Thread 3: Continuing to GCSEs Summer 2020 - Happy New Exam Year!

[OrangeCinnamon]

Continuation of previous thread
Thread 2

Thread 1 Year 10

At the end of last thread there was a bit of talk on prom dresses ( recommend Fonthill Rd in London if you can get there) by @proggymat and @crazycrofter

@TigerMum had a query regarding moving to foundation level at this stage.

Sorry peeps thread progressed without me noticing so none can reply to your queries!

Fingers crossed @namechangenumber2

Thanks, crazy. Her friend that had a seizure last week has decided to drop history now, for the same reason as your DD dropped Latin. Seems a shame to have put the work in for so long, but if it's causing her as much anxiety as to be affecting her health, I can totally see her reasoning, and 9 subjects is plenty - no idea why some schools make students take 11+.

DD has decided to move to DS's school for 6th form. We left it entirely up to her in the end, having been to the open days and interviews for both, and she is adamant she wants the change. I'm happy, but also a tiny bit sad for the good, supportive teachers she'll leave behind - those particular teachers have told her how thrilled they would have been to teach her next year, as they love having her, and they'll be very sad to see her go.
I just hope she settles well and makes friends in September.

@PatienceVirtue and @KingscoteStaff - similar grades here overall and for French! This is precisely why we moved DS from an IB school - he can barely master GCSE french, and is now practically counting down the days until it is over in May. God knows what we would have done if he still had another 2 years of studying it.

@alsoplayspiccolo at least she's made a firm decision! We need to give notice to dd's school by Easter but she won't know if she's got into the grammar school she wants to go to until the GCSE results, so it feels like a bit of a gamble! There is a back up comprehensive, but she's not actually visited it. And if she changes her mind about her current school after giving notice, she won't be able to go back as she's on a bursary and I doubt they'd give it her back (I assume the funds will be reallocated to new year 7s!). It all feels like a bit of a risk !

Thanks for all the well wishes for DS's interview, it went well! Just to wait for an email from them to say he's got a place .

@crazycrofter , yes it's his first choice. His school is the local school to it so apparently that stands him in higher ground but it's also a very popular college in our part of the country so I just hope he gets a place!!

Is anyone feeling more stressed about GCSE’s and A level choices than their child is?

Dd doesn’t seem stressed at all, she still hasn’t put in her application for her 6 form place, they keep saying ‘yes’ to doing 4 and then changing their mind and telling her it’s best just to take the 3.

All subjects are going ok other than German, her teacher seems useless and dd is the only one in the year doing the higher paper so all the work in the classroom is aimed at the lower paper, DD only just got a 5 on the mock (her lowest mark) and her teacher wants to give her some 1:1 sessions to help her but she’s so busy attending revision sessions for all her other subjects which she’s doing better in (all 7-9’s) and German isn’t something that’s going to help her in the future.

So far she’s attending 2/3 after school sessions and will possibly attending a weekend session too.

She’s had 2 interviews with the 6 form and they can’t seem to advice if her choices for A level are the right choices and I haven’t got a clue either. Looking forward to visiting a few uni’s next year to get some idea of where she wants to go.

I will be glad when exams are over.

@lovemusic33 the advice here is about working backwards. Pick two or three different courses your daughter may want to do then have a look at some Uni's that she may possibly get into and their entry requirements. I don't know if website still running (it was closing down) but university.Which.co.uk used to have an A l evel tool that suggested courses. UCAS website have some similar tools

Orange school keep confusing her by telling her she should be looking to go to oxford or Cambridge but the course she wants to do at oxford would require A A A* in her A levels to include maths and computing (she wants to do computer science), she got level 7 in her maths mock, a few marks off a 8 but I can’t see her getting a A in her A level unless she works extra hard. She is interested in Exeter uni which would still require A A B. She’s not too bothered as she knows she will probably get into a uni even if it’s not her first choice but I think getting into oxford is almost impossible and I don’t understand why school keep mentioning it too her.

Aaah probably partly self interest @lovemusic33. I suggest/searching/asking on looking at the Oxbridge threads. No reason why she cant get A/A*s if they are subjects she is really keen on and dont forget she is not doing subjects she dislikes at that level

DS’s mocks out: 8,8,7,7,7,7,6,6,6,3 .
The 3 being French. Very worried about that. DS did sayhe was struggling a bit with it, he has never liked French and always put the bare minimum into it, when I pointed out it’s a useful subject to have he replied confidently, ‘it’s not like I’m not going to get a 5 at least’. I always knew French will be his ‘collateral damage’, but a 3? .

