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!

Looks like we kick off with French listening and reading...

DD was given her exam timetable this week.
23 exams over 4 weeks, with 3 on one day which involves a clash and isolation. Not good, given that DD gets extra time - it’ll be a marathon day.

We had her last parents evening tonight. All really positive, except for bloody history...or rather, the bloody history teacher, who seemingly can only tell DD where she’s falling short and can’t offer any constructive advice, other than “work harder”. Worse still, the other history teacher joined the conversation and suggested actually not to learn that particular area in so much detail, so now DD is utterly confused.
Her history teacher also refused to talk grade boundaries (“I dont get involved with that”) or even answer my question about whether his forecasts for results are usually close to the mark (“I don’t bother with that sort of analysis”)

Hopeless.

One more day to go before half term!

DS hasn't received an official exam timetable, but I've made a provisional list based on the information on the exam boards' websites.

His mock grades were mostly fine, but his work ethic has tailed off a bit in the last three weeks. If he could do a paper in Rainbow Six Seige, he'd get a 9.

Question for those using Tassomai - what % accuracy rate do you think they need to be consistently hitting for a target 7/8?

Sansou - it depends on your board grade boundaries - your dc should know them, some of them are as low as 50% but it really depends. We are aiming for 80% with Tassomai, atm it is around 70%.

What is Tassomai?

My dd got mock results today failed 7 out of 10 we are in Northern Ireland is there any one on here also in Northern Ireland. She is adamant she wants to do A levels I'm trying to get her to look at college option but totally dis interested in that. The 3 she passed she only interested in one off them as an A level.
I am totally stressed and had a massive rant both ended up in tears. Her top favourite that she also does outside school since she was 10 is Drama she got a G which I dont even know what mark this is.
She doesn't want me to get involved with school says she will sort it.

mcmen05 my DS failed 5 of his mocks, including doing badly in 2 of the subjects he wants to do for A Levels so I get how stressed you must be. In fact in some ways it's harder for us because we're trying to be supportive for our DC whilst screaming inside.

I'd suggest firstly taking some time. With the space of a few days and a bit more information, I was able to get more rational about DS's results. In some cases there was a clear reason why he'd done badly (e.g. he'd misunderstood what would be covered by one subject and revised totally the wrong stuff). In other subjects they hadn't yet finished the syllabus but were still tested on all of it. Another subject he'd got quite a high percentage but a low grade - I think the teacher had set very high grade boundaries. The main thing was understanding why he'd failed. in DS's case he was struggling with exam technique - writing a short answer for a 4 or 5 mark question, for example, and also writing slowly (so he'd literally only finished 50% of some papers). Your DD will probably have different things, but if you know what to focus on you can make a plan!

there are still 3 months to go, and they will be doing revision at school as well (and hopefully school will be homing in on the things your DD struggled with). If she's keen to do A Levels I think that will provide an impetus in itself (though you may find like my DS, she becomes focused on the minimum entry criteria needed).
Wrt to the Drama, I don't know if the syllabus varies in Northern Ireland, but the GCSE my DD is taking is not at all about acting (which your DD is probably good at is she's been involved for several years) but has more of an overlap with English. In fact if it's mostly coursework (which DD's is) the exam may well have only tested the written work which is a small proportion of the whole.

But above all deep breaths. All we can do is be supportive.

DS has made zero revision notes for English Lit that I can see which is the main reason he got a 5. Ditto for almost every single subject. There's evidence of a few high level mind maps and some scrappy pages (not many) of "revision" notes for a few subjects and that's it. He knows reading and staring into space doesn't cut it but that's what he's mainly doing still....

Words were had. I'm not happy, he's not happy. Totally fed up. I can see my few days off will consist of me sitting down and literally revising with him for a few hours. There is a mini pile of revision guides untouched/unopened. Where to start micro managing?

Could be worse - at least, I know now rather than at Easter. DH is in charge of some science revision for the remaining weekends & I'm in charge of Eng. He's on his own for everything else. Not sure whether to go straight for the answering exam type questions approach to revision (if possible) or go through themes/characters/quotes/context first (which is a lot of material). Argh!!! Looks like I will be joining the bench and viewing numerous Mr Bruff videos too.

French will still be a challenge - doubt whether my GCSE French from 1988 will cut it (got an A) although I did continue French in 6th Form for General Studies. Will give it a go if DS and I don't end up murdering each other first.

@RedskyAtnight
My supportive approach whilst screaming inside has completely failed me today. Voices were raised in our household tonight. Not proud of it. My good intentions to maintain peace and calm during a stressful period has gone out the window!

