Y11 2023-24 continued

[Techno56]

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

My DD is so relaxed about the exams - she told me this morning it’s cos she did so well in the mocks she doesn’t think she needs to worry… I hope she’s right!!!

WinkyTinky my DD is going to prom and I have paid a deposit on a dress but I wouldn’t rule out her backing out of it. It’s not the same thing if you’re not in a gang of friends all looking forward to it, I think… all this drama about how you arrive etc. Off putting!

Hopefully ds will be okay with those questions. I would be so interested to understand whether the publication of prediction videos has an impact on results. For example if some kids rely on them completely and the predictions are wrong, how does this get reflected in results? If you see what I mean! We ignored them and I’m hoping that plays in ds favour!

Dd has texted that it was a bit rubbish and she wants to come home, she has English class this afternoon and it’s a bit too much. Unfortunately they aren’t on study leave so she’s just going to have to suck it up.
How many weeks until the end?

I feel for your dd - just feels so relentless

Ds has 8 this week with Wednesday the busiest. History in the morning then MFL listening and reading in afternoon, plus OCR computer science at 3! So won't finish until 5:30ish.

Your poor DD @wonderstuff. If she would prefer to be on study leave is this something the school would consider? DS' school aren't on study leave either but I know of some students who have been given it for various reasons.

Examiners reports are published some time afterwards do I suppose if its a large scale ' loads of kids regurgitated a question on the ghost of Christmas Past when the question was about Tiny Tim ( for example) they may write something in that snd reference prediction videos but otherwise they won't know why a particular child has done well or badly. If the prediction is wrong, the kids will know not to watch prediction videos!

@wonderstuff I hope your DD is ok. Mine messaged, also very down. She so so wanted English Lit to go well. I think that's part of the problem - she put so much pressure on herself and importance on it. We're only 3 exams in and already it's proving overwhelming. I feel so helpless/useless. She's got 5 more exams this week.

There are such a lot of exams. It's a real slog through them, with so much content to learn. So stressful for everyone for something that will probably be forgotten about once the next level is started.

Hope she'll be able to take a breath later on - these things are rarely as bad as they seem in the moment.

DS is at a strict no phones school (well, apart from revising, and using approved apps, and looking things up, and taking photos of PP slides... apart from all that sanctioned use, I mean ) plus he's a rule-keeper so there's no way I'm getting a text from him until he's on the bus. I so hope he feels ok. I've not been able to resist looking at what the Young Folk are saying on that there Tiktok, and I gather it's all roses if you're AQA and fairly meh for Exexcel...

If DS feels bad about this one I worry it'll cast him down for this whole long week, as he also loves the subject and plans to do it for A level. We're all going to have to be fairly brisk and Onwards and Upwards this afternoon, I think!

tch, Edexcel

DD quite glum - she said good questions for AQA (Macbeth & Jekyll and Hyde) and she finished in time but is kicking herself about some stuff she didn't address/include which means she thinks her desired grade is now out of reach. I so remember that horrible post-exam feeling - English is so subjective. Unfortunately no time to dwell as history is looming. Argh!

On study leave - DD doesn’t have it but she is just signing out after each exam - along with lots of others. If she hadn’t been able to I would have just said she was sick each day for the duration…. But she’s not had any issues so far.

DS text at lunchtime and said "it was nice" If only he could be as brief in his history and English exams we might not have the running out of time issue!

DS has a scheduled English lesson this afternoon so I guess they will chat about it then.

This is the smaller of the two papers (for AQA at least) @LighthouseCat so even if your daughter thinks she hasn't performed as well as she hoped, there is another chance next week She may also be catastrophising a little at the moment too and that will pass.

Thanks all. I'm very grateful to have somewhere to vent xx

English Lit is not an exam which has been focused on much as English Language. We are working on him achieving 5 or 6 gcses with English and maths so the decision was made to put all efforts into English Language.
However, I did feel sad about the possibility of sitting through an exam where he didn't have a clue and feeling rubbish. Apparently though, he says they were 'blessed with the questions and so he might have done ok' . Whatever the outcome I'm just relieved he feels positive about it and didn't feel awful whilst sitting it. 2 hours plus (and additional extra time) is a long time if you don't know what you are doing!

I can vividly remember the thick painted brick tiles I spent most of my GCSE physics exam staring at! Needless to say I don't bother putting my F grade on my CV!

I am a bit confused why some of you have done Shakespeare today. My DD has done An inspector call and Dr Jekyll...
Macbeth is in paper 2.

Why?

Depends on the board (AQA, Edexcel, Eduquas, ...)

Not yet hear from DD how English went and she's now coming to the end of media. She's stopping after school so I'll find out in the car on the way home.

Just keep thinking ... you can revise so hard yet just get a shit question or panic on the day and if you mess up one paper then your grade is going to plummet. Bye bye A Levels.

Jeez I need a drink

I'm at work, and there is no chance of any communication from DS, so I'm on tenterhooks until about 5pm

I am not practicing what I preach at all, because I'm quite stressed by it and am dreading it if DS doesn't do well or does well but has to resit maths but I'm telling DS if he doesn't do well in one paper now, he always has the other papers to catch up on. And also even if it all goes to shit all is not lost and he can go to college and do another course. At the end of the day the journey will just be different but they can still go to university, just a bit later if they want.

Macbeth and Christmas Carol were in today’s paper for my DC-AQA. It’s Inspector Calls and the poetry in the second paper.

Nice to find this thread. DD is doing GCSEs this week, had Eng Lit OCR this morning and it doesn't sound as if it went well. I'm pretty busy with work and feeling very guilty that I haven't supported her enough. We helped her create a revision timetable and have been helping her stick to it / testing her when asked but haven't been at all on top of the subject material for anything and I got the impression this morning / last night that she wasn't at all well prepared for the Eng Lit exam despite having put in a lot of revision. She knows the texts really well but only seems to have had very woolly guidance on how to actually answer essay questions. Feel terrible for not having picked up on it all sooner and done more to help. I just hate GCSEs so much and feel they are a very poor measure of young people's real ability.