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Secondary education

Connect with other parents whose children are starting secondary school on this forum.

GCSEs 2019 support thread 4

999 replies

TacoLover · 01/06/2019 15:47

The last one is almost full!

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5
myrtleWilson · 05/06/2019 08:35

Dropped DD at school - I think her nervousness is increasing day by day Sad

readyforsunshine · 05/06/2019 08:49

Awful for you too Myrtle, nearly over x
Good luck to all those with exams today.
Kitty my ds didn’t really have a favourite subject either but he did enjoy knocking around with his mates! I fact he did worst in his favourite subject (history) as it needed the most revision 🤨
I was tearing my hair out at the time but he’s actually doing really well now & very happy.
No exams for dd today, she’s riding then a maths practice paper & some Hegarty this afternoon.

SilentSister · 05/06/2019 08:51

Class Civ for DD this morning. Afternoon off, then 2nd History paper and Maths tomorrow. Friday off - Phew. She will be very pleased when this week is over. She didn't get much sleep last night.

IGCSE's still have coursework counting towards the final grade

No they don't, and it was always a mis-understanding that they did. Before GCSE's were reformed, they did have a huge amount of coursework when IGCSE's didn't. DD1 did a mixture of both 6 years ago, and only the GCSE's had coursework. One of the main reasons GCSE's were reformed were to come into line with the tougher IGCSE's. IGCES's were generally chosen by the independent sector because they were more aligned with ALevels and gave a better lead into Further Education.

Sorry, bit of a rant, but it always slightly annoys me that when GCSE's had coursework no-one was complaining that IGCSE's were harder, and now lots of people try to maintain that IGCSE's are easier, you can't have it both ways.

Agree that life would be much easier if we all took the same exam though. Then there would be no debate.

Good luck to all today.

WeirdOne · 05/06/2019 08:54

DS only wrote 500 words for the long-answer market description. He had a panic attack and couldn't focus despite a break. Does anyone know how much the word count matters?

ThelmaDinkley · 05/06/2019 09:17

Morning, just to say if anyone's child is doing Normans for History there was a very good three parter by Dan Snow on BBC 4 recently. Should still be on iplayer. We watched two episodes last night and there's battle recreations and displays of weaponry. Was very interesting. My daughter found it really helpful and interesting. Just wished Dan Snow had done something similar for Power and the People. Such a massive topic. Is anyone else doing this one?

ThelmaDinkley · 05/06/2019 09:19

Sorry meant to add the Normans programme was called 1066. year to Conquer England.

ThelmaDinkley · 05/06/2019 09:24

Weirdone, I would think quality and content counts more than length re the descriptive writing. Bless him panic attacks are awful. Did theninvigilators give him extra time?

TabbyStar · 05/06/2019 09:48

There seem to be quite a lot of panic attacks, one of my friends DD's had one and had to leave the room, and one of DD's friends actually left to be sick (then came back again). My DD says it takes her a while to stop feeling panicky at the beginning and to settle in so she runs out of time at the end.

KittyMcKitty · 05/06/2019 09:49

weird quantity isn’t the be all and end all in English Language- ds’s writing is always very minimal but he has consistently been getting 9’s in mocks etc (not saying this to boast about his abilities just to show that it’s not all about word count). Waffley writing is a bad thing - tge examiners are looking for clear, developed ideas, range of punctuation and interesting/ sophisticated vocabulary. Fingers crossed for him Flowers

In other news it turns out ds is doing Edexcel Geography Spec A - what do I know Grin fortunately his school / him are more clued up about what he’s doing.

KittyMcKitty · 05/06/2019 09:51

ThelmaDinkley if a student leaves the exam room (accompanied of course) their time is stopped and then restarted when they return so they get the full allocation of time.

Iambuffy · 05/06/2019 10:04

Ds praying that the eden project comes up.

doublechocadooberry · 05/06/2019 10:06

Day off for DS also which is good because he had a very severe headache last night at about 10.00pm. He didn't wake me up during the night which is a good sign and he is still asleep now - maybe a tension headache.

Thanks so much for the suggestion Thelma. I will mention this as history is the plan for today.

Hoping it goes well for those going in for exams - those without exams today, hopefully they can take a bit of a breather to prepare for the next couple of days.

Iambuffy · 05/06/2019 10:57

I think DS and I watched that 1066 programme.
It's very good.

bizzey · 05/06/2019 11:09

Kitty thanks for the English help.
Ds is another one in the "you cant revise for eng lang" camp !
I need to help him organise his revision today.
He is not too bad when the focus is just on 1 subject but his brain just freezes in this situation.
Mind you ...he is still asleep which isn't very productive either 🤣
Strong sweet cup of tea going up to him !

