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!

I did GCSEs and we did have 100% coursework for English which felt odd at the time and even more so now.

Didn’t have modular exams with retakes though - ours were all at the end of year 11.

FAQs sorry to hear about your DD. I hope you can find a solution that works best for her. I have a friend who took her DD out of school and homeschooled her using Interhigh as support - would that be an option for you and her? It is so hard when their mental health suffers, DS can be very up and down (he takes medication for ADHD which can impact on mental wellbeing if we are not super careful about dosage), I do feel for you.

In answer to your question about exams, they will be set as standard nationwide but dates will be exam board dependent - AQA, ExExcel etc. DS's school use AQA for some subjects and ExExcel for the others. Exams do generally start in May through to end of June but obviously it depends on the individual options that DC are taking in addition to the core English/Maths/Science.

I think they do deliberately mark the mocks harder but that's just my perception based on what DS has said. For example he found chemistry really hard as did much of his cohort from what I gather. His year group were told percentage marks in class as soon as papers were marked, but actual grades were not formally confirmed until this week. It's interesting to see where the cut offs are as I had assumed it would be a straightforward set of cut offs - i.e. 60% = 6 (B), 70% = 7 (A), 80% = 8 (A*) and so on. Not the case based on DS's results, I think there must be different grade boundaries depending on the subjects and the difficulty of the papers. For example DS got 60% in chemistry which I would have assumed (based on my logic anyway) was a 6 but when he got his graded results his chemistry was graded 7 based on that exam. Probably because it was a very tough exam?

In terms of age I'm a GCSE parent - but only just - we were the 1988 'guinea pig' year! Personally I definitely did better having the coursework element but actually DS would have been a nightmare with a load of coursework and found it more stressful than exams - he considered graphics as an option but then decided against it because of having to produce a portfolio! Despite the stress of revision he actually does much better in an exam situation.

dietcokeandwine Looking at last year's Aqa grade boundaries, 60% would be a 7.
DD's school are adding a 5% increase on last year's Science grade boundaries. Under this strategy, 60% would still be a grade 7.

Shimy Most of my DDs exams have been copies of June 2019 papers. so they are the actual exam questions. I'm not sure they can really mark them 'hard' either as, with most subjects, there are very precise mark schemes which say exactly when marks are given or not. Perhaps some of the more subjective topics give a bit more leeway eg English lit.

Again, the mocks could be harder than the real things in this respect as although the questions will be of the same form and type, the children should have had a lot more practice in how to answer different question types, and where the mark schemes are giving marks.

thank you ProggyMat. Fool that I am I didn't think to check the grade boundaries for last year!

DS thinks he has only done past papers in maths and physics in school / as set revision. He hasn't done others of his own bat. Parents evening in Nov said geography, chemistry & English content not yet finished. So some mocks are seeming hard and am hoping exam technique also leaves room for improvement.

dietcokeandwine
I was looking up grade boundaries on Greek as DD is getting herself in a tis was about tomorrow's language paper, when I saw your comment.
Given the grade 9 in Chemistry last year was 72% puts into context that mock papers seem hard!

Using last year's papers has advantages for schools:

• they don't need to invent their own
• there is a published mark scheme and grade boundaries
• the papers are kept hidden so the students won't have seen them (unless they go digging in the student room but then more fool them)

We had this discussion re 'hard' papers somewhere before. I think the conclusion was that in some subjects they can mark more harshly, but they can if they want to easily definitely tweak grade boundaries in terms of what they tell the students.

Well I wish them all the very best. It’s such an anxious time for them. Luckily ds’s school only does one set of mocks (some posters have mentioned about 2 or 3). Then they can spend the rest of the time just preparing for the real ones. It’s funny because I can’t remember ds1’s mocks, I think they were over and done before I even knew about it.

We're now all done other French listening first thing tomorrow - yay!

DS's mocks have not used past papers but are set by the school.

