Starting Yr11 Gcses 2020 Support Thread [Edited at OP's request]

[OrangeCinnamon]

A continuation of a Year 10 support thread
previous thread

Last thread was great and supportive as some of us tried to navigate year 10 and some very helpful peeps steered us through.

[TeenPlusTwenties]

Love
It isn't so much the going away imo it is the committing up front to going away.
School may put on revision sessions which your DD may want to attend some of.
For DD1 we did a 4 day over Easter itself. It was a real pain though as her drama group couldn't rehearse at all as some went away for the whole of the first week, and some for the whole of the second...

[OrangeCinnamon]

Hi all sorry been a bit AWOL lately. Update from me Dd got all 5s and above for her mocks. Most concerning was her attitude. It was great she was over the moon but it was because to her it proved 'she isn't dumb' which kind off broke my heart really. Her sef esteem really is an issue
Biggest improvement was a 6 in French her worst subject (she got a U in one element last summer).
I'm really worried as she just seems so unhappy...not finding Joy in anything. Im hoping a nice Christmas and a rest will help.

Any how Merry Christmas to you all and an extra glass of sherry to all of you having to revise over the festive period. I'm logging off social media for a couple of days. Ifwe get near the 1000 post mark by chance could someone start Thread No 3 (very much doubt it will happen over next two days though)

[Wheresthebeach]

OrangeCinnamon hope your DD feels better after Christmas-that’s so hard she’s unhappy. Good news on the mocks though and hopefully that will give her a boost.

I think its a tough tough year. Just so much pressure and relentless pressure and talk from teachers. They don’t seem to discuss anything else. DD has announced she’s cutting down on revision as 5 hours a day is too much (she was on a cycle of two days revising one off except for Christmas and Boxing Day). Cutting to three hours and a lot of rest. I think she just got bored ridged.

[ProggyMat]

No sense of pressure from DD’s teachers. She has mentioned that several subject teachers have said that last year’s cohort grades increased as much a 3 levels from mocks to ‘the real thing’.
In her full written report, received at the end of last term, each teacher has briefly indicated where DD ought to focus on in her revision, which is very useful.
Having said that, DD is guilty of putting pressure on herself. She is swinging from wanting to ‘nail’ all her subjects- whipped a book out after Christmas lunch which was met with a disapproving stare- to being happy to get them all in at 2 grades less than she would like.
I’ve taken to just nodding in response...

[PaddingtonPaddington]

DD plodding on with revision for January mocks. She’s trying the approach of little of every subject each day and making a list for the next day of what to cover.
DD will be away at Easter with her youth orchestra but I think 5 days break from the revision will be good for her.

[Alsoplayspiccolo]

Plodding is a good way to describe revision here.
I am dragging DD through; every day I a battle to start and then to keep her going. In some subjects (geography, I'm looking at you!), it's as though she's seeing it for the first time, so definitely NOT revision, which worries me.

She has turned a corner with maths and science, because she finds them easier to tackle now - past papers, quizzes, quick fire questions she enjoys. But history and geography are a slog for both of us.

I'm starting to feel gloomy at the prospect of this being our lives for the next 6 months.

[estherfrewen]

It all seems like.a bit of a slog at the moment. First half term was stressful for pre and post half term mocks then no let up over Xmas hols as second mocks in late January. Had four days off over Xmas but apart from that an average 3 hours per day or so going over the same old same old. Second mocks are core subjects only so three x science, English maths RE. On top of that lots of French to learn for oral mock first week back. DS is reasonably good with revising, as much as the average 15 year old, but this year seems totally joyless! His sport has halved outside school as there simply isn’t time. I cannot wait until contingency day has passed. This is so much worse than doing my own O levels! Am feeling a bit down about it today as you can tell...

[Wheresthebeach]

Things have gotten a bit worse here! DH has had proper flu...of the crawling to the loo variety, high fever etc so has been in bed.

