Year 11 2023-24

[Maxus]

Anyone else got kids starting year 11 in September?

I have killed the thread! Ooops.

Are your children's schools running revision sessions through October half term? DS has signed up for two of the days in subjects he wants some support in.

Anyone have thoughts on EPQ? I asked two of the teachers at one of the college open days and neither were very positive, particularly if the student is doing three essay based A Levels. The exception being if they have a particular skill which lends itself to a project based EPQ.

Hi all, joining the thread as I have a daughter in yr 11 this year and a son next year 😬

@waspie at my son's (grammar) school, you have to take an EPQ if you do 3 As. My oldest did 4 plus an EPQ, but one of his A levels was Further Maths, he wrote it on an engineering subject he is passionate about, and has gone to Cambridge, so he isn't typical!

@waspie My daughter had an extra 40 minute session each day for the last three weeks, one subject per day and they're running revision classes in the first week of half term too, which unfortunately we'll be away for so she'll have to catch up.

Thanks for the Maths Buster info. I've subscribed and my DS is finding it really helpful.

We're in the midst of attending 6th form open days to try and get an idea about next steps. Currently looking at a mix of A level, BTec and core maths - we've identified possible subjects based on what's left after discounting the ones he doesn't want to do!

My DSs school have stepped up more past papers for homework and now started revision classes for some subjects. Impressed as he has signed up as soon as a one of his choices came up.

My older DS did an EPQ alongside his A levels (two essay based ones and one science) and received a reduced offer from a couple of his university choices for it. It was an A* though and I think the EPQ would need to be B or above to have any impact on university entrance selection. What I would say is that it is excellent practice for doing independent research, long essay writing and referencing which is definitely useful for if they go to university.

Also his subject matter was something completely not subject related, just something he was passionate about.

Thanks all, interesting about EPQs. I am torn - on the one hand I think it could be an excellent way to study a topic purely because you love it and, perhaps, receive a small discount on university grade requirement (as @JustHereWithMyPopcorn has said). Plus it gives a taster of the type of study required as an undergraduate. But, on the other hand, perhaps the time investment could be better spent working on the A level subjects to achieve the best possible grades.

DP did five STEM A Levels back in the day @Panicmode1 (one was further maths) and is absolutely insistent that DS does no more than three. The super selective grammar DS may apply to offers up to five A Levels but only 2% do this. All other colleges/schools we're looking at only offer three as standard and four if one is further maths.

That sounds good @CactusPeach . At DS' school Year 11's have maths last period on a Wednesday and this has been extended by an hour to allow them to do past papers with tutor support. I hope some other subjects follow suit as this seems like a good idea to me.

Wow, @Waspie 5 is a lot!! That said one of the boys from my son's old school has just joined DS's college at Cambridge having done 5 A levels (and got A stars in them all 🤯).

No-one was interested when my son did his - it made no difference to the offers he received, but it did give him a talking point in his interviews. (He had them for Cambridge, Imperial and Loughborough).

My daughter took 3 As and an EPQ and was given a lower offer for one uni as a result, and they said they would drop one of the other grades if she also firmed them..but she applied for geography.

I think it is definitely better to get 3 stellar A levels than 4 good but not exceptional ones (if you are capable of that). The competition is so intense for home students, and will increase for as long as unis can't increase funding via fee raises on UK students.

Oh, I just spotted this on active.
DS is Y11 and a lazy sod (wonder where he gets that from 🤔)
He scared himself with 4s and 5s in his end of Y10 exams.

He's done an hour a day of revision over the summer and continued with that plus homework in the week and 2 hours a day at the weekend

School run revision sessions in maths, english, and science at 8am, so he has started them this week (science doesn't start until after HT)

Does this sound reasonable and sustainable? I know he will have to really graft after half term for his mocks in January, but I'm hoping this will develop as school up the pace a bit

My DS is in the same position ( I dint think he's lazy though, just unfocused so he does the work but is not effective. He got 4s and5s and has been doing the same- morning and evening 1 hour revision in the summer and has added an hours revision in the evening into his homework. I have no idea if its sustainable. I Hope so. Going toothed open evenings seem to be motivating him at the moment.

