (and she's revising really hard & has discovered that visual learning really helps her in science) but I'd rather have her less stressed about subjects that she isn't the best at rather than trying to over extend herself on all fronts and risk not doing as well in her preferred subjects as she could do - as ultimately I think not getting what she could in RE for example would upset her more than over achieving in Chemistry would make her happy.

She may well end up with a spiky GCSE grade profile but if she moves into the next stage of her education with confidence then I'm a very happy mom.

sounds like DD and pointythings DD are in the same science/humanities camp!!

Yes, ds is exactly the same. I've promised that we will burn his science and maths books (once the results are in ) and that he never has to think about them again as long as he gets a solid pass that will allow him to move onto the next stage and do the humanities subjects he really enjoys.

My daughter's school required them to submit a revision timetable prior to their mocks. They strongly recommended a 2/3rds rule - 2/3rds of the time on 2/3rds of the days. Over Easter they were asked to do 8-10 hours revision per subject in total (over a 3 week break). Just working it now it just about adds up to possible...

She's got a spreadsheet that she can update with the time she's spent on each subject. Sometimes we've had a detailed chat about something and she's ended up saying, well that's another half hour I'm going to enter on my spreadsheet.

I hope that is helpful as a comparison Tommy72.

She's another with predicted 8 / 9s - I think this year she's ended up with 9s as targets for everything and they've been reporting performance at 8 or 9 for most subjects. Her favourite subject appears to be one where the exam boundaries 7/8/9 end up quite close together so we're not going to hold our breath on that one. Also a humanities soul - despite having two parents with science degrees; but we've had at least 3 years to get used to the idea that she'll be doing "anything but science".

Just looking at the counts - I think my daughter has 18 exams for 10 subjects. Language oral and music performance and composition already completed which I guess drops the numbers. Also she's doing Add Maths which is just 1 paper (GCSE maths done last year). And their science papers are 2 + 1 hours rather than 3 papers per subject as I see some have. I think this is partly an iGCSE vs GCSE thing?

Another one whose school will not predict 9s even for the very top students, as they feel it puts on too much pressure. Best they will give is an aspirational grade of 8+. I really do think that the school is not helping tommy by predicting 9s, so she will feel a failure if she doesn't get them.

My DS is on the opposite side of the science/humanities split, and looking forward to burning his French books (although I may not let him, because we may need them for DD). Although it is not that he doesn't enjoy reading literature, what he will be so pleased never to have to do again is answer a PEE type question, or analyse a piece of poetry that he loathes.

A level coursework varies by subject. For History it was one 4000 word essay about the causes of ww1, almost like another EPQ. For Biology it was just the lab book. For English lit it was two 1500 word essays, one of which had to be a poetry topic. DD really enjoyed doing these and got A* in both.

Hi marmite - having gone through utter hell with eldest DD who was aiming high but ended up self-harming and taking ODs, I am very much encouraging the youngest to be tactical - this includes balancing some revision with taking care of her mental health and having time for fun and rest. It also involves aiming to pass enough GCSEs to get to the next step - we are aiming for 4s and 5s - and only aiming for 7 of those (but a minimum of 5 of them).

Ds1 has spent this weekend on a lord of the rings a thon :)
I have encouraged this.
Next week he is at school mon, tues, weds and the following week on thurs.
He is also volunteering on Thursday and Friday morning.
I would be very concerned about any child spending that much time revising tbh :(
I’ve told Ds1 to focus on what he needs for the next stage in his education (a levels) so I’m afraid eng lit and PE aren’t getting much time spent on them!

DD does no revision on sundays (horse day!). She broke up on Friday, and I think has 4-5 hrs planned each day throughout hols (except sundays). Second week she is away with a friend. I'm confident that they'll do some revision, but also confident that they'll have some great fun and relaxation.
Not sure what her predicted grades are. What she gets is what she gets, I'm proud of the effort she's putting in.

We are also aiming at achieving enough to get onto her college course next year. DD2 is combining down time with revision each day. Has a day off planned with her friend on Tuesday. We have had a crap year of breast cancer diagnosis /treatment for me and the death of her beloved Grandad so I am proud of her for keeping going.

My DS is probably overdoing it as well, but if I try and interfere I get my head bitten off (he is having a lie in though in the morning, which is something in terms of relaxation), and he just asked me to book for the youth roller skate social on this Tuesday night, which is something, so at least he will be doing a bit of socialising. The dilemma being that to get into this ridiculous sixth form he really wants, he does need the very high grades, and as well as getting my head bitten off now, I might be blamed if I try and tell him to slow down, and then he doesn't get the grades. I am just backing off and let him do what he is doing (and still getting my head bitten off if I ask the wrong question). I have no idea what his revision timetable is, just that he is always very busy on something, maths, chemistry particularly, when I ask him.