Please, as we hit exam season in earnest – take a moment to check…

[clary]

… that your DC are prepped as they should be. I am not talking here about revision but exam rubric and spec.

I conduct speaking assessments for MFL and while some candidates are excellent and well-prepared, I am always surprised by how many have not filled in the form correctly, or have not checked what kind of questions I will be asking, or have not realised that they need to ask me a question or questions. This is at both KS4 and KS5. None of this information is secret – it is all right there on the exam board websites. Candidates are losing marks because they have not checked this out.

Yes, teachers should be flagging this up – but sometimes students do not listen to teachers. And of course many students will be sitting exams via HE, so may not have an exam-expert teacher or tutor to consult.

We are well into the speaking assessment windows for A level, international A level, GCSE and IGCSE now, but it may be that your DC still has their MFL speaking assessment coming up. If it’s AQA GCSE, they do not need to develop answers in the role-play, but they do for the photocard. They do need to ask the examiner a question in the general speaking. If they are taking Edexcel IGCSE MFL, the detail of the kind of questions they will be asked on the photo is online, and worth a look. If they are sitting Edexcel A level MFL, they are supposed to ask the examiner multiple questions during both elements of the conversation. And so on.

The same goes for other papers and other subjects too. In MFL AQA GCSE, there is a choice of two questions on the written paper, so please only write one piece, not both. For the 20th century text in AQA Eng lit, they only need to write answers for one of two questions. For AQA Eng lang, only four short answers are needed for the first task. There are similar details to bear in mind for all subjects – and like I say, the info is on the exam board website, under spec, or under details for specific papers. Please take a look. Better to know twice and be sure than to walk into an exam unprepared.

DD is doing aqa mfl but doesn’t have a speech? Photo card then 2 role plays one of which they choose and one which could be one of two subjects.

I am an exam invigilator.
Please remember a calculator to a maths calculator exam. And a pen to a written exam.
It's amazing that there is always one who doesn't.
Also do they know what order and what time the exams are the next day? Have a few who weren't expecting the exam!
Not so bad in the actual exams, but in mocks in English lit, I always get asked if they should do the question on the text the other class have studied.

Yes I don't remember DS saying anything about a speech for his Spanish mock. I'll ask him this evening.

All very helpful information though. I will make sure to go through the specs. I'm thinking of getting him to just do timed questions from now until the exams. His timing is a problem. He did a 5 page essay on Macbeth for his last mock, then didn't have time to do A Christmas Carol.

F

Following to read later. Thank you all.

@TheMoth I got so unbelievably fed up of the questions about the format of the exams that I devised an awesome display about them. Now, when the kids say "Is this lit or lang?" and "What do you mean, there are four exams!" I just point at the wall. 'Tis great 😀

Reading the instructions is SO important. Even my super diligent daughter has messed up on this point. I tell her to read it then read it again. Plus make sure they have seen every page plus checked the back!

For papers like maths, please do not write outside designated area for the workings and answer as the papers are scanned in, and any working outside the box may not be seen on the screen by the examiner. Write ‘see below’ or put an arrow to show there is further working if necessary.

If you cross out incorrect answers, only do it with a single line so it can still be read. If it turns out to be correct and hasn’t been replaced with other incorrect working, you can still get marks for it. If it has been scribbled out and can’t be read, it can’t!

Common sense check your answer. If you’ve worked out a kilo of potatoes costs £1000 you’ve probably made a mistake.

I was disappointed to read that clocks/watches are now prohibited items. I understand that smart watches don't just tell the time but as a Y6 teacher who spends a huge amount of time teaching children to tell the time and using the visual clues on an analogue clock to help them work out how long things take them, encouraging them to wear 'old fashioned' watches etc., it's a shame this tool will have been taken from them. Whilst I'm sure lots of exam rooms will have an analogue clock on the wall, having to track from the clock back to the paper is often a struggle, hence encouraging them to develop the habit of wearing a watch.

As a parent of a KS4 student I'm also disappointed; not knowing how much time they have to complete a task is something DC2 finds extremely stressful. Their eyesight struggles with the high contrast of a lot of digital clocks as it is and their eyesight (even when corrected) is variable so a clock at the front of the exam room is something they can't use. For years DC2 has worn a cheap analogue wristwatch supposedly safe in the knowledge they'd always be allowed it in an exam 🙁.

They have to have digital clocks at the front of an exam room now. Not allowed an analogue clock. Unfortunately I think the reason all watches are banned is because it’s hard for an invigilator to differentiate between a normal watch and a smart watch. (So us parents have been told, anyway)

Have they raised the issue of not being able to see the clock? It might be that a small clock could be made available to them near their desk.

I invigilated a MFL writing exam where a student was merrily answering the questions in English.

