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Secondary education

Connect with other parents whose children are starting secondary school on this forum.

How do I address this ridiculous mock timetable?

94 replies

MerryMarigold · 26/12/2021 20:35

Ds1 is doing GSCE mocks starting on the 7th Jan. He has 25% extra time due to processing difficulties and attention deficit. He works hard though and has been revising his socks off this holiday.

I've gone through the exam timetable properly today and I'm fuming! I've realised that on his first day of exams he has 3 exams roughly 2 hours in length with a 10 min break between the first 2 and then a 5 min break (which is also including lunch) for his third exam. I just don't know how he can perform to any standard under these conditions. I don't think I could concentrate for 6 hours with 15 minutes of break and little or no time to eat/ go toilet. The timetable has clearly not taken the children with special needs/ extra time into consideration. It seems mad to give them extra time and then punish them for it.

I know it will never be like this for the real exams as mocks are over 1 week and GSCEs are not, but I'm worried that he's going to perform very badly and that will undermine his self confidence and the hard work he's put in. I assume offers for 6th form will also go on predicted grades from the mocks?

What can I do? I'm so angry so I'm not going to do anything tonight, but please help... 🙏

OP posts:
Hercisback · 28/12/2021 18:03

Yes I appreciate you need facts for History but you can still grade and know what grade the students technique is at without needing all 3 papers. You're also sure of which topics are on which paper in History. In maths you don't know as any topic could appear on any paper.

MerryMarigold · 28/12/2021 19:52

@Wisenotboring

I can't possibly imagine this is true. When do you think they would find these extra chunks of 25%...?
I don't understand which bit you don't think is true.
  1. The school have done this timetable, albeit not deliberately.
  1. Extra time does exist for some students. A significant number of children get an extra 25% time. That's 15 minutes in a 1 hour exam so it's not a massive chunk of time to 'find'.
OP posts:
cauliflowersqueeze · 29/12/2021 01:43

2 possibilities here. Either you ask if he can start quite a bit earlier and / or finish later to enable him to have a lunch break (ideal situation). He will need to accept he will be in isolation during periods when others are in the exam etc. That would be a reasonable adjustment.

or

you ask that he does one of the papers in the catch up session that they will have to put on for those with covid or who are absent for another reason. It won’t be the same paper however so it will mean that feedback lessons are less useful for him, and that if the paper is used for TAGs it will be less easy to moderate and judge against a paper that the rest of the cohort are using.

Tomlettegregg · 29/12/2021 02:02

I have to be honest - I would not get worked up about this. They're mocks. Not his actual exams. I had all my as levels on the same day and the following year all my a levels were the same plus an advanced extension award. It was crazy but they were also my actual exams and I didn't expect my mum to call and complain. Yes the extra time makes it even tighter but still. He is going to have to go into work where deadlines are incredibly stressful and can't be moved. It's good practice.

cauliflowersqueeze · 29/12/2021 02:46

Yes but if there are no exams this year then they will be used as part of the TAGs so they need to be sat in as good conditions as possible.

JustLikeaJingleBell · 29/12/2021 03:10

They don't always need the extra time so it might work out ok

JustLikeaJingleBell · 29/12/2021 03:14

They can't sit the actual mock exam another day

But

My DS was ill one day so sat that mock exam a week later and although he won't get a proper result it was so that the he and the teacher could see how he did on the mock.

JustLikeaJingleBell · 29/12/2021 03:15

Basically he didn't get an official result as such but could still sit that mock gcse

crazycrofter · 29/12/2021 11:10

My ds sat the ‘actual mock exam’ for history two days later than everyone else. People aren’t accounting for how much harder it is to concentrate for 6/7 hours of exams in a row when you have ADHD.

Bouledeneige · 29/12/2021 11:58

The GCSE timetable is very chock a block so the mock schedule is likely to emulate that. Don't forget for GCSEs there may be 3 papers for each subject - my DC often had 3 exams in two days. By all means ask the school how they account for extra time. But be prepared that GCSEs are equally intense.

MerryMarigold · 29/12/2021 12:06

3 exams in 2 days is quite different to 6 exams in 2 days!

OP posts:
cansu · 29/12/2021 18:33

This should be an easy fix. I am sure that this timetable is the one for everyone and not for the children who have extra time. They will probably have to reschedule the third one so he has time for lunch. Just ask them about it.

Naem · 30/12/2021 12:41

@Hercisback 11 years as a maths teacher and seeing students in mock exams. They rarely use the extra time in maths.

Well you clearly haven't taught my DD.