Don't panic shimy : anyone capable of getting all those *s and 7s is pretty bright and I am sure he can turn it round (assuming hard work at some stage!!) GCSE langs are a lot of rote learning really. Has he done the speaking bit yet? That needs factoring in to the overall result.

If it helps DS1 got a D in GCSE geography. Not as overall bright as your DS but it didn't hold him back, offers wise for uni.

Hard when he doesn’t like it Shimy . I have found Duolingo surprisingly helpful for the language I sort of speak and it doesn’t feel as much like ‘work’, has he/would he look at that? Great marks on the rest though.

Lovemusic DS not sure about 3 or 4. I think he is thinking to start 4 and drop if it doesn’t go well. We’ve been to a lot of open days and the very selective one said better to have 3 very good grades then to spread yourself too thinly . As Orange says, when doing subjects they enjoy some really come into their own at A level. Duolingo will help her a bit with German too and maybe if she Is prepared to nad you can get it, watch something like Dark on German with the subtitles on. Quite glad DS not doing a language reading this, had heard they have got a lot harder. What is she looking at doing for A level?

6th form interview today for DS and then the one he really wants on Saturday. Have one more application in, not sure what’s happening with that.

LoveMusic33
The Computer Science course at Cambridge is very mathematical. Most applicants are taking Further Maths A-level (unless their school doesn't offer it). Many applicants are predicted all A at A-level. The pre-interview admissions test is a hard maths test. The interview (for those who get that far) is based around solving difficult maths problems. The standard offer is A A* A.

I still am finding it weird that DS will be in the 6th form in September. Somehow that feels rather too grown up

Wish he didn’t have to do a language - his mock results were nearly all 7 and above (with a few 9s) and then a 4 for Spanish. He definitely won’t be taking that for A level

She won’t be considering Cambridge, it will be either Oxbridge or Exeter as her first choices. She is good at maths but it’s not one of her favourite subjects, it doesn’t interest her as much as her other 2 choices which is why I worry she won’t get the A she needs, she needs maths to get into computing at oxford and Exeter so has to take it. Her strongest subjects at school are computing, English, history and chemistry (she should get 8/9 in these) but she doesn’t want to pursue English at uni as she wants to do computing. I was hoping she would change her mind and go down the English, history route but a English degree doesn’t give her as many opportunities as computing, she doesn’t want to teach or be a journalist.

She should get a A/A* in a English, she just finds it easy and is a natural writer, computing should be similar but not sure about the maths. I guess she just has to take the risk, even if she ends up with a c/b she can still get on the course but not at a top uni.

Another DD here struggling to decide what A Levels she would like to do. Definitely Biology and Spanish. Then it's a case of whether it's Maths, Chemistry or Psychology. She knows that it needs to be 1 of those as she "thinks" she may want to do Biology (or related) at Uni so has to do 2nd science (of which Maths and Psychology count at the red brick uni course we looked at online). They don't count for medicine etc as you need Biology and Chemistry I believe.
Problem is that she isn't that keen or strong at Chemistry (probably 6 may scrap a 7, although waiting for Mocks results back so who knows). She doesn't feel as though she is good at maths, although is working at 7 (waiting for mock grade)..
Biology is back with a 9 (p1) and 7 (p2) so an 8 overall (just apparently) but hey I am very happy with that.
Definitely worth making sure that any course they may be interested in is covered with the A levels choices, but it's really hard when they don't know what they want to do after A Levels!
I've heard so much advice to tell them to take what they enjoy at A level but that isn't great if it rules out degrees courses she may want to do.
I've spend a lot of time (thanks to MNs advice) looking at difference courses so see what I think may interest her later.
For DD it's got to be a balance between what is useful next, what she is good at and what she enjoys (no easy task) :-)

Well done Shimy DS!
Given he has sat 10 GCSE mocks and doesn’t like French it makes sense he hasn’t spent a lot of time on it and framed it as ‘collateral damage’ at this point in time.
Did he sit all three elements and has he had marks/feedback yet?

