GCSEs 2019 - support thread part 2

[AtiaoftheJulii]

Here we are again

I think from what ds has said, it's wasn't so much that they were told what would be on the exam as nobody knows obviously but it was a case of "revise these certain topics as they are sure to be on" as going on past papers etc but that makes no sense now!

Oh I give up, roll on August

Ds was disappointed there was so much on diabetes and pancreatic cancer.

He says he answered every question.

I must admit I felt quite warm and fuzzy towards this whole cohort of GCSEers after reading twitter last night on the #gcses2019 hashtag. They were very very funny Our teenagers are fab, aren't they, even when they are driving us round the twist!

Absolutely Maud, me too :)

Yes, they are awesome.

Ds1 is only 15 - has a GCSE on his bday 😩 - but is such a lovely, kind and "nice" young man. I'm so very proud of him.

I'm dreading results day. I know so many of the kids - I'll cry myself into a migraine! 🙄😁

Eng Lit paper one done. DD literally dancing around, as her two favourite poems of the whole 15 came up, and she had done essays on both with full marks. So lucky. The full novel question was however horrendous, so although she would've ordinarily chosen to do that question, she had to do the extract instead, as it was a better fit for her writing style. But, all in all, happy.

She is staying in school for lunch today and to do some Chemistry papers as revision for tomorrow mornings exam. That is the IGCSE Edexcel board.

Results day.... oh, the horror. We have literally just been told they will not be going in to school this year to get their results, but have them texted to the DC's direct. Very disappointed, and DD not happy. She has said she will want me to open the text and tell her the results........

thanks whistl for your well wishes!

DD seems quite calm here - she had been stressing about English so am hoping she's got it all out of her system. She's even done some Chemistry revision this morning as she knows there won't be a massive amount of time tonight in-between decompressing after English, eating, revision, exercise and bed!

Dd says there was group panic going on this morning when the English paper was opened.
Apparently all the different texts from all the different exam boards were included,
So everyone was thinking
“Shit, I didn’t study any Shakespeare!”

Oh gawd ds1 has eng lit this PM...

We can go and get ds1s results from 9.30am on 22nd.

I think ds1 would rather get a text!

We can get results from 6am by logging in to the school website - they have a special site for exam results. We just checked this morning that DS still had the details, including the password. Results from last year still there. Last year we were in France, which made it a more civilized 7am. This year I imagine we will be up at the crack of dawn waiting for 6am.

DS was half joking last night that maybe he should learn some Romeo and Juliet quotes so if he didn't like any of the Macbeth questions he could write on that. I said that might have been a good idea six months ago, but the night before the exam it is a bit daft.

Mini melt down from dd last night,she said everyone found the biology paper easy.She got a few questions in and got panicky.Shes usually v good at biology.
Got her calmed for today,eng.lit. She has lots of Heckle and Hyde quotes but is having trouble with Macbeth.Hope all goes well.Chemistry a computer science tomorrow.
I hope she has some OK paper as she really has been putting in the work.

spoke to soon about DD being unexpectedly calm before English..!

I really hope for her that it goes well (and for all the DC obviously!) Fingers crossed.

Yeah. They've all worked so hard....hoping the papers aren't too horrendous today.
Ds1 started eng lit 15 mins ago....eek

My DD really struggling so far - she has been working hard and really thought she knew her Biology and PE pretty well but both exams have just really thrown her. I think it's the fact that the questions are not straightforward but testing their ability to apply what they know. I was really hoping for a couple of good ones to start the week just to boost her confidence which is plummeting rapidly!

Was the cube question and the beta blocker on both the Foundation and Higher?

A friend whose child sat the paper at home has said things which are making me wonder if DD was given the higher.

She should have sat foundation!

Eng Lit in 10 mins!

Cube and beta blocker questions were on the higher combined paper I believe.

I'm really hoping that the exam writers aren't making the papers harder because last years were considered easy??

Argh. I hate this!

beta blocker was on foundation combined as well - am sure your DD sat the right paper life

Can someone explain the foundation/higher tier to me?

I’m ashamed to admit that I don’t really understand how it works.

If a child is doing the higher tier is it considered to be a harder exam?
Is this recognised in the grade?

Eg if I child gets 7 in foundation biology
and another gets 7 in higher tier biology

Does this make a difference in, say, college/university application?

Thanks!

On most foundation papers the max grade is 4/5 I believe.

Higher tier means students can achieve higher grades - up to 9.

Thank you Iambuffy !
That explains it

Feeling rather thick now 😳

😁 not as thick as I feel looking at ds1s revision!!!!

I know what you mean!

None of it makes any sense at all to me!