Gcses 2019 support thread 5

[Iambuffy]

Hi :)
Hope this is ok as we are at 1000 posts on thread 4!

DD has gone out to a friend's for the evening. She does have an exam tomorrow afternoon, but she was all giddy at the idea of being able to go out and think about something other than exams....

We've put all the revision paraphernalia into a large storage box in the garage.

We've decided to hang onto it until we know the results.

If all is well we'll be donating the books to the school who've emailed out that they'd be grateful for such donations as a supply for children whose parents may struggle to afford them.

Tbh - got me thinking. We just bought all the revision guides without "thought" - it's what you do?

Packing them up I was very aware that it's hundreds of pounds worth of books.

Same with his uniform - rugby tops that sell at £25 etc. I've got a bundle of stuff that's again worth three figures.

So I've washed/ironed everything and plan to take it into the school clothing shop (they accept and distribute donations).

Looking back it was stressful, but I've never been in a position where I had to think "what if" as a parent.

Would the results be different if I'd been able to afford xyz book?

Sorry just a somewhat morose reflection on the experience that whatever the outcome, DH and I couldn't have done more, but that's a reflection on our "economic privilege".

Deriguer- totally get it and share your thoughts!
Exactly same here, endless study guides and revision books ordered half not even opened and the cost was never a second thought. It’s very sobering!

we're fairly low budget so only bought two Maths Revision Guides, which DD protested were commercial profiteering and unecessary but school were recommending and I didn't have the confidence to resist.

Not sure how much difference it made, plenty of past papers online for AQA Further Maths tomorrow.. and suspect they don't even exist for new tricksy exam format ones like OCR Class Civ.

.. but having said that, her school's pretty big on text books, which, although heavy for lugging around in bags the last 2 years, are a good starting point for revision.

Hearing about all these lovely unused Revision Guides is kind of tantaslising as I work with newly arrived Asylum Seekers who take months to be allocated school places and are champing at the bit and super aware of being behind their British school peers...those guides would be perfect for them to get accustomed to the UK curriculum preparing to go into Year 10 or 11, maybe I should have got organised to get local schools to make a collection. Not been much on our radar, didn't realise they were such a thing.. clearly I should hang out in WH Smiths a bit more.

What did all your DCs revise from if not revision guides?
Are their class notes all excellent? Or do they all use online sites and rely on them to be complete and correct?

For DD1 4 years ago we relied almost entirely on revision guides, and I'm already doing the same for DD2, y9, as her class notes aren't coherent enough.

That's a brilliant idea!

Ds1s have all been given to school for next year's year 11s.

@TeenTimesTwo
DD revised from mixture of text books, reasonable class notes (though DD spent a fair while puzzling over her own handwriting) and WhatsApped friends' class notes...

ds used a lot of class notes.
Didn't have a lot of revision guides, mostly Eng lit and science.
We bought what was recommended.

Ds and dd's school do use part of the FSM budget to subsidise revision guides and books for GCSE

Just found out that dd's school (different to ds) is asking for different guides to ds. Dd is just going into year 10, so I thought we could pass them all on, now I'm going to have to buy more!

Teen, DD has used a mixture - revision guides, online resources, her own notes (which are good) and custom-produced revision guides made by the school and published either on their VLE or in hard copies.

She found revision guides good for presenting the 'basics' in a uniform way, but her own notes and the school's materials were best for the extra detail / boost / techniques needed for the higher grades.

We’ve passed all dd’s revision guides on to dss, uniform decent bits are being passed on to someone I know who is a single mum like I was back in yr7. I’m going to email the local food bank see if they’ll take them

ds says the revision guides are not detailed enough to get the highest marks.

We're not aiming for highest marks really. Passes will be fine. If I look at the science, no way will DD be able to learn all the detail in the guide.

Dd used Seneca for sciences 100% but found Asian student websites for her exam boards were fantastic for notes.

She’s predicted all 9s from mocks but honestly I’ve no idea how accurate that is

Ds used revision guides (but not much)
He mostly used;
Class notes
Oneline resources like thug notes and BBC bitesize.
Past papers - these were probably the most useful tbh.
His school also did "passports" on their particular weaknesses.
I would say the texts/guides used most were:
English lit texts
Maths guide
Biology guide
Geography guide
The rest weren't worth getting really.

DS did use some of the revision guides - school recommended most of the ones we had, mostly CGP, the only ones I bought that wasn't from school recommendations were for geography, where DS kept moaning about there not being enough resources for his obscure OCR B board, and the teaching being poor, but telling me not to spend the money to buy the revision guides/text books., and I just ignored him and bought them anyway, even though there was a bit of detective work involved ot determine what was relevant. The other thing I did was buy the text books, because a) mostly what they give the students is access online to the text book, and not a searchable version, just a turn pages version of the hard copy, and I think it is so much easier and more comfortable to handle an actual book. DS kept telling me I was wasting money and shouldn't but I got the numbers from the online and bought them anyway. b) in the case of those text books they did give out copies (which had to be returned after physics on Friday, they went round ticking that everyone had handed in their lanyard and text books after physics finished) I bought a couple of these so he wouldn't be taking them back and forwards, becausethey made his school bag even more extraordinarily heavy than it already was. DS kept insisting this was unnecessary. I am pretty confident that I was the only parent in the school doing any of these things. Some of the parents were engaging tutors, and the tutors might have recommended/required certain resources, but to actually investigate and work out what was being used or studies and buy own copies of the text book or additional revision guides was a step beyond, which is probably why DS didn't want anybody to know he had such an involved mum, which appears to be even more embarressing than having people know that you actually work for exams.

DS mostly used on line resources and past papers, but did use the revision guides and text books particularly the geography ones that I bought that he had told me not to, but at the last minute gave in and did all of their practice exam questions, as there was nothing on line

I did read with him a couple of the English Lit ones that we had in the last week before the exam when he was panicking he didn't have enough appropriate quotes.

Last day today - Further maths and german.

I am looking forward to not having to be up early every day - not that I can sleep beyond 6:30 anyway, but at least I will have a choice!).

DS has an audition after his exam and then Im drivng him and his mates to a campsite an hour away where they will kick up their heels.

An tomorrow I shall relax

@AGirl all the best for final day, finishing with a two exams day, hard core!

Just Further Maths here, then encourging DD and friends at least to go for a dessert together before we buy the sewing machine... another 'non-partier' here but they've got loads more school bits and pieces over the next fortnight. Hooray for more relaxed starts..

Good luck to agirl and fos

1st day of not getting ds1 up for school. So weird!

Sorry if this has alrady been covered - dd is already bored. Wr live very rurally and i have to work part time so she's a bit stuck. We don't have a huge amount of money. Any suggestions for things she could do?