Anyone up for a GCSE handholding thread?

[BaconAndAvocado]

DS2 has his GCSEs in June. He had mocks in November and more (why??) next month.
He needs to get 5 6s to stay at his current school (IB, not overly keen) or to transfer to another local 6th form.
He said he’s going to start revising this week......
Think his school will be helping him devise a revision timetable this week. I’ve bought him flashcards, he just needs to knuckle down now.......

They don't - different boards will have different grade boundaries

IGCSE Edexcel - same comments from DC as kidstaxidriver. No paper 2 as doing double. Hope Chem1 and Physics1 next week are kinder.

Ditto! I told them that I would only ask which topics didn’t come up so we could
make a mental note for paper 2 and they listed off over several key topics that didn’t appear at all which seemed really odd? They said there was a focus on Bacteria/ blood??

Dd2 said her biology paper (AQA) was fine. She’s not the best at science overall, but does quite often do fairly well in Biology, so hopefully this bodes well.

@Chardonnay73 was plants in the aqa paper? My DD was watching some videos on that last night so hopefully that's a few marks got!

DD, hoping to do Biology A level, thought exactly the same - loads of topics not covered and nothing like past papers

Above comment is for EdExcel paper

Seems our DCs all had the same experience with IGCSE. If anyone's DCs thought it was fine please don't say so!

😂

I got it was all cells and so much didnt come up. Which is odd when this paper is for Triple and Double - iGCSE Edexcel.

DD says none of the questions related to their revision paper at all so she's fuming. Says she answered all the questions but isn't confident she's done well.

Thank god they do a second paper to average it out

Have IGCSEs been sat in all countries or will people be fishing for info?!

Didn't realise it's the only paper if doing Combined - makes it even stranger

DD did triple Biology either AQA or Edexcel I can't remember

She knows cells and plants and the heart if that did come up but she was focusing on other areas

I'll go through it with her later

Yes, apparently so.

I think they have three different papers for different time zones so questions can't be leaked. DD doesn't do hers until this afternoon even though she is in the UK because it clashed with CIE Eng Lit this morning. She is not going to be happy if it's a horror since she hates biology anyway!!

Phew biology was “ok” … seems like lots of cross over with AQA PE revision so hoping that gives her confidence boost for tomorrow PE paper. Now she’s revising a “ridiculous amount of poem quotes mum!” For Eng Lit also Tom. It’s her first double exam day but then has Thursday off to focus on maths on Friday.

German listening and reading (AQA) both easier than expected according to DD. Big relief.

We have German here too but DS hasn’t made it home yet.
He has extra time so not expecting him until after 4.
His school also start as late as possible so 9.30 in the morning and 2pm for afternoon exams.

Double day for us tomorrow too. English Lit in the morning (Romeo & Juliet and An Inspector Calls), then PE in the afternoon. Inbetween the school are running an hour long PE booster session. Thursday off too - just Maths on Friday.

DS2 not home yet either after Biology AQA. He’s at an English booster session for tomorrow.
The suspense is killing me!

Ds has just got home, he did AQA Biology this morning, he's doing the higher papers but double science not triple. He said it was 'okay' and that's all we're getting out of him 😂
English Literature tomorrow Macbeth and A Christmas Carol, he's not too worried but he is good at English Literature and this paper is his strongest over poetry and An Inspector Calls. He has ASD and I keep expecting a meltdown but there hasn't been one yet, he's remarkably calm

Ds is doing triple but says biology was okay - he forgot a few names of thing so lost a few marks.

Next is History and then one of the maths ones.

He came home very thirsty and hot as he had PE and it's fairly warm and sunny here and they had them running outside- so not great for getting him to start revision.

Well biology was apparently 6/10 - so average for science as a hated subject.

Sociology was apparently a great paper and quite a few of the 12 markers were on the topics she was hoping for.

DS1 has just said the same for iGcse edexcel- and so did his friends