DS and I have had discussions about the grades they get. I have told him not to worry so much about those but rather what his percentages are, so he can realistically see which topics need further revision. So, for instance, in his Yr 10 end of year exams for Physics he got a 5 which he was OK with (especially after doing zero revision ) but I was looking at the fact that he only got 30% on the paper! This is clearly showing he doesn't know the subject well enough and we could highlight areas he needed to focus on. That's my plan anyway, what he actually ends up doing is anyone's guess!!

DD all done with mocks as of lunchtime!
All hers have been written/cobbled together by school as they only did one paper per subject.

Marks back next week, parents’ evening week after. (Must remember to book time slots tomorrow...)

@Kingscote I’ve already put a alert on my phone to remind me to book slots, they go pretty fast at our school, unless you want to be there at 9pm.

DS has got Chemistry paper 2 and French listening left then we’re done.

We have parents evening coming up too and a similar battle for decent slots Shimy and the evening itself always feels a bit like speed dating!

Feels so strange that this will be the last parents evening I'll go to for DS at this school (he wants to go to a local sixth form college rather than stay on at school for sixth form). End of an era, it's all gone so fast.

Good luck to all DC for the last few remaining mocks of this round.

Have now seen DSs timetable for February mocks - first week after half term will be pretty intense

@dietcokeandwine not wishing to de-rail the thread but how does ADHD medication affect mental health in your experience?

Ds (13) started on meds in Sept and has been quite low/stroppy/angry recently. However, I've also thought he suffers a bit of SAD too in the past, so not sure if it's connected. I'm also not convinced the meds are having a huge effect on his concentration and he's still getting in trouble!

@diet Yes indeed. From experience I know to put 10mins at least in between each meeting to enable me to get from one end of the room to another, not to talk of the annoying parent that won’t get up when their time is over .

@dietcokeandwine DS is also on meds’ for ADHD. He lowered his dose for mocks to alleviate the symptoms a bit (fatigues, loss of appetite, dry mouth, slightly blurry vision).
The meds do work but they’re not a magic bullet, so beware. DS has been on them for a good few yrs. He used to get into trouble for impulsive behaviour, calling out, getting out of his seat etc but to an extent school could manage it. It was unmanageable prior to going on meds.
Now that he is 15, the adhd presents more in his poor organisational skills rather than impulsivity, so school have really helped to make sure he is on time for things etc

As far as impacting his mental health, it has been positive in that after he started medication, his confidence started to grow because:

1. He was getting into less trouble so the negative label was starting to fade.
2. His academic performance improved because he was able to concentrate and focus better.

Im not sure about negatives, DS was always easily irritated with a slightly shorter fuse than his brother, that’s just him. I can’t say we saw a significant difference when he started on meds. He however would get frustrated that he couldn’t eat as much as he would like, he felt it slowed him down physically so was annoyed during sports when he couldn’t run as fast as he wanted. Sometimes he got headaches but we found a way round most of it.

Sorry second half previous. postwas to @crazycrofter

@crazycrofter, DD has been on meds for 8 years now. We have trialled various different ones and a couple have had a seriously detrimental affect on DD - racing heart, severe anxiety, tearful, disorientation, weird vision, nausea, feeling faint etc. One made her go into a rage; she was literally punching the walls and shouting at us.
Her current meds are the ones she was first given. They work really well for concentration etc but she says that they subdue her to such an extent that she becomes shy, can’t speak up etc; perfect for lessons, in many ways but DD thinks they take away her confidence, so if she has anything that needs her to be her full self, such as a drama performance, singing exam etc, she doesn’t take them.

It’s very much trial and error in our experience, so if you feel DS isn’t doing well on his, it might be worth seeing about changing or altering the dose.

@crazycrofter our experience with DS on ADHD meds has largely been very positive but there have been mental health concerns from time to time, mainly linked to the side effects - they can made DC feel very low and depressed and we have certainly noticed this from time to time.