OKBobble · 05/06/2019 11:43

The reason state schools don't/didn't do IGCSEs is because they do not count for league tables/government statistics.

steppemum · 05/06/2019 12:03

just dropped ds at the station for geography.
He is pretty blase about it Hmm

Was really chuffed with Eng though, his creative writing has always been awful, and then in a practice paper in March he wrote a fictional account based on his Grandmothers funeral. His English teacher gave him a 9 for it, and said it was an amazing piece of writing. He was then all embarrassed because it wasn't factual! He has sort of learnt it, in the hope he could use it. So he used it for the piece ending - worst job you've ever had. He said he suddenly realised 5 minutes before the end, that you have to get the last line in otherwise the whole thing is useless, and just finished in time!
So proud, this is his worst subject, and so important, because sixth form insist on 5.

(It was in Holland, he doesn't speak Dutch, he was the oldest grandchild, and, despite not being expected too at all, took it on himself to stand in the receiving line for the 101 rellies and friends to pass by. Very old fashioned and formal. He spent 10 serious minutes before learning to say the correct word in Dutch, and took it all very seriously. He also chose to go and view the body - she was in an open coffin in the next room. He wasn't close to her, and I was incredibly proud of him. The sight of my lovely FIL, my dh and ds standing in that formal line as a team really made me well up.)

WeirdOne · 05/06/2019 12:22

Thanks everyone. He qualifies for extra time and breaks due to anxiety and ADHD, but he was really thrown during this exam. He is always very worried about the need to concentrate for the extended answer questions and finds them extremely difficult.

Good news about quality - he apparently used the phrase "perpetual tango" to describe the market place so if the rest was at that level perhaps he'll be okay.

Iambuffy · 05/06/2019 13:05

"Perpetual tango"!

Fabulous!

gleegeek · 05/06/2019 13:08

Super stressed and panicky here Sad dd didn't sleep well again last night - said she was too hot. I've just been to argos and bought a 4.5 tog duvet and some food while dd was revising geography. I was probably about an hour and texted as i left. Got halfway home and my phone started pinging...dd had been texting while i was in Sainsbury's but obviously no reception. When i got home she was sobbing and in a right old state worried about where I was, was i ok etc. Bless her. I should have gone while she was in the exam! Aaaagh.
2 exams thurs and 2 fri - roll on the weekend!
Hope this afternoon's exam is a kind one for all x

Iambuffy · 05/06/2019 13:13

Oh glee the poor love x

Iambuffy · 05/06/2019 13:14

Ds is just getting more monosyllabic as the exams go on.

But he couldn't have worked any harder so what will be will be.

myrtleWilson · 05/06/2019 13:15

love perpetual tango - DD had a dance reference in hers too!
glee your poor DD - hope she's okay now...

DD is home - shattered after classics (90) and Spanish writing (60) back to back.
Classics was better than paper 1 but I've not asked much as she is sooo tired.

So proper chip shop chip butty for lunch, bit of a post chip butty coma/tv watching and then revision later...for Maths and History (AW and Elizabethan) joys tomorrow.

Hope geography has gone well!

TabbyStar · 05/06/2019 13:19

Sympathies glee, I got a "come home now" text on Friday when I was out helping my mum with something. DD seems a bit better today, she generally seems depressed, not like her, I'm hoping it's "just" the exams and she'll feel better at the end of next week.

MollyButton · 05/06/2019 13:25

DD had Spanish this morning, said it was easy and we're looking for ways to keep it up in Sixth Form (but doesn't want to do A'level).
I don't know much about the other exams as she isn't speaking at present. She's been pretty non communicative.
She did panic me yesterday as she texted in the middle of the day asking me to collect her and I was 50 miles away for work. But she was just bored as decided she didn't need both revision sessions for Business Studies.
Tomorrow is Maths and History.

Bimkom · 05/06/2019 13:27

Thanks for all the compliments on DS's idea. I told him and he is really chuffed, said it made his day (then said funny how some random person on Mumsnet can make me feel so much better about the piece). He is really creative (cf the Art), the problem he encounters with English is putting it all into practice with correct grammar and good structure and even more the issue he has with spelling, which he cannot get right, no matter how he tries (pity spelling is not allowed to be creative). He knows he has to include impressive vocabulary, but from what he told me he may have overegged it a bit and used vocabulary for the sake of it, so it will come off as over written. Still hopefully if your DC like his idea, then the marker will too, as he does need his creative writing mark to pull up the other parts of English language, which tends to be much more about structure and grammar and analysis which he finds really hard - it is a common problem in my family, DD (Year 8) recently got her English exam back and she got 78% for one of here weakest ever creative writing stories, and 30% on the comprehension analysis/PEE paragraphs! Just had no idea what they wanted from her and just waffled. DS is similar in that respect.