Current Year 11 2021/2022 support thread pt III

[StColumbofNavron]

Thread for the parents of DC sitting their GCSEs in about 4 weeks time - eek.

Lot of talk about maths being leaked but I can't make out if it's true. Ds is very down after a week of being quite levelheaded. Back to staring at revision videos. Agree next week is quite heavy , first geog and history coming up

Who on earth would be leaking papers?

Yes, the case of the wrong exam board maths paper being sat would have been beyond awful. I guess a case of the teachers or invigilators missing what was there in plain sight. Or maybe they had newbie invigilators (there's been a lot of late-in-the-day recruitment this year) who made the rookie error? The sixth former who was resitting (but a different board) should have done it at an exam centre where all the young people were doing the same spec.

I think it's probably just a daft rumour/wishful thinking. It is sort of true that if almost no one gets it or attempts it that it may as well not be there because it will affect the grade boundaries.
anyway, onwards and hopefully upwards!

DD sat iGCSE maths and said it was the hardest maths paper she has ever sat and didn’t even understand what they were asking in some questions (she’s predicted a 7). She said by half way through she was struggling (they normally build up in difficulty).
The general consensus in her first 4 exams is that they are all harder than expected or past papers. Feels a bit mean with this cohort who have endured so much absence.
5 next week - some only have 2 so have lovely gaps in between to prepare. The price she pays for not taking any creative subjects!

@Bellini12 its the same with DD. She has a good 5 or 6 more exams than her peers because she’s taken all humanities subjects.

@Rollergirl11 @Bellini12 yes DS has 5 next week too, it's a huge workload...the papers after half term are more spaced out after the first week back which is another 5 from memory 😂 DS babysat last night & took his Eng Lit flash cards, studied a bit this morning but has gone to meet friends this afternoon, which feels like a good balance to me.

I was really shocked at the wrong paper fiasco, very unsettling for the students impacted. Talking to DS, he said there was a student from another school or perhaps homeschooled (not in uniform) taking the AQA Maths paper in the room with the rest of them taking Edexcel, so perhaps it's more common than one would think.

Hope everyone has a relaxing weekend!

Very random question but dd is freaking out.

Are they supposed to sign their AQA exam papers?

Imagine how much Grade 4 DS is feeling right now. Just hope they drop the grade boundaries.

I heard about the leak yesterday on Twitter. Not sure how much truth is in it or not.

DD currently revising hard for Geography which she is concerned about. She's not planning to take it further though, so really only needs to get a 5.

Gosh DS and a lot of his friends said the maths paper IGCSE difficult.

This is info on the leak...

How on earth do exam papers get leaked?! Does someone hack into the exam board’s security? Or are they leaked from a school (as presume the papers arrive day/days before the exam)?

DC's just mentioned the possible leaking of the Maths paper, with the horrified caveat 'I'm NOT doing that again'. I reassured them (correctly I hope) that that couldn't happen.

And I've just been reading about complaints that the AQA Biology paper advanced information was not accurate enough. DC actually thought it was OK.

I contacted Edexcel re the maths paper leak to see if it was true and this is their response:

"Hi,
Thanks for your message.
We are investigating these reports as a priority.

We’d like to reassure you that students will not be required to resit this exam, we have processes in place to ensure marking is completed as normal.
Thanks."

I'm not sure if that is reassuring or not really. I don't want my dd to have to resit it but how on earth can it ever be fair. Some reports on social media are saying it was the whole paper that was leaked and not just the last question. They will never be able to know how far and wide it was leaked so can't see how they can mark papers 'as normal'!

Re AQA Biology - I''m worried as my dd isn't the strongest at Science and really needs a 7 but was really upset after Biology as she said the advance information said food tests would be a main focus yet there was only one question on food tests worth one point in the whole paper. She doesn't think she did very well in the paper yet I've heard lots of people saying they found it easy....agggghhh!

@13lucky is your daughter doing separate or combined science? I think there was something about people doing combined reading the advanced information for the separate sciences?

Lots of rumours about maths.

Where are you hearing these rumours. Not seen anything in main stream news.

My ds also revised food tests and they weren’t on combined science

was he reading the wrong list?!

the advance information said food tests would be a main focus yet there was only one question on food tests worth one point in the whole paper Isn't it more a case that the things on that list could come up, not necessarily that they would definitely be included? Isn't this more a case of misinterpretation?

Exams can vary massively in how much syllabus content is included, surely? That's one of the main 'punts'?

DD seemed to have it in mind that it was a given that the heart would be a main topic. When I cross-referenced the AQA list, it said 'organs of the body' and I did comment that the heart is but one. Think it was lungs that were more of a focus than the heart?

This is the advanced info from AQA.

Focus of the June 2022 exam - Biology

1F
For this paper, the following list shows the major focus of the content of the exam:
• 4.1.1 Cell structure
• 4.1.3 Transport in cells
• 4.2.2 Animal tissues, organs and organ systems
• 4.3.1 Communicable diseases
• 4.4.1 Photosynthesis

1H
For this paper, the following list shows the major focus of the content of the exam:
• 4.1.1 Cell structure
• 4.1.3 Transport in cells
• 4.2.2 Animal tissues, organs and organ systems
• 4.2.3 Plant tissues, organs and systems
• 4.3.1 Communicable diseases
• 4.3.2 Monoclonal antibodies

Focus of the June 2022 exam - Combined

1F
For this paper, the following list shows the major focus of the content of the exam:
• 4.1.2 Cell division
• 4.2.2 Animal tissues, organs and organ systems
• 4.3.1 Communicable diseases
• 4.4.1 Photosynthesis

1H
For this paper, the following list shows the major focus of the content of the exam:
• 4.1.2 Cell division
• 4.2.2 Animal tissues, organs and organ systems
• 4.4.1 Photosynthesis

*DD seemed to have it in mind that it was a given that the heart would be a main topic. When I cross-referenced the AQA list, it said 'organs of the body' and I did comment that the heart is but one. Think it was lungs that were more of a focus than the heart?•

@LouisCatorze My DD said there was a bit of heart valves etc which she said she had barely revised so thinks she got it all wrong!

I honestly think they would have been better off without the advanced info, it just confused them. DD has just tried to revise everything she can, especially as she plans on doing science A levels.

It does also say

"Required practical activities that will be assessed:
• Required practical activity 3: use qualitative reagents to test for a range of carbohydrates, lipids and proteins."

But isn't that done in class? Or have I misunderstood that?

Practicals are done in class, but then there are questions on the papers about practicals.

But I suppose it's not an absolute given that they WILL be on the paper?

@CornishGem1975 that's how I'd expect most people to interpret it. There's nothing to say that all subjects will be given equal weighting, and there was one related multiple-choice question, end of.

Exams aren't entirely fair in the way they're written, that's the point. And some will advantage those who have learned the whole syllabus while others who have hedged their bets and revised only certain topics may strike very lucky, or not.