It does depend on individual DC and their actual DX and type of meds though.

My DS has ADHD inattentive variety - what they used to call ADD, basically - so attention deficit issues but no impulsive/hyperactive behaviours outside 'typical' range. Stimulant meds (methylphenidate) did not work for him, he just became exhausted and tearful and angry. The paed put him onto a non-stimulant medication (atomoxetine) instead which he has been on for five years now and that has been much much better, though it took a few months to really take effect.

It's difficult though as so often there are other things going on with an individual child which could also be having an impact on their mental health - like you mention the SAD for your DS - so it can be hard to tell what is ADHD meds affecting mood and what is other stuff. My DS is also high functioning on the autistic spectrum so high risk for mental health issues anyway without the ADHD meds to factor in.

Completely agree with @Shimy on the positives with regard to self esteem - better concentration has meant DS has performed better and feels better about himself - his recent mocks results were amazing and I firmly believe that medication and improved concentration has had a major impact (though also agree with comments that it's not a magic bullet!). On the food front DS1 also struggles to eat big meals but again he has major sensory issues around food linked to the ASD so who knows what is impacting what!

We have just had to be careful about meds dosage as DS is on a reasonably high dose (50mg). At one point last year the paed recommended an increase to 60mg as he had had a big growth spurt but it was horrific - it was as if a black cloud had descended - DS was furiously angry, tearful (which is not at all like him normally), having horrific suicidal thoughts and talking about self harm. One emergency call to the paed later we reduced the dose straight back down and things calmed very quickly but it was a very stressful time and not an experience anyone would wish to repeat! I hasten to add though that since then he has generally been very stable and - revision anxieties aside - has seemed to take the actual mocks in stride.

I hope that is helpful, sorry to write such a long response.

I also agree that’s it’s all trial and error with which one works for your dc and continuous tweaking of doses. DS is currently on half the dose he was on when he first started 6yrs ago.

Shimy if they used a past paper it would be obvious as it would clearly be a GCSE paper and would say the date and time at the top of the paper eg May 14 2019, am.

I know there are very few past papers available for the new spec but I am really surprised if a school used anything other than a past paper for a mock. I see some schools do, but certainly for my subject (MFL) it's more or less impossible, certainly for reading and listening.

So beware of going along the line of “oh it’s a mock, it’s set much harder than the actual exam will be”. That’s pretty unlikely IMO.
If it is a past paper as I would expect, it will be an actual GCSE exam – most likely the school will use last year’s paper as this is one that students cannot access as yet so they won’t have seen it. So if it was difficult, especially any issues with timing, that’s what it will be like in the summer.

If students do find it hard, then that’s useful isn’t it? A mate of DS2’s really struggled with timing in last year’s mocks, he barely finished an exam because he just spent too much time on earlier questions and didn’t leave enough for the later questions, even though he knew the answers. He learned from that that he needed to stop work on the first question, even if he had a bit more to say, and move on to the next to avoid losing a whole bunch of marks – and did much better in the actual GCSEs.

WRT the poster who asked about timetables, yes they are the same for all boards, everyone will sit French listening and reading on 12 May and Eng lit paper 1 on 13 May. The content of the paper will vary from board to board. Timetables are available on the internet. Exams start in May, before half term. The first ones are usually French, computing, PE and RE but there are also some core subjects such as Eng Llit before half term. HTH

Anyone have maths results tomorrow? 😬

No but good luck today @MurielTheCamel!

Thank you Orange!
Just done the 'we are proud of you no matter what grades you get' speech.
And now he's gone off to school and I am here waiting ...
He wants to do A level maths so is hoping for an A or even A* which is possible on a good day.
Where we are they do separate GCSEs in maths and numeracy so in theory that's two out of the way before the summer. Unless he needs to resit of course

So his is his actual GCSE result you are waiting on? Good luck to him, hope he gets the grades he's hoping for.

DS's school don't do any exams early but a lot of schools around here do.