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

Oh, I should say, include "Edexcel" in your Google search term to get " best guess" papers relating to that. There may be obese relating to other exam boards also, but I'm not do familiar with these.

Thanks for the tip EducatingArti. My DS is doing Edexcel Maths, and aside from Art, which is also Edexcel, and Geography, which is OCR B (but which both he and the Geography department now dislike, and they are switching to Edexcel for the next batch of GCSE students, which will help DD) the rest are AQA.
DS reckons that Edexcel mathsi s the most respected board. Don't know on what basis. The one think I really like about Edexcel is that they send all marked papers by email to the school, so the school can look at them if they are a bit surprised by the low grade, and decide whether there are grounds for appeal (and it can be something as simple as they didn't add the marks up correctly). This is unlike AQA, where you/school don't get to look at your marked paper until after you appeal (which costs), so there are likely to be be far more circumstances where AQA gets it wrong, but it is never corrected, because the DC in question or their parents weren't persistent enough.

In my view the fact that one can check relatively easily ought to be worth its weight in gold, but I don't make the board decisions.

Edexcel IGCSE maths here too, 2 papers. Funnily enough we were discussing this yesterday, and DD said there is a very clear pattern of what comes up year after year on paper one and paper two. I did point out however, that she should expect the unexpected!

Her maths and physics revision relies entirely on past papers. She has done loads and loads.

Aqa sciences and maths here.

Ds1 has Maths and geography tomorrow so an important day 😩

He has an after school maths revision class today but as he's finished PE he has a couple of free lessons

RS done - her first subject complete but as its one of her a-level choices she doesn't have that "yay - never have to do that again" moment!

Apparently she had one of those exam moments of doubt, when you start second guessing yourself and you go blank. Question was about pacifism and she started, then suddenly worried pacifism was for war not peace... thankfully her brain snapped back into gear

Maths genie actually has a best guess paper for paper 1 of Edexcel ( with worked solutions) which might be useful for any DCs doing final revision tonight but be warned, I think the last two questions on this are particularly hard and may not be the best things for most students to do confidence-wise just before the exam unless they are aiming for grade 8/9 and fancy a real challenge!

RS done but she forgot to leave 2 lines between answers😕
How to piss your examiner off before you've even started.

RE done. Apparently it was 'ok' but she struggled with the 12 mark questions and the quotes she'd revised didn't fit thr questions very well. Oh well, it was only short course, done under sufferance
Dishing your dd is doing really well to he having a go. You must he so proud of her! It's so hard when things don't go the way you've expected and having to adjust those expectations and support dc who are struggling is really tough. I hope she is well rewarded for her bravery in having a go
My dd's childhood friend may well have to repeat year 11/GCSEs due to physical and mental health difficulties. It's been so hard for the whole family, particularly as school and college haven't been as supportive as one would like. There seems to be a gap in education at the moment, to scoop up these poor dc who need help and find ways to navigate a really rigid system

yes, thanks Educating DS needs all the tips he can get his hands on. Anyone know how kind the RS WJEC paper was?

Does anyone know when the deadline for coursework for BTECs are.

I'm massive frustrated at dds school.
She has one subject where they still do coursework. As far as I know they get one chance at improving it after they have handed it in.On some occasions she has had it back and worked with support staff to improve it for weeks.

We have had bit of stress and upset as DD was really struggling in school and the children have been told that they can't go on full study leave without it signed off.
The teacher has in the past apparently told them he can bring them in until the other years finish in July (or she thinks she's been told this) until he's happy with it and will bring them back from holidays if he has to.

The letter home which is a generic all year 11 letter about exams says pupils need to come in for these lessons until they achieve their target grade and it's signed off. The teacher has been very very keen on them all getting level 2 distinctions and caused DD quite a lot of stress.

DDs target is a Level 2 distinction which is unrealistic for a child looking at 2/3s in GCSE exams
She is looking at a Level 2 pass or merit which I'm thrilled with and the teacher seemed okay with at parents evening when he told me.

She handed her last coursework in at least a month ago. She doesn't know if she had it to improve but she thinks she did. She hasn't been given it back again where as some have and definitely doesn't have it.

Only now she's saying she's been told today she isn't done by a member of staff and she has been removed from Maths and sent to the subject classroom to work on it.
She doesn't have the work (the other pupil sent did)

I can't check with the teacher of the subject as they are on paternity leave!

If I leave it she is potentially going in at 9-10.45am for exams and then needing to stay in town (we don't live near school) till a 3.10pm lesson which I really wouldn't be happy with her wandering round town on her own.
She's literally had a month she could have been doing this.
Gah.

stressofexams there isn't a simple answer on deadline for BTECs unfortunately - teachers tend to tell the pupils a very early deadline which isn't the real deadline - so they give themselves some leeway. It also seems to vary by subject. DD was doing 2 BTECs - one has a final deadline of this Friday (the kids were told it was a couple of weeks before that) and the other one had an earlier deadline.

Dd's BTEC was all handed in months ago. They had the exam last month too.

Thanks Chocolate .
Yes Knifeangel the same. Dd has done her exam and handed her last coursework in af least a month ago.

Some kids have it back to improve but she doesn't have hers. She is now saying she doesn't think she's been signed off and teacher isn't even in.

I am hoping she's mistaken. If she hasn't been and could have been doing this for a month I'm going to be cross.

Not looking forward to tomorrow.Geography and maths.Sees good at both but if she gets a hard paper in the morning the negativity may spill into the afternoon.
Hope everyone else is baring up,5more exams and a week off.

As PP have said @Stressofexams coursework deadlines are on a school by school basis, the only national deadline is 4th July as all marks have to be entered by the 5th.

I'm so pleased that Maths is before Geography tomorrow - Maths is obviously critical, but Geography isn't a target subject for DD. She's not feeling very well, so just hoping we can dose her up enough to get through the Maths!

Geography is a potential A-level subject for ds so we are keeping fingers crossed, although he's fairly confident.

Maths...well that's another story. His weakest subject and we're really just hoping for a pass, although a 5 would be lovely.

'the only national deadline is 4th July as all marks have to be entered by the 5th.'

Thank you Cricket that's really useful.

They are trying to find out if he's signed her off.
Rather frustrating as now she is going to have to go in over half term , stay in school hours after an exam to attend that lesson and be stressed about it alongside her other exams if she's not signed off and it could have been done with.

Geography potential a level subject here too.

Maths - he needs a 6 to do a level biology

Just watched the last ever ep of GofT!

I'm even more emotionally drained!!
😩👑🛡🏹🗡⚔❄🔥🐺

Thanks for good wishes everyone. CarrieErbag DD took it on herself to apply for a college in London (!!) but they want 5 passes at C/equivalent - that would be a miracle! We're going this week to look at a local college with a support worker from the local authority. Mabye your DD could get something less demanding just for a year?

Ds ended up doing maths revision at school.

So currently doing geography

Hello all, after a terrible drama exam on Friday, ds has calmed down a bit and soldiered on all over the weekend with revision for maths and physics. He's also doing the Edexcel maths with no calculator tomorrow and isn't too worrried as has been revising so hard and doing lots of past papers.

He spoke to his drama teacher today and told her he is so worried about letting her down and she was brilliant as always and reassured him that he could never let her down and has been her star pupil since year 9. That seems to have worked

Rumours circulating in school today that study leave may be happening after half term. Ds is unsure how he feels about this.
Apparently the last year 11's last year did not do as well as expected after being given study leave as it's not normal in their school so I think school are not sure what to do.
Roll on June 14th....