Y11 2023-24 continued

[Techno56]

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

This is our dreadful week - 10 and I'm a bit worried that the ones at the end of the week won't have been revised this weekend but there won't be any time especially not for the 2 on Friday when he has 3 on Thursday. Very bad spacing! We drove to school in silence today with the younger sibling also realising that chatting while the Shakespeare study notes book was out would not have been a good idea.

10! I think that may be the most. Good luck. Hope literature is being kind to them. DD has her 7 exam week but it ramps up most on Thursday with two then and three on Friday. One today, one tomorrow and a whole day off on Wednesday.

Not so worried about this literature one - its the next one that DD struggles with the content. Today is Macbeth and Pride & Prejudice. Easy themes though of course they can always go off piste and pick a random question to answer.

Just as an aside from exams, is anyone's kid NOT going to their prom? My DS16 isn't going, and I'm not going to push him into it (I'm assuming it would all have had to be paid for by now anyway) as I know it would be the last thing he wants to do. But I feel so sad that he's not going to be there when everyone else is. Do some kids just not go? I presumed that everyone would go...

My DS's best friend doesn't want to go. They went to primary school together, and he's going to a different sixth firm, so it's a shame. He's just not very sociable outside of school, but will go to the cinema with a small group and that's about it. Ds is a bit disappointed but I reminded him that we didn't go to any class parties through the whole of year 1 because he sat on my lap, crying through the reception ones for about an hour! It's payback time!
@WoodBurningStov I hope your DD has a lovely time at her prom. Our school has a behaviour thing for prom, so if you misbehave etc you can't go.

@WinkyTinky I imagine there are many other Y11s like yours who just don’t like the idea of a prom and decide not to go. My DD isn’t having a prom in the end as a beloved teacher is seriously ill and the year group decided it would be disrespectful. She’s comfortable that was the right decision but obviously it’s an unusual situation.

DS was super stressed this morning - with a bad throat and ear ache to boot. I hope he's not coming down with something. He does get a bad throat pretty regularly though and usually they just fade. I've sent him in with some lozenges.

He's doing AQA English lit - today is Macbeth and A Christmas Carol. He was very comfortable with Macbeth but a bit wobbly on ACC quotes. He is targeting level 6 context and grade 9. It will hit him hard if he feels he hasn't performed today. It's one of his A Level choice. He's more comfortable with paper 2.

Like others I'm worried it will set the tone for the week if he doesn't feel that he's done well.

I'm now not able to concentrate on work as I'm waiting for DS' text...

On Wednesday he has History (WJEC) which is the "depth" paper (Elizabethan age and 1919-1939 Germany). The main problem with history is that there simply isn't enough time to answer all of the questions well enough to do them justice. But, he got 93% in these papers for his mock so it's definitely in there somewhere

He has 7 in total this week, so not as bad as some but still full on.

@WinkyTinky - DS isn't going to his prom. We're on holiday. I think DS was actually a little relived that he didn't have to make the decision.

10 in a week is such bad luck! Presume lots of after school ones in 'quarantine'? This is DS's heaviest week with 7, but luckily a max of 2 in a day. Next week he has 5 but two exam-free days so they're not spread out - so frustrating!

After half term break, his remaining weeks are lighter, so perhaps it's better to get the really intensive week out of the way first, while he still has a lot of forward momentum.

I have the questions for the AQA English lit paper 1 from TSR website if peeps want me to post? Great questions, couldn’t have asked for better!

Please post. Dying to know before DD gets home.

Ok here goes.

Macbeth: How is lady macbeth presented as a strong character
Merchant OV: How is shylock presented as isolated character
Christmas Carol: How does dickens present scrooges lessons about life
Romeo & Juliet: How is Juliet's difficulties in life presented
Jekyll and Hyde: how does steveson create an atmosphere of fear and danger

DD is home - Macbeth was brilliant. It she went over so a bit squeezed on Frankenstein but her essay sounded great. She’s quite hyper!

Ha, it just occurred to me to look at Twitter to see what Macbeth was, so I gathered it was Lady M! DS loves the whole play but I think he had loads of quotations for Lady M and hopefully deployed them thoughtfully. It sounds like a good question for all of them.

I'm freaking right out about mentions of Jekyll and Hyde though! He said that's paper 2 for him, today was Shakespeare and post 1914 lit ...

Oh god sorry, he's Edexcel ...

@Rollergirl11 fantastic Macbeth question and one much prepared - do you know what the Pride and Prejudice question was - I dont have a SR login.

DS is distraught that he forgot to link one of his essays to the source material given. Anyone have any idea on how bad that is and how much it will affect his marks?

I don’t know whether we have any other Pearson IGSE people here for Eng Lit, but poetry was apparently “good” and the questions for Of Mice and Men were “Curley” or “Death”. DD happy with how she did on the theme of Death.

@GlomOfNit - my blood pressure did the same!!

Hi,
My daughter's English exam board is Eduqas. I've received a brief message to say exam went ok, but the Macbeth essay question was disgusting. She's at after school revision club tonight, so wont be home until 4.30pm.
I wondered if anyone's else's child sitting the Eduqas exam felt the same?

Looking forward to the half term break already!

ONG! Im so relieved! DS would have loved those essays! We were just talking about Lady Macbeth in relation to the context of her time, and he got a 9 in a similar mock paper. He loves Macbeth too. We went to see it at The Globe. It was slated in the press but he loved it, then they saw it again locally with school. We were talking about Scrooge as well, so hopefully he has managed to pick out all the things he knew. He came up with a fact in the car about Dickens reading and article about the plight of the poor, and wanting to highlight it, so I hope he's shoved that in!

Anyone's dc doing AQA Romeo and Juliet or Christmas Carol?
I've yet to hear from ds so I'm not sure how it went for him. He's probably stressing about this afternoon's exam.

@omnishambles unfortunaty nobody has posted Pride & Prejudice yet.

If those were the questions for Lit, DS should have been fine - he can
go very off piste so he’s been working on reining things in. He’s looking forward to paper 2 more - they’ve done Never Let Me Go so some decently meaty themes to write about.

He wants to do Drama at A Level and was very pleased with how it went, he was also happy with his coursework so fingers crossed for that.

His biggest worries are around Geography - his teacher has had a long period off and even when there, hasn’t been great. He needs a 7 to stay on to do Politics and PRE with a basic point score of 48.

He’s the last of my four so I will be very very happy when I’m finally through with GCSEs!

@JessyCarr We are Edexcel, too. I have not seen DS yet. Our novel was Rebecca though.

Last year, my y11 were adamant that they knew the question from tiktok. They were absolutely wrong.

Predicted papers in English are not a great idea, in my view.