Maths is where she uses extra time the most - and where she always uses all of it (unless the other kids are walking out half way because it is such an easy paper). It is also where her issues were first picked up - because it is so stark. With a humanities subject, it is hard to know how much more she might have written (especially if she is succinct), so it really didn't show as much, especially in early high school. With maths in year 7- she was only getting to 70% of the paper - with the last 30% blank, but of the 70% completed around 95% was answered correctly (and if you switched the order of the problems, then it is a different 95% completed and done correctly) - it was maths that really highlighted that something odd was going on. Hence maths was the most dramatic improvement on getting the extra time in the middle of year 7. Went from set 2 to set 1 as soon as she got it (around a 20% increase in test scores), and she has stayed in set 1 all the way through to Year 11 (took slightly longer to move from set 2 to set 1 in science, but by the end of year 7 the same had happened). Had much less of an impact in English - yes she wrote/writes more, but not so clear that the quality improved - still likely to go off on a tangent or not give the answer the way they want in a way she doesn't in maths, where it is just about being slow but the answer will be right.
Yes, she is usually the only one with the extra time who uses every scrap of it in maths (and even with it, she is lucky to finish the paper and doesn't have time to check). But such students do exist, so please don't make assumptions. We had such a battle probably because her profile is unusual. Or maybe it isn't really - maybe there are others like her out there who are written off as not good at maths, when it is just about speed. Maybe what is really unusual is that she is really very mathematically able, just extraordinarily slow at getting it down on paper, so the extra time makes such a dramatic difference. If she had been getting more of the problems wrong, and not understanding quite so much in class (or I had not jumped up an down and said, look, look), I am sure she would have just been written off as not mathematical. I only first had an inkling after she took the SATs in Year 6, and when I asked howthe maths paper went - she told me she didn't finish the maths paper! I then asked whether she had been finishing the practice papers (which I knew they did in school)?" - only to be answered with "Oh no, I am always the only one not finished so I get sent to the library to finish" ! Of course nobody had bothered to tell me as her mum. And it was only because of this one conversation, that I was watching for the test papers coming home in Year 7, where it became obvious (at least to me) what was going on. Because from the Year 6 maths teacher's point of view, since DD could get 105 in her SATs, there was nothing to worry about or bother to mention to the parents - even though I am, with hindsight willing to wager that the 105 was with only completing 70% of the paper. And like all the other teachers, the Year 7 maths teacher just assumed that DD didn't understand/hadn't revised, whatever it was at the back end of the paper (although she did admit after I started pointing the situation out, that it didn't fit, that DD seemed to always understand how to do the problems in class - even if she never got through as many of them as others in the class - so the test results were odd). But if I hadn't been doing some sleuthing, it seems highly likely that it would have been completely missed! - Which is why it is so important that maths teachers like you are aware that this does exist (although no idea how common it is), so you can watch out for it. Because the ones who need extra time specifically because of maths, even more than the humanities, might be the ones going under your radar and not getting the extra time at all. And they might even be really quite good mathematicians, if you give them long enough, just due to something in their brains making it take longer to do problems than one would expect they are not getting a chance to show it!

NotQuiteHere · 30/12/2021 13:02

That crazy race called GCSE exams is ridiculous, and the mock GCSEs are even more so. And of course, nobody can do anything, just accept and adjust Angry

MerryMarigold · 30/12/2021 15:05

Hopefully something will be done. I've heard from assistant head (form tutor contacted her) who has sent my email to exams officer and also cc'd me so I have her contact details. All during holidays! So I'm hopeful something will be done. I think it's an issue with exam officer not accounting for the significant number of ET students who will be affected. But I'm sure she will now sort it out given awareness of SLT and SENCO of the problem.

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Dancingdreamer · 31/12/2021 00:31

This happened to my DC and the results were used for their GCSE grades. It cost them the grades they were expected to get in some subjects.

TheOldLadyOfThreadneedleStreet · 31/12/2021 10:49

DC’s school had pre Christmas mocks for GCSE. DD had 10 exams in one week and those who had extended hours for the exams did literally have 5 minutes in between. Agree it’s not right but no idea what to do about it

MerryMarigold · 31/12/2021 21:49

I know. Ds has a few more than 10 in a week plus 1 day (Fri-Fri) as there are 3 Maths, 2 History, 2 Spanish etc. over 9 GCSES. I just don't know why they didn't do over 2 weeks.

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sharksarecool · 05/01/2022 09:38

It would be reasonable to point this out to the school. All pupils do different subject combinations, and it is nobody's job to look at how the timetable affects every individual student. It would be reasonable to point out the timings issue and to request that your son sits one of those 3 papers at a different time. They might also be running different break and lunch timings for extra time students, so check if that is the case
In the actual GCSE it is maximum 2 papers per day so won't be an issue.

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