Page 6 | GCSE Supporting - first week nearly over

christmastreefarm · 19/05/2023 12:07

@OhhLaaLaa

My daughter was moved down a set at the start of Y10. It was the best thing that could have happened for her. In set 1 the pace was just a little too fast for her and she felt really negative about it. In set 2 she has a great teacher she has clicked with and they just take things the tiny bit slower that she needs.

Hersetta427 · 19/05/2023 12:09

DD said Edexl Higher paper was OK - better than expected. Pissed that exact values didn't come up as she had learnt them all parrott fashion.

SHe did say that a lot found it swful though - there were girls crying she said.

LighthouseCat · 19/05/2023 12:10

AQA higher here. DD hoping for 9. Said it had lots of hard problem solving. She was fine but it was definitely harder than the mocks

memenotea · 19/05/2023 12:10

Waiting to hear about OCR maths here.

CCL333 · 19/05/2023 12:17

Another one here whose DS is a maths whizz and even he said it was a bit tough. I think it was AQA. He hasn’t done a huge amount of maths revision as he’s been focusing his attention on English where he really struggles. It’s such a hard balancing act.

Saisong · 19/05/2023 12:23

Sounds like my DD did the right thing in moving down to the AQA foundation paper, after her teacher suggested it after Easter. Maths is not her favourite subject, she really struggles with decoding word questions. Give her a bit of trig or algebra and she is fine funnily enough. She needs a 5 for college.

I'm a bit disappointed in the division between higher and foundation though. DD finds the foundation papers very easy - consistently gets 5, but only gets 4s in the higher papers. So this strategy is definitely her best bet. Pretty sure she could get a 6 if the right questions came up. I wish there was still an intermediate paper that could better accommodate those middle ground kids, who can calculate but not apply higher order skills.

mumonthehill · 19/05/2023 12:23

Ds said maths was great- beginning to think he may be over confident!! A positive week for us. Just hope he has done as well as he thinks....,,,,

pinkflop · 19/05/2023 12:27

@Saisong same for my DS, he's definitely on the cusp but the school refused to move him to foundation as he has the potential to achieve a 6. Really wish there was an intermediate paper!

Beccaboo822 · 19/05/2023 12:32

Just heard from DS who said it was 'good' he's doing higher, predicted a 4 so that's surprising after some of the comments on here. I'm not sure what board

ChristmasLightsLover · 19/05/2023 12:34

Marking my place...

DA has struggled to get up this last year. He's always there for form time, just a bit late. Clearly he can't do that with the exams but he's in the habit of skidding in and we're trying to not argue about it most mornings.

Haven't heard from him on maths. Fingers crossed. On a good day he could be a 7. Bad day, it's a 5. Fingers crossed for all of them.

ladybee2 · 19/05/2023 12:35

DS text me that Maths higher was 'lovely'.
Have a restful weekend everyone.

kidstaxidriver · 19/05/2023 12:40

IGCSE maths Edexcel - pretty much as expected but we don’t tackle the last third of the paper so they try to focus on ensuring the first half is correct! DS took great delight in telling me he’d checked one of the answers needed to be given as 3SF…… we laughed loudly as this is a major breakthrough in our house for a child that rushes through, doesn’t check or read anything properly! Just have to hope there’s not too many careless mistakes and the first half of the paper or so is right…..

kidstaxidriver · 19/05/2023 12:41

Hope those that were retaking and anxious about today are ok

clary · 19/05/2023 12:49

So sorry didn’t mean to panic everyone with my protractor story - it was meant to be funny! Worst thing is, after I spent ££ on a complete maths set (all I could find) he didn’t even use it lol.

good to hear re equipment @Hellocatshome and @ggccsseeeee , hopefully most schools do similar.

Hope it went well for everyone Yy esp @TeenDivided ’s dd

btw while “easier” exams may mean higher boundaries, IME these vary only slightly, and even if they are a bit higher, it’s soooo much better for students to sit an “easier” exam where they feel they really can do it and as a consequence write more fluently.

TeddybearBaby · 19/05/2023 12:55

My DS is thinking of doing the next maths paper back to front so he can leave the exam on a high and like he is capable as opposed to stressed because of the very difficult questions at the end. Does anyone have an opinion on doing it that way? Makes me nervous for some reason!

Neversaygoodbye · 19/05/2023 12:55

DS edexel maths said it went ok and he thinks he's got the 5 he needs for college. School said he's capable of a 6 and he sat the higher paper but he's consistently underperformed in mocks only getting a 4, so we'll just be happy with a 5.

pinkflop · 19/05/2023 12:56

Finally heard from DS. It was 'pretty good' apparently. He is a boy of few words 😂

thespy · 19/05/2023 13:01

Hello - new to the thread but have a GCSE sitter. Maths today was "not too shabby" edexel higher tier. Despite thinking they received zero marks for the last question as they had no clue 😱

For English earlier in the week apparently there was a "gorgeous" question. Not a word I'd ever have used about exam q's so that made me laugh. Most importantly DD has actually coped - this time last year for mocks we had refusal to go in due to terrible anxiety. Getting through these is a major win, doing well will be a bonus 🤞🤞

grass321 · 19/05/2023 13:01

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.

I know a few kids who found it really tough. My son thought it was ok but he's doing A level maths.

AfingeroffudgeisNOTenough · 19/05/2023 13:02

DD said maths was good (CCEA - M4) Not the easiest paper she’s ever done, but pretty good and she was happy with it. Only one question she couldn't get, and she had plenty of time to spare so had time to go over everything. Other people said it was awful though and said it was the hardest paper they’ve ever done so who knows!

bendmeoverbackwards · 19/05/2023 13:03

Thank you @grass321 dd said apparently they need 50% for a 6, not sure if that’s accurate and I suppose the grade boundaries change each year. I’m hoping the other papers will be kinder.

SomersetBrie · 19/05/2023 13:07

Saisong · 19/05/2023 12:23

Sounds like my DD did the right thing in moving down to the AQA foundation paper, after her teacher suggested it after Easter. Maths is not her favourite subject, she really struggles with decoding word questions. Give her a bit of trig or algebra and she is fine funnily enough. She needs a 5 for college.

I'm a bit disappointed in the division between higher and foundation though. DD finds the foundation papers very easy - consistently gets 5, but only gets 4s in the higher papers. So this strategy is definitely her best bet. Pretty sure she could get a 6 if the right questions came up. I wish there was still an intermediate paper that could better accommodate those middle ground kids, who can calculate but not apply higher order skills.

I totally agree with this. DS is a solid 4-6 student and was advised to do foundation at Easter as well. He finds foundation really easy, but that's not to say he'll definitely get a 5 - and he needs a 5 for his future choices. An intermediate paper would have been perfect for him.

powerrangers · 19/05/2023 13:09

kidstaxidriver · 19/05/2023 04:40

Thanks for setting up new thread! Woke up early still cursing the IGSE Biology paper and wondering if he even passed it! Fingers crossed to everyone got maths today!

Was that the edexcel igcse biology on Monday?

TeenDivided · 19/05/2023 13:11

Thank you @CallmeIT and @minisnowballs and anyone else.
DD went in but only lasted just over the hour and says she forgot how to do percentages the non calculator way (she could do it yesterday). In fact on the way home, she gave me a list of things she hadn't been able to do...
She prefers the calculator papers as her mental maths is rubbish, so there is still hope. If only I could get her to actually stay in the exam longer.

kidstaxidriver · 19/05/2023 13:11

Yes!