GCSE support - the final frontier!

[SheilaFentiman]

These are the voyages of the GCSE Enterprise. To support our DCs, bemoan exam boards and to boldly go through the last fortnight like no one has gone before!

I do feel for all the students sitting exams with raging hay fever - let alone nose bleeds and migraines - it's hard enough without additional problems/distractions.

DS was very happy with AQA English Language. He said that Business Studies was 'Meh' very hot on the exam hall and didn't manage to finish one of the questions.
Chemistry tomorrow.

Daughter did business and said it was "good" which is better than the "English was bad" message I got earlier. Just glad that's 2 more down. 5 to go....

Thanks for the good wishes. She has always suffered from nose bleeds but not had one for a while. It's the heat and maybe air pressure I think. She said that she had a headache yesterday that wouldn't shift even by drinking a lot so maybe we shouldn't be surprised. Anyway, she was quite philosophical when she came home, at least it wasn't paper 1 which she usually does really well in. And she did get 8 extra minutes! Now focussed on Chemistry and Spanish.

DD say English, Latin and Business today. She said each exam was ok meh. Chemistry tomorrow morning. It’s a tough schedule. I am really proud of how she is handling the pressure, biggest problem is she is really struggling to sleep with the stress. I do think there are two many exams for GCSE!

Well done everyone. Another ticked off the list!
Chemistry tomorrow! Suits my son much better than English so he's feeling much better about tomorrow.

Dd was happy with AQA English. In fact she was very pleased with herself. She was hysterical over the last English exam so this has been good to hear. We just need a 3. Fingers crossed!

I got that too @Felixinthefactory! I'm really running out of steam with the cheerleading and positivity. It's very tiring!

Same here both exams said we’re good - but that can mean anything .

managed to get 20 minutes revision today for Chemistry tomorrow ..

I am so ready for the end so must be so much worse for the kids.

Wish me luck. I'm off to M&S for the third time in three days in search of a pack of maple syrup and raisin pancakes. DS decided weeks ago that they are the only thing he can eat for breakfast before exams and they were sold out on Saturday and yesterday. He had our last two today and he'll be doing maths on an empty stomach if they don't restock. He's had this awful nausea for months and has huge anxiety about it, so it's not just him being fussy. We tried three other varieties over the weekend and none passed muster.

Good luck @spiderlight

My DD did the speech about public transport in AQA exam but for some reason felt she wouldn’t do it justice if she based it on where we live in London (where public transport is good) so elected to pretend she lived where her cousins do in a rural village! Not sure how that will have gone but I made suitably encouraging noises when she told me 🤦🏼‍♀️😂 Chemistry and Spanish for her tomorrow.

DS2 has predicted a 6 for his English Language. Seems very precise but DS1 accurately predicted almost all of his GCSE grades!

Chem and Spanish here tomorrow too.
Spanish revision - nada.

Haha I have the same thing with DS and pain au chocolats. I swear it’s like hotel level catering and concierge service going on here.

Ds been revising since he came home around lunchtime. Not had dinner even. Got him a tango blast slushy earlier as requested. At least the weather is a lot cooler. I feel like I can’t even disturb him or knock on his door. Mmm is this the new normal?

The snacks stories reminded me of this picture from the year of Doom - DD A levels and DS2 GCSEs - all I felt able to do was provide snacks and more snacks. Good luck to everyone's DC for the final push!

Those snacks look like marking snacks to me...

Loving the snacks and food stories! DS must have crumpets in the mornings, and I keep on throwing ‘random’ sweets at him tonight across the kitchen as he sits there with his head in a CGP Chemistry book! 😂

I have a very hazy recollection of two hefty back-to-back A level papers I sat in the 80's in a hot temporary creosote-painted temporary classroom, with a bouncy floor. It was a mistake to have 1/4lb of jelly teddies as my preferred snack.

I've taken the view that DD just needs to finish the week without hayfever and heat-wave scuppering anything.

If she turns out to be crap at revising, she might actually listen to me about how to fix things for A levels and beyond.

We're on the home straight!

I get this my ds refuses to eat in school . I felt a pant of success When he came home hot and had a cornetto for lunch .

I do as big a breakfast as he will eat in the morning

if I had a pound for every cup of tea I have made him over the last few months, I would be hitting a Michelin starred restaurant for dinner!

If I had a pound for every single cup of tea I’ve consumed in these last 4 weeks, I’d be mightily rich too! 😉

I think my DS sounds like the only one who has refused all attempts to be nice and motherly towards him during exams.

Apparently me offering to get him snacks and make his favourite meals and get up with him in the morning to say bye before he leaves for school is "making a big thing of it" so life here has continued pretty much as it always has.

He has just come in from the gym and microwaved his tea (as in evening meal) as per normal because the rest of us like to actually eat at meal times and now at 20 past 9 is "making a start" on chemistry revision.

Oh don’t worry Eldest DS doing A levels is just the same - won’t even really accept any offers of good luck, help or conversation! Just a grunt and off he goes. His standard phrase is ‘we’ll find out on results day, so there’s no point in discussing it” - does wonders for my anxiety and caffeine intake!!!

That will be my younger one in 2 years time (minus the microwave only cos we don’t have one).