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.

Geography was "good" by all accounts, which is a relief because she didn't feel good about paper 1!

@cosmiccat @Revengeofthepangolins my ds did OCR higher this morning and he wasn’t happy. He said he answered everything but didn’t have time to check it through and he just generally thought it was very difficult. It’s his best subject and he has been aiming for a 9 which he thought was in reach based on how he’s been doing in past papers but that might be in doubt now.

Someone took a phone into the maths this morning by mistake then owned up 20 minutes in. Any idea if all the room will be penalised or what the rules are?

I can't for the life of me understand why they need to do three maths papers? Am I missing something?

@MirandaWest yes, that sounds much more like DC1's timetable a few years earlier (but later than 2015).

@GMH1974 all the room won't be penalised, but the pupil will likely be disqualified from the paper even if phone was off. Or the whole maths GCSE, or unlikely worst case all exams for this board. If phone was on will be worse. It is reported to the board and they decide.

We had Maths "good" and Geography "awful" here.
She didn't revise for geog so not unexpected.

Thank you @TeenPlusCat I feel very, very sorry for the poor girl. Obviously I don't want it affecting my daughter too.

Sounds like my DS. He has been getting around 95% on past papers so I think he knew what to expect, but didn’t get it! Like yours he finished but it was all more hard work than he was expecting. Will be v curious to see the boundaries on the paper

If there was disruption in the exam room that disturbed the others, they may get a small uplift, eg 1%, not sure about that though.

@GMH1974 why on Earth would they punish the whole room?

My dd thought the edexcel igcse (higher) was pretty hard. Geography was ok but the uk stuff she revised was not on there and there was a question about economic/political links that she was only able to answer because of a chat we had about it yesterday!

Could be argued that 3 papers is helpful as it tests their actual ability without exposing their result too heavily to occasional careless slips - each point is only 1/300th ish of the result.

Overall she has found the maths papers harder than the past papers she did at home. Crazy…

The head of year apparently confidently announced today that the Maths boundaries would be “on the floor”!

@Revengeofthepangolins yes that makes sense. How long have there been three maths papers? Quite a recent thing, I'd say.

Same here for Geog - for the international politics / economics Q she wrote about Brexit and for the other Q Bojo’s involvement in the Stratford Regeneration Scheme.

Same feedback from DD … she hated Igsce Edexcel paper 1 but said paper 2 was much better apart from the usual impossible last question but I think the last question is always super hard ?

3 maths papers since going to numerical grades I think. DD only had 2 papers, 2 years before the switch.

Only 2 Maths papers for igcse Edexcel - I am (reliability?) informed? The 2nd paper is v long (2hrs) whereas other boards do a third paper but each are shorter (45 mins?).

Similar here with DD, she had maths and geography today, English and further maths tomorrow and needs to finish something for art too so why did I have to tell her 8 times yesterday to stop gaming and start doing something else.

I had offered a graphics card for her birthday if she put effort into her exams, she knows this is hanging in the balance at this point because I am so fed up of her being lazy.

DS thought AQA higher maths was good and geography OCR politics question was not what he hoped for, so a bit of a mixed bag today.

English literature tomorrow with the most hated part Macbeth!

Edexcel higher Maths here was 'not bad'. At least DC came out smiling. Better than Paper 1. Macbeth tomorrow - I think DC finds Shakespeare pretty incomprehensible.....

DD is feeling so happy with how her maths papers have gone she's now contemplating taking it at A level. She can't wait to find out her result in August.

English Lit tomorrow - it's A Christmas Carol for us - easiest out of all the texts I think. She'll do some quote revision later.

Dd mega stressed. Said her OCR Higher maths paper 2 was a lot harder than the first one and seemed to be the general feeling among her friends too.

Can someone explain to me the grade boundaries? I’d always assumed it was worked out on the results of the nation etc. But dd is panic struck it’s to do with the grades a couple of years ago, which had no impact on this years cohort. It’s confusing me. Doesn’t seem fair if this is the case…..

Shes now revising for English tomorrow but stressing and taken more ‘stress breaks’ than I feel is ok st this stage 🥴😵‍💫

DD said Geography was fine. Just one question that she was unsure of but thinks she got everything else right.

English Lit tomorrow morning which is her best subject. She knows Macbeth inside out so not envisaging any issues there.