Y11 2023-24 continued

[Techno56]

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

He’s done maths and English Lit already. Only further maths and English Language to do this summer.

Primrose kittens video is 4 hours but covers the whole of Macbeth- may be useful to soem

Has anyone got any tips for the non calculator maths paper? It's the one DS finds hardest out of the three and it really pulled his mock grade down.

We have also had a lot of stress this weekend. 6 exams next week and a feeling of having run out of time has set in. English lit is the biggest stress. If that goes badly I fear it will set the tone for the week 😬

One very hot, tired and irritable Y11 here. She’s declared herself “ready” for English Lit, French and Psychology so moved onto a non-calc Maths mock on MathsBuster and made some really daft errors. Not good for the morale on a sultry Sunday night. I’ve sent her off to have a shower! Wishing everyone the best for the coming week.

DS has just gone back up to do another hour of Eng Lit and is planning to get up to do another hour in the morning. Full-on panic, I suspect

@rattlertattler Re Maths it’s just practice, practice, practice I think, with any mistakes really drilled into by studying a model answer and/or watching a video and repeating the technique to consolidate. Does he have every past paper you can lay your hands on?

I sent off for the CGP practice papers pack which has 2 full sets of the 3 papers plus answers/mark schemes (they do a pack for AQA and a pack for Edexcel). They have been useful. We’ve also used MathsBuster, Corbett Maths and Sparxmaths.

DD is watching science fiction with DH. She had an hour or so of final English lit tutoring from SIL - an English teacher - this afternoon and declared herself as ready as she ever will be. So I'd rather a pleasant evening for her. We'll be glad when this week is over.

Agree. I've used it a lot!

Yes with my DS it's more maths than English that is the issue. He's been doing Maths genie too. In his mocks, he got one mark off a 4. When the teacher broke it down, he had lost 4 marks from the non calculator paper on ' number'?! I said what on earth was the question on number about that you got no marks? I think part of the problem is that he was dropped from the higher paper to foundation ( which has been the best decision I think) and they don't teach the 1-3 grades in higher, so he was overthinking the lower questions massively.

It's such a full-on week ahead - buckle up, everyone!

DS has 7 this week. I know he's been working at school for months and months, and at home for a fairly decent period too. I still feel he hasn't done enough focussed revision for certain topics but we're beyond the point of worrying about that now. English Lit today and I went into his room - there were about 30 luminous Post Its with quotations hanging off all the surfaces! They weren't there yesterday and I did query if he'd be able to memorise them all - maybe just a quarter of them? Turns out he does know them all, pretty much. What it is to have a spongelike and retentive young brain...

Tomorrow is Macbeth, his favourite text he's ever done for Eng Lit, and Coram Boy which he, the others and his teachers absolutely loathe! I said 'well, sitting the Macbeth paper doesn't mean you have to stop ever thinking about or enjoying Macbeth, but sitting Coram Boy DOES mean you may choose never to let it cross your mind again!'

I'm more concerned about History, like lots here. He loves history and it was THE A-level he knew he wanted to do above all others. He thinks it's a shame the curriculum doesn't really look at anything medieval or early-modern (apart from History of Medicine, I suppose) but he's really enjoyed the two Germany modules. But yes, so so much to internalise, and exam technique on top of that. At least school have prepared them pretty well for that. We actually spent some time this evening going through his history revision books and walking through the Weimar Republic, rather than focussing on English. It's not until Wednesday and he has MFL on Tuesday, but there's a hell of a lot of content compared with, for instance, last Friday's biology paper!

Anyone else's school pick Coram Boy? Does ANYONE like it??

Do a paper whilst following the supporting video on maths genie. It’s free and high quality.

We have migration for history with edexcel on Wednesday then Weirmar Germany later. Is he doing Germany this week?

Panic71 he's AQA.

Best wishes to all your DC for this week.

Please remind your students to number the questions they're answering clearly in papers with blank answer booklets, and not to squeeze comments into the margins.

Hi all, hope you don’t mind if I join very late to the party? DS is sitting his GCSE’s now. I also have DD doing her A levels so it’s a bit fraught in our household.

DS has ADHD and really struggles with revision so DH and I have been supporting him on that, splitting the subjects between us.

It’s his heaviest week this week with 5 exams starting with English Lit this morning and History on Wednesday. He has Macbeth and A Christmas Carol for English. There has been much debate on TSR on what will come up in the paper and it seems that supernatural, guilt or kingship for theme and Lady Macbeth or the witches for character. Only time will tell! He has Medicine through time for History on Wednesday and then Henry & ministers, American west and Weimar & Nazi germany after half term.

It will be good for him to tick off English lit and RE by next Monday!

DD had a really good and calm day yesterday. I hope the paper is
good for everyone and we can start this intense week well!

Good luck all!

English Lit for DD today. Much Ado and A Christmas Carol.

DS2 got a 9 last year in Eng Lit and he hated English. I was later told that their school gets the best grades in English in the county!

My DD is in the mood from hell today, have had to come upstairs so I don't start an argument... don't want to upset her even more than she already is this morning but her mood stinks and she's been rude to me and dh. I know it's because she's stressed and anxious but simply arghhhhhhh!

Not helped by the fact she's been bullied for the first time since starting school over the past two weeks, there's never a good time to be bullied but just before exams is awful timing. I had to go and get her from school on Friday she was so upset. I've spoken to the head of year 11 who's going to have a chat with the girls involved and give my dd a space to go to should she just want to get away from it all. Thankfully Friday is the last proper day at school before study leave starts so at least she can concentrate on her exams. But it does mean she's now hell bent on going to collage to do her A levels rather than back to her secondary school

Sorry for the rant.

DD isn't on SM so hasn't been watching any prediction type videos but I've been wondering ... are these helpful or a hindrance? I'm imagining if a so called expert gets the prediction wrong

WoodBurningStov
So sorry to hear that your DD is going through this now!

Adding stress on stress for her and you...Hope the school intervening has helped.

Ds has the same, except he has Elizabethan England instead of Henry. I'm not sure how people analyse what will come up. He did quite a good essay on depictions of joy in Christmas Carol last night but I doubt that will come up again so soon. He likes this Lit paper more than poetry so hopefully he can get good marks in this one. He hasn't loved anything much in history apart from Weimar/rise of the Nazis in history but he needs a 6 to do history at his school.

What an awful thing to happen to your DD. You'd think these girls had better things to do right now.

@DramaLlamaBangBang absolutely agree, they are in the same year so also doing exams. You’d have hoped they’d have grown out of this by now too! I’m so annoyed with them starting it all just before exams. I also hope it doesn’t ruin prom as she’s really been looking forward to it