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Secondary education

Connect with other parents whose children are starting secondary school on this forum.

Original poster

Anyone up for a GCSE handholding thread?

1000 replies

BaconAndAvocado · 08/01/2023 14:26

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.......

OP posts:
Thread gallery
8
WinterMermaid987 · 03/02/2023 17:14

My daughter actually appreciated us sitting down together to go through a chemistry paper really looking at the mark scheme. It’s helped to find a couple of topics she’s not so strong on. Previously she’s told me to leave her alone but has now realised to get the grade she needs for Alevel it’s going to take extra work. We plan to do a biology one next….normally I’m not “allowed” to help 😂so it was nice to be useful for once.

mumonthehill · 03/02/2023 20:08

English lit speaking exam here today, apparently it went ok. Another thing done. Biology and chemistry practicals next week.

blue23blue · 04/02/2023 10:50

Has everyone been told the dates for the exams now? My DD school haven't told us yet.

Science is her weak area, we've been going through the papers/mark scheme but she's finding it really hard. She's doing chemistry tutoring each week and I'm doing as much as I can. At this point if be happy if she just scraped a pass, it's duel award.

pinkflop · 04/02/2023 12:34

@blue23blue yes, we got given a finalised list last week. You can have a look yourself if you go on the websites for the different exam boards.

I know how you feel, my son is struggling a lot with English. He's having tutoring and intervention after school. We'll be happy if he just passes!

ChicCroissant · 04/02/2023 14:38

We've not had a timetable for the exams yet, one teacher did post the dates and times of the exams in their subject - I've got the exam boards for each subject and I'm going to work it out myself. DD's got exams with Edexcel and AQA so I'm hoping there are no clashes. One subject has a lot of coursework so might only have one written exam, another is an Arts subject which has a one or two day practical exam.

blue23blue · 10/02/2023 07:03

Finally got our dates, feel like I need to print it out (it's online) to make sense of it! There's so many

TheTurn0fTheScrew · 10/02/2023 09:43

DC1 hasn't been issued with a timetable yet. I know the info is in the public domain, but I CBA to rummage through and will inevitably make mistakes, so will wait.

She's in the middle of a third (and final!) tranche of mocks. Unfortunately she's also been quite unwell since Tuesday with a heavy cold, and so no revision going on. She did fine in her previous 2 sets of mocks, so I hope she and the staff will keep any dip in performance in perspective.

In better news, she has received offers from all three of the colleges she applied to for next year, which is great. She has a high target for maths (8) in order to be able to do further maths at her preferred college, but other requirements should be fine.

Original poster
BaconAndAvocado · 10/02/2023 18:38

TheTurnOfTheScrew
DS has to get 7s for the A levels he wants to study in Maths, Chemistry and Physics.
And another 2 6s in anything.
I think he’ll do it.....next lot of mocks in 2 weeks so we shall see!

OP posts:
Hersetta427 · 10/02/2023 19:10

Dd finally got her mock results back. Mixture of 7's and 8's with one 9. She was a little disappointed as she only got a 7 in biology which is one of the subjects she wants to take for A level. The 9 was physics which she enjoys but is not considering for A level as to do a level physics you also have to take A level maths.

She didn't do too badly considering she revised the day before for each exam. I am hoping it's a wake up call for her.

Original poster
BaconAndAvocado · 10/02/2023 19:23

Hersetta427 Wow, they’re fantastic results!

OP posts:
Whycanineverever · 10/02/2023 19:50

Well DD's English teacher left today. She has got used to it and was seeing the positives like a different perspective on her writing.

She came home on floods of tears and full of worry again (really given her predicted grades it's not needed)

He's obviously very popular as apparently there was queues all down the corridor to see him.

So straight into new teacher and mocks after half term.

Hersetta427 · 10/02/2023 21:50

BaconAndAvocado · 10/02/2023 19:23

Hersetta427 Wow, they’re fantastic results!

Thank you. She is predicted all 8's and is certainly capably of upping a few to 9' if she puts the work in. I think she now realises that natural intelligence only gets you so far- you need a good dollop of hard work too.

TheTurn0fTheScrew · 10/02/2023 22:13

Hersetta427 that's a fab set of results, good for her!
Whycanineverever it's really hard, isn't it? DC1 just found out her Computer Science teacher is leaving at the end of term. She loves the subject, gets on really well with him, and is hoping to do well in the exam, so she's a bit unsettled. She has at least found out that the (very good) Head of Department will be picking up her class (he takes the other Y11 class as well). She's been taught by him before in Y8 and rates him, but it's unsettling nonetheless.

mumonthehill · 11/02/2023 08:16

Ds school does not have a 6th form and they feed into the local college which he has been pushed to apply to as he wants to go to another school. They have high standards and will not offer until the summer term. Beginning to find it a bit stressful!!