DD now has a stomach bug so is vomiting and exhausted.

We use to quiz her on revision questions/cards but she doesn’t like that anymore so we’re leaving her to it ... which is either a relief or a worry depending on my mood!

[lovethecrown]

Haven't been on for a while and good to read everyone's updates. Good luck to all those with mocks in the new year. We had ours in November. Some 5's, 6's and one 7 and if ds can go up a grade in everything we will be delighted. He had time off after the mocks, went skiing and then Xmas. A bit shocked that he is going up to his room to study a bit as we said to take Xmas off. I signed him up to Seneca recently and that seems to be a hit. Only using it for physics at the moment but hopefully will do it for chemistry too as he seems to quite like it and it looks like it helps to reinforce the "correct scientific terms" which the mark schemes seem to require. What a slog it all is. It wasn't like this with my O levels
Best of luck to all who are studying over Xmas for mocks

[OrangeCinnamon]

Hope DH and DD feeling better now @wheresthebeach .

You are so right @lovethecrown I feel we had less pressure, poor things, everyone is right of course it is a plod and a slog. At least we can now say we are on the home straight. Well at least in the actual year GCSEs are being done. It will go by quickly I gather!

DD is perfectly happy and lovely now she has been away from school a few days. She just doesn't like going to school and the school environment ( friendship issues have not helped). Counting down the days to College the 10 am starts and new friendships.

Happy New Year everyone - wishing us all well and that we will all get through this as calmly as poss!

[Tumbleton]

DS has mocks when he goes back to school.

He has been revising every day, but all of his revision so far is on Seneca. It seems good for consolidating his understanding and practising recall (at least it's active learning), but I'm concerned that he isn't practising exam technique or timings.

I have suggested that he tries a practice paper (at least in Maths & Sciences) before the mocks.

[Tumbleton]

I think it might take seeing his mock results for him to acknowledge that Seneca alone is not enough, and that he does actually need to practise exam-style questions too.

[OrangeCinnamon]

There is also a lot to be said for the kind of 'muscle memory' (not sure if that is the right word) you get from doing practice questions ...especially in essay subjects maybe try that tack?

[Tumbleton]

He actually listened to me!
He did a practice paper this afternoon (Biology) and then went through the mark scheme to work out where he had dropped marks.

[PostNotInHaste]

Deepest sympathy to those struggling with illness

No mocks for DS until March now but entrance exam to preferred 6th form is looming and he really needs to get an application in somewhere local too. I don’t think he’s decided on whether he is going to have a go at Computer science either so decisions will have to be made and it’s all starting to feel a bit real,

[MurielTheCamel]

How's everyone's revision coming along?

Mocks all done here and I have been helping DS sort out his revision timetable this evening, his birthday is coming up soon so he's starting after that, towards the end of January.

Plan is every Monday and Friday off for sports, a couple of hours after school Tues-Thurs and then 4-6 hrs Saturday and Sunday and other non school days. There are some other days / weekends off in there too, so it doesn't seem that bad to me but let's see how long he can keep it up...

They are on study leave from the Easter hols so we will need to make sure he actually leaves the house from time to time and doesn't just spend 3 months eating shreddies in his pyjamas.

He has worked out a plan for which topics he's doing on which days rather than just a subject. He likes to have everything broken down into small chunks.

[estherfrewen]

Hi - sounds like a good plan @MurielTheCamel. My DS has second round of mocks late jan or early feb in core subjects so concentrated on those at the moment. He has done 3 hours per day over Xmas except for four days over the Xmas eve etc. Breaks it into six half hour slots as he prefers to do it that way. From start of term he will have Monday night off for sport except for 45 mins straight after school where they do science with sixth formers for a revision class. Tuesday he has maths tutor straight after school. Wednesday sport night. Thursday and Friday night two hours revision, Saturday and Sunday three to four hours and then increasing that as it gets closer to the big deal. His social life is his sport - swimming - so that is going from six to four sessions a week (2.5 hours per session) and from three 4.30 am starts to two. No competitions until post exams.