Heifer it is hard, they are still so young and as I try to explain to dd “people change their mind as they get older as to what they want to do as a job”, up until dd started her GCSE choices she wanted to be a English teacher, she was then given a opportunity to run a club for te year 7’s and decided teaching wasn’t for her and then she really got into business studies and computing. She could easily change her mind again. Dd got a 9 in chemistry but only a 4 in physics, she didn’t sit biology but is predicted 9, not doing well in physics has ruled out doing a science for A level (she’s not confident despite being predicted 7/8 for GCSE), she won’t even consider taking a science which I think is a shame. It’s such a hard choice, even more so when she’s predicted 7-9’s in all but one subject so she could choose any for A level. I think she will apply this week and finalise her choices, maybe then we can stop stressing over it 🤣

Shimy another one's child who got a 3 for French. She is philosophical about it as she does struggle despite being in top set. We've told her to do her best and if she doesn't pass it then to forget it even existed as she's taking 10 GCSEs so if she says she has 9 no one will bat an eyelid as plenty take 9 or even 8. Her school insisted on everyone who is academic doing the ebacc so everyone takes a language and a humanity. One size does not fit all. I keep telling her it's only 4 more months and then no more French

crazy My DD is at an indy, although hoping to go to a different one for 6th form (they want 6x7s at GCSE so a big ask!!). I think we can give provisional notice to her current school at the end of the Easter term so that if she doesn't get the required grades for her preferred 6th form, we can still stay where we are, and if she does get the grades, we won't be charged a terms fees in September. It might be worth checking if you can do something similar and keep the bursary.

Choosing A levels has been quite straight forward with DD. And I'm not too stressed about the exams - she worked well for mocks, and I think will pick up again after half term. At the moment I am completely stressed about older DS who is supposed to be sitting A levels at the same time as DDs GCSEs and appears to be refusing to do any work at all

A Level choices seem like such a final thing don't they. Dd is favouring starting with 4 and then dropping one by the end of the first term, so she can get a feel for the courses, the teachers etc and leave herself a bit of leeway.

We're also of the opinion that she shouldn't do an EPQ - this seems to be pushed in a lot of sixth forms. She doesn't like coursework and I think she could do without the pressure of an independent extended piece of work to complete. She's probably going to be taking History and Geography A Levels, which both already have a coursework element as it is. But I know some people really thrive on coursework, so it's a personal decision.

Reading the posts on here it’s funny how many (clearly highly able) DC are struggling with/really dislike languages. DS and his group of mates are very similar, all bright kids and especially strong in the STEM subjects but they loathe MFL with a passion!

DS chose his A levels ages ago as he is very clear about what he does and doesn’t like (one advantage I guess of being on the spectrum in that he is very black and white and simply ruled out several subjects without any angst whatsoever). But I don’t think he has given a huge amount of thought to what he might want to do afterwards. I need to look at courses with him and at least get him mulling it over. Scary to think it’ll be university applications before we know it.

Spot breakouts here too.
Revision classes for 1 hour after school.

Agree with Dietcoke that this MN thread is not representative of RL, but I like that we are all different. I find you all incredibly supportive and thank you because I don't know what I would have done without the thread. ❤️

There's no talking to Ds1 atm. I casually mentioned making sure he didn't sacrifice eng & history for mainly revising maths and science. He doesn't want to hear any of my advice!

He's got loads of birthday parties coming up. That boy is forever socialising.

And he's got a date for his first boxing match fight. I'm not looking forward to it and don't want him to end up with 'boxers nose' squashed down and spread across his face!

He has NO idea what he wants to do career wise / job wise!

@seeline I checked with the bursar and we definitely have to give notice before Easter - she didn't mention any other scenario. I suppose I didn't ask whether she could get her bursary back if she changed her mind/didn't get into her first choice. The grammar school requires something in the region of 4 x 8 and 4 x 7, however if she didn't get that and went back to her current school begging, I'm not sure they'd want her back enough to give her a bursary, given that half the year usually gets at least 8 x 9! I'm sure they'd have her on a full fee place, but the bursary funds will have been reallocated and we definitely couldn't pay full fees.

I spoke to her last night though and she's very sure she doesn't want to stay in an all-girls environment, so I think we'll give notice.

Oh wow @Seeline just noticed that you’re one of the double whammy A level and GCSE parents - that must be stressful! We have the opposite problem - other two DC are quite a lot younger (smallest still at infant school) so their world completely different compared to DS1 and that can be quite challenging to manage.