Gcses 2019 support thread 5

[Iambuffy]

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

Hurrah!
💥🎈💃🍫🍦🍰🏅

Congratulations to all finishing German and those with tomorrow left!
Poor baby buffy gets his teeth pulled on his first day off hope he’s ok.
Dd finally up and dressed by 1pm, resisted the urge to complain

I know! 😣
Just hoping his asthma check on friday is ok....if he has to have a Jab or something I'll be in his bad book!
I arranged them both months ago for after his exams but hadn't quite realised how tired he would be.
Should have given it a couple more weeks!

Dd has finished! Herman went well. Dd said it was a nice paper. Phew, so good to end on a good note!!

Now another party tomorrow evening (it's a birthday party and as they have all finished exams it will be on the actual birthday, not the weekend ), another party on Saturday, then Prom, then college Welcome Day...

Good luck to those still sitting exams in the next day or so. The end is in sight, hang on to that!

See you back on the 22nd August. (Wibble!)

All done. Phew.

Further maths went well and ds is just home after another ‘gathering’ at a friends.

He’s worked so hard (seemingly) so here’s hoping for good results for all.

Thanks for these threads. I haven’t posted much but just knowing you’ve all been out there has helped x

Can anyone shed light as to how papers are marked. Does a single marker mark 1 whole paper. I ask as I bumped into a parent who was talking how individual questions are marked separately and an entire paper is marked by a few people which is why each page is barcoded?
Doesn’t make a heap of sense but if anyone knows please can you explain!!!

I think it depends on the board. I think I’m right in saying that Edexcel are all scanned in and then different questions are marked by different people - scripts / questions are handed out to examiners in batches and all marking is online. Senior examiners moderate to ensure uniformity.

So for example if I was marking Eng Lit I may get allocated 500 Question 2’s to mark and when I’d done that would get another allocation.

Arewedone-that parent is correct. No one marker will mark a whole paper. They are allocated specific questions and mark those from a variety of students, with their marking being checked by moderators and senior examiners at regular intervals to check they are being consistent and adhering to the mark scheme. The whole paper may be looked at during the grade boundary setting process but not for remarking purposes, only to settle examiners minds that the boundaries are set correctly for the vast majority of students.
There are a number of papers on line that set out the whole process if you want to know more. Most exam boards have their procedures laid out and Ofqual also have a document that gives a procedural overview I think.

well done to all those who finished today

moral support to those who still have tomorrow

Finished today. Unfortunately it ended on s bit of a bum note as daughter missed a bulletin point on one of the German questions so is unlikely to get a 9. She’s a bit disappointed bless her but these things happen. Nobody will really care how many 9s she gets in a year or two. These 9s are so much pressure.
I am just relieved it’s over now. She has some nice things planned with her friends and DoE this weekend do fingers crossed for dry weather...

She is going to the US to study the IB so we am off to the US embassy to sort out visa tomorrow and have a celebratory lunch.

Well done to those that made it through and good luck for those with exams tomorrow

For those of us still going - good luck!
DD went to a revision session yesterday after German, only her and her friend was unsure of the room number. When they knocked on the maths dept door a teacher who has a reputation for being rather stern answered and advised them to go to the room they thought it was being held in and she’d check. As they were walking down the corridor they hadn’t realised she was behind them and dd said ‘after the mock i’d Just be happy with a C’. The teacher looked and said, ‘oh, are you FSMQ?’ and then proceeded to be really encouraging, saying that it is really hard, and they had all done really well to get this far, be proud of what they have achieved and no matter what result they get the School will be pleased for having a go, and to think of it as putting them in a great place for A level maths no matter what. Dd said to hear it from this one particular teacher really meant the world - with it being a grammar school there is so much emphasis on grades to hear ‘it’s ok, we’re proud of you’ from a really strict member of the maths department has taken the pressure off a bit and helped her with the last minute study. (FWIW I actually get where the school is coming from, if they have taken the supposedly top 30% of pupils in the area then yes, they should aim for higher grades......but that apparently is not the way I should be thinking........ dd agrees with me but apparently I am a lone voice in agreement with the school so I keep my mouth shut in real life.....!)

Good luck for those dc who still have exams today 🍀

Exactly what I told ds1 and he was fine until school sent his last report and predicted grades yesterday!

All 8s, 7s and 6s.

He looked a bit crestfallen :(

I pointed out to him that every subject had "outstanding" for effort and that's what matters.

But that’s A*,A’s & B’s - thousands of dc’s would love those grades.....
Oh Buffy - why on earth did they do that now though? It’s not as if it’s been sent at a time that can alter a damn thing!
So long as he gets to the next step.
When dd did her 11+ she had to get a minimum of 220 to qualify. She got 220. Those who’s got far higher marks didn’t do any better than her at the school - so as long as he gets the grades for the next step, then that’s the main, if he doesn’t then you reassess and work out a second route in life.
I don’t think the alphabet goes as high as the different plan changes I’ve needed in life!

Kitty and losing- thanks so much for the explanation, it does makes sense! I did some googling but from an outsiders perspective it raises up even more questions so decided to stop! I suppose the main one is how the exam questions and answers are standardised across all the many exam boards.

Foslady and iambuffy, sounds like being at grammar school puts extar pressure on kids, such a shame

6s, 7s and 8s would be amazing results for the vast majority of kids (only 3% get a grade 9, right?)

Fos agree- it’s priceless when the right person says the right the thing, so pleased for her!

Buffy no one knows the grade boundaries with these new 9-1 so it’s presumptuous and unfair at this point & like Fos says these are still A grades!
How thoughtless of the school to send out at this stage!

Agree with Stirrer the 9s have created another level of stress. DS applying to Oxbridge did need to put his Gcse grades on his uni application and they will be considered but all other offers based on A levels only.

No idea fos baffling!

And ds1 isn't at a grammar....cant imagine the pressure grammar school kids are under :(

I've skipped to the end of this thread, from last week... I was busy rocking in a corner towards the end of the exams. We've had such an emotional roller coaster during these last 5 weeks - thank you all for sharing and allowing me to offload

We had one finish last Friday with Physics, then gloating over the weekend as his twin had Herman (ha!) yesterday. Now it's finally over for them both. DH and I had a silent hug last night to comfort ourselves that it was over and done with. For good. One of the few advantages of having twins, it's over in one loooong hit.

Mine are now counting down the days until the results. I know that at least one DC is afraid of getting his grades in fear of comparing his results with DTwin's. But we'll cross that bridge when we come to it.

6th form induction day to come, they're apparently getting some work to do over the summer - which will be tricky for DS2 as they're not 100% sure what A levels they want to do still...

Thanks again, and see you back here on the 22nd, when I'm sure we'll all deserve a clap of on the back and let out a sigh of relief/joy. Hopefully.

FFS @Iambuffy, who on earth at that school thought a report at this stage in yr 11 is a good idea?!?!? Feel for you and DSBuffy.