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!

Yes, I am! I’ve.had a few DLS themed usernames over the years but I like this for being a “real name”

Brilliant! Might rename myself EilunedPrice after the feisty lesbian in Strong Poison. Love Sheila for being a working woman supporting her husband.

Ooh, that’s a good name!

I had a really interesting convo with ds yesterday. Poor thing let me know he will be really devastated if he doesn’t get a 9 for Maths. It’s because all his friends did in his mocks and he “only got an 8” We unpicked it and that’s not the case at all. I’m sad that he is putting so much pressure on himself but so glad he told me. I’m not mad keen on the 1-9 grade scheme, I’m not going to lie.

Would be great to keep the thread going, it’s been invaluable! DS has to to collect results in person only and he will be surrounded by high functioning kids who will have lots of 7s upwards. So long as he passes, we’ve told him he’ll be fine. He’s not found it easy and it’s made me realise over the last few weeks how much you find out so much about your child’s personality. We had 8 different cups on the go yesterday - I pity whoever he ends up living with!! Thankfully he’s horizontal and when I asked him how he might feel when some of his friends do very well, he just said he’d be really pleased for them. I’d take that! It’s not been an easy 4 weeks and certainly not one I’d like to relieve (this waking early is driving me mad!!), but it has in some
ways felt like a rite of passage they have to go through - perhaps a meaningless one in some ways - and I agree with @disappointed101 that this 1-9 system isn’t great. When eldest child did GCSEs there were so many children upset they had a 7 and not a 9……a 7 is still an A, but I think this system (and some schools!!) makes children think they’ve failed in some way because they’ve not got the top ‘grade’……. Anyhow, more physics and geog here today - at least we managed to locate his fieldwork in the pile of muddled papers yesterday!! Now to make sense of it 🤦‍♀️😂 good luck to anyone with exams today…….. found out a friend of my eldest is doing the last A level on the 26th June. I simply cannot imagine having to keep going for that long! Poor kid (and parents!)

Yes, DC thinks anything less than an 8 is a fail, and getting fewer 9s than their friends means they are stupid. This is a child who had a major operation 4 months before the main exams started, and was unable to be in school for the 90% of the spring term. They have done amazingly just to be able to sit anything, they have had to harness a lot of determination and self motivation. I am very proud of them. But the expectations...esp in the light of missing so much school...

Yes that's a good idea!

History here today, then just Physics left to go tomorrow. History is ds's favourite subject and he really enjoys the WW1 and WW2 topics. He's doing history A level and hoping to do history and politics at uni so this is one of the important exams for him. The sixth form college don't even require GCSE history to do it at A level but he wants a good grade in case his chosen university take it into account if there's lots of competition for places

I think 9s are pointless and stress inducing. They are really only there for bragging rights, with no practical purpose. If you want to see who 'the best' are you look at their A level results.

These threads often turn into Prom & NCS threads, go quiet for a bit and then bounce back mid August with people starting to worry about results.

I agree about 9's! Why did they have to change it from A,B and C'a etc? Everyone knew where they stood then. Surely if you keep introducing more grades at the top eg A and A ** it devalues the grades below! Madness

Meant to be A *

The end is in sight. History today for DD, also an A level choice so hoping she has a good day. Then 2 tomorrow and done.
Thankfully her friends are a pretty mixed bunch academically, so no peer pressure for top grades, She puts the pressure on herself. I'm just pleased she has come through them both mentally and emotionally unscathed.
Good luck today x

Good luck to all those with exams today. I'm so thankful DD has a day off. She is so tired, and despite being fairly relaxed up to this point she started to spiral last night when she realised she'd made an error on the earlier maths paper. DD's hopes/expectations are v high. At a point now though where I just think she'll have to learn to cope with disappointment. I got very mediocre GCSEs. Went on to storm it at A-levels when I'd finally figured out how to revise and how to do exams.

Ds not chosen History for A-level despite being predicted grade 8 for it. He’s naturally good at it, and loves it. So I’m sad it will be the last time he will do it 🥹 He said he’s feeling confident but there was a complacency about this by only going through his flash cards and exam questions instead of workbook. Not sure about his revision tactics on this, but I guess he knows what he is doing. Hope his gamble works.

I say grades here because it relates to the level of stress. People shouldn’t be offended by other people’s expectations, predictions, paths. It adds to the extreme highs and extreme lows.

It’s something I wouldn’t mention in RL to be honest, because people don’t like hearing about it especially as they cannot help but compare and feel bad about that. I feel better here amongst (lovely) strangers. But I don’t think it’s about bragging or smugness. It’s about managing expectations of our children and like anything else, how low they will feel afterwards when they don’t get that grade how to cope. I am extremely honest in this department. I will tell you that his grade 9s brings a lot of expectations and pressure like nothing else. He has cried so many times during this exam season. The pressure is over the roof. And I don’t want to turn around and say “your grades don’t matter” because what that says is, “your grades don’t matter to me” . And clearly they matter to him. So they are important in mentioning. The regrets of should we have done it any different. Shall I take a different option. Should I get him a bloody tutor or a therapist??!! Or be a friend who supports him in his dreams?

