GCSE supporting - to half term, and beyond!

[SheilaFentiman]

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

Welsh here tomorrow morning (will not go well). Geography and digital technology on Friday, and then just the last English and Maths papers next Monday and Wednesday.

DD said higher maths was ok so thinks she'll pass and found the octagon question impossible but was pleased she definitely got another tricky one right as someone posted the answer after to check.
History was ok but she had no idea re the 12 marker so again hopefully enough to pass,

She'll be home revising tomorrow for Fridays Triple Biology exam so fingers crossed for that because she hated the Biology exam.

I’ve just had to have a talk about plan b. Eurgghh further maths is still on, but paper 3 is going to be crucial. Ds needs an 8 for maths to do Further Maths.

My dd has nothing. I think there is a PE exam.

The Octagon question for Edexcel Maths has spawned a whole article on the Daily Mail. Answer also provided there.

Nothing here today. Hopefully some biology revision.
Dd has a singing lesson and a choir rehearsal( she has a solo for armed forces day)
This should chill her out a bit. I have a practical child not an academic child and we have dreaded the gcse nightmare.

Oh that's ridiculous. (Sorry)

If you are going to have a grade 9 you need some way to distinguish the students, so of course you need questions that even those who are top of top sets may struggle with.
As I (think I) said earlier, there wasn't any actual technical maths above foundation level, it was the 'seeing' what you had to do.

If nothing else, it is a good prep for A level where things will get a whole lot harder.

DS has a 16th birthday and a PE exam today, also revision for biology and geography tomorrow. DS is unimpressed but assuming he goes on to do A levels then the positive take is that he's birthday will be on a Sunday in 2 years time. DD also has A level English Lit so it's a busy household this morning.

@Neversaygoodbye Happy 16th birthday to your son today.
Dd says both Maths and History went well yesterday, so all releived . No exams today but she is planning on going in to School for revision sessions for both Geography and Biology tomorrow.
Good luck to all doing PE exam today x

I've been up early looking at YouTube to see how I can help my son ready for English Lang Monday and have come across Mr Everything. He seems to really know his stuff. Looking at the English Language paper though, it's not easy is it. You have to be really on it to complete all these questions in the time frame.

First further maths exam today. Think this will be a tough one

Looking at the English Language paper though, it's not easy is it. You have to be really on it to complete all these questions in the time frame.
If it's AQA:

• don't read the extracts first
• read Q1, do it.
• read the bit of the text you need to answer on, then it's a max of a minute and a half per mark on the reading section.
• Don't skip q4 - loads of candidates to, and it's actually pretty easy to pick up a few marks there

Dd has been through the mark scheme thing on tik tok.Now is worried she has done too well and therefore the grade boundaries will be high. Absolutely cannot win with her.

I think it's quite tough and I did A level English. A lot to cover in the time and hard to cover the how as well as the what.

FM Paper 1 today. Will take a different mindset for most; have to accept they might not be able to answer everything!

Good luck to everyone sitting exams today x Day off for us today with Geography and Biology revision.

He is being too hard on himself.

DS has a day off today.
I'm annoyed with his school as they had a timetable for after school maths / science / English boosters until next Thursday but they've scrapped them. That was one part of revision he would actually do. Now he has no lessons and no boosters and he won't do solo revision.

Yeah this is why looking at answers / discussions of the content after the exam is a really bad idea.

I realise you probably can’t stop her but our policy is five minutes max on ‘how did it go’ and then ‘what’s next?’. You / they can’t change anything at this stage.

Good to get it out of the way, my son's further maths is two weeks tomorrow (and his last exam by almost a week)

Thank you.
My son never completes an English Lang paper. I keep saying a minute a mark roughly but he always struggles with this and he also says he has times where he just freezes. He got a 4 in mock so fingers crossed.

I've discouraged my son from looking at any answers online, what's done is done now.

Happy Birthday to your DS, and good luck in the exams.

PE for DD today, then Geography and Biology tomorrow. Then 'just' 6 more next week and we are done.

DD and a few of her close friends have all been invited over to a friends house after the last exam next Friday - this girl has a large heated outdoor pool so there is much excitement in this camp. Then we fly to spain the next morning to see the grandparents (and more importantly for DD I think) to get a tan for prom !!