Year 11 2023-24

[Maxus]

Anyone else got kids starting year 11 in September?

So now the dilemma. Do we just take the grade and focus on his GCSEs or resit the exam part in the hope of gaining 4 more marks to push it over to a merit? I’m just not sure it’s worth the time??

Does he have capacity to do the extra work?
Will the grade boundaries be the same? (Unlikely)
Does it make a huge difference if he gets a merit?

DS got his mock results back he did 2 papers for some subjects. Eng lang and lit he got 5 so he is happy also got letter from 6th form wishing hm good luck with his Gcses and saying he has an unconditional offer!!

Does he have capacity to do the extra work? Not really!
Will the grade boundaries be the same? (Unlikely) who knows!
Does it make a huge difference if he gets a merit? I guess this is the thing. Does it look better on paper when you are asked for your gcse grades?

Unconditional?!? Wow

@Thesunisshining888 I am surprised/confused too not sure if they are undersubscribed for his chosen A Levels. He did get an email day after interview saying he has to be available for a day in August after results to register. We are very lucky here though don't appear to need really high grades to continue even his outstanding 6th form school have offered him a place conditional on a G5 in English.

Does anyone know much about ALIS points? I was just wondering if Triology award science would could as two grades?

How to work out ALIS score
Add up the value of your top 7 results from the following:

• 8 points for: GCSE A/9, BTEC (level 2) Distinction
• 7.5 points for: GCSE Low A* - High A/8
• 7 points for: GCSE A/7, NAT (level 5) A, BTEC (level 2) Distinction
• 6 points for: GCSE B/6, NAT (level 5) B, BTEC (level 2) Merit
• 5 points for: GCSE C/4&5, NAT (level 5) C, BTEC (level 2) Pass
• 4 points for: GCSE D/3, NAT (level 5) D, NAT (level 4)

Is there any links/tips/posts regarding drawing up a revision timetable for the Easter holidays? I fear DD is not that effective at revising and I would like some sort of guide in place! Ideally I wish we had a list of topics for each subject so she can tick off as she covers each one but apparently doesn't have these.

@nervousskier24 DD and I spent ages last summer going through each syllabus from the examining boards’ websites and listing it out topic by topic. There must be a mint to be made for whoever designs an app whereby you enter your subjects and boards and it churns out a revision timetable starting from today’s date!

Some revision guides do the topic list for you e.g. DD has an AQA Geography revision guide which splits out all the topics.

CGP do a general GCSE revision guide but I haven’t (yet) bought it as I don’t see what it can add other than a blank timetable to enter your topics in - which may as well be any blank calendar page. But if others have found that guide to be more useful I would be interested to hear.

If you don’t have the revision books for each subject, you can go on Amazon , search for the GCSE exam revision and practice books for each subject ( pick the right exam board) . Then if you scroll through the images, the topics are actually listed! They are for aqa anyway.

The AQA Science GCSE revision apps are good too. DS hasn't used any of the other AQA ones but does rate the science ones. BBC bite size app is also good - you set up a profile and chose the subject and the exam board and it tailors the content to you.

@TeenLifeMum well done your daughter! I had been trying not to be "that mum" for a few weeks but could finally wait no longer 😂

@Tebheag - unconditional offer. Fantastic!

DS will get mock grades back from next week and we've had the GCSE timetable through from the school and it matches my "cobbled together from the exam board websites" version. No clashes, which is good. A very busy first two weeks and then only a scattering in June. 22 papers in total. It's going to be a tense few months!

Anyone else still waiting on school to give them exam timetable?
DS did a new revision plan listed all subjects then topics for each one numbering them which he needed to do the most work on. He has downloaded passed papers too.
Good luck to everyone getting mock results.

