GCSE supporting - to half term, and beyond!

[SheilaFentiman]

Making a new thread to support half term revision and the set of GCSEs afterwards!

I've just double checked with my brother and I've got this wrong! He met him at a young astronomers conference!

No, an 8 mark one.
He does question 1 to ease into it and then straight to the largest mark one.

Thats a good tactic then. FIngers crossed for him.

DS said English went really well. He is generally quite strong on English but usually does a bit better in Literature so I'm taking it as a good sign.

Maths and Biology continue to be the main concern due to the grades he needs for college.

Sometimes I think way didn't you just apply for A level English as it's clearly one of your strong subjects? But I don't say it. Not my choice at the end of the day. 😁

Eng lang today was the first where ds said it didn't go great. He ran out of time on the 40 marker and only got a page and a bit typed for it. I said for the next paper he needs to answer the biggest one first. We are only looking for him to pass as English is not easy for him.

Got a thumbs up emoji and “Pretty good” when I asked how English Language went. Doubt I’ll get much more from her when she’s back from school.

Really hope she gets the 4 she needs as this is her weakest subject and got a 3 for her March mocks. Won’t let me help with revision but hopefully the work she’s been doing with her tutor and the occasional YouTube video I send her have helped.

She’s struggled with motivation over half term, especially with the weather being so nice. She’s spent a lot of time stretch out in the garden, surrounded by books and notes, but not sure how much actual revision gets done. Her school have them in until 14th following the normal timetable but with independent study expected in the subjects where all exams are complete.

Sent a quick message to DS to see how he is (trying not to appear too concerned) after Eng Lang (his nemesis) and before French this afternoon. He said it went ok. Q5 has been his downfall but he said he wrote about a squirrel leading him through the forest to an underground bunker, to find that he'd been recruited into the secret service. This the boy that has had no imagination and stares at a blank page. I realise it's not about imagination but about a whole host of other things but - frankly - I'm just relieved he wrote something.

Having felt sick for the last 24 hours, I'm now in celebratory mood and am going to have a large lunch. Then I'll start to worry about Paper next Monday.

Hope it has gone well for everyone today.

DD's school offer further maths as an after-school option in Y11 - one hour once a week. DD has largely taught herself as the after-school sessions clashed with her job (though teacher went on mat leave a couple of months ago and provision has been patchy for the whole group since). She's not feeling all that confident about it, but the actual Maths GCSE is the one she needs a result in, and that should be OK.

DS is home benefits of study leave now- few afternoons this week - but first time he's expressed any concerns and it's the English language exam -thought atmosphere article stuff was hard but otherwise okay.

FM is resourced sooooo differently at schools; just one of the many things where there is no level-playing field (from not offering it all to teaching it in class for Y11). Clearly there are more pressing inequalities to worry about.

DS thinks it went really well, but he tends to overestimate himself in English.

All that concentrated revision yesterday really helped, and his confidence. This is his weakest subject, along with English Lit, but the revision and long hours and YouTube videos are all paying off. Hope he did okay.

@Hersetta427 my dd is very late august as well and already hit the job issue - hasn't even thought about how it affected a that 18 yo stuff (except not being able to go to pub / club on results day!)

3sthemagicnumber school way of teaching additional maths does seem particularly poor.

Though at least they offer it I suppose.

DD1 was supposed to be first year their school did it but covid and teacher pushing it though leaving meant it was year after. At school sixth form selling evening the maths teacher did say it improved the schools AS level results - and the college maths teachers did seem to prefer it being done.

So if DS does well great if not - well he's already got maths GCSE needed - and he had an early go at some of the next step maths he'll be doing.

Anyone else sit OCR English Language? Am really pissed off that it was all about food and weight loss - DD is recovering from anorexia, if it was just her then maybe it could be argued they can't monitor the topic for for fear of just one person's problem, but I'm shocked that they thought this was a good choice given the numbers of teens suffering with EDs. She did it, but was a little bit shaken up. FFS!!

Agree any subject can be problematic for any child, but that does seem like a particularly poor choice.

@thespy that’s terrible, so many other topics to choose from! Don’t these exam boards have any sense?

@thespy that is very poor - maybe worth raising with the exam board itself as perhaps it just wasn't considered what effect this could have on some teens.

@thespy that was clumsy of them, of all the topics why bring up weight loss and diet for children! Hope your DD is ok. My DD has a sensible attitude around food (so far) but I still wouldn’t want her answering exam questions around this topic or my DS either for that matter.

@thespy - that's awful!! Given the GCSE demographic, that will have affected a lot of kids today. I would definitely be sending a very strongly worded email to the school and the exam board.

WJEC English seems to have gone well. Lots of stuff about music, apparently, and an essay about Hillary Clinton. He needed a five-minute fresh air break because his nausea got really bad, but he finished the paper and he's come home fairly buoyant, although he has a friend with him so I won't get the full lowdown until I get him on his own.

Thanks for the support! I'm giving myself a cooling off period - obviously I haven't actually seen the paper, but Gillian McKeith? Of all the people!

That's great to hear. Must be a big relief. Mine has struggled with q5 too but seemed happy with how it went today. Your DS's story sounds great!

@thespy

Yes DS said it was "You are what you eat" by Gillian McKeith. A silly choice when there are literally 100s of others to choose from!

Gillian McKeith! Splutters. The woman with no qualifications! The irony.

GILLIAN McKEITH??!!