GCSEs 2019 - support thread part 2

[AtiaoftheJulii]

Here we are again

DD had her German oral this morning, she has just emailed. She did OK, felt she could have done better, but was pleased she managed it at all. Her teacher seemed pleased. Thank God. She didn't sleep at all last night, and was, frankly, a mess this morning, so I am pleased and relieved she actually managed it. Now we can move on..... Phew. One down, twenty something to go !

Later DD has LAMDA after school, and then she sees a counsellor regularly on a Monday evening. Then, pizza and Game of Thrones, ridiculously looking forward to that. Will be good down time for DD.

Thanks for no spoilers Iambuffy can't wait until Friday. We are such nerds in this house, Marvel, Lord of the Rings, Game of Thrones etc etc.

Oooh you would love our house then!

Ds1 has a GofT themed bedroom :)

We are watching tonight's episode at 8pm (gnashes teeth)

Great your dds 1st exam is under her belt.

Ds1s start 2 weeks tomorrow (biology)

And so it begins...

German oral today, DC1 was a bag of nerves. Best left alone without us parents annoying then even more. Got away with wishing them "good luck" but that's all, otherwise my head would have been bitten off!

Have put up the exam timetable finally on to the fridge. We have 3 and 4 days where they have morning and afternoon exams - is that common for others?

We had a quiet Easter break, I assume with some revision going on - DC in their room most of the time, goodness knows exactly what they were doing.

Definitely not going away over May half term, that would probably tip my two over the edge, they can't do enforced relaxation at all. Cramming is their way of managing their stress

Good luck to you all, as our teens start their exams

Ds1 has 6 days of 2 exams per day.

But he also has 3 weeks of 4 days of exams per week (so 3 days with none).

DS1 had first exam, French speaking, today. I got a text saying it was 'not the best, not the worst, role play was really weird, got the surprise question badly wrong'...hope that doesn't mean he's done terribly! Anyone else had any feedback from French speaking yet? He does AQA.

DS only has three days of 2 exams per day, but one of them is his very first (and that is kind of three, as it is two French in the morning, and one Biology in the afternoon).
We have called his timetable "never on a Monday", because for some reason he never has an exam on a Monday, - but except for Friday 24th May (and half term, of course), he has at least one exam every single other day that is not a Monday.

Hope the German Orals went well. One more day and two hours (and counting) until Ds's French one.

Slight panic here upon reading mentions of oral exams... rushed off to check DD's timetable but her Spanish isn't until next week - phew!

Hope those that have started have gone okay - I think I'll be treating the conclusion of each exam as "one less to do"... (unless she's in an unpredictable mood!)

Appreciate am jumping ahead a little, but have your DC got anything planned/emerging for post exams. DD and friends have been planning a shopping trip in London and have tickets to a festival in the summer...

Well DNephew kindly arranged a wedding for us in Manchester the week after DS's exams finish (DN did carefully check that it wouldn't clash with any of DS's exams - but I didn't know about the contingency day(s) then, so didn't know to mention it, and so am hoping that there will be no need for them!).

I arranged a family party the 1st weekend of the exams - got my fates mixed up!

Oh well.

dates

German oral was "ok" apparently. French orals next week.

We too have a couple of Mondays with no exams.

DCs have a day in London planned with friends. Not much aside from that. I've just booked our holiday, much of which will be in term time still - haven't done that for years and hope it won't actually be a problem with school.

I haven't posted for ages, but am back with exams fast approaching!

This is my third time through GCSEs but feels a bit different without all the coursework marks already done.

DS2 starts with French oral next week. Then a Monday RE exam, then the hard Tuesday of French and Biology. Week one is definitely the worst for him - there will be a big sigh of relief when French is out of the way.

DD is lucky enough to only have exams on 4 days of each week - 2 Mondays off and 2 Fridays off

Hi
Late joining have followed the thread off and on but am now in a completely different place to start of Y11. At start y11, dd was working well and on target for 9s and 8s even looking at 7 in German after Nov mocks. However, in March dd started with a really bad headache which started early March and lasted until April, she started with what appeared to be fainting episodes after using the toilet but then went on to having collapsing episodes every other day, as the month went on they progressed into seizures and she has now been diagnoses d with epilepsy. She has been prescribed AEDs which are making her extremely tired and forgetful as well as unable to retain information. She is so upset as wants to study medicine so still wants 7s and she needs minimum of 5 7s for sixth form. school are been very supportive but have not agreed to her dropping German which she wants to as she can't remember anything,

I feel so sad and sorry for her as she has tried so hard to keep going at school and revise over easter. I am beside my self in trying to help have suggested watching Primrose kitten when too tired and Im starting to look for songs on You tube to help learn any quotes. Does anyone know of anything worthwhile and do you think she still has chance of pulling off 7s. Maths should be ok as she has always got numbers..

