Y11 2023-24 continued

[Techno56]

New thread for when the other one fills up, I need somewhere to panic away from my son 😁

Mentioned this to dd and she said she absolutely no idea !

@GlomOfNit was the weird phloem question on the Combined/Trilogy paper or the Triple Science one? DD said the one she can think of on the Combined paper was just a one-marker, tick-box style question.

Apparently lots on Tiktok are bemused by a question relating to “z” in the Combined paper, having not realised that the relevant “z” was marked on a diagram a page or so earlier.

Anyway - onwards to Eng Lit on Monday!

Ds said there was a weird phloem question on higher AQA biology.

Triple Science, AQA. He says it was 5 marker 😬and he read it several times and just couldn't get it. I said 'well you know what we always say, DON'T just go 'oh (eg) phloem cells, I'm writing everything I know about them' - if you're really stumped by a question then that IS a good time to write down everything you know!

He's hoping for good things from biology, is intending to take it at A Level, so I hope this large-sounding question didn't drop him too badly. FWIW, the brainiacs in his peer group all agreed it was very oddly phrased and unintelligible.

and yes indeed, what is done is gone. Past. Onwards! One exam fewer to do!

I'd like to know this too. And not be awake before 5 a.m. thinking about it.

@rattlertattler yes I don’t get this . In my day it was done the way you suggest but I’m not sure it is now. Eg dd says over 60pc is a 9 in biology so she remains hopeful , but if it was easy how can that be.

On biology, there was a maths question also that stumped her , but she thinks she got a few marks for it .

History is the big one for us now. DD is super worried as it’s a subject she loves and desperately wants a 9. But there is so much content.

More like the latter.

Marked on a curve with a certain % getting a 4+ and a lesser % getting a 7+, other grades fitting in.

Teachers for each subject may give an idea of usual boundaries eg 50-60% for a 5. Actual boundaries depends on how hard the paper is and perceived strength of cohort (set from y6 sats and other control tests I believe??)

RS was ok (he doesn't like it so I'm taking that as a good sign) and Biology went well - he finds this paper harder than the other one so also positive.

He has 8 next week so we'll all be glad when that's over!

Obviously I meant more like the former not the latter, as hopefully my example showed.

(That's what happens being up to watch the northern lights followed by early start to take DD to work experience!)

History is a shocker
so wished we chose geography! DS has been miserable with the content :(

This is as DS describes it too. He says grade boundaries for Biology higher tend to be between high 60% and mid 70% to get a 9, depending on whether the paper is determined to be hard. His bio teacher seems to think paper 2 will be harder to counter the easier paper 1.

Back in my day only top 5% got an A, next 15% a B and so on. This way does seem fairer although I assume far more will get top grades as a result, but at least it's not determined by how clever the rest of your cohort is.

DS has 6 next week - reasonably well spread out, which is a good thing.

Hope your students manage to get some R&R this weekend. DS is off playing tennis now for his club's U18 league. They are totally outclassed by the other team who are all senior county players, but at least that means there is no pressure, or expectation, to win.

@Waspie I think I have confused you (or maybe me). They are marked on a curve with boundaries being decided after the event. If you get 50% but everyone else gets 70% you won't get a good grade.

They are still doing the content for history at DS's school. It's ridiculous. They could easily ditch a topic American West and still have plenty left. DS needs a 6 to do history at A Level, which at his school sounds right up his street, and he's predicted 7, but some ofvthe gcse subjects have been unbelievably dull.

BBC Sounds has various podcasts for English Lit set texts including poetry.

Good luck at A level
DS used to LOVE history but now - 😭
Hopefully Sport, Science and Sociology at A level next x

Same here until a few months ago. DS was hoping for history at uni, but I think this syllabus has broken him.

DD loves history apart from crime and punishment, I’ve been helping her with it and it seems madness, trying to create themes across centuries when they don’t really exist. Impossible to remember all the dates and content. I did a history degree and the gcse syllabus is crazy.

Hi fellow GCSE parents!

DD said Biology went well, although she was flummoxed by the first question about fructose and sucrose and why one is more preferable?

I said, surely it's fructose as it's natural? Who knows!

Great to get first written paper over with!

Reading through the thread, DD's school also offer exam warm ups every day of an exam at 8:10. She seemed positive about going.

Yes DS was flummoxed about that question too. He said he wrote fructose was healthier becsuse its in fruit but I don't know if the answer is ' there is no difference because they are both sugars'

I was thinking crime and punishment woukd be more interesting than the history of medicine, but maybe its more difficult?

DramaLlamaBangBang
I guess we’ll never find out!

DS2 did GCSEs last year (yep, it’s stress central here until end of June 2026 😂) and there was a Maths question that puzzled alot of students and adults!

Can't remember what it was but once the exams were well and truly over and the summer kicked in, no one seemed bothered!

Thanks @TeenDivided , I think DS confused me and you clarified it. My post was rubbish though, sorry!

DS is doing history and loves it. It was his first choice a level. His course is Elizabethan and Germany for one paper and USA and medicine for the other. There is a lot of content but he's comfortable with that. It's timing that can let him down sometimesbut he seemed to deal with that well in the March mocks so hopefully he'll be able to repeat that this time too. Fingers crossed as always

Yes timing a nightmare in this house too@ DS apparently wrote a 5 page essay on Macbeth in his mocks, which was graded a 9, but didn't then have enough time to finish A Christmas Carol, so his marks dropped 3 grades! I said he should just move on after half an hour and bullet point the end points but he says he has too much yo write about Macbeth! Hopefully he'll do both I time!

It’s rubbish isn’t it.
Ive said just to get through it now. Best of luck to your DS too x