We’ve just heard (couple of weeks ago) that they won’t be leaving school before the exams and will need to attend lessons throughout. Once exam in a subject is completed, that lesson becomes revision time for a different subject, all on site following a strict timetable. The rules are new for this year.

dd had planned to go in for optional revision sessions anyway so she isn’t bothered but I think she was hoping the naughty kids would choose not to and it would be quite nice… now they’re all still in school. I feel for the teachers but maybe it’s normal in other schools. It was brought in by the MAT rather than school’s leadership.

We are going to do lots of past papers and revise areas we don’t know as we go. I’m off over Easter so I’m going to mark the papers as he does them. Not sure is that’s a good approach or not?!

Over Easter we are thinking to focus on Paper1s which are before May half term, then after Easter continue but add on paper 2s then May half term really hammer paper 2s. The mocks last month were paper 2s so quite recent.

I have no idea at all if this is a good approach!

Our school website has a page with the breakdowns of each paper. Yours might have the same if you go digging.

Or contact the relevant subject leaders and ask.

@Panic Make sure you/DC revise related stuff to the past papers, otherwise you will only revise stuff that has been on previous papers, and not the whole syllabus.
e.g. If something on Banquo hasn't come up in last 7 years then don't forget to revise him properly in the same way as Macbeth / Lady Macbeth.

Excellent advice! Thank you. I might do a shout out to see what my Secondary friends in English think might come up.

Nooooooo.... don't ask people to guess!!

I think there will definitely be a question of each of the texts studied. That's as far as I will ever go.

I will tell my students what last year's questions were, and that they're unlikely to come up this year.

It’s hard not to as a teacher. I am certain that poetry will pop up on this years year 6 reading sats - and the whole paper can’t be worse than last years shocker of a paper. I would also bet bats won’t appear 😅

We had a horde of last year's y11 absolutely sure the Macbeth question would be on divine right, because some TikTok teacher said so.

It wasn't.

DS fell foul of this in his November mock. He was certain the unseen English Lang criticism was going to be on Life of Pi. Spent ages on it. It wasn't. I think (hope) that has cured him of trying to predict the future!

DD's mocks have been eye opening.

She'd been predicted 6 for Art, 7-7 for combined science then and then a mix of 8s and 9s for all other subjects.

Her business studies came back as a 6, a drop from 8 in November. All others have dropped a grade.

She's devastated because she thought she'd revised much better this time than the autumn. So she now feels back at square one with her revision technique.

She's also very nervous because she's not jet finished the curriculum in most subjects.

We've recommended lots of past papers, speaking with her teachers whenever she had a question, study guides and plenty of breaks, exercise, good nutrition and sleep,

She's very focussed on her revision, with a RAG list for every topic within a subject.

DH nags her to study more, to use techniques he's researched, I don't feel I can push her any harder than she pushes herself, so I'm taking the positive encouragement approach. I hope that we're sufficiently balanced between us and that she knows we want her to feel she's done her best.

One thing I have learned from her is that the constant "you've only got x weeks so make the most of them" stresses her even more. I never mention timelines now.

DD is doing fine and I'd love to sit with her and do a revision timetable but she doesn't want me at all. She sits in her room and revises by herself, she has revision guides and access to websites thru school. She is revising and they've got last few mock exams this week. In her mock exams she got 5/6/7. I wish she would be OK with me being more involved and helping her to define where she should focus...don't know if it's a "me" problem or not lol.

I think ive posted on this thread about dds struggles regarding friends in school but now as the last day is looming she is having anxiety about all the shirt signing etc saying she wont have anyone to sign hers (catastrophizing). She does have friends but not ones she hangs out with at breaks etc. Anyway to help her manage the anxiety?

Yes, my teens school does this too.

Thanks @CactusPeach it’s hard to know what’s “normal” when that’s not been the school’s approach previously. I imagine it keeps some students on track rather than them falling off grid between school and exams. These exams cannot be over soon enough as far as I’m concerned. I don’t know why I’m so nervous for dd. I was far more chilled about my own GCSEs and I don’t remember my parents being involved other than the occasional “have you done your revision?”