Calculator-wise, if your child has been one of those who never bothers to take their calculator to school, get them to use it to do a past paper or three - it might not work the same as the one they've been borrowing in lessons. I tutored a girl who only brought her calculator to her very last session with me (and then only because I reminded her when we spoke on the phone immediately beforehand). She did a question where she needed to find the square root of 11 to so many decimal places. Her calculator was one of the ones that defaults to displaying the square root of 11 as root 11, not a decimal, and she didn't know how to ask it for the decimal. It's a good thing she brought it that time...

Weirdly my high performing dd cannot use analogue, I was really worried about this in the mocks but they had digital. I will remind her to do a quick reminder of analogue just in case , but it would def be a problem ! I’m going to suggest she really cracks this over the summer for future exams !!

If you need to use the extra pages or if you write an answer on a different page to the one the question is on, make sure you write "continued on page x" at the bottom on the correct page.

And don't write in the bit that says "don't write here"

Hi sorry for not answering MFL queris before – had a full-on day of funnily enough speaking assessments!

Yes @Countrylife2002 and @DramaLlamaBangBang there is no requirement for a speech in AQA GCSE. If @Gunnersforthecup’s DC is not taking Edexcel (which does include a speech) then I can only suggest that his teacher has asked the class to draft a paragraph for the first question on their chosen theme, or maybe a sheet of answers to a series of questions? I mean you are not supposed to but of course everyone does.

So @Gunnersforthecup:

• Pronunciation - yes there is credit given for this. In the role play and photocard, not specifically, but answers need to be comprehensible to gain marks. In the general convo, yes, pronunciation is given a mark out of 5 (of a total of 60) It's pretty easy to get 4 or 5 tbh, they are not looking for native speaker level. So it is important.
• Speech – see comments above about whether there is a speech. But anything he says in the speaking exam needs to be intelligible and make sense. Dramatic delivery is not needed tho. How long is his “speech”?
• Wrt developing answers – yes this applies for AQA, very much so. NOT for the role play so please don’t waste time writing a paragraph for each answer; instead use the time to develop the answers to the three questions you can see on the photocard. See my pp for a slightly glib example. Also develop answers in the general convo. Use past and future tense in your development if you can, and some different adjectives (not just boring, interesting and funny).
• Wrt wrong info re name and age – I mean his name is on the recording at the start and his age is usually fairly obvious; so if when asked that he says he is called James Bond and is 45 years old, the examiner will just think he didn’t understand the question, and he'll lose marks. I honestly have never asked a GCSE candidate their name and age tho.
• For other things tho it’s fine to invent. No one is going to know whether or not he played football in the park last week with his mates. It’s surprising (or perhaps not) how many candidates struggle to do this and sit there casting about for unknown vocab to describe painting Warhammer figures or whatever they actually did.

Tbh @Gunnersforthecup it sounds as tho he is trying to be a bit of a joker. Only he can decide whether to carry that through to the exam or to be sensible and realise that this is an actual GCSE that counts for something. Is he doing F or H tier?

Non smart watches were banned about 2 years ago.
I also think analogue clocks were replaced as lots of kids didn't know how to read them.
You have to chose a clock to time to. You can't be relying on different clocks as they might tell a slightly different time.

And don't write in the bit that says "don't write here"

I love this @MrsHamlet - you always know someone will!

Btw wrt clocks @SE13Mummy could you ask for your DC to sit at the front of the exam hall so they can see the clock? Most schools are amenable to this kind of helpful positioning of students.

@clary yep. And it's a pain in the arse to read . Do not annoy the examiner!

yes agree that's always good advice. I think some students need to think about leaving their 'class clown" comedy at the door when they walk into the exam room.

@clary yes! The "bantz" they might have with their class teacher needs to not happen at all stay out of the exam room.

We're awarding to a clearly defined set of criteria. It's not a joke. And if that makes me sound like a misery, I'll take that.

See also penis drawing. Not funny.

Can I add to tell them that they must tell the examiner that their answer is continued if they use extra paper and to write the correct question number on the extra paper. Exam questions are scanned by a third party so the examiner only sees the question and sometimes the extra part is not scanned with it (and never if it is not labelled with the correct number). The examiner can press a button to look at the whole paper but will only do this if the answer is obviously unfinished or if the students indicates that the answer is continued.

I strongly recommend checking the timings for exams. I thought one of my A level exams was in the afternoon, when it was in the morning. Luckily my school phoned home and asked where I was (in bed). Still surprised that my mum made me brush my teeth before I drove as fast as i could to school. There was 30 mins grace at the start of the exam, so i made it just in time. Not a mistake you make twice.

Anyone else thinking of Antonia Forest's The Cricket Term? 😀

Great thread thank you!

Yes, and don’t just check the timetable the school have sent out - double-check against the examining board’s website. DD’s school (she’s Y11) have sent out a timetable in which her first written GCSE paper is in the wrong half of the day. They’ve confirmed it was an error and will be reissued, so I am glad we checked it.