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

Dd (AQA) ran out of time and didn't do the last 8 marker about the unseen poem either. Nice to know she's not alone!

She seems happy with the rest though - loves War Photographer (the name of which I know because she was doing some last minute revision as I took her to school this morning!).

And now a break. Phew.

Oh Triggers your poor dd, I hope they are understanding about the mistake and her honesty.

DS was pleased with lit - selfishness in AIC and poetry went better than he expected....which to be fair was pretty low

At school tomorrow but no exams and then half-term!

Ds2 was delighted with English today which is a huge relief after how upset he was with paper one (not hard but his mind went blank and he froze). It's one of his two strongest subjects so feels like a good way to go into half term.

Ds overjoyed with paper 2 aqa. Did the Sheila question despite saying he didn't want to do a character one. He felt the other question about selfishness in the play would be hard to find quotes for. He compared winter swan with neutral tones. Not his favourite poems but 2 he had revised. His only worry is that because they were told to expect complex questions they might not be able to properly answer more straightforward ones. He certainly didn't spend ages revising Sheila but he's happy. He felt paper 1 was awful. So this might balance it out.

Do you think grade boundaries will be higher for easier papers?

That is so sad about the child who fell asleep. I wonder if it was just sheer exhaustion and one long blink and they were gone?

DS isn't too confident about RS.

He is having a night off tonight and tomorrow night. Health is starting to dip a bit so we are all looking forward to him having a week off.

We are OCR for English Lit and we’re amazed at the low number of students who sit this exam board (about 15,000) compared with over 400,000 for AQA! DD thought her paper was ok though.

triggers hope your dd has some reassuring concrete news soon.

That brings back memories, I slept through many of my GCSEs, I was recovering from Glandular Fever.

It was a girl who fell asleep, and no one woke her up. The other kids couldn't do anything because they are not allowed to talk, and none of the invigilators noticed. The poor girl was quite upset after the exam.

10 day break from exams! 😁
Feeling very sad for the poor kid who fell asleep
And Triggers hoping your very honest dd is ok.
Wishing you all a recuperating half term before the final push x

Triggers

Hope all works out ok for your dd. This (taken from JCQ examples of malpractice) may help

DD had J&H and poetry - she didn't like the unseen but the rest went well. And DD1's English Lit A level paper went well too. Now for nice break - we're going away over the weekend, caravan by the sea and a revision ban for 3 days. They both accept it's time to recharge the batteries.

Have a nice time pointy :)

DS was really pushed for time as well - he said he wrote 13 pages in 2 and a quarter hours. That lead to the poetry being a bit disorganised. He compared war photographer to remains. He said that he originally knew war photographer quite well, but hadn't revised it properly recently because he thought he knew it, and so struggled a bit in the exam. But he thinks he did a good essay on selfishness (which he felt was the opposite of responsibility, so used the quotes for that flipped), and he felt the unseen went OK. He has just discovered though that the same examiner marks the seen and unseen, and he said he made the same points for both, not knowing this, so he wasn't sure if that was good.

Dd had a panic attack and couldn't do the exam today. So we are applying for special consideration, GP very helpful.

Oh Molly your poor dd. My dd said she felt the panic rising and nearly had to ask to go out. I think this exam and it's length is a huge ask. Hopefully they'll be able to look at your dd's mock results and award from that
Pointy I'm very jealous of your caravan by the sea. Am desperate to escape in ours!

Molly 💐

Molly
Did she do the first English Lit exam (I assume it was English Lit)? I gather that so long as they have taken 25% of a subject (and the first English Lit exam was worth 40%) they can use that exam to give an overall grade. Glad the GP is being helpful.

Molly

Last exam tomorrow before half term (AQA Economics).

However major revision drama this evening as we had run out of printer paper and part of his plan "needed" paper to print off his revision notes.

Huffing and puffing (DS) and a 45 min round trip at 8pm to buy paper (me whilst fuming he left it so late to inform me he's running out - despite multiple times asking if he has all he needs).

So very late night cramming and I'm worried he'll be tired tomorrow. Thankfully the exam is in the afternoon.

AIBU to crush pro plus into his cereal milk tomorrow morning?

Don't worry I'm joking but honestly I'm exasperated he's made it harder for himself.

I think we all need this half term respite tbh.

Aw molly. Thinking of your dd. Ours such a tough time and my heart really goes out to those kids who struggle with the psychological aspect. She must have been so frightened. Thinking of you both tonight.

Ds liked eng lit yesterday and was really happy to get war photographer (was dreading poppies), compared it to remains so thinks it went well. Ran out of time for the 8 marker so only bullet pointed it but as he says at least he wrote something down!

Dt this afternoon then it's half term thank goodness!

He was telling me that in their maths exam one girl a couple of desks over from him sat down for her maths paper 1 and didn't even open the paper - just stared at it for the whole exam!!!

DS said Lit was ok - the Lord of the Flies question was apparently something like 'how does Golding represent the breakdown of society' so fairly straightforward. He compared War Photographer and Poppies but said he couldn't remember any quotes for Poppies [gaaaah] and the unseen was fine. Hopefully he's done enough.

Thank god it's half term! They really need it. to all those struggling with it all and hope everyone has a relaxing and peaceful week.

It was a girl who fell asleep, and no one woke her up. The other kids couldn't do anything because they are not allowed to talk, and none of the invigilators noticed.

Oh that's ridiculous. Of course one of the kids could have put their hand up and pointed, and I'd hope any of my children would do that.

But the invigilator definitely should have noticed - if I were her parent I'd be furious and complaining to school that the invigilator clearly wasn't doing their job properly.