GCSEs 2019 Support thread 3

[myrtleWilson]

Welcome all - just went to post on thread 2 and saw it was at 999 so quickly did this

Power - Mr Bruff on youtube covers all the poems.
I also found Seamus Heaney reading his far better than anyone else.
Carol Ann Duffy also reads hers with good pics

@noidea02 yep universities look at the top eight GCSE marks...they are probably more concerned with your A levels though.

Hello pointythings :)
My sister (who lives in London) and I have decided to try and go to NL next year to watch Eurovision live

Dd and I have been to poo pick dpony's field and did a bit of weeding around the yard.
Now home and she is revising.

RS tomorrow - this is her 'sacrificial' GCSE, the one she is not revising much for in favour of her more important subjects. That said, she said she will be looking over her notes briefly tonight...
Next week also brings physics and maths - her weakest subjects, but important as she needs 6 in all science and maths to be allowed to do Biology A level... Next week will not be a fun week!
Even worse - I will be on a school trip with my Year 5s, somewhere in the middle of a forest, so not on hand to dispense healthy and filling lunches, a listening ear and pep talks where needed. (Dh and ds will be around, but still....)

@Soursprout the exams taken in one sitting was mentioned in the booklet produced by the Russell group. It was called Informed choices

russellgroup.ac.uk/for-students/school-and-college-in-the-uk/subject-choices-at-school-and-college/ We await the update!

Wow, those are tough criteria, lock! DD2 wants to do Biology A level as well, but her school just requires a 6 in Maths and Biology, preferably a 5 in Chemistry but not essential. No Physics requirement, which is as well.

No RS/RE in her school at GCSE, they haven't been able to recruit/retain the teaching staff. Which is a shame - DD1 did it, did very well in it and enjoyed it.

I guess we're not necessarily aiming for Russell Group so not too much of a worry then! I'd also hope they'd look more closely at A level grades than GCSE but who knows!

Pointy - it is a small, rather high achieving, sixth form college dd has set her heart on... She does not like to make life easy for herself

DD wants to do Biology - but they want her to have minimum 7,6 in her combined and a 6 in her maths - I have already argued with them that surely the physics component of the combined should not be taken into account - as she hates it and really struggles to engage with it and it has little to do with biology. The triple kids only need a 6 in Biology no other requirements. They are open to looking at the results individually, she usually scores very highly in Biology, so we are hopeful.

Hmm. Not a good weekend here. Ds has 8 next week and had 8 last week so really in the thick of it. Spent Saturday revising for the end of the week and had allocated Sunday for the two Monday exams both of which have been very neglected - Christianity which got squeezed out by last week's bigger RS1 exam and Latin verse, which was stuck then queue behind Latin prose, both of which are essentially memorisation

And now, curses DS is truck down with a splitting head ache, light headedness and feeling awful so hasn't been able to learn today at all.

I awfully hope this is a one-off head ache and not a big because Tuesday is maths and geog , both a level subjects.

Damn damn etc.

The issue with university entry is that after the demise of the AS level the GCSEs are the next-best indicator of academic ability and potential A-level results.

Our system of making kids apply to university before they have actually taken the exams they require for said university is utterly daft and just makes the entire process more difficult and stressful for all involved.

My first time on this thread as ds is actually year 10 but taking one gcse this year which is RP, religion and philosophy. Everyone on here seems to be mentioning RE - this is a different subject I take it? I thought they were the same thing just with different names.

Oh ds is really not pulling his finger out and getting any work done.
Grrr.
Really hard to support and not nag

Just looking / I think we all use which ever name we are used to for religion a RS, RE, Divinity etc. At DS2's school it has changed its name to TPR - god knows.

But there are various different boards with different subject names and timings. My DS is doing educas and so has a paper tomorrow.

Oh bloody hell purple hope it's a one off x

Ds1 is currently revising geography (a level choice) and will do maths later.

Fairly well spread out this week - the week after whit he has 7 over 5 days.

Iambuffy Impressed by how early you were up this morning...... or did you never get to bed . After an exhausting evening of watching Eurovision, we were all still in bed at 10am .

DD had a day off yesterday, she is still going to her weekend drama on Sat mornings, and then was just not motivated in the afternoon. She was very down after the Drama exam on Friday, but actually, has picked herself back up now, and busily doing some Maths and Physics papers. Monday is an exam free day too, so more revision planned.

behindlocknumbernine you are a blast from the past! We know each other frim the Elevenses thread many years ago. I can't believe our dds are doing GCSEs
Dd is also wanting to do A-level biology and has the same entry requirements... I wonder if it's the same college??? GC???
Dd is really struggling with motivation. Short course RE tomorrow and then her weakest physics and maths. Also English poems are quite shaky!
I can't believe the weekend is nearly over and back to exams tomorrow - it's like groundhog day

gleegleek - no way!!! Hello!!
How have you been?
I have fond memories of our elevenses thread, and our meet ups at AH and that antiques place!

Not GC college. It's a tiny one beginning with F, but not in Farnborough :)

I can't believe our dds are doing GCSEs. That's quite bonkers!! (and I feel really really old!)

Dd has been asleep most of the afternoon. I am telling myself she needs it and if she had been revising not much would have gone in...

gleegeek behindlocknumbernine - Oooooooh, GC and F...... lots of DD's year going to those . DD staying at her current school though as she is very happy there.

Behindlocknumbernine I'll send you a message when I can work out how to!
SilentSister - eek! Dd is quite happy to be leaving her school but I know sixth form college will be a big change, so quite apprehensive!

Good amount of revision finally completed this weekend by dd. First time she really appears to have spent a decent time at it.

1 exam/day Monday - Thursday this week, so should be calmer than last

Good luck to all for the week ahead.

@Soursprout we went to an open day at Cambridge last year - not because dcs wanted to go there, more because dh went there and it was a nice connection to dh's life. Anyway - the admissions tutor talked about not really being interested in GCSE results - even without AS grades because GCSEs were for generalists and that was not what they were after = they want people who loved their subject and they didn't care so much about the other subjects - they expected bright kids to be interested in all sorts of stuff and to take care of that themselves.

From the bit of scouting around I have done, it seems that Oxford is much more interested in GCSEs than Cambridge, it is one of the differences between them. Oxford sometimes ask for slightly fewer A at A Level than Cambridge, but loosk much more closely at the GCSEs. Cambridge lobbied heavily for AS levels not to be dropped, as they used to rely on them heavily, and argued as part of that lobbying that GCSEs are not that useful, so I suspect they cannot be seen to be relying heavily on them now. Whereas Oxford were apparently supportive of the drop of AS levels. If you look at the Oxford website for Medicine, for example, the number of As at GCSE plays a big role (although I don't recall them saying anything about one sitting, although I might have missed it).