GCSE Supporting - first week nearly over

[overthehillswegoo]

New thread

I only know about Edexcel for English, sorry @Hersetta427. You can go onto the AQA website and check - the papers should be similar in terms of structure every year.

No it’s definitely 32 marks total for AQA- we have numerous past papers.

If it was AQA Eng Lit the unseen poetry is in two parts. First question is worth 24 marks and the second is only 8 marks.

So you already know they're not the same then

No I know that AQA is 32 marks, I have no idea what board the person who mentioned that the section was worth 20 marks was taking.

Or whether the reference to 20 marks was an error. I actually wish everyone did the exact same paper - would make it much fairer.

That was me. There is only one question on unseen poetry in edexcel and it's worth 20 marks.

As both my son and the other poster's son failed to answer the last question, I'm guessing @Letskeepgoing 's kid also did Edexcel

Totally agree they should all be the same. I don't know why there are different exam boards at all really.

Completely agree. Trying to standardise grading across papers that may be easier with higher grade boundaries or harder papers with lower boundaries must be a bloody nightmare- I never even considered that different boards had different mark schemes for essentially the same sections. Mind blown by how difficult this all all.

I just assumed they were all much of a muchness! I'm really shocked that your unseen poetry is worth so much more.

That seems v unfair.

Maybe it’s all relative if the other sections on edexel are worth the same as unseen poetry so the overall percentage of marks available is similar. Who knows. Am mightily relieved that for the first time ever Dd understood the unseen poems and from the sounds of it, did much better than she (or I ) were expecting. Was frankly amazed when she said she discussed extended metaphors. Could have knocked me down with a feather.

Physics study tonight? How is it going?

Its not DS is playing a football match. They have a full timetable and morning and after school boosters everyday. There is only so much information the brain can handle.

Ds is doing it in his room so I suspect not much is being done - but he had some in school today and we did some over easter and earlier in week.

DD1 has two A-level exams tomorrow also isn't revising - she has a headache and did fair bit earlier in day so is having an early night. So of course next door - usually quiet - is having drunk row in garden at moment.

Physics is going OK here, apart from the bit where she keeps sighing 'I really hate Physics'.

At the moment he's sat in the last of the day's sun chatting to his brother. Which is probably good for some de-stressing.

I expect he'll do a bit later and he's going to school early in the morning for last minute prep with the teacher. Beyond that it is what it is now. Fingers crossed for a paper that covers his stronger topics.

He does seem to be doing some Seneca - older stuff and DD1 has headphones on so isn't bothered yet by the noise.

Badly. She started when she got home at around 2pmish but stopped an hour ago because it was stressing her out and she felt she was learning less somehow. Too much stress bless her. She has Computing tomorrow too so is working on that right now and it's going a lot better than Physics so we're focusing on the positives.

Hope DS is happy with Physics tomorrow as it - along with Maths - is his strongest subject. He has actually been revising as he wants to make sure he gets a 9.

Then Comp Sci paper 2 in the pm. Paper 1 wasn't great but I understand paper 2 is coding which he is good at.

psych paper 2 on Friday. Then we'll be half way through. Good to kiss goodbye to all of psych, Comp Sci and Italian. 3 subjects totally done. Half term to prepare for the dreaded eng lang and the science paper 2s

Ds not so worried about physics, which worries me! He is just so ready for a break now.

Most detail on Eng Lit than any exam so far. Pretty positive. Asked where the matches were so he could burn his texts. I said recycling for photocopies is fine, actual textbooks to be saved for ds2.

Physics tomorrow, German on Friday.

Got him to do a past paper on German and when I told him to tell him time was up, he hadn't done the final question (90 words) as he couldn't decide which one to do. Aaargh. So I have said if that happens on Friday, just do the first one, there is no right answer and you won't get any marks if you don't answer either!

Yes so it was AQA in which case my son has lost 32 marks straight off. He said he was confused because you have to go through paper and slepfy the play you want to do, then the category of poetry and he said in class they haven't really done a focus on unseen poetry.
I hope he can still get a 4 somehow. He said he would have only had about 10mins left and he was worn out like his hands just paralysed?

All done for ds2 now until after half term. English Lit ticked off at the grand age of 14!

DofE silver expedition this weekend and Eisteddfod at the end of next week - it’s non stop!

@kennythekangaroo - I am so sorry for your loss. What an amazing young person your daughter is to be still going into an exam room. I hope the school have sorted every possible allowance for her.

My DD not happy with AQA English today. She didn’t finish and found it really tough. She said the unseen poetry is divided into two sections @Letskeepgoing - a 24-marker and an 8-marker. She didn’t get to the 8 marker and rushed the 24-marker. Maybe it wasn’t the whole section your DS missed out?

Dd OK with English lit. Aqa paper she was last out and used all of her extra time so 2 hrs 50 mins. HOY sent her to the canteen rather than class when she finished to recover. She made it into next class and played uno! Keeping them in is obviously very effective.... just finished physics and gone to watch queen Charlotte on nextflix now. Role on tomorrow pm .

It's tough isn't it. No he missed the whole bit 😕