Top grades are tricky. DS is smart, works hard and hopefully his outcomes will reflect that. I am bracing myself for comparison with friends in different schools. Local school mix here is complicated, there is no selective grammar or suchlike just heavily oversubscribed “best” state school, struggling mixed comprehensives and a couple of mid-league independents (not your Eton/Harrow level) .

@PicnicBunny agree it brings stress. My daughter is a strong 8/ borderline 9 for maths. She was predicted an 8 which she was perfectly happy with. They changed it to a 9 in April ish time and now she feels like she will have failed if she doesn't hit that 9.

She has said herself she wishes they had left predicted grade as it was.

@PicnicBunny You misunderstand me, I think.

I think the existence of 9s is relatively pointless because it brings unnecessary stress to the perfectionist high achievers without being any practical benefit.
It isn't that, given that they do exist, parents shouldn't be able to talk about the pressure they bring.

However on that general note. I hope that on results day we don't get parents of kids who have achieved 7s saying their kids results were 'bad' or 'awful' which has happened in some years. It is fine for parents to be disappointed they were lower than they could have been, but in any objective sense 7s are good.

(Really I think many parents of academic strugglers might prefer just to see 'delighted met/beat predictions' rather than all the 7s, 8s and 9s listed out but that's never going to happen. And if people can't boast on results day anonymously on MN, then that would be a shame too.)

DS is very lucky to find things easy so as a result expects a lot of 9s. I have drummed it into him that you don't go round talking about your results though - it's all to do with doing your best.
I have a friend who said the other day that if it was based on effort, her DS totally deserves to get all 9s but the reality is that it doesn't work like that. I really felt for her.

I think the last few years have given the children an unachievable expectation that there will be lots of nines - anyone who was capable of one basically got one last year, whereas before it was more about whether you performed to that level 'on the day' - for lots of courses that would mean getting lucky with the paper, the best questions for you etc.

I worry that lots of children will be sad - after all there is some adjustment to grades this year and I hope schools have taken that all into account when managing expectations. I'm just happy DD1 is doing her best - genuinely have not real feel for what she will come out with, but I think enough to do the A-Level courses she wants, which is what matters. History today - a favourite and an A-Level choice so praying she feels she does Weimar justice. She has a very academic friendship group, which doesn't help with the stress.

Anyhow, in happier thoughts - anyone else's teen doing NCS? DD is looking forward to it, but I can't say we've had a lot of info (£95 is a bargain though - so I'm delighted she's going!)

Yup on the effort thing. My DD1 worked very hard for her GCSEs, and her final results of 'only' 5Bs and 3Cs hide how much she worked. The C for English Language was particularly hard won. You can work massively hard and come out with 4s if that is where your ability level is.

The other thing I have come to understand is different kids have different capacity. My DD2 used to be exhausted just by a full day at school. No capacity for extra curricular activities. She was already at 100%. So has someone for whom school only uses 50% really worked 'harder' if they then do 3 hrs after school to get up to 100%? I'm not sure.

DD has Weimar Germany today. She's not dreading it quite as much as the other 2 papers because this is the one topic that they've more than covered. (Which means that if it goes badly she's screwed!)

I agree I hate grade 9, I think it puts too much pressure on them. If the predictions are right I think DD will end up with a range from 9 down to 6 but it's the 9 that worries her most a) because she's doing it for A level (Eng lan) and b) her teacher thinks she's the dog's bollocks when it comes to creative writing and she doesn't want to let him down. She'd also like to do well in her other A level choices just so it reassures her that she's made the right decision. Other than that I think she's adjusted her expectations downwards and would be happy with 5s or 6s.

DD struggles academically and has worked so hard this year. She’ll do well to come out with the 4 - 6s that she needs for college and hopefully at least a 7 for PE where she’s carrying a very high mark for her NEA work.

Her close friends are all very high achievers - aiming for 8s and 9s across the board. I know that DD will feel uncomfortable opening her results with them - no doubt someone will be upset about “only” getting a 7, which DD would be absolutely over the moon with. She’s distanced herself from them a bit through the exams as she said revising with them makes her feel stupid and all they ever talk about is schoolwork at the moment. I hope she’s able to patch things up as I see her having quite a lonely summer 😔

Ds is madly revising for history. In wales we still have the A*-E grading system so at least I understand it!! Many of the dc have had so much harder than ds so a big well done to all. Roll on tomorrow and the end for us.

Our school never give predicted 9s - the best they commit to is classed as 7-9 and language of “targeting top level”. I think this is a good plan