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

I’m with you behind
Dd has been really focused and calm but now she’s facing history she’s really down

Ds1 loves history
One of his best subjects
But even he is struggling to be interested/positive now

His crime and punishment module for example, covers 1000 years!!

I mean...what??

Not to mention his other 3 modules of course...

Dd gave herself the W/e off & has scheduled 2 hours worth of work p/day, although she admits that it can take her up to twice as long if she’s not in the right frame of mind!
I think it’s a sensible plan, too much can be counter productive. She did start early & is feeling quite relaxed luckily.
Ds was totally different, he struggled with the volume of revision for history but then he left it all pretty much as late as possible. Too late as it turned out!

Ds1 is having friday off.
Hes done about 3.5 hours today.
I'm trying to leave him to it!

I remember doing the Tudors and ww2, heaven!

DD tried to revise after we got home. I nixed it - this is day 3, she knows her and has been attending every revision session after school for all her subjects. And with all this pain she is in, she needs rest as much as study. So she kind of made a revision plan for the rest of the week, which I let her get away with, and is now watching When Harry Met Sally on Netflix.

Her first History exam is America and WW1, which is the stuff she is really, really good at, so that helps. History is one she wants to do for A level (alongside Biology and Psychology) so it does matter.

School wants a 6 in English alongside a minimum 6 in History to do history A level - also a 6 in English to do Psychology. She's projected a 7, last mocks were an 8.

Ds is at school tomorrow and weds

Is that revision classes buffy?

Yes.
He's off to the cinema with his friends on Friday

DD has had today off but back on revision tomorrow. She likes history overall but cannot stand American West! She had a shocker of an end of year history test in year 10 and that really knocked her confidence - plus she felt relationship with teacher wasn't great. Since then, and initially partly out of defiance she's knuckled down on history and generally does ok but I agree it is a tonne of content.

She's decided on her a-levels... RE, Philosophy and Ethics, Politics and English Lit. Whilst they are essay heavy I think they're a good fit with each other....

It seems that the only way to manage to revise history well enough to feel confident before the exam is to ignore everything else- even then I just can’t see how it can all be squeezed in and retained effectively. I guess it’s an exam where you just have to cross your fingers and hope it comes to you

DS started history today. Got up at 11.00am, despite being woken much earlier, had breakfast then reappeared at 12.00 needing a break and some lunch!? I think he is quite daunted by the amount in history to revise so is procrastinating.

I cleared out his school books that he won't need like Eng Lit books, French and RS to create some space on his shelves and uncovered handouts and revision guides that would have really helped. DS looked quite sheepish as I held them up. Grrr.

Anyway, onwards and upwards. Hoping our DC can find some motivation from somewhere.

Ds’s way of revising history is this (in case it’s useful to anyone).

He makes a mindmap for a topic with everything he can think of included (from memory). He then goes back over the mindmap with his notes and adds further details to it. It’s a method which works well for him.

He did all the mindmaps before the GCSEs started so has refreshed himself on them and is now going to focus on past paper questions.

His big issue with history is timing - hopefully the extra 15 minutes on each paper will help with that.

He feels confident with Geography paper 2 and Eng Lang so it’s Maths and Sciences which need some attention. He’s going to do one of the predicted questions papers from Corbett / Maths Genie in the morning I think.

Tbh if hes not doing biology then the pressure for maths is off somewhat.

He hates eng lang though:(

Writing stories, analysing text....his worst nightmares!

I'm not convinced he's find enough eng lang, however, he is going to Eng lang revision this morning so 🤞

Ds a big fan of mind maps too!

Morning all
Dd is of to school for a German revision class this morning.
Yesterday she only studied history (and is thoroughly historied out!)
She said there is not much she can study for English Lang or maths . I'm a little bit concerned by this approach...
Biology is one she does need to revise for though.
I think I'm more stressed than she is!

My dd says that you can't really study for English Language too. Maths is one of her strongest subjects so she'll probably just do a past paper or two but History and Geography are her focus this week

Love you are all talking about history and the volume of it. Same here - mild panic yesterday when DS said his revision guide was missing Richard and John. After much investigation of how the exam is broken down and what is tested etc. etc. he was correct King Richard and King John for Paper 2 (British Depth Study?) is definitely missing from his CGP revision guide. Love Amazon Prime but ANOTHER module to revise ...................

Another one massively struggling with History!! DD had most of the weekend off really as it was DH birthday and she was so tired. Thought things might start afresh today but its now 11.30 and nowhere near focussed. She wont work in the evening and she's got a treat massage at 4 so hardly any time to learn about the American West. She' s so stressed and crying. I don't think it helps that she has her school books, a revision guide we bought and now the school has given them ( very detailed ) booklets to learn. We even watched Dances with Wolves over the weekend to get her fired up to learn about the mistreatment of the American Indians. But she is just floundering around not knowing where to start. This is meant to be an A level choice. sigh :(

Ds is worried about answer structure in history.
He's not looking forward to crime and punishment.
A level choice here too

English language here is the headache....so many techniques to try and get ds to use. Thankfully no history, but music and geography to prep for.

Sorry to hear about the amount in History...sounds more like a memory test than actually getting to enjoy the subject.

Dd is also firmly in the ‘you can’t revise for English language’ camp- don’t know if that is true or not but I guess we’ll find out