Page 5 | GCSE Supporting - first week nearly over

TripleDaisySummer · 19/05/2023 11:29

My FIL is an exam invigilator and says it is surprising how many pupils turn up with nothing, not even a pen.

Last year even in the GCSE exams the school was insisting the kids used the schools handed out equipment not their own - DS said he had exams/tests with duff pens because of that - and insisting they use a school calculator. No idea why they did that.

This year they can take their own - usually carry in hands but I've suggest to both clear plastic bag would be easier - which I've said removes issue of duff equipment but DS did take some persuading.

DS has to hand his phone over exam days before leaving - as he forgot to mute his phone in a mock and bags were at back - so to avoid the issue it's left at home which he's arguing less about this year than last year.

Piony · 19/05/2023 11:34

Thank you for the new thread. I hope @TeenDivided , @lemonsaretheonlyfruit , @bendmeoverbackwards 's teens all made it in today and are ok.

DD says AQA Maths was hard, but she seems to have coped.

idril · 19/05/2023 11:37

Honeylemonandginger · 19/05/2023 11:04

Hi everyone.
Just joining the chat. My daughter was quite positive about maths today. However, she has just messaged to say it was difficult. AQA

My daughter also found AQA paper 1 really hard. She reasonable at maths but not a whizz. Her friend who normally gets nearly 100% in mocks even found it hard.

turtledovelove · 19/05/2023 11:37

May I join you all...DS is currently sitting his GCSE's.

Apparently 20 minutes into the Biology exam on Tuesday one student had to rush outside the hall and promptly threw up everywhere! DS said it was very very loud. Poor thing 🙁

bendmeoverbackwards · 19/05/2023 11:39

Oh dear, dd wasn’t happy after Maths (Edexcel) she said it was really hard.

pinkflop · 19/05/2023 11:42

It seems some of the maths exams were much shorter than others. My DS's was 2hrs 15mins long. Exam board is WJEC Eduqas.

christmastreefarm · 19/05/2023 11:45

Floraltears · 19/05/2023 11:28

My teen (edexcel paper) said it was ok, although it had questions they had never seen or heard of before today so had to leave them.

My daughter is second set maths at school. They don't teach whole curriculum to every set. The super hard grade 9 questions are only taught in class to set 1. The top proportion of set 2 were given then to work on out of class time. So it is quite likely for her school there will be stuff they haven't seen.

HappiDaze · 19/05/2023 11:45

Maths was Edexcel non calculator. So it seems AQA was the hard one.

DD biology was Edexcel which she found hard, English was AQA which DD was ok with and History was Edexcel which she found ok.

Seems all her exams are Edexcel except English which is AQA

OvaHere · 19/05/2023 11:47

Not heard from DS but probably won't until lunch. Feeling a bit gutted on seeing comments about how hard it was. I suppose the grade boundaries may be lower though.

I think DS was expecting, based on the rest of the weeks exams, for maths to also be a bit easier than the mocks. I did warn him not to assume that!

Still hoping he feels he did okay despite it being harder than anticipated.

Titsywoo · 19/05/2023 11:50

Ds said edexcel maths was easy. Harder than mocks though. He is however very good at maths and pretty consistently gets 9s. Computer science next and they have an hour booster session before.

TeddybearBaby · 19/05/2023 11:53

Another one saying AQA maths was really hard. He’s also kicking himself because he knows he got overwhelmed and messed up one of the easier questions. It’s done now, won’t dwell on it!

bendmeoverbackwards · 19/05/2023 11:54

Was it just my dd who found Edexcel Maths hard? I’m worried now. She’s quite good at maths and got a 6 in the mocks.

Purrfecto · 19/05/2023 11:57

My daughter found edexcel hard too, she’s aiming for a 7 ideally. She’s hoping she can turn things around with the calculator papers.

ggccsseeeee · 19/05/2023 11:57

bendmeoverbackwards · 19/05/2023 11:54

Was it just my dd who found Edexcel Maths hard? I’m worried now. She’s quite good at maths and got a 6 in the mocks.

