Y11 2023-24 continued

[Techno56]

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

They're meant to put phones, watches etc in their bags and leave them outside. I have no idea how he forgot when he took his watch off!

AQA Romeo and Juliet and A Christmas Carol here. Dts both said it was ok and it sounds like they both came up with some good answers.
We have a day off exams tomorrow then
Dts has History on Wed, both have Maths on Thursday and Chem on Friday and dtd has geography Friday afternoon. So relatively chilled.
Reading these posts it is good to see that your dcs are getting so much support from you. Where we live so many families aren’t aware/don’t care that GCSEs are even happening.

EdExcel Macbeth and Coram Boy here, and I think it was generally felt to be a bit of a mixed bag! But getting a slightly left field question on Macbeth (TBH the more I think about it, the less 'bad' or surprising it seems, though there was a fair bit of outrage on Tiktok about it) is at least DS's strongest text so I'm sure he pulled something out of the bag, and I think he had a good question on the other text.

One down this week and 6 to go! 😦

@whatsinanumber

Utilise u tube teachers!
Find one she likes they go into various points.

We had jekly and Hyde and macbeth, dd didn't like rhe j and h questions

Ours was "fine". This is the go-to answer in our house. Poems and Rebecca. Roll on Wednesday with Othello.

Ah no bags for dd as she has yet another seclusion day tomorrow.

Ds said his Romeo and Juliet and Christmas Carol was ok.
It was weird watching a Christmas Carol on tv over a May weekend but ds wanted to.

This is the thread I need! My DH travelling so I have nobody to chat GCSEs with today.

DD felt lucky today, both P&P and Much Ado were questions she’d practiced a lot. She hates the poetry though so suspect she won’t feel as good after the next one!

My DD does a Welsh board for Eng Lit (random as we are not in Wales), so they had poems (the Man Hunt, which they didn’t think would be on the paper) & a question on which character you feel the most sympathy for in Macbeth. She wasn’t thrilled with it.

I am amazed by how involved you all are with the kids! As I said earlier DD is pretty confident (probably mistakenly) after her mocks, & after mental health issues we’ve tried to be quite laidback about it all, which has ultimately meant being quite hands off & leaving it to her… trying to have faith!! She had her boyfriend round this evening instead of revising for her French… although I must remember that all she does in school now is revision.

@WarningOfGails I was pretty hands off with a bit of nagging but ds did so badly in his mocks (2,3,4's) that I've had to get involved. He's a bright kid but just one of those distracted ones. He got really upset and stressed after those results so he's asked for help.

@WarningOfGails DS did the same exam board (we're not in Wales either). DS said the consensus was it was a hard paper with strangely worded questions. French tomorrow too.

@StarShipControl I just hope that DD isn’t misplaced in her confidence! She got 6-9s in her mocks (although her true capacity is all 8-9) so came away feeling she would be happy with that in the real thing & could afford to relax…

yes @Lalux DD thought it was weird too, and Eng Lit is one of her best subjects… French is probably her worst so not expecting great things!

@WarningOfGails I've been pretty hands off with Dd, I've been offering to help her for months and she has refused, I've left it because they do loads of revision in school, extra sessions after school nearly every day and some days Feb half term and Easter too. Only last night this child asked me to help her, worry must have started to set in.

Dd came home today being all dramatic 'it was so bad mum, I was cooked!' Until I told her I'd seen what the questions were, 'oh', then she dropped the dramatics, grinned and said it was fine 😂 The two essay questions happened to be on what we'd been focusing on the night before luckily.

We have history on Wednesday which is the migrants topic, maths 1 on Thursday, Chemistry and Geography on natural world topic on Friday now. Then of course more English lit revision over the weekend.

@Lalux @WarningOfGails we had WJEC too today. Macbeth and the 20! Poems. My DS only really knew 3 poems in detail incl Manhunt which came up and he used one of the others he knew for the comparison. He thought Macbeth was ok too. It's his weakest subject and he is not interested at all in English.Lit so hopefully he'll get an improvement on the 4 he got in the mocks. Having said that he may have been lucky with that but then written absolute drivel.... We've got J&H, LOTF and unseen poetry for paper 2. Not sure how that will go but it's helped his confidence with them all so that's a good outcome.

Mine was very happy with the Macbeth and Christmas Carol questions which was a relief! French tomorrow, which is not one of the favourites!!

I've been helping DS by walking him through his revision book for one of the two HUGE history modules he has on Wednesday. They had a really weak teacher in year 9 and this dates back to then, though he assures me they've done 'loads' on it in school since. I also covered this for A Level (Germany in the 20's/30's) and it's startling how little I remember. History AND Psychology on Wednesday, I'm quaking in my boots, frankly. Need to be chill and supportive. A cooked breakfast again tomorrow, as I doubt very much he'll eat his packed lunch before his MFL papers tomorrow afternoon.

Shall I make him a fuck-off big chart to cross off each paper as he sits it?

Is that Mandarin tomorrow afternoon, @GlomOfNit?

Team French here (morning).

JessyCarr yep

Yes, we have a big chart pinned to the larder cupboard in the kitchen - when he gets in from an exam we have a ceremonial crossing off of the box on the chart.. :)

We have a day off today because DS does Spanish instead of French. I've woken up early because I've still got the phone thing on my mind. I drive him I'll remind him in the car to put it in his bag. Can you imagine after all that work and stress getting disqualified because you forgot your phone in your blazer? Nightmare!

Has anyone's DC asked for a day off?
DD's isn't in study leave until half term.

She said "some" of her friends are getting their parents to phone in sick for them for a day at home revising.

I've said No. Presumably, all her lessons will be revision sessions now and she'll be more focused at school.

Also, we're having work done in the bathroom so it's rarely quiet.

My DC is on study leave now anyway and only goes in for exams but lots of my work colleagues have children at different schools who are still wanting them in all day every day.

Lots of them have let the teens have days off to revise at home.

@MonkeyTennis34 we have the same here but ds says they do their own revision in lessons. He has some revision books and he's been taking them.
I'm pretty sure that he's being way more productive in those lessons than doing the same at home so I'm not phoning in for him.

French today here as well.

We also have the large chart on the kitchen wall

Mandarin reading and listening here this afternoon too @GlomOfNit

Then History and Psychology on Wednesday like @Shinyandnew1

@Xray83 - oh your poor son! So easy to miss a question though and at least he passed overall. My nephew did something similar, but it was in his mocks (fortunately).

Definitely make sure to remind your children to check everything they take into an exam. There has already been an incident at my son's school, not as bad as a phone, but this poor child inadvertently had some revision material (for a totally different subject) on them and has now failed that subject, and, potentially all the other AQA board exams they are sitting. As most of their exams are AQA this is a massive problem for this poor child.