Sorry for the long post but could do with some advice

Oh frog
Your poor dd!
Um...for English ds1s class use thug notes online. His teacher is an exam board marker and she rates it.
Can you get the school to contact the exam boards for special circs for your dd?
Is she bothered about German?
If not, let it slide (ds1 is going this with pe. He hasn't had a good experience!)
I'll try and think of more when my brain is in gear!
X

Oh frog. No directly useful advice but just wanted to give my sympathies and to your DD and to you. That is just so awful.

No direct advice about how to ask for special circumstances, but if you start a separate thread under Secondary school, I reckon there are likely to be people on Mumsnet who will know.

No direct advice about the epilepsy either, because my experience with it is only with a non mainstream child, with a highly abnormal brain, but I do know that there are lots of anti-epileptic drugs out there, and the first one tried may not be the best one in terms of effects and also very importantly, side effects. It might be worth pushing for second opinions on the drug options (I realise that is all time consuming, and it takes time to test these things on any individual, as we all react differently to them, and time is what you don't have). We had terrible side effects from the first drugs tried, and eventually settled on Kepra, which had much fewer. Everybody is different though, and anti epileptic is, I believe, a bit of a hit and miss. Don't assume that whatever your DD is on are the only drugs available, talk to doctors!

Gosh frog that sounds really difficult, poor dd! No advice but lots of good wishes.

Ds also never has Monday exams! Luckily he only has a couple of days with two exams on as well, but I think that's because he dropped Theology & Philosophy earlier this year (thank god) and that wiped out three papers I think?

Some good news yesterday, he got his final mock result back for geography and it was an 8! He also found out that his old geog teacher now teaches at the 6th form college he hopes to attend - they'll get the shock of their life when he pitches up in their class

Hooray, hooray, the oral is over, and DS is in one piece and reasonably chipper. Apparently he was so nervous that he started off quiet (DS, quiet!!!). Some bits were indeed weird (AQA), but felt he negotiated them reasonably well, and his teacher was apparently happy. It feels like such a relief, I was steeling myself for more meltdown, just in case (I hoped it would be OK, but didn't want to count on it).

Good news :)

We went out last night. Ds1 needed a break I think.

DD last day today. They are in "St Trinians" style dress today. DD looked quite demur, I suspect some of the ones I saw this morning may be asked to change .

Further details on the German Oral, and DD got none of the subjects she wanted ie: friends and family, holidays etc, and got the ones she didn't ie: environment and recycling. "Is you town an Eco town" bloody hell, no idea!! Anyway, she coped, but thinks she may need a few extra marks from the reading and writing. Hey ho.

First Biology paper tomorrow, and I am ill today. Hoping against hope DD doesn't catch it, nasty throaty/cough and I feel urgh.

SilentSister dd had a similar experience with her German oral. She should have done quite well but is convinced it went considerably worse than the mock due to the subject matter and slightly misunderstanding the point.
Hey ho, at least it's one down only 28 to go!!!!! French oral next week, so panic has set in and it's affecting her revision of other subjects. Grrrrr.

DD2 had a Finance exam on Monday - no idea why they are doing that, she doesn't give a damn and has done zero revision for it as it's part of SKL - she'd much rather have done RE but it wasn't being offered as a GCSE due to no teachers... But given that she got an A in her mock having done zero revision, she'll be fine.

She really starts off on the 14th with 2x French plus Biology, and a GP appointment on top because she's having unexplained joint pain. We suspect hypermobility, since DD1 has it.

She's stressed and a bit snappy, but otherwise ok. DD1 is studying hard for her A levels. We are going away for the second Bank Holiday weekend, just for the three days - DDs agree they will need the rest and recharge.

DD is 16 at the end of June so we are coinciding the end of exams and her birthday with a trip to Naples. We’ll tell her on her birthday but we’ll leave the fact that both sets of grandparents are coming too.

She’s constantly counting down the days to exams, but she’s following her revision plan so doesn’t seem stressed that she won’t know enough...yet.