GCSE supporting - to half term, and beyond!

[SheilaFentiman]

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

I can understand that. Maybe, sometime in the future, they'll be glad to to impress someone with their knowledge on a starlit night 😀

I have never heard anyone say before its best to agree with the statement. DD said she disagreed also. Was something along the lines of do you agree with the statement that the writer presented the hyena as funny. DD was a bit garbled so I may have it wrong too. The invigilator should never read a question also.

English was ok here apparently & we now have a dog as it featured in her descriptive writing.
Greek was apparently ok too and also finished for ever!

DD said absolutely should have disagreed.

I got a text from DD after English language
They went in this morning, absolutely wetting their pants they would fail/it would be stupidly hard etc.
The text?

"Omg, the actual test that lot blessed us with, the prompts, OMG the prompts, I wrote like 6 pages, it was giving me horror realness, and I think I did well but ahhhh!"

So I reckon they've done OK.

Ds apparently wrote about a mass escape in a zoo and animals eating people's faces 🤦🏻‍♀️🤷🏻‍♀️

Mmm well there’s a few things online saying better to always agree as it’s often worded ‘A student thought blah blah blah… how far do you agree etc. and the teacher told all the students during mocks and lessons etc. V frustrating if they have been told this and it’s wrong. Sure she would have found lots of evidence to disagree but was scouting for anything to back up the agree argument. I hate this secret code for answering question that they are told. Hopefully she has made a convincing argument.

DS has also been told to always agree.

I've not seen the paper, but the question is always worded in the same way and there are always things that candidates can agree with. That's not to say they'll be penalised for not agreeing - that's not how the mark scheme works.

Yes, DS has also now finished EDT (Electronics) and Greek for ever! He thought that today's Odyssey paper was better than the Herodotus one before half term.

He's another one doing maths/further maths all together. Top two sets get taught FM once they've finished M, which for him was a couple of months. Hmm.

Ds said he agreed in the main but then also put some contrasting points to disagree.

Thanks MrsHamlet ( sorry no idea how to post the comment I’m replying to) good to know you don’t lose marks either way. And interesting that your DS Whatisitn0w was also told to agree.

Dd messaged me after English to tell me it went surprisingly OK.
If she fails anything it will be English.

She's also been sent her photography mark, 71 out of 96, but as she can't remember the exam board she doesn't know what grade it relates to.

I feel for those young people affected by illness in exams. I had terrible migraines as a teen - so debilitating. And stress definitely makes it worse so I can totally see how 2 exams in a day would have been a classic trigger. I used to find if I could ‘catch’ mine early enough and drink cold water and painkillers before it took hold properly that could stave it off. But everyone is different and it took me years to get to the point of being able to spot when one was on its way.

Not the best day for DD, she only managed to type a page and a bit for the creative writing even though she used all her extra time. She didn't finish the paper either. Just couldn't get the words out. I wouldn't worry so much except she is set on doing essay subjects for A level.

Great that kids are getting the opportunity to do FM, however it's delivered. It's run as a twilight session at ours, which I think is amazing.

DS said he ran out of things to say for Q4. Was that the life of Pi one?

No idea how DS did for today's Eng Lang - he just said it was "good", which is his stock response to every exam so far. He has however finally been given his AQA Drama NEA mark for his revised performance and portfolio - 77/80. Obviously this is subject to moderation but he is cautiously very pleased. Hopefully the news will lift his flagging spirits.

DS2 said he wrote a creative piece about a man and a bull.
I said, that sounds interesting, like a matador?
He just stared at me blankly 🤣

Just told DD that, they said "that sounds epic, they'd definitely be mates with my group if they went to my school"

They wrote about a nightmare where the character has been watching too much Netflix and their dreams are disturbed by characters from Stranger Things, amongst others.

For anyone concerned about what their dc wrote about; dd recalls that for hers, in 2017, she wrote about someone on a train and there was a murder (reffing Agatha Christie I gather, hence it had to be on a train) and the storyline was “write about a journey on a bus.

They want you to write, but the actual topic is not so very vital, as long as you write engagingly and perhaps loosely to the task. Dd got a 9 btw.

For those concerned about length - especially of typed scripts - don't be. A side and half, typed, is quite a lot.

Dd just told me.she wrote about being left.in a supermarket que. They asked.for a childhood event/ memory . She uses this! It's the educas paper . No idea what the other bit was, but she seems OK. Head now.in maths.and F maths ( which was taught in class but they have only done half......

My daughter has always been taught to agree or partial agree to question 4, she felt it would have been better to disagree today but went with partial agree.
She’d been watching YouTube and that’s the same advice teachers on there gave too.

The mark scheme doesn't require you to agree.

The dreaded english lang and french writing here today. The highest he's ever got in lang was a 3 so there's a lot riding on it. I got a shrug and a "ok" when asked how it went. He managed to get something down which was a positive. He's come out of exams before not having written anything.

Nothing tomorrow, next exam is maths on wed.