GCSEs Summer 2020 (thread 4) -the final countdown

[PostNotInHaste]

Thread 3
Thread 2
Thread 1(year 10)

Hope OrangeCinnamon doesn’t mind me starting another in her absence , feel twitchy without ! Apologies in advance if I have messed the links up.

The last thread ended with discussion of possible school closures, not really what we want to hear at this point - let’s hope things sound more positive as thread progresses.

Hi,
I’d like to join in on this thread as my DS is in year 11 too.
We haven’t had a personalised exam timetable just a list of exam dates which include subjects he is not studying so we have just highlighted his ones.
School have been updating generally about Coronavirus but nothing specific to year 11 pupils. DS is hoping exams get cancelled

Can I ask how much revision every one is doing?
DS has just finished his last set of mocks last week so we are waiting for results and is hoping to take a break from revision but I’m not sure this is the right thing to do?

DS is consistently sneezy / sniffly from March/April through till September/October, sometimes with added cough/wheeze when the pollen count is particularly high.

He is a bit worried that people at school might think he has something infectious.

Fiddlersgreen
I think it's healthy to take a break from revision after mocks. It's a marathon rather than a sprint. How long that break should be is a matter of personal choice.

DS's plan (he's also just recently had mocks) has him doing 2 hours a day, but at the moment he's doing less than that as he's spending lots of time finishing music coursework. (which must be in by Friday completely and utterly finished, although DS's ensemble partner is off ill currently, so DS has already been told he can record that later.)

Will be glad to get music coursework out of the way. I don't know if it's just DS, but it's taken way longer than I thought it would.

Can I ask how much revision every one is doing?
Laughs hollowly. Barely any. Still getting 'ordinary' homework. DS reckons they haven't finished the syllabus in half the subjects. The last two weekends have been filled with sports fixtures.

All our students who returned form Rome last night now need to self isolate. Lots of year 11s. they tried to get out earlier but couldn't get a flight.

Oh no! Had school got a plan in place for supporting them to study at home? Will there be children without home access to internet?

A plan!? Don't be silly!!

I think most of ours will. However, one of my classes is in the middle of some coursework which ahs to be supervised in school.... and that's two of that lot.

The ones in my English class will be OK.

DD's school has just cancelled all events, including parents' evenings until Easter. They're also lining up e-learning resources for exam students.

DD is trying to do 2/2.5 hours revision a night and 4 or 5 hours each day at the weekend, but she's also involved in a big youth theatre project, which has rehearsals scheduled at weekends and 3 nights a week ( she's not doing all the rehearsals, in my insistence) and runs until mid April, and she's preparing for a MT singing exam at the start of April.

It's a bit stressful.

Piggy. No surprise but ever an optimist. I guess most schools wouldn't have a plan but given looks like gov is going to close schools in next 10 days...

They'll be glad to know you've got English covered.

DD has finished syllabus now am awaiting to see what they decide about study leave as her school do not do it. Lots of E resources being lined up.
Uni I work at is still very much open. Not much talk about closures except behind closed doors. Self Isolation accommodation has been identified for those that may need it. Libraries tend to get quite busy this time of year due to impending dissertations.
I'm still desperate to go to our hot tub country cottage break over Easter but stealing myself for fact it may not happen.

DD was inundated with invitations from teachers last night to join Google Classroom, so I guess that's why her Comp. Sci revision session was cancelled after school! They've also introduced a 'no-handshake' policy

No real revision being done here unless it is set as specific homework eg past papers etc. I think she has only finished 3 courses. She also has her assessed drama performance in a couple of weeks so that is taking a lot of time at the moment.

DS has mocks round 2 but missed 3 exams last week as was unwell. He is back but clearly very tired , I have told him not to worry about revising, just ride this week and we know that whatever he gets won’t be a good indicator and he does at least have a full set of results from last year.

I would like him to start a sustained revision effort when they break up for Easter as I feel that’s a decent amount of time for him as an individual to sustain it, earlier and I think he will burn out and I want him peaking when it matters l guess a lot will depend on the individual though.

Gosh @alsoplayspiccolo that sounds a lot for this early! I'm a little bit concerned that dd hasn't started revision at all yet, apart from for her Spanish oral. She's a bit one tracked. I suppose the Spanish oral revision will also help her general Spanish - it's the rest of the subjects I'm worried about. Although I'm more worried the exams won't actually happen!

crazy, it's what she has to do to learn it; she has to over-learn everything, revisiting it numerous times before she remembers it.
In actual fact, it feels like time is running out - it can take her an hour to get to grips with a topic someone else might have nailed in 20 minutes, and even then, if she doesn't look at it again at spaced intervals, it will go again.
It's just a slog.

School has said nothing about any possible impact of CV on exams. Or anything at all on it apart from a generic email about a week ago.

No handshaking implemented last week. DS has lots of set HW still on current syllabus as opposed to revision of past syllabus. Quite a number of kids off school ill in his various classes. That'll be fun when the gov announces that we're in the next stage and people need to stay at home for a minimum of 7 days.

Alsoplayspiccolo
DD has a similar difficulty with memorising information and retaining it.

Ds is also trying for 2 hours a night, 3 at weekends. He's counting revision based homework towards that total though. And unlike everyone else, is swerving his language aural revision at the mo ;-)

We've not had anything through about CV and exams/study leave, but they've had handwashing lessons, and ds reports that the loos are very well stocked with soap. He also told me proudly that all his mates were really washing their hands now: but on questioning, this meant that they always wash their hands after they go to the loo now. Which speaks volumes for their pre-CV hygiene levels...!

Thank you so much for all the hayfever suggestions. I'll get him to experiment in the Easter holidays with what works.

DS no way doing two hours of revision a night! An hour? I don't really dare ask what he's doing but he's at a good school and he's bright. And god knows if they'll do their GSCEs anyway.

I hate this uncertainty but am not discussing with him at all.

DD says a lot of kids have convinced themselves that GCSE's will be cancelled so have decided not to revise much. Madness. I accept that there may be chaos around exam time but you've got to assume the best, prepare and then deal with whatever happens.

Good to know most aren’t doing too much revision yet either. Just can’t help but think the exams are not far away. Was thinking of asking him to do one hour a night but think I’ll give him a week or two off now mocks are done. He’ll have homework revision to do anyway I’m sure

Those who have just done mocks will have been revising, so no need to panic!