DD found it OK but she is predicted a 9 ( on a good day...)..

OhhLaaLaa · 19/05/2023 11:57

IGCSE maths here today, think it is Edexcel. Fingers crossed it went ok for DD as she was in top set but begged to be moved down a set so she could consolidate what she had learned rather than going on to do further maths. She has always loved maths, but the speed of which topics were covered in top set (to allow for further maths in Y11) really disheartened her. I hope she gets her passion back, not that she needs it for her career, just so she can feel that she made the right choice in moving down!

Comp Sci this afternoon and she's dreading it. Appalling teaching apparently, and they only just managed to finish the course on the last lesson before the exams! She's hoping to scrape a 6 as although she's not continuing Comp Sci studies, her sixth form requires 6 min in all subjects. Going to be a very stressful few weeks as I'm not sure she'll get the required grades

As always, good luck to all

Hellocatshome · 19/05/2023 12:00

Anyone heard about OCR maths?

Beccaboo822 · 19/05/2023 12:00

Oh no this isn't good to hear. Son doing higher and aiming for a 4/5
Haven't heard from him yet...:-(

yikes88 · 19/05/2023 12:00

Hi , DS not back from school yet as has a chemistry booster session after Maths edexel gcse. He wants to do Maths at A- level so wondered if anyone who has heard already knows why it was thought hard??

MsElizabethBennett · 19/05/2023 12:00

IGCSE Edexcel went ok, pretty happy child. Maths not a favourite at all.

julesover40 · 19/05/2023 12:00

Can I join? Not heard from DD yet, she had AQA maths this morning.
She is worn out already, very early starts with last minute revision but on the whole seems fairly happy with this weeks exams. Much more full on next week, geography and chemistry Monday 😓Hoping she manages a few good stretches of rest/ relaxation between revision this weekend.

Floraltears · 19/05/2023 12:01

@christmastreefarm thank you, I didn’t know that. We’re aiming for a 5 so that makes sense.

Madcats · 19/05/2023 12:02

DD messaged to say that she was pleased with the IGCSE maths paper (Edexcel). She makes careless mistakes so her grade will probably depend on whether she checked back over her work.

Computer Science for us this afternoon - hopefully she is sat in the library revising (rather sat outside chatting with her friends). She announced that she no longer wants to do the A level so I am not overly optimistic.

HappiDaze · 19/05/2023 12:02

The more difficult questions will always be hard

When DD says it was ok she means she could answer a few as opposed to none - she is just aiming for a pass.

The harder questions she knows are out of her reach so she won't include them in what she deems hard as to her there were always going to be impossible

CalmConfident · 19/05/2023 12:03

Strong mathematician DS here….said it was harder than mocks. Tough questions which really challenge the top set kids, some questions hardly anyone answered

GinGella · 19/05/2023 12:05

OhhLaaLaa · 19/05/2023 11:57

IGCSE maths here today, think it is Edexcel. Fingers crossed it went ok for DD as she was in top set but begged to be moved down a set so she could consolidate what she had learned rather than going on to do further maths. She has always loved maths, but the speed of which topics were covered in top set (to allow for further maths in Y11) really disheartened her. I hope she gets her passion back, not that she needs it for her career, just so she can feel that she made the right choice in moving down!

Comp Sci this afternoon and she's dreading it. Appalling teaching apparently, and they only just managed to finish the course on the last lesson before the exams! She's hoping to scrape a 6 as although she's not continuing Comp Sci studies, her sixth form requires 6 min in all subjects. Going to be a very stressful few weeks as I'm not sure she'll get the required grades

As always, good luck to all

Similar here with computer science not heard from DD and I think awful exam scheduling for her. Hoping maths hasn't sent her into a spin as although she has always done well in maths we had similar discussions around further maths which she opted not to do. Not been a bad week overall though for her content wise and one week down!! Hope everyone gets some down time over the weekend..chemistry first for us next week which DD is nervous about. Bring on the end of June.