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

Bimkom, thank you!. You and your DS are beyond helpful!

'if the word is underlined you can't get the mark unless you say that word' - it feels like they are trying to find clues in a big puzzle to unlock the door to the next level so if you crack their code and find the clue, you might earn enough marks for the next grade.

But again, thanks so much. He had a rabbit in the headlights moment on waking this am and glancing at his timetable DS realised RE paper 3 is tmw and not Fri! DS was planning on revising just English this eve. Think he will be having a crash course on Islam later x

Bizzy - agree with you.

DS's school won't take pupils for A Level maths without a 7 minimum and an 8 (but ideally they expect a 9) if they want to take Further Maths.

Head of Maths said a lot of pupils are shocked by the step change in the subject and they set the bar high because their experience is that even very competent pupils can struggle and the drop out rates (especially for FM) were high until they raised the entry criteria.

Same for Physics (7 min there also).

I'd be very surprised to see a 5 being enough to get to study A Level unless there were some strong extenuating circumstances that impacted a very able pupils performance on the exam.

Bizzy - agree with you.

DS's school won't take pupils for A Level maths without a 7 minimum and an 8 (but ideally they expect a 9) if they want to take Further Maths.

Head of Maths said a lot of pupils are shocked by the step change in the subject and they set the bar high because their experience is that even very competent pupils can struggle and the drop out rates (especially for FM) were high until they raised the entry criteria.

Same for Physics (7 min there also).

I'd be very surprised to see a 5 being enough to get to study A Level unless there were some strong extenuating circumstances that impacted a very able pupils performance on the exam.

Bizzy - agree with you.

DS's school won't take pupils for A Level maths without a 7 minimum and an 8 (but ideally they expect a 9) if they want to take Further Maths.

Head of Maths said a lot of pupils are shocked by the step change in the subject and they set the bar high because their experience is that even very competent pupils can struggle and the drop out rates (especially for FM) were high until they raised the entry criteria.

Same for Physics (7 min there also).

I'd be very surprised to see a 5 being enough to get to study A Level unless there were some strong extenuating circumstances that impacted a very able pupils performance on the exam.

Sorry about the repeat posts - it said it had failed so pressed retry but seems to have worked regardless

thinking about the number of papers.

I did 8 O levels, we all did 8 then, 9 or 10 was unusual. I think I did one a year early, but can't remember.

Each one had 2 papers I think. But it is quite possible that Eng was one paper eng lit and one eng lang.

The downside was that the exams were definitely longer. I seem to remember 3 hour exams were standard.
so 16 max, and probably nearer 12

Ds longest is 2 hours I think, and he has 2-3 papers per subject and 10 subjects. That is 25 exams all together.

1 hour down, 1 to go, feeling a bit sick for DD - going to pull up some weeds to release tension......

Re: Number of papers. It is crazy how many they have, but apparently it's better in certain areas. Maths for example used to be two papers, so if you have one bad one that's 50% of your marks, now with it being 3 papers that one bad paper won't have such a big impact.

DD still has 12 to do after English Lit tomorrow. 7 week after half term then 5 in the final week. She's already done 10.

She was so poorly this morning, but went in at 10 for revision session and has decided to stay until 4 for English Lit. Reports physics was "good" everything she had revised on there so feeling hopeful.

SilentSister ...good for you ! .
I am just looking at my weeds . Thinking i need to do something!

Anyone else's child throwing up from stress or just mine?

He is predicted 7s and above, 9s for maths and science which he consistently gets on past papers and tests in class. He has been revising since year 11 began so is not worried about content of the exams or his knowledge. He says his head needs to talk to his body

He was sick this morning after breakfast, sent him into school for the before school physics revision, school called me at 8.40am to collect him, he'd been sick in school and wanted to revise at home. Looked mad at reception when I said I was there to pick my son up at 9am!

On the maths papers, AQA higher - we were told 50% of the paper is to weed out the 7-9s so many children who would be getting 6s would find it very hard and disheartening.

iloveyou - which paper was it that was good? Haven't heard from DS yet, although he should be finished

Elephants your poor boy
Would it be worth trying some kalms or rescue remedy do you think?

DD out of physics and is the most confident I’ve seen her in any of the exams so far, says it went very well.

It’s very maths heavy though and if that’s your bag then great stuff.

AQA Higher btw

Ds says it went "ok"
He was pleased with the calculations questions and practical.

elephants maybe try some charcoal tablets and give him some if he starts feeling icky?

Bimkom OCR combined. The only thing that's concerning me with the "easy" papers is the grade boundaries. Maybe biology will balance out the chemistry and physics.

Elephant your poor son. They are under so much stress. Did he manage to quell the sickness enough for his exam?

Maddie that's good news! Sometimes a good exam helps to boost their confidence and those not so good that follow, then don't seem so bad.

OMG - Happy, cheery call from DD. She really liked the Physics paper and said there were a lot of standard questions on there. Thank goodness for that, confidence restored. On-wards and upwards .

Thanks, his sickness came out of the blue. He has been managing to eat an albeit small breakfast for him and feeling sick was normal. But today he was actually sick. Twice.

I will look into Kalms and charcoal. Thank you for the suggestions.

He is in an after school revision session for English Lit so am yet to see him.

Probably outting the school my sons attend but some fucker pulled the bloody fire alarm at about 2.30. Am livid. Ds2 told me. It is an exclusion for the child who did it (and has been identified) it is just the interruption of the exam though. They all stayed in the hall as Ds2 said there were no year 11s out. Could today get any worse for Ds1?

DS said "Other than the 5 markers it was all good." He apparently couldn't remember how many miliseconds in a second ,(sigh).

Dd found the physics (aqa triple higher) hard but it's her weakest science but she said she did answer all the questions.I think she finds applying the knowledge difficult. Oh well, another one ticked off

DS was happyish with Physics AQA Higher today.

Said there were a lot of scientific method questions (more than he would like) and less maths question (which he would have preferred).

Said he answered everything but thinks he might have messed up one 5 mark question in retrospect by not reading/understanding the question properly.

So, roll on English Lit tomorrow (his weakest subject) we'll be glad to get that one out of the way (especially unseen poetry which he absolutely hates).

Physics triple here, said he though he'd done good but "shitting" himself as he's pinning alot of ambition on physics!

AQA physics went well but she said it was mostly maths & that's her strength.
Re grade boundaries, dds school have said that last year grade boundaries were low & that they can’t move them more than 3% so should not be too high surely. Any experts that could comment?

Spanish reading better than listening apparently here and physics was okay.

English Lit tomorrow - she's feeling reasonably confident on An Inspector Calls but is trying to predict which poem will come up. She's planning for her worst option in the hope that anything else will be a surprise benefit.

Thirteen exams left after today - and like Iambuffy we have a horrendous 8 in the first week back after half term - EEK.