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.

DD said there was a question at the end of the Foundation paper that was more difficult than anything they'd done in past papers practice.

DS said both papers "fine" today.
Edexcel iGCSE maths - the usual impossible bits at the end but otherwise good.
Likewise in geog - the "weird political question" but alright I think.

No more Eng lit for us so nothing tomorrow.

Dd ha da tricky morning. School run had issues out of our control but she said maths was ok and geog good so not to bad a day for a double day.

DD said Edexcel paper 2 was better than paper 1 and geography AQA was fine.

There was a fire alarm but luckily before they’d gone in so they just started a bit late. Was to do with building work going on at school…

Christmas Carol tomorrow - DD has said she’s not planning to do any revision tonight as she feels fine with it. She will go back into school for an after school Physics revision class though.

DD said she guessed at one of the last questions in the maths paper but everyone else came up with the same answer so she's hopeful.

She's dreading physics this week as it's her weakest science and has the potential to drag her grade down.

DD sat AQA higher maths today. Said it went well. The questions were quite wordy and needed quite a lot of attention to work out the maths required but the maths itself was alright. The only question she didn’t fully finish was a geometric proof question which she was able to partially answer so should get some working out marks. English lit and Macbeth tomorrow. She is currently in the other room doing a last online session with her English tutor. She tells me she feels confident about it and the unseen poetry “shouldn’t be a problem”. Let’s hope she is right.

@MirandaWest - your post has just reminded me that ds has an after school history revision session tomorrow. Thank you!

Eng lit tomorrow maybe Educas, then physics Thurs and English language Friday.

Ds1 (predictably) said maths was ‘fine’. On probing, better than paper 1 (but that was also fine so who knows). He’s doing some Romeo and Juliet quote/YouTube revision and feels confident.

As a massive geek, I would love to know the Macbeth question(s) tomorrow as I did it for GCSE and have seen it many many times and just love it.

I don't know ow how the grade boundaries work either? Can anyone help?

Dd had her 16th birthday yesterday and sat her German exam which was 'bad'. Maths today went 'better than mocks hopefully' she got a 2 in the mocks so I'm glad it didn't feel worse!

Maths grade boundaries are set each year by each exam board and are therefore different for each exam baord.
They basically analyse all results and the boundaries are set to 'control' how many of each grade are given.

Just wanted to say good luck to all taking exams.

if it makes you feel any better, I’m an Exams Officer with a DD doing her GCSEs 😆I’m losing the will to live currently 😂

Aqa maths higher was ok but geography tough - lots of Brexit/eu economy which she said wasn’t on revision list?

One of mine found AQA maths easy - but that is by far his strongest subject. My other son same paper thought it wasn’t a fail! Edxcel B geography they both found a bit tricky but thought it was ok.

@Watapalava no, I don’t think it was. Dd said they did a bit about the commonwealth in year 10 but not brexit etc. I think it was an unfair question.

Turns out DD has already done a Christmas Carol 😃
It’s Romeo and Juliet tomorrow along with unseen Poetry. I just got to read out the beginnings of quotes and she finished them off.

Earlier on she and DS were discussing both Geography and Maths including DS solving one of the questions from DD’s maths paper.

I'm a lurker here and have been following your posts with interest as DS1 is doing GCSE's this year. I have to say it's been very helpful.
I am delurking (is that a word?) to explain the grade boundaries for @Stormchaser1502.

Boundaries are set as a PP mentioned after papers are marked to ensure that a certain percentage achieve each level. Ie if there is a particularly hard paper then the boundaries will be lower and so many 9's etc will still be awarded. Over the last 2 years the exam bodies had no control over the levels as grades were teacher assessed with the result being that the number of students achieving high grades has shot up. This year they are going to set the boundaries such that the number achieving the higher grades will be somewhere between the 2019 and 2021 levels. To go straight back to 2019 levels would be unfair Ona cohort that has seen major disruption. I think next year they will be aiming to get back to 2019 levels so boundaries will go a bit higher again.

Ds said Edexcel Maths today was easier than Paper 1 although he think he made a few mistakes. OCR Geography he found hard - ran out of time half way through the last question.

Macbeth and poetry then last RS tomorrow. As an atheist I’ve found testing him on religion quite taxing !

then physics 1 and Eng Lang 2 Friday

following week 3 exams, then final week 3 and it’s over and in the lap of whatever gods or fate one believes in!

DS has hardly been able to stay awake tonight, not sure he's done any revision but not sure there is any point if he's that tired.

@GMH1974 there was a thread in Chat a few days ago where a phone had been taken in, lots of advice/speculation but focus on the phone owner not the rest of the room.

DS said Edexcel Maths 2 is his best paper so far. We were concerned as he was late home that it had gone horribly wrong, but apparently there was a fire alarm 2 minutes after the exam finished & they had to assemble etc before being released.

He has Eng Lit tomorrow, seems okay about the Scottish play but hates unseen poetry so is nervous about that. Did a reasonable amount of revision today, then came on a dog walk with me this evening which was nice!

Its poetry here as well, 18 poems they have to learn. There was Dulce et Decorum Est which I still remember and DD said I dont know that one so went through it as that one to me is quite an easy one once you have done it once.

Macbeth etc today. History and Physics tomorrow and English Language on Friday. Tough end of week. Will be glad to start ticking off the History.

Good luck everyone for English lit today. And then can tick that subject off!

The ticking off of subjects is going very slowly here.

Two weeks tomorrow and it will all be over for most of our young people. It can't come soon enough. Motivating DD is getting more and more difficult.

Good luck to everyone today.