@sansou and anyone else with MFL woes, I tutor French and German (former MFL teacher) and i am more than happy to help.

Do you know which skills he struggles with? Which paper(s) were his lowest marked? I can give tips if I know which skill 😀

@clary
Thanks. All tips welcome - getting desperate here.
Listening and oral could do with a hefty boost. My hastily cobbled together strategy is to use the recently purchased purple Pearson workbooks and have a go at those listening exercises with him. Nifty QR code app downloaded and ready for action. Got to start somewhere...

Has anyone got recommendations for English Language resources? Ds got a 3 in his last assessment... doesn’t seem to grasp how important it is in order to progress to A Levels & beyond regardless of the fact that he won’t be keeping it on.

Decorhate
DS has a book by Mr Salles which he says is helpful.

Really the only thing that is useful is past papers for Eng Lang. The various study guides are actually a bit confusing. With Eng Lang it is practice, practice and more practice. And reading for understanding : so try to get him reading non fiction and fiction a bit more if not too resistant. Unfortunately, more than any other GCSE, Eng Lang tests actually inherent ability.
The final question is often a bit overlooked : especially in paper 2 (assuming AQA) it's awkward because it is massively out of their experience. Last November the paper asked them to 'write a letter to the Ministry of Transport'

Thanks both. Yes it’s AQA Piggy. I wish he would read more. It’s not for lack of books in the house!

sansou If he got a 5 in English Literature with no revising, do you really need to panic? He's clearly retaining a lot of information and understands how to answer the questions (DS got a 2 and did revise, so I admit I'm slightly seeing this through the lens of my own perception).

One thing I've struggled to come to terms with is that DS doesn't revise the way I think he should. I have to keep reminding myself that back in the day when I was taking exams, the only resources I had were my school notes and the text books so writing revision notes (and the very odd practice question provided by the school) was the only thing you could do. DS doesn't write (actually should put a full stop here) revision notes either, but he is using interactive revision materials, watching you tube/gcse pod, doing practice questions, putting quotes and creating flashcards in Quizlet ... The need for him to have "revision notes" as such is less than it was in our time. These days if you google you can get a dozen already produced very succinct summaries of characters, themes, historical context etc etc. Unfortunately the hard part is working out what method works best for your child!

Mr Bruff for English language, both on YouTube and I’m using his workbook, which is on Amazon.

Language is so much more prescriptive than you may think, and Mr Bruff is excellent at teaching how to get the marks.

“One thing I’ve struggled to come to terms with is that DS doesn’t revise the way I think he should.”

God yes me too @RedskyAtnight. Exactly this. I was that hard working, diligent, didn’t need to be pushed to study kind of teen. DS1...isn’t

Thank you @Piggywaspushed for the comments on English language revision. That (along with the dreaded Spanish) was DS’s lowest grade in the mocks, so it’s useful to know that the best thing he can do in terms of revision is past papers.

My DD says she’s too tired to take any more in. Feels like she’s been revising do long already as she started way before mocks.

So

To be honest - sorry piccolo - I'd caution against Mr Bruff for anyone struggling. He pitches at the top end.

I have a top set of girls who have watched some of his videos and they hate him, that said!! They are very averse to his arrogance.

@mcmen05 - sorry to hear your DD didn’t do as well as you’d hoped in the mocks. I would encourage her to look at other options post GCSE as A levels are a big step up from GCSE. But maybe this will be a push to start to crack down on study. There’s 3 months left so perhaps she can have a look if she’s got all the materials she needs (revisions guides, flash cards etc) and start to create some revision flash cards etc.

@darbs76 she went to an open day at a college last week and hated it.
She is adamant she is doing 4 A levels in her current school.
I have tried to advise her to at least think on doing 3 she is taking it as me saying she not good enough. But I really want the best for her but at 16 she just can't see that. She has 95 percent attendance but she just doesn't concentrate enough.

That’s very difficult McMen05*. It’s hard to tread the line in supporting what they want to do and making them face some difficult facts.
Maybe talking in terms of plans -A, B and C (school, college, apprenticeship maybe? )and insist she has them as a practical measure but tell her she is nearly an adult and will respect her decision, you just require her to have a back up plan as is common sense. Flip the responsibility onto her. Sounds a bit like my DD, the more I suggest something, the more she kicks off and goes on another direction l

My friend’s niece is exactly the same, low grades and refusing to look anywhere else. She seems to think she will get into 6th form as already there and has had to be told there are 400 plus applications for 120 places so she will not automatically get in. Was refusing to look at colleges. Really hard to deal with. Often best coming from someone who is not you if that’s possible.