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.

DS said exam wasn’t too bad. He did Lord of the Flies and J&H. Sigh of relief... RS tomorrow afternoon and then Chemistry on Friday. Loves the former, hates the latter.

DS was happy enough with the AIC question but really didn't like the ACC question. Well, it's done now.

DD says was fine with the AIC paper but felt like she ran out of time on the poetry anthology.

Spanish reading/listening and RE tomorrow and then Chemistry on Friday so she’s going to be busy and stressed the next few days.

DD has been coming home where she's only had a morning exam but is staying in school today as there are revision lessons that are useful.

She too has Spanish reading/listening tomorrow along with RE and then Chemistry on Friday. I'm sure I'll do something wrong at some point 😂

Ds didn't like the AIC questions - no specific character question (Edexcel). He thinks he did 'ok' but is less certain of how he has performed than on the other papers. I think we're just glad it's over and he now has about two weeks to revise Lit Paper 2 so hoping he will start that revision tomorrow.

He only has Chemistry on Friday and that's one of his favourite subjects so he's quite happy now. Heaviest week for exams is after half term.

DD very happy with her exam - Edexcel - it covered the stuff she had studied last night so she felt it went really well. Media this afternoon.

One of mine on the AQA English thought inspector calls question was fine but hadn’t revised the poem that came up so as a result this was the worst paper so far. Now have to encourage revision for RS tomorrow and my other child has Spanish and R/S tomorrow. Both chemistry Friday.

Dd said was fine though said she can barely remember it now and went onto Mr Floof. Tomorrow is RE and Friday is Chemistry and Computing and then half term phew. 15 after half term, so now 9 out of 27 done.

@FFF2022 yep my DD said the poem was not a usual one and one that the teachers said rarely comes up.

This morning seemed to go quite well. Spanish tomorrow which dd has decided she's not revising for, she's going to concentrate on chemistry for Friday instead. Then half term and we can catch a breath! Birthday in the middle of it though, which is a bit rubbish because she thinks all her friends will not want to go out because they are revising.

@CornishGem1975
Any feedback on media..? DD was disappointed as she felt quite confident about that one but they had 2 12 marker questions on websites that they have not looked at or studied at all. She had to guess what they would be like...
She has friends in a different media class and they had not studied those websites either, so not just their class....

I just asked my DD @Fizbosshoes and she thought it went really well. Said her hand hurt so a lot of writing? But overall she was happy with it.

DS said he messed up one of the quotes fro Inspector Calls, said the rest was OK though.

We had 19th century novel and power and conflict poetry today

after Half term is Macbeth and unseen poetry

No unseen poetry for Edexcel @NameInUseAlreadyAgain So it's just Christmas Carol to go after half term

AQA English lit today for DS: A Christmas Carol and Animal Farm. He said Animal Farm question was better than the Christmas Carol extract, but a sense of relief that it’s done. Chemistry and Computer Science on Friday with a day of revision tomorrow. Roll on half term.

DD said AIC was fine - she said the essay she did wasn’t the one she thought she’d do but was all right.

For a Christmas Carol she liked the essay she did.

Spanish listening and reading and RE tomorrow. But then RE is done.

And Chemistry on Friday

DS2 has RS tomorrow and then Chemistry and Computer Science on Friday. The first week back after half term he has 6 so the pressure is really on.

Exactly the same as us!

ive told DS it’s the last holiday he will have to revise so get on with it !

So interesting seeing what everyone’s children have as their set texts.

DS2’s board have recently added quite a few post-colonial etc titles , which our school has embraced with alacrity but I notice from the examiners reports that hardly anyone actually answers on these, sticking instead to more traditional options like 1984 and Jane Eyre etc. so DS2 has done The Namesake (other classes chose Purple Hibiscus) and Othello, a bit irritating as there are no gcse crib books! Luckily CGP do Othello for A level. Anyway, he has finished lit now, so all water under the bridge.

DS1 said it went well and neither ACC or AIC were curve balls - I know AIC he had revised the topic because I read his notes yesterday.

I personally came to love books and reading through my English lessons at school. I’ve loved Macbeth and Shakespeare more generally since we studied it, read To Kill a Mockingbird so many times since etc. It enhanced rather than killed my love. I do hope there will be more variety moving forward though. Drama have just introduced a whole load of new texts - including Inua Alam’s version of Chekhov’s Three Sisters. DS2 got his option choices back today and his picked drama and I really hope his teacher is brave enough to pick the new text (or one of them).

Spanish here tomorrow. It’s his favourite and he is doing A level and is almost always revising Spanish when you ask.

Free day today. Chemistry and Computing (the harder Computing paper apparently according to DC) tomorrow. It's DC's first 'double day'. Then nothing until the 7th. It's going to be a long slog over half term I think. 😞

DD has Spanish this morning and RE this afternoon. She got her time of the month last night and the first day is always the worst for her (she has been known to have fainting episodes). Sod’s law it arrives on the first day she has with 2 exams. Preying that she gets through the day without incident! 🥺🙏

Your poor DD @Rollergirl11 . I was recalling that it's been proven that girls are less good/better at maths at different points in their monthly cycles. So if the exams are scheduled when they're at their least able to solve mathematical problems they'll assuredly do less well than at a point in time when they're at their sharpest.

I've always thought that the exam system is unfair on girls, with their periods to contend with. Cramping and potentially heavy bleeding are likely to be very distracting when sitting exams.

Sympathy for your DD @Rollergirl11 double exam days are tough enough without that, hope she gets through ok.

DS has a day without exams today, Chemistry tomorrow. He said English Lit went reasonably yesterday, he quite liked the CC question and the LotF was ok. The week after half term is probably his heaviest week, 5 exams Tues to Fri including English Lit 2 and English Lang 2. Then the week after Mon to Thurs another 5 exams. Looking forward to a breather next week though I am sure there will be lots of revision going on.