I’m quite glad he is a swimmer as that has taken up his entire life since age 6 so now he can cut that back and there is so much time available!!!

His birthday is January too but will be celebrating with after school physics and then swimming. Not exactly a party lifestyle going on there....

[KingscoteStaff]

Full steam ahead revision here for mocks Wednesday - Wednesday. Once the results are in and we’ve had parents’ evening on 21st then we can regroup a little.

DD needs to think about her weekends - currently she does one activity all Sunday, which includes a section of volunteering (she’s a potential Medicine applicant). Then her main sport starts cranking up the time on a Saturday from February. I guess Mock results will tell her how much culling she needs to do!

[Wheresthebeach]

Horrible realisation of how soon it all is. 4 months? Yikes.

Be interested to know how much everyone else is doing for revision. I think DD is still doing content in most subjects so revision will be on top of homework which is tricky. Some of DD's friends are being told by their parents to do 6-7 hours a day at weekends and 3 hours each night during the week. DD would collapse doing that but somehow its got me stressing that she's not doing enough. Sigh.

She's more the 3-4 45 min sessions at the weekend, and 2-3 hours during the week with the exception of Fridays when she just collapses in a heap.

[ProggyMat]

Wheres Yup, one more term!
DD’s mocks start on Tuesday and finish Friday 17th. Revision for the exams proper will depend on how she does in her mocks.
I’m reminding her constantly to treat the mocks as a learning curve but as she is a perfectionist there has been words!
They are all different but I think 3 hours each weekday and 6-7 hours every weekend day is too excessive! I wouldn’t want DD doing that as she would be burned out!

[crazycrofter]

That’s totally excessive! I believe we’re programmed to need a day off each week and I certainly wouldn’t want to be working every single day for months. It can’t be healthy.

There’s a TES article written by a lad called Robbie Hicks who got 10 x 9s last summer. He said he revised 3 weeks for the mocks and 6-7 weeks for the real thing, doing 2 hours a night. Not sure what he did on the weekends but that seems reasonable to me. Dd did about 3-4 weeks revision before her mocks and she did revise perhaps 5 hours every Sat during that time, but usually had Sundays off. She did well but she can see where she could improve with a few more weeks of revision. I’m thinking proper revision from mid March onwards?

[KingscoteStaff]

As always, it depends on the child AND on how much work they’ve done since the start of the syllabus. Revising should be going over topics already learnt and focusing on exam technique and timed work - not looking at a subject that they’ve never really got to grips with.

With my DS’s friends (2 years ago) problems ensued if they started to ‘revise’ topics of (let’s say) Chemistry in the Easter holidays, only to realise that they had no real understanding of the topic and (in some cases) no notes either😧...

[Wheresthebeach]

Thanks all. DD has been pretty consistent in her work, she's the colour coded, cards done each term kinda girl so I'm not worried about big gaps.

I'm just trying to get a handle on work v relaxation v exam technique etc esp as she's dyslexic so that makes things a bit more tricky.

Crazycrofter - thanks for the Tes reference. That sounds a good steady amount. Can't wait for Art to be done - takes for bloody ever!

[KingscoteStaff]

Have people got exam dates yet? I’ve just written DD’s into the diary and she has 75% before half term and one day with 3!

[ProggyMat]

No formal exam timetable from school as yet. I think they are issued after mocks. Having said that, I did have a quick flip through a link posted on this thread to see what DD would be facing but didn’t note anything down,
DD has several days during mocks which entail 3 exams- four and a half hours worth.
75% before half term is really rough!
From memory (!) I seem to think DD’s exams looked quite evenly spread but I could be wrong.
I can remember she had Latin and Greek papers on the same which I mentioned to her as I would not like that at all. DD thought that was okay