Am I the only one with a DC not revising yet and a school not running revision sessions?

Mine not revising yet either, mocks are in January. Not quite sure what he should be doing at this stage, he's quite unfocused, not completely lazy, just in denial about the task ahead and not very effective.

My DS has mocks in early December so he's doing a bit now. They have a lot of 'revision clinics' at lunchtimes and they are testing them regularly, so I hope that his mocks will be OK....from what some of the teachers said at a recent parents evening, the school (boys only/grammar) often find that they do poorly in their mocks which gives them a wake up call so they pull their socks up for the real ones!!

@alwaysplanning ours are first week back in January too, I'm not pushing him on revising yet, I'm waiting for after half term to encourage that. DS isn't particularly 'good' at revising but has done well enough in exams so far that I'm not going to push things yet to avoid burn out.

@Panicmode1 my DS is also at a boys grammar and they have a similar attitude about mocks. They will start additional classes after mocks are done.

DP would agree that 3 stellar A levels would have been better than the 5 B's and C's he got (although that was in the early 1990's so no A stars). Although his results still got him into Imperial, so he did okay 5 A stars is simply amazing!

Thank you for sharing your daughter's experience. It's interesting to hear because I honestly don't know anyone who has taken one. I'm not sure there is much take up. Anyway, I think I'm going to stop thinking about EPQ until my son actually starts sixth form!

It's interesting that some students are not taking mocks until December or January. In my area they all take mocks in November as the results are used in the sixth form applications which close early January. They do mocks again after February half term.

@Waspie I think our school expect the majority of the boys to stay on for 6th form, very few leave to be honest, so they don't really worry about 6th form applications I guess. I don't like the January mocks because I'd like him to rest over Christmas but it is what it is as my DS would say. 😀

My son's school had an 'expectations' meeting this week and explained all the kids had that day written out a revision timetable and they were encouraged to stick to it from now until the exams. My son had made one, put down which subjects to revise each night etc but when it came to actually revising he seemed very surprised that I was actually expecting him to do it! He has revision guides bought through school but doesn't really have a clue how to use them. I did some revision with him in the summer but it was quite labour intensive for me and I told him I really can't do that all year with him! I think I need to look for revision guides that are set out in a much more simple way, with a little bit of info then a clear question relating to that info and so on, but I'm not sure if that exists at GCSE level.

Well done to those kids who are starting to knuckle down. My son is struggling to get motivated - there has been quite a bit of lying about what he is actually doing in his room and some arguments about his attitude. He has mocks in early Nov (and again in Feb) so fingers crossed he gets more focused!

He does have study sessions most afternoons after school and a English lit lecture before school once a week so perhaps that compensates for the lack of revision at home. 🤞🏻

Have you tried Seneca? iI's quite a helpful mixture of reading/short videos and questions. Not sure if it replaces revision guides but it can be easier for kids who struggle with focus.

@Waspie We're a bit further on (Y13) and DC has just finished their EPQ. It has been a LOT of work - maybe 200 hours? It's been worth it for them because they've created an artefact that will help with UCAS applications. If it hadn't been for that I think I'd have encouraged them to give it up. It is very time consuming and lots of DC's friends abandoned theirs. But it can also give lower required grades for some uni courses too. Swings and roundabouts.

Just reporting in. I helped DD with her Sociology home work last night which was a 12 mark exam question basically. I don’t know about anyone else but I am really enjoying learning along the way too. Might even investigate some short courses for myself.

I have enjoyed it too currently learning Spanish for the first time.

Anyone got a DC who are making no effort with their GCSE work, and got any tips on how to improve this situation? I have bought study guides, supported with coursework, remind them of deadlines, he is predicted 5s but getting 2s. Feel a bit of a failure when looking at some the posts on here about focussed and hardworking kids ☹️