LighthouseCat · 16/02/2023 19:41

Last of DD's mock exams done today. That's it now till the real thing. Major wobble on Monday after an unexpectedly difficult maths paper but ended on high with a seemingly easy one today. Can't help but wonder how close this experience will be to the papers in May and June.

Hellocatshome · 16/02/2023 20:43

There is a very large manufacturing company near us and DS has been to their apprenticeship day today. He now has his heart set on it but its VERY competitive. I think he will be ok for grades but there are various different assessments and interviews to get through which I think he may struggle with as he lacks any confidence and his people skills are not great.

Original poster
BaconAndAvocado · 18/02/2023 18:13

Had a chat with DS2 today and said that from Monday he’s really got to step up to the plate with his revision.
He agreed and asked whether 3 hours a night is enough?
I said I think 3 hours is the maximum after a day at school.

Would anyone agree or disagree with this?

We did some flash card testing yesterday - Computer Science - and I was pleasantly surprised to see that he knew about 95% of the answers.

OP posts:
TheWoollybacksWife · 18/02/2023 19:14

I think it depends on the timings of his day Bacon. If 3 hours still gives him some downtime then it sounds good. I don't know if there are any subjects that have exams longer than 2 hours so that amount of time should allow enough time to do a past paper.

DS is on half term now. He's got a revision timetable sorted for this week and then it's straight into another set of mocks once he goes back.

He's already submitted his practical pieces for one subject and is a couple of weeks away from submitting another set for a different subject. May doesn't seem so far off now!

Whycanineverever · 18/02/2023 20:51

My DD has been trying out some of her food tech meal today. She had made she made the biscuits for the cheesecake base and the bread rolls for first time today. It's 3 weeks on Monday and 2 weeks of that is mocks. Let's hope she can do it all in the time allocated once she adds in main otherwise we are a bit stuck this close to time.

Whycanineverever · 18/02/2023 20:53

BaconAndAvocado · 18/02/2023 18:13

Had a chat with DS2 today and said that from Monday he’s really got to step up to the plate with his revision.
He agreed and asked whether 3 hours a night is enough?
I said I think 3 hours is the maximum after a day at school.

Would anyone agree or disagree with this?

We did some flash card testing yesterday - Computer Science - and I was pleasantly surprised to see that he knew about 95% of the answers.

I think it depends if they are still getting homework and what time they get home.

My DD has 6th period 2 days a week and she doesn't get home until nearly 5 so once she's done homework she is too tired to even think about revision.

If he gets home after 4 I dont think that leaves much for downtime once you have had dinner as well even not having homework.

TheTurn0fTheScrew · 18/02/2023 21:05

On revision, DC1 is not doing any more than 1-2 hours a day at most, and none on Fridays and Saturdays.

She has always been pretty diligent about homework and classwork though, so has a solid base to work from. And her school only allow 9 GCSEs, so I guess a kid doing 11/12 will have more work.

mumonthehill · 19/02/2023 07:56

We have had the exam time table now and it is rather long! I would say say with revision to build it up from now slowly start so they do not over do it. 3 hours a night is a lot from now until May.

bloomsburyavenue · 19/02/2023 09:08

DS is currently trying to get his head around quantitative chemistry. Has anyone got any tips or good resources they could recommend to help with this?

Taswama · 19/02/2023 09:14

DS gets home about 4 and does 1-2 hours of revision / homework on weekdays. A few more hours on Saturday but nothing on Sundays.

We have half term this week and I have told him we need to sit down and make a plan of what subjects he will revise so he doesn’t spend ages making that decision and then doing subjects he’s already good at!

BonjourCrisette · 19/02/2023 22:35

DD has done nothing over half term. She had mocks at the beginning of term and it was a bit brutal, not helped by her already being very tired from extra-curricular stuff she insisted on doing over the Christmas holidays. She really needed a proper break.

She's planning for this half term to do an hour a day (two 25 minute slots with a ten minute break) concentrating on doing questions on subjects/topics she finds hard and will then start doing more in the Easter holidays. She's still getting homework this term and some of that is revision so I think this is plenty for now. 3 hours sounds way too much to me. I think slow and steady is the way to go personally. I know if DD decided to do 3 hours on top of school, she'd probably do it for a week, end up exhausted and then have a panic about it all and end up not doing anything.

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