Year 11 2023-24

[Maxus]

Anyone else got kids starting year 11 in September?

They did look sheepish! I told him to speak up more in class after thst and make sure he asks if he doesn't understand something, and they at least knew eho he was this last parents evening!

So quite annoyed here.
I assumed as Mocks were over 8 school days, the students would be sitting whole exams. Seems not. So only 2 papers sat in maths out of 3, in computer science it was only 1 of 2, history just the one paper and so on.

Im not sure how this gives you much to go on in terms of gaps in knowledge?

The grades for example in computer science are based on one exam being 60% then other 40%. They only sat the 40% paper this time where DS got 1 mark off a 5. He did the 60% paper in September and got a 6. Unless I sit down and attempt to work that out, all they will report home is the 40% paper mark.

I too have one of those lovely but missed pupils. I’m dreading maths!

I think it is not unusual to only do a subset of papers for mocks. Doing full sets would lose too much teaching time to exams and marking, plus not all syllabus will have been taught yet anyway. Your DC should have been aware and only revised topics for the papers being sat. 8 days isn't long, the real ones are over 5 weeks.

Thank you

My DD sat 19 papers in ten days. That wasn’t helpful either as she couldn’t think straight and they haven’t covered all the work yet!

Yes mine is in the middle of mocks and this week it's a paper in the morning andxa paper in the afternoon every day, with classes ( used for revision) in between. It's mind boggling. Next week is better. He us confident on some but not others. It's so stressful and it's just mocks! God knows what summer is going to be like!

It depends how much he's failed by. If he's got a three, then a grade of progress is expected by the real ones. If he's got a one, it's going to be hard work (but not impossible) to get him through at a four.

@Angrycat2768 I actually think (hope!) next summer will be less intense as the exams are much more spread out. But DD doesn’t even start mocks until early Jan so still has that fun to come. Grade predictions were based largely on her Y10 exams.

Ah ok - well yes that sounds pretty stressful! Sorry didn’t mean to moan just unsure how to interpret the results when they come through and how to then respond to them

They will probably be given a grade based on the boundaries for that paper. It indicates effectiveness of revision and ability to answer questions. Even if only 1 paper not a bad prediction.

Yes I hope it will. DS started off the week quire positive but is now exhausted. He thought he did well in the non calculator naths paper but then had brain got for the second one. He has a break before the last one so fingers crossed. We had a history related meltdown yesterday, and uts one of his favourite subjects thst he wants to dovat A Level, so needs a 6.

My son only did paper 1 in English (x2), all three sciences, and his two options subjects. The only ones he did all three papers for were maths, further maths and MFL. He knew that in advance though. The mocks window is less than half the window of the full exams so I'm not surprised they couldn't do all papers in all subjects.

My son's mocks start on Monday and he's just been sent home with a temperature and feeling rotten..perfect timing!! 🙄

My son's start tomorrow and he's just had emergency surgery on a testicular torsion, you couldn't make this nonsense up could you! Better now than in May...

Hope yours feels better soon!

Oh no! Hope all the poorly kids feel better xx At least it's now and not the real ones !

I invigilate at a secondary and the number of kids who end up injuring themselves THE NIGHT BEFORE their first actual real exam is incredible

Hoping the poorly DCs are feeling well again very soon. It's the last thing they need with the stress of exams.

Progress report landed today.
3 4's, 3 5's, and a 6. It's not great, but it's better than the Y10 exams, so at least we know we are heading in the right direction for January mocks.
Gives him an incentive to keep going!

We had that this time last year! Frightening.
Hope he's OK x

He seems more traumatised by how many people have had to look downstairs than anything else! Meanwhile internally I'm thinking BUT HE'S DONE SO MUCH REVISION!! He's already missed his DT all day mock but is going to try and do biology tomorrow then come home. 5 days post op so fingers crossed he can sit down for long enough on those horrible chairs..

I'm going to keep mine inside for a week beforehand 🤣 although the testicle thing happened when he rolled over in bed so ....

What a painful nightmare! How did that happen? Can he do the mock in a different room or at home?

It's apparently quite common, have since discovered a lot of men we know have had it. One of those things that you don't know about until it happens! He has small group invigilating anyway, so he will already be in a less intimidating environment. He's feeling mostly ok when he's sat still so reckons he will manage. 🤞

Poor boy...hope he's feeling much better soon!!

Had 6th form open evening last night. It was over subscribed school phoned up some parents to check they still needed their tickets! Dreading results now as looks like DS definitely needs a 5 in English to continue to do A Levels in our area. Got parents evening 2wks after results so hopefully can have a good chat with English teacher.
If your kid has recently done mocks have they stopped revision? DS just doing homework and nothing extra.