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.

Sorry what do you mean see below? Won’t below be where the following question is?

No, there's often blank space below a question box if it's the last one on a page, I guess for formatting because the next question wouldn't fit in the space.

Don't make "jokes" about how you're going to smuggle notes into exams. We have to pass them on, and - frankly - we have enough to do without having to investigate.

This is so helpful, thank you

Not my DC, but what happens if a child has an injury and can't write?

Emergency access to a scribe.

Let the school know asap - not on the morning of the exam

Do calculator batteries last forever.. I’ve never changed DD’s and having a minor panic it might die. I don’t want to mess with it at this point though! Was new in y7…

Anything crossed out for the papers I mark cannot be marked so if it may be correct better to leave it in as positive marking means the examiner ignores incorrect info.

Same

I got mine in y7 in 1989 and it's still going strong.

Just to throw in a tip I heard on an Ancient History GCSE YouTube, but presumably applicable for other subjects too:

In a passage of writing, if ellipses (three dots) have been used, there are marks to be gained from using the text after the ellipses (as otherwise the examination board would have just ended the text before the ellipses). So always try to use the text that comes after the ellipses in your answer.

Probably best to specify subject here!

In maths, work that has been crossed out but is still readable can be marked if it hasn't been replaced with incorrect working.

Maths isn't positively marked. If there are two answers/methods presented, then the examiner marks both of them and awards the lower number of marks, unless one is clearly designated the method/answer the student intends as their solution.

Crossed out work in both Englishes isn't read.

Can I clarify something from up thread which I'm now confused about ...

Student makes a mistake so crosses answer out with a single line. Doesn't then provide a new "correct" answer to replace.

If correct can the first crossed out answer be accepted?

@tellmewhenthespaceshiplandscoz depends what the guidance to examiners says. This is generally provided at the beginning of mark schemes.

Ok thanks

Thanks this is so reassuring! I just mentioned on the other thread that dd has got water on it scrubbing off stickers. Let’s hope it’s also robust !!

Aggghh they're here

Good luck to everyone and thanks again OP and all knowledgeable bods for a very helpful thread.

See you on the other side!

Very best of luck to everyone’s DC. Give them all the support they need.

My DS gas been doing art for 2 days then straight into RE today. I've been bombarding him with all the advice on here, and forgot to ask him if he'd remembered his pens! He's only had to take in his portfolio!

Good luck.to all the kiddos

Good job I'm not an invigilator.

If someone is old enough to sit GCSE, then they are old enough to remember a calculator. I would not be handing one out in the exam hall. Painful life lesson would be learnt.

See I'm an invigilator and at our school we put a calculator on every desk. Actually our kids have a see through pencil case provided with one of everything they will need and we always have spares.

I get it's good to learn the hard way some times but an exam is not the time. So many genuine reasons why any stationery item could be forgotten. Granted our school is a city one with lots of r kids living in very difficult circumstances and households where no adult gives a shit to provide breakfast never mind calculators

Good for your school. Its a very stressful time to teach them a ' life lesson'! I have to do an emergency invigilation for a maths exam for a 50 year old in a couple of weeks, and I've had to remind her about equipment 3 times, and will remind her again before her exam next week!

I guess your school must have the funds to do that.

We give our PP kids a free decent calculator, along with free revision guides, but couldn’t afford it for the whole cohort.

A kid complained the other day that the calculator he was lent in the exam didn’t have a fraction button. I told him if he was fussy he should bring his own. This isn’t a disadvantaged kid, or one who accidentally forgot it, just a lazy one who had